A week to go before my 11-day trip to the southern half of Japan for the first of two Japan trips this year, and I’m finally about done tweaking my leisure itinerary that wraps around the work segment of the trip. The earlier itinerary I posted here has gone through a very large number of changes, including the cities I initially marked out to visit. Here’s what it looks like now:
The main changes since the previous post have been:
Signing up for a walking tour of Fukuoka. Truth to tell, some of the important sights — including two well-regarded temples and shrines, and traditional handicraft and artisan museums — are clustered within the same small area, and a visit covering these places is entirely doable on one’s own. Still, there are quite a few operators offering walking tours, and I wanted one that would be locally led and English-speaking (and by likely exclusion too, not primarily catering to a country up north). There was one such outfit offering a three-hour group walking tour at very modest cost, and after some correspondence with the owner to make sure that their package was legit, I signed up for it.
Dropping Miyajima. The conference I’m attending had an excursion for attendees on the last day that would see us visit a few places, including Miyajima Island, and I’d initially signed up for it. I dropped out later on account that I was interested only in the island, and specifically its floating torii gate — and the incredible views of the gate against the setting sun. However, reports from recent visitors last month mentioned that there is refurbishment work going on at the gate, and scaffolding can be seen. The works are not expected to be completed anytime soon. Gaaahhh. So Miyajima got dropped altogether and replaced with Kurashiki, a small town with a historical quarter and beautiful river that I’ll be visiting as a day trip out from Hiroshima.
Dropping Nagasaki altogether. That was a tough decision. I’d allocated a day to it, and there were three spots in the city I was especially interested to check out: Glover Park, the memorial park, and going up Mt. Inasa for the evening views of the city — the latter reportedly presenting one of the best night views of a Japanese city you can get in the country. However, I would have spent more than four hours just to get to and return from the city back to Fukuoka — a fact also not lost on many visitors considering Nagasaki as a day trip from Fukuoka. Moreover, I’ll already be spending a full day visiting the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. In a sense, I wondered if visiting two memorials related to the bombs the Yanks dropped on Japan 74 years ago might be just a bit too much!
Adding Dazaifu. Another free day I had was to visit the suburban small towns and cities just outside Fukuoka. Yanagawa and its famed river punting have remained on the itinerary since July, but I’ve now coupled that with a trip to the small town of Dazaifu — on account that the prefecture offers a good day-trip package that discounts train travel to both places.
Adding a day in Uminonakamichi Seaside Park. This is a huge public and family-centered park located across the bay area from Fukuoka city, with a marine aquarium situated within it too. The flower blooming is, I think, out of season, and there are bicycles that one can rent to explore the park.
So there we have it, and this should be more or less the finalized version — though as these things go, how much I’ll manage each day will really depend on how much walking I can do before the knees and joints protest!
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