Yanagawa dreams: Drifting through Fukuoka’s Little Venice
After the worst of Japan’s sweltering and often somewhat hellish summer passes, the weather starts to ramp down, bringing days that start pleasantly bright and sunny and then wind down to cool, breezy evenings. September signals the change of the seasons; the beginning of a gradual slide into shorter days and longer nights. It is also, in my opinion, one of the best times to hop on a train down to Yanagawa, a small city in the middle of Fukuoka Prefecture (福岡県 Fukuoka-ken), located next to the Ariake Sea. Yanagawa City (柳川市 Yanagawa-shi) is easily accessible from Fukuoka City (福岡市 Fukuoka-shi) via the Nishitetsu Omuta Line (西鉄大牟田線 Nishitetsu Ōmuta-sen), and makes for a fun day trip for those who want to see more of what the prefecture has to offer.
Yanagawa and sagemon
Sagemon hanging over the canal during Yanagawa’s annual Girls’ Day festival (おひな祭り ohina-matsuri). (Image credit: Yanagawa Tourism Bureau)
Upon arrival in Yanagawa (about an hour’s train ride from Fukuoka City via express train), you emerge from a newly-renovated station building into a quiet, unassuming town. The central information centre on the ground floor of the station is decorated with strings of sagemon (さげもん), colourful hoops with hanging decorations that feature little cloth rabbits, cranes, and other auspicious symbols of happiness and good luck for girls. Yanagawa’s sagemon are especially well-known within Japan for their inclusion of two yanagawa-mari (柳川まり), intricately embroidered cloth balls made with multi-coloured threads, in the very centre. These decorations are indispensable in traditional celebrations here, and have come to be a striking visual symbol of Yanagawa’s history and culture!
Yanagawa Tourist Information Centre
Address: 46-2 Mitsuhashimachi Shimohyakuchō, Yanagawa, Fukuoka 832-0822
Nearest station: Nishitetsu Yanagawa Station (西鉄柳川駅)
Access: 1-minute walk from Yanagawa Station via the West Exit
A foray into fishy foods
Do you see those bubbles? Served in a shallow earthenware pot, super savoury and tender pieces of fish are hidden beneath the topmost layer of egg. (Image credit: Hui Lin)
Just opposite Nishitetsu Yanagawa Station (西鉄柳川駅 Nishitetsu yanagawa-eki) are a handful of izakaya (居酒屋) restaurants serving all manner of fish—as you would expect for a city located right next to Fukuoka’s largest bay. When I last visited with my friends, we noticed a number of places selling a hot, bubbly dojō (ドジョウ pond loach) dish. For those of us less familiar with these freshwater friends, a pond loach is a slender eel-like fish that, when cooked whole alongside fresh eggs, burdock root, leek, and parsley, transforms into Yanagawa-nabe (柳川鍋), a dish that delivers a savoury, tender eating experience with every bite! Like many other kinds of nabemono (鍋物)—dishes (usually soups, stews, or braises) served in the same pot they are cooked in—Yanagawa-nabe is best eaten alongside a hot, steaming bowl of fluffy rice. Pond loach nabemono is often referred to as doseu-nabe (どせう鍋), so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for standing banners with these characters while visiting.
Unadon (the smallest serving, because it really is more filling than it looks) with sunshine-yellow omelette ribbons atop slices of unagi and seasoned rice. (Image credit: Hui Lin)
Yanagawa, being a city whose livelihood and culture is intrinsically intertwined with the sea, is also famous for unagi (うなぎ Japanese eel)! While the restaurants around the train station tend to serve a range of different dishes, unagi included, the small eateries near the Yanagawa Castle ruins, where a majority of the river punting courses end, specialise in unagi dishes exclusively. While they are served alongside different side dishes depending on where you go, and come in a variety of portion sizes ranging from smaller bowls (うな丼 unadon) to large lacquered boxes (うな重 unajū), they are united by this simple fact: the unagi is seasoned to perfection and is melt-in-your-mouth tender, with every bite velvety and luxurious. Prices range from ¥2,000 to ¥4,000 per dish depending on portion size.
Yanagawa-nabe: Koren (古連)
Address: 31-6 Mitsuhashimachi Shimohyakuchō, Yanagawa, Fukuoka, 832-0822
Nearest station: Nishitetsu Yanagawa Station (西鉄柳川駅)
Access: 3-minute walk from the station
Opening hours: 10am–8pm
Tel: +81-94-472-0026
(Note: Koren also provides simple English menus. The selection is smaller than what is available in the Japanese menu.)
Unagi: Kikusui (うなぎ 日本料理 菊水)
Address: 24-6 Tsujimachi, Yanagawa, Fukuoka 832-0024
Nearest station: Nishitetsu Yanagawa Station (西鉄柳川駅)
Access: 15-minute walk from the station
Opening hours: 11am–8:30pm
Tel: +81-94-472-2057
(Note: While you don’t need to make reservations beforehand, most unagi-only restaurants in Yanagawa fill up quickly, especially in the afternoon. They also tend to close earlier than stated if they run out for the day. Calling in to reserve a table a few days before your trip is best. For a longer list of unagi restaurants, check out Yanagawa City’s dedicated tourism site in English or Japanese.)
River punting in Fukuoka’s Little Venice
View of the dock, where you wait to board the donkobune (どんこ舟) boats. (Image credit: Hui Lin)
Yanagawa is known amongst English speakers as Fukuoka’s Little Venice, and with good reason—arguably the most famous of its attractions, most visitors book a ride with one of its numerous river punting (川下り kawa-kudari) boat companies, which offer hour-long punting courses through Yanagawa’s winding waterways. (One such company happens to kick off their tours from the Shōgetsu Literature Museum, which makes for a fun visit for the literary-minded amongst us.)
One of the low bridges that the boat passes under during the punting course—regular-sized humans barely clear the ceiling, making it an exciting and somewhat harrowing experience in equal measure. (Image credit: Hui Lin)
Yanagawa’s canals are a mere 450m across at their widest—there are even sections where they are barely wide enough for the boat—and circle the grounds of where Yanagawa Castle used to stand. Each boat holds about 10 people and is manned by a single boatman, who takes on the herculean task of guiding the entire boat through the entire route. Much like traditional river punting in Venician gondolas, the boatman uses a long stick to push against the bottom of the canal, which propels the boat forward. While this seems simple enough in concept, Yanagawa’s boatmen also navigate their way through sharp 90-degree turns and under low bridges (which are still usable!), all the while regaling passengers with folk songs written by Kitahara Hakushū (北原白秋), a popular Japanese poet active in the 1990s who was raised in this very city.
Bright blue September afternoon skies while on the punting route. (Image credit: Hui Lin)
The course itself, while not heavy on interaction between passengers, is wonderfully atmospheric. The canals spiral around the central castle ruins and, as you make your way closer to the heart of the ruins, you can see for yourself how the rows of small houses lining the canal gradually thin out, giving way to larger houses with flowers bursting forth from their back gardens into the water, as well as areas shaded by gently leaning willow trees. On windy days, their branches sway in the breeze, punctuating the boatman’s songs with a cinematic rustling. You’d be forgiven if you forgot that you were still, indeed, in the 21st century; with your eyes closed to bask in the music of the leaves, feeling the warmth of the sun on your face and the rhythmic ebb of the water against the boat, you could easily feel as if you had been transported back to an earlier, more leisurely era.
Suigo Yanagawa Kankō (水郷柳川観光)
Address: 1-6 Mitsuhashimachi Shimohyakuchō, Yanagawa, Fukuoka, 832-0822
Nearest station: Nishitetsu Yanagawa Station (西鉄柳川駅)
Access: Shimo-hyakuchō Punting Station (下百町乗船場), 3-minute walk from the station
Opening hours: 9am–4pm, charter reservations required after 5pm
Tel: +81-94-473-4343
Yanagawa Kankō Kaihatsu K.K. (柳川観光開発)
Address: 329 Mitsuhashimachi Takahatake, Yanagawa, Fukuoka, 832-0826
Nearest station: Nishitetsu Yanagawa Station (西鉄柳川駅)
Access: Shōgetsu Punting Station (松月乗船場), 5-minute walk from the station
Opening hours: 9am–4pm
Tel: +81-94-472-6177
(Note: Prices range from ¥1,500 to ¥1,650 per adult depending on the season and which company you choose, and does not include supplementary rental fees for hats. While you don’t need to make reservations beforehand, you may have to wait about 10-20 minutes between registration and when you actually board the boat. Hats and water are recommended as the sunshine can be quite harsh on cloudless days.)
Shogetsu Literature Museum (松月文人館)
Address: 329 Mitsuhashimachi Takahatake, Yanagawa, Fukuoka, 832-0826
Nearest station: Nishitetsu Yanagawa Station (西鉄柳川駅)
Access: 5-minute walk from the station
Opening hours: 9:30am–4:30pm
Tel: +81-94-472-4141
Poetry along the river, and a certain yearning
White and red spider lilies planted near the end of the punting route, where you disembark after the entire journey. (Image credit: Hui Lin)
The river punting course is also peppered with strategic attractions: at one point, a small floating shop selling ice cream and other snacks; later on, a stone plaque inscribed with a poem by Kitahara, titled, “帰去来” (kikyorai, lit. to return home after quitting one’s job). Kitahara, who had left Yanagawa to further his studies in Tokyo, only returned to visit his hometown twice—once in 1928, about 20 years after he had first left, and again in 1941, a year before he passed away in Tokyo. He wrote this poem during his second visit, part of which laments:
筑紫よ、かく呼ばへば
戀ほしよ潮の落差 火照沁む夕日の潟。
盲ふるに 早やもこの眼
見ざらむ また葦かび 籠飼や水かげろふ
帰らなむ いざ鵲かの空や櫨のたむろ
待つらむぞ今一度
chikushi yo, kaku yobaeba
kooshi yo shio no rakusa, hode shimu yuuhi no kata.
shifuru ni, haya mo kono me
mizaran, mata ashikabi, rouge ya mizu kagerou.
kaeranan, iza kasasagi ka no sora ya haji no tamuro
matsuran zo ima hitotabi.
Chikushi, I call your name and yearn
For your sunset-dyed sea, which ebbs with the tide.
My now-weakened eyes are unable to see
Tender reeds along the water, the fishing baskets,
And the glittery haze of the water on a hot day.
I long to return, to where the skies of soaring magpies,
And the groves of wax trees, await me once more.
Kitahara’s nostalgia for his hometown, the very canals of which you pass through, underpins the slow, easy rhythm of the afternoon. The sight of spider lilies (彼岸花 higanbana)—most familiar within Japanese culture as symbols relating to death and the afterlife—lining the riverbanks greets you as you end the punting course, leaving you with a calm, contemplative finish befitting of Kitahara’s story.
By this time in the day, the afternoon sun casts the streets in a warm orange, signalling an end to your river punting adventure. At this point, you can choose from a number of different places to visit. There are a handful of small cafés along the main disembarkation point for the peckish, as well as a small aquarium featuring creatures from the Ariake Sea. For the literary-minded, the Kitahara Hakushū Memorial Hall offers a look into Kitahara’s birthplace, his family’s background in sake (酒 alcohol) brewing, and his life’s work. Most people choose to end their day with a meal at one of the unagi places in the vicinity, after which they head back to Nishitetsu Yanagawa Station via local buses.
83Coffee
Address: 13-1 Inarimachi, Yanagawa, Fukuoka, 832-0066
Nearest station: Oki-no-hata Disembarkation Point (沖ノ端)
Access: 3-minute walk from any of the disembarkation points
Opening hours: 11am–6pm
Tel: +81-94-488-8708
Kitahara Hakushū Memorial Hall (北原白秋生家・記念館)
Address: 55-1 Okinohatamachi, Yanagawa, Fukuoka, 832-0065
Nearest station: Oki-no-hata Disembarkation Point (沖ノ端)
Access: 3-minute walk from any of the disembarkation points
Opening hours: 9am–5pm
Tel: +81-94-472-6773
Yanagawa Ariake Sea Aquarium (やながわ有明水族館)
Address: 29 Inarimachi, Yanagawa, Fukuoka 832-0066
Nearest station: Oki-no-hata Disembarkation Point (沖ノ端)
Access: 5-minute walk from any of the disembarkation points
Opening hours: 12pm–4:30pm
Tel: +81-94-472-2424
In closing
Yanagawa is a charming little city with lots to offer tourists. Although the lack of English support can be daunting, travellers brave enough to stop by will doubtless find themselves rewarded with delicious food and rich history about the area, so I hope this article inspires you to come visit if you ever find yourself in Fukuoka!
Header image credit: Hui Lin