Reigando (Miyamoto Musashi's cave)

About 11 km from downtown but when you get to the top you`ll be rewarded with a beautiful view over Kumamoto and Nagasaki. The view of the city lights is great and you can also see the peaks of Mt. Aso in Kumamoto and Mt. Unzen in Nagasaki. You can take a bus to the area but then you have to hike for about an hour to the top. On top there is a temple and a famous fence full of locks that couples have locked to a fence on the observation deck. There is no ropeway so you gotta hike or take a car.

It is one of the most famous temples in Kumamoto. Honmyoji was built in honor of Kato Kiyomasa, the builder of Kumamoto Castle. The temple is halfway up a hill at the same level as the castle. There is a long staircase lined with old candle stands to the temple. After the temple there is another staircase that leads to a park at the top of the hill that has a statue of Kato Kiyomasa and a nice viewpoint where you can see the castle towering over the city. In the daytime you can also see Mt. Aso in the background. In the last weekend in March they have the Nighttime Cherry Blossom Festival. Then they have live music and lit up cherry blossoms and candles all the way to the top of the hill.

A good occasion to watch amateur baseball.

Another picturesque place to visit. It's the family home of the Hosokawa Clan (whose descendant, Morihiro, became Prime Minister of Japan in the 1990s.) The building suffered damage in the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake, so visitors are permitted to walk the perimeter to enjoy the garden during special openings, but the house can no longer be entered.

One of the most beautiful castles in Japan, and the third largest. Kumamoto Castle was burned down during the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877; the current keep is a concrete reconstruction built during the 1960s. The buildings on the grounds took severe damage during earthquakes in April 2016 and July 2026; the main keep has since re-opened to the public, but other surrounding buildings will take years to rebuild. During the cherry blossom season, the castle grounds are filled with hundreds of beautiful blossoms.

This is the most famous shrine in the city. It is north of Kamitori and not too far from downtown. This is the most crowded shrine in the city every New Year's. It is also crowded for other festivals the most famous being the "Decorated Horse Parade" which is held every September.