VICKY LISSAMAN

Bucket-list visit to Japan for Rugby World Cup 2019

THE luggage emerges in baggage reclaim at Oita Airport on the Japanese island of Kyushu.

There’s a battered black case patched up with brown tape, a polka-dot one and one wrapped in enough plastic to survive a fall from outer space.

Next? An oversized plate of salmon and prawn nigiri.

In a stroke of comic genius, the baggage carousel has been turned into a giant sushi bar with colourful, plastic offerings to whet your appetite for what’s on the menu here.

Kyushu might not shout the loudest of all the Japanese islands but it’s full of surprises.

On the doorstep of South Korea and with just 600 metres of sea separating it from Japan’s Honshu island, Kyushu is the country’s most southerly and easterly isle.

Its mountains are the backdrop for every picture you’ll take. The volcanic landscape is breathtaking, with winding, peaked ridges covering Kyushu like sleeping dragons.

However, these dragons are known to wake up. There are 17 active volcanoes on the island, some of which erupt 100 times a month, but they are mostly little more than smoke signals that bring an

even ALEX MEAD greater sense of drama to a land that at times rivals the New Zealand of the Lord of the Rings films.

The Rugby World Cup is to be held in Asia for the first time in 2019. A quarter of the venues are in Kyushu, and with Japan’s victory over South Africa in England fresh in the memory, it’s going to be a bucket-list event.

Oita is home to the biggest Kyushu sports stadium, a 40,000-seater.

But after flying in, many visitors head to nearby Beppu, the volcanic hot spring capital.

Nearly eight million people visit this small city every year to bathe, drink or swim in the waters.

We chose to be buried. Going commando in a kimono with a yellow brolly to protect your bonce, you get buried in hot, mineral-rich black sand and are left to soak for 10 minutes in the thermal waters below.

It’s like getting the most comforting bear hug or having a duvet so heavy it’s off the tog scale. The gentle weight eases out the aches and pains. You then rinse off the sand, before a soak in more spring water completes the course. Feeling baby-soft and reinvigorated, we depart for Kumamoto, the second rugby city, home to a 32,000-seater.

The drive through the mountains to get there is spectacular and around every corner is a stunning volcanic vista. Always in the distance is Aso, an active volcano that emits clouds of smoke which are visible for miles.

Arriving in Kumamoto, we find plenty to do. Visiting the 400-year-old teahouse gardens of Suizenji, drinking sake in one of the nine breweries and eating buckwheat noodles with duck in broth is fun. But the highlight is Kumamoto Castle.

Dating back to the 1400s, it’s a former Samurai hilltop fortress and, with its imposing ramparts, has repelled many a ninja attack.

The final host city, Kyushu’s capital Fukuoka, is home to an intimate 22,500 capacity stadium – and a whole lot more.

It’s got the lot: beaches, shopping, museums, ornamental gardens, sake-fuelled karaoke bars, Shinto shrines and ramen that’ll have you slurping like a local in no time.

The tonkotsu is a rich broth soaking noodles, pork, chilli and spring onions. Whether it’s £4 at a street stall or £6 at a chain, it’s all good.

We’d already enjoyed some of the best wagyu beef with charcoalcrisped ridges during our drive through Aso (at Sakura, a converted stable) so it’s fitting our final stop would be for world-class sushi.

Sitting at the bar of the restaurant named after its star attraction, we watch as 75-year-old chef Yamanaka presses his perfect rice under a thick blanket of fatty tuna. Next, the rice is joined by squid, a shaving of the citrus yuzu and a sprinkle of Andes salt. Yellowtail is lightly grilled and laid to rest on a plate. If Oita made a big statement with its sushi baggage carousel at the beginning of our trip, then Yamanaka has delivered a closing speech that should have food-loving rugby fans booking tickets

for Kyushu now.