Experience the best of Oita

Oita sits on Beppu Bay on the east side of Kyushu, a modern city in a prefecture that has more hot-spring sources than any other in Japan. Its centre has a castle park, wide avenues and covered shopping streets. The Takasakiyama Natural Zoological Garden, on a forested hill by the sea, is home to troops of wild Japanese macaques that come down to be fed.

Beppu, the hot-spring town next door, steams with vents and has the boiling hells, colourful ponds such as the blood-red pond and the blue Sea Hell. Yufuin, a spa town below the twin peaks of Mount Yufu, has lakeside paths and craft shops, and the Kunisaki Peninsula to the north-east is dotted with ancient temples and stone Buddhas, as are the Usuki carvings to the south-east.

Toriten, chicken tempura dipped in a sauce, is the city's dish, with seki mackerel and horse mackerel from the strait, fish rice bowls known as ryukyu, and kabosu, a sharp green citrus squeezed over fish and noodles. Rain falls most heavily in June, and winters are mild.