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Orange Railway and Kagoshima 2026: All Posts
#0 Index
Eight days in Kagoshima Prefecture along the Hisatsu Orange Railway: samurai streets in Izumi, the sea at Akune, quiet Satsumasendai, and Tenmonkan nights.
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Kanazawa Trip 2026: All Posts
#0 Index
Planning a trip to Kanazawa? This is the full index of my 2026 travel series — covering Kanazawa Station, Nagamachi, Kenroku-en, Higashi Chaya-gai, Shirakawa-go, Toyama, and more. All posts in one place.
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Karatsu Travel Guide: Full Summary
#32 Epilogue
At last, my posts about my 4-night, 5-day trip to Karatsu, from February 10 to 14, have finally come to an end. Some of you who saw that I went on this trip may have become interested in traveling to Karatsu too, right? So in this post, which is both the final post of my Karatsu trip and its epilogue, I want to organize some vivid, firsthand information from my own trip and show it to you. I tend to be a bit talkative,so in the earlier posts,there was a lot of unnecessary chatter, right? Here,I will try to show…
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Last Ramen at the Airport
#31 Ramen Unari
Day 5 of a 4-night, 5-day trip.It’s time to go back to Korea. When I came from Fukuoka Airport to Karatsu,I took the JR,but it was quite a hassle with three transfers. When I searched online,it looked like taking the airport line would connect smoothly to the Chikuhi Line,but in reality,those direct trains only run once or twice during rush hours. In fact,I had to transfer once at Meinohamaand once again at Chikuzen-Maebaru. Including waiting and transfer time,it ended up taking about two hours. It was farther and more inconvenient than I expected. So I was thinking,going back to the…
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Scenes from the Street: Part 4
#30 Vending Machines
If you have traveled in Japan, you have probably felt this at least once.There are unusually many vending machines in Japan.So for drinks, you often end up buying them from vending machines rather than convenience stores. Ah, I mostly drink barley tea.Plain water feels too bland, and while green tea is the most common in Japan and has a nice bitter taste,I get tired of it quickly and can’t drink much of it. Maybe it’s because I also boil barley tea at home.Barley tea is easy to drink in large amounts,so when I need to quench my thirst during a…
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Ura Nabeshima: A Nabeshima that isn’t quite Nabeshima.
#29 Musubiki
On the last evening,I wanted to have a drink at a machi-chuka (町中華),the kind of small backstreet Chinese place you might find somewhere in Japan. But I chose poorly,and ended up leaving with a full stomachfrom food I didn’t really enjoy. For reference, machi-chuka refers tosmall, slightly worn neighborhood Chinese restaurantsthat mainly serve things like chuka soba (ramen),chahang (fried rice), and gyoza (dumpling). They also offer simple Chinese dishes,so you can have a drink there too.The kind of place you sometimes see in Japanese dramas or films. Apparently,these small places don’t survive well in smaller cities like Karatsu.You have to…
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Scenes from the Street: Part 3
#28 Around Karatsu Castle
After exploring Karatsu Castle,I walked along the stone wall path. If you keep walking along this path,it seems you can reach the former Takatori residence. The atmosphere feels a bit different from the stone walls in Jeju, Korea. If Jeju’s stone walls were built to block the wind,the ones here feel more like traces of fortress walls built below the castle. Walking along this not-so-long path,you can also spot a few ryokans that seem to have been in business for a long time. I can’t be sure,but perhaps they have been operating since the time when Karatsu was commercially prosperous.…
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Where Wishes Meet the Wind
#27 Karatsu Shrine
On the last day of the trip,this was the final stop of the city tour. Looking back,today’s route might actually bea very typical and well-designed coursefor sightseeing in central Karatsu. From a walk along the Matsuura River → Karatsu Castle → Takashima (Hoto Shrine) → Former Takatori Residence → Former Oshima Residence → and finally Karatsu Shrine. If you look at the map,it’s quite a well-connected route. To make it more efficient,it would have been better to visit Takashima first,then see Karatsu Castle,walk along the stone wall path,and continue on to the former Takatori Residence. After leaving the Oshima Residence,Karatsu…
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