While we were in Fukuoka, we opted to do a day trip to Karatsu. Karatsu is a nearby city in neighbouring Saga Prefecture, and is easily reachable by train from Fukuoka.
There are a few things worth exploring in this city, and so after arriving, we just immediately went on foot from the train station and explored the town.
The first thing we saw was the former Karatsu Bank. This was an interesting find, as the city otherwise looked very Japanese, and so finding a lone standing Western building, complete with very well-preserved interiors, was a positive surprise. The building now functions as a museum, not a bank, but the interior definitely looks more like how banks looked like several decades if not a century ago.
Our next destination was then Karatsu Castle. It was a short walk from the town centre, and since we didn't have plans to have lunch in between, we just opted to make a small picnic, passing by a convenience store on the way. We stacked up, and then climbed the hill where the castle is located. Once we were up there, we had a brief lunch while enjoying the above views.
Karatsu Castle was well-maintained, and it was definitely pretty. It was more on the smaller side, but the good thing is that it was not full of visitors. It felt like we were the only people checking out the building when we visited.
We went all the way up to the top-most level, where there was a balcony that wrapped around the building, and one can go to this balcony and inspect the amazing views of the sea and the land below.
Eventually, we made our way down, passing by the various gates of the castle. We took an elevator to go up, but heading down we decided to take the staircase.
After the castle, we headed east, and had a great walk on perhaps one of the most beautiful places we checked out on this trip. There is a massive pine forest called Nijinomatsubara, composed of numerous pine trees that were planted almost 400 years ago. Apparently, these trees were planted by a feudal lord, with the intention fo providing a counter measure against the strong winds and tides heading for Karatsu Bay. After several centuries, these pine trees are now fully grown, and provide a very interesting landscape. We took a walk from one end to the middle, from where there was a train station nearby where we caught our return train.
Overall, this was a fascinating city. I really loved the fact that we went to areas that visitors don't typically visit, as these show a very interesting snippet of Japanese life.
