Yanagawa Canals
The last weekend in April signalled the start of Golden Week, a whole host of Japanese National Holidays which link together to form a really nice vacation. I didn't have any plans to travel untill the Monday, so I decided to go down and visit Joel who lives in Kumamoto. He had visited this place called Yanagawa back in Autumn, and I really wanted to go!It was a nice relaxing time and we met up in Fukuoka and headed over to Yanagawa from there (which actually is in Fukuoka prefecture.) We got in a little canal boat with a little old man who punted us along the beautiful canals. It must have taken about an hour, and was so lovely. There were all sorts
or low bridges that we had to duck for, and all sorts of little houses backing up onto the canal. There were some pretty fancy ones, and some really rough and tumble ones. Some of the piers had been converted into little houses and little shops. As we passed, they would offer ice cream and drinks! I wasn't sure how we were supposed to stop, but we could if we had wanted I think. It was a nice and hot sunny day, and I don't think I have been that relaxed in such a long time!There was really long grass growing out of the water which I thought was really pretty to photograph, as well as trees overhanging the river, and other punters. I especially liked
seeing some of the other punters bringing lots of boats back to the starting point. They had them all strung together, and would walk all the way down 3 boats, while punting off the floor of the canal. It was great to watch them. Sadly we had to get off the boat, and we headed back in the complimentary minibus. We decided it was time to go back to Arao, where Joel lives, as we were pretty shattered. I wish I had something like this in Hagi. I would say the town was about the same size, but it was a great thing for tourists to do when they come to the little city!
No comments:
Post a Comment