My first post-pandemic overseas work trip, and a fairly long one at that even: 14 days in Japan and the cities of Fukuoka, Matsue, and Osaka. Given the length of this trip, I didn’t apply for extensions before or after the trip to further explore the country – unlike my 2019 trip also to Japan. I figured that 15 days from home and the family, taking into account that both outbound and returning flights to Singapore were red-eye and lapsing into proceeding days, was too long already!
The first two days of this trip involved business visits and meetings, and they were, as these things go, quite intensive. But time passed quickly enough, and soon enough on Day 03, it was the weekend and finally some time to explore the first city we’re at – Fukuoka – on my own.
Thing is; this is my second time in the city, as I’d already done a decent amount of exploration during the 2019 trip! The country is also experiencing a heat wave, with our friends in Japan also now on their September week long break commenting how sunny and humid the weather was now. I seriously contemplated just staying in the pretty decent hotel accommodation I’m at in this city before making a spur of the moment decision to take a bus to visit Dazaifu, a small town 18km south of Fukuoka.
It’s pretty easy to make the journey: there’s a straight bus from Hakata Bus Terminal there (fare is 610yen each way), and it departs from the terminal pretty frequently. The bus is a limited express of sorts though, as it stops at Hakata Airport to pick up other passengers who’ve just flew into the city and are visiting Dazaifu as their first stop. The 10AM bus got pretty crowded and it was standing room only for several passengers who boarded at the airport.
Dazaifu was pretty crowded when I arrived at 10:45AM, with lots of both local and also – what was apparently – non-local visitors. The main feature of this small town is the Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine, the shopping street (Dazaifu Tenmangu Omotesando) that leads up to it, and also the Kyushu National Museum that’s also in the immediate vicinity. The shopping street has both sides lined with trinket and craft shops, small cafes and snack shops, and the ubiquitous Starbucks, with this outlet having a unusual facade design.
The shopping street, shrine and surrounding compound is pretty enough and well-maintained with the compound lawn beautifully manicured. Thing is, the layout and general look and feel of the place isn’t different from what you might have already seen elsewhere in similar small towns if you’re a frequent visitor to Japan.
