When evening falls on Miyazaki, a scarlet and indigo sky drops behind the phoenix palms that line many of the city's roads. You might think you were strolling through a middle-class quarter of Cairo or Marbella.
The city reminded travel writer Will Ferguson fleetingly of Miami, but "without the handguns or shiploads of narcotics or Cuban exiles. Both cities," he noted, "do share the same sun-bleached feel, where the colors fade into pastel shades of neglect and where the people are grateful for a breeze."
Once it was one of Japan's top honeymoon spots. Modern Japanese couples, finding Miyazaki too provincial for their taste, its mangoes and palm fronds a poor shot at exotica, have moved on, and prefectural authorities are working hard to develop other tourist attractions.