Two days in Kitsuki and Usuki, the Oita castle towns past Beppu's steam

Kitsuki Station has nothing old to look at. There is a car park, a bus stop, and a vending machine humming beside the taxi rank. The castle town is a few kilometres east, set between two ridges above a shallow bay, and that short ride is your first clue that this corner of Oita was laid out for feet and horses, long before the railway came. Most visitors to the prefecture go straight to the steam vents of Beppu. These two days go to the castle towns either side of it instead: Kitsuki (杵築) to the north and Usuki (臼杵) to the south. You give up the hot-spring crowds and get slopes, stone lanes, and a hillside of Buddhas carved straight into the rock.

Kitsuki, a town built like a sandwich

Local leaflets call Kitsuki a sandwich-shaped castle town, and the name is accurate. Samurai families lived on two plateaus, Kitadai (北台) to the north and Minamidai (南台) to the south. Merchants filled the valley between them. Because of that layout, walking here means climbing all the time, and you can read status from height: the higher the street, the higher the rank of the people who lived on it.

坂の上に武家屋敷、谷に商家——杵築の町は、その高低差で身分を描いていた。

The best-known view runs across the valley between two slopes. Suya-no-saka (酢屋の坂, the vinegar-shop slope) and Shioya-no-saka (塩屋の坂, the salt-shop slope) are named for merchants who once traded at their feet. They face each other across the merchant street, so from the top of one you look down into the valley and straight up the other. Most of the town's posters use this view. Get there early in the morning, before the tour vans park, and you will have it to yourself except for a delivery scooter. A short walk away, Kanjoba-no-saka (勘定場の坂) climbs in broad, shallow stone steps that are said to have been cut for horses and palanquin bearers. Every step is a little too long for a normal stride, so you end up taking one and a half paces each, which feels odd.

Samurai houses, a small keep, and the kimono question

Several old residences on Kitadai are open to visitors. The Ohara residence (大原邸) has a thatched roof and a garden you see from the veranda. The Isoya (磯矢邸) and Nomi (能見邸) houses are smaller and quieter. Inside, you take off your shoes at the step, walk on tatami, and look out through sliding doors framed like pictures. Entry to some houses is ticketed, and combined tickets have been offered. Ask at the tourist information point by the bus terminal what is currently on sale before you start paying house by house.

Kitsuki Castle stands on a headland where the Yasaka River (八坂川) meets Morie Bay (守江湾). The keep is a modest reconstruction, and you go for the view rather than the building. At low tide the bay drains to grey mudflats laced with channels. Herons stand in the shallows, and the water flashes silver on the turn. The ridges of the samurai districts line up behind you, and from up here the sandwich layout is obvious.

Kitsuki promotes itself as a place to walk in kimono. Rental shops in the merchant quarter will dress you, and some sites in town have offered small perks to visitors who wear one. Ask the tourist office for the current list rather than counting on it. One tip from experience: the slopes are harder in zori sandals than they look. The stones are uneven and polished smooth, and the descents need care.

Eating your way between the two towns

Oita's home cooking turns up on both sides of Beppu. Toriten (とり天) is chicken in a light tempura batter, dipped in vinegared soy with a dab of karashi mustard. Ryukyu (りゅうきゅう) is sliced raw fish marinated in soy, sesame and ginger, eaten on rice or turned into a broth-soaked chazuke at the end of the meal. Dango-jiru (だんご汁) is a miso soup full of root vegetables and flat, hand-stretched wheat noodles. It is filling and suits a grey afternoon. Kabosu (かぼす), a small green citrus, is cut and squeezed over most of this.

The lunch counters in Kitsuki's merchant street often have handwritten Japanese menus and close early or on irregular days. Check the noren and the sign on the door before you plan around one. For the night between the towns, Oita city is the practical base. It sits on the JR Nippo Line (日豊本線), so you can reach Usuki in the morning without doubling back, and its izakaya serve the same dishes until late.

Usuki, where the stone lanes run past temples

Usuki's old quarter is close enough to the station to walk. The heart of it is the Nioza historical road (二王座歴史の道), a small knot of lanes paved with cut stone and lined with temple walls, earthen storehouses and sudden flights of steps. The stone is soft and pale and darkens after rain. Footsteps sound different here than on the asphalt a street away. Nearby, the Hachimachi-oji (八町大路) shopping street keeps the shape of an old merchant road, and the air near Usuki's soy sauce and miso breweries has a faint salty, fermented smell.

Usuki Castle ruins (臼杵城跡) sit on what was once an island, Niujima (丹生島), now surrounded by reclaimed land. The castle was built under Otomo Sorin (大友宗麟), the sixteenth-century lord of Bungo, and its stone walls and a reconstructed gate still stand above the town. Usuki's food is thrifty and specific. Kirasu-mameshi (きらすまめし) mixes fish trimmings with okara, which locals call kirasu. Ohan (黄飯) is rice dyed yellow with gardenia and served with a vegetable-and-fish stew called kayaku. Usuki is also known for fugu, served by licensed chefs mainly in the cold months. Ask the restaurant for the price beforehand, because it is a special-occasion meal.

The Buddhas in the hillside

The Usuki Stone Buddhas (臼杵石仏) are a few kilometres outside town, and they are the reason many people make the trip. Carved into soft volcanic rock between the late Heian and Kamakura periods, the figures are divided into groups: the Hoki groups (ホキ石仏), Sannosan (山王山石仏), and Furuzono (古園石仏). A walking path links them in a loop through cedar and bamboo. Wooden shelters protect the carvings from rain, so you see them in a half-light that softens their faces.

The Furuzono group holds the central Dainichi Nyorai (大日如来). For a long time its head rested on the ground beneath the body, after centuries of weathering. Restorers have since set it back in place, and signs along the path show photographs of how it used to look. The carvings are a National Treasure, and the site is calm enough that you can hear water running in the ditch beside the path. Allow an unhurried hour or more. Wear shoes with grip, because the stone steps between groups get slick after rain.

Getting there, when to go, and the one mistake

Oita Airport is on the Kunisaki Peninsula, closer to Kitsuki than to Oita city. Buses run from the airport toward Beppu and Oita, and the airport information counter can confirm the current connection to Kitsuki. By rail from Fukuoka, limited expresses on the JR Nippo Line run toward Oita, and some stop at Kitsuki. Check which ones on the JR Kyushu timetable before you book. For Usuki, take the same line south from Oita on a local train or one of the limited expresses that stop there. From Usuki port, a ferry crosses to Yawatahama on Shikoku, so the town works well as a gateway to Ehime. Confirm the schedule with the operator.

Spring and late autumn are the kindest seasons for the slopes. Summer is humid, and Kitsuki's climbs feel steeper in the heat. In early November, Usuki holds Takeyoi (竹宵), when the stone lanes are lined with candles in cut bamboo. The dates are set each year, so check with Usuki's city tourism office. House admissions, the Stone Buddhas entry fee, kimono rental and bus fares all change from time to time. The tourist information points in each town can tell you current costs and hours.

The mistake to avoid is treating the station as the town. In Kitsuki, the old quarter is a bus or taxi ride from the platform, and the last buses back leave earlier than you might expect. In Usuki, the town is walkable but the Buddhas are not, and buses out to the site run infrequently. Note your return bus before you set off, then walk without watching the clock.