Do you know there is a direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Fukuoka? Yup, there is and one of the reasons why I chose Kyushu to further my study is because there is a direct flight from Fukuoka to Kuala Lumpur and the journey by airplane only takes about 6 hours! Yes, you read it right! It's like going to Perak from Johor by bus(I guess). It's very near isn't it? And the return ticket price is around RM1600 only! The price includes 20kg luggage return so I think it is worth it. Actually there are many ways to get the ticket cheaper but that's the price that I paid for to go back to Malaysia in March 2020 considering that I don't want to transit anywhere else and I just want a direct flight. Okay, enough of the intro so let's talk about river cruising and eating eel in Yanagawa!
So before I start, I would like to introduce to you guys main train station in Kyushu. It is called Hakata Station. Hmmm.. macam KL Central lah. It's exactly the same! You can go literally anywhere from Hakata Station because Hakata Station consist of Hakata train station and also Hakata bus terminal. Both are just a walking distance and it's connected to each other!
I travelled there with one friend. So our journey started from Hakata station. Theoretically it takes at most 1 hour and 30 minutes by public transport but since it was our first time travelling somewhere completely by using public transport and we chose the cheapest route which consist of a lot of train changing, we somewhat rode off at a wrong train station, rode a wrong train, missed the train and so on. Instead of arriving at Yanagawa by 1 hour 30 minutes from Hakata train station, we took about 3 hours to arrive at Yanagawa from Hakata train station😂.
Our original plan was to ride the boat first but since we arrived at Yanagawa later than both of us had expected, we decided to eat eel first. Okay, the idea of eating eel wasn't our idea actually but when I told my Japanese friend who's from Yanagawa about our trip to Yanagawa, he suggested me to try eel because it is a very famous local cuisine in Yanagawa. The problem had arisen considering that I couldn't consume alcohol and in the process of marinating the eel, they somewhat used alcohol or sake. I checked it on the internet about the eel by the way. So what I did was I called the shop that I intended to go beforehand and asked for the confirmation. As expected, they use sake in their eel. So I asked them if there is any eel that they cook without using sake and they told me there is so we went to the shop and ordered the ones that they don't use alcohol in the cooking. I forgot the name of the course meal but if you ask them the eel that does not use alcohol, they'll show it to you which one that does not use alcohol. The one that does not use alcohol is not a marinated eel but it was very delicious(and pricey😅). Here are some of website links that I think you might find it useful.
https://muslim-guide.jp/restaurant/wakamatsuya/
http://wakamatuya.com/english/#home01
Since we are students and we are really on a budget trip, so we decided to share the eel and ordered one bowl of rice. The meal comes in a set complete with rice, eel soup and eel.
A set of meal
Despite ordering one complete set of meal and one additional rice, it costed us about 4000Yen aka RM150! So expensive!! and that was the last first and the last actual meal we ever had that day. The food, the hospitality was superb and I bet everything is included in the price. When we first arrived at the restaurant, the waiter directed us to other place and we entered the place, we were greeted by the greeter and she offered to keep my bags and gave us slippers to enter. The restaurant is very traditional and you have to take off your shoes to enter the restaurant.
After we ate at Wakamatsuya, we realized that we could ride the boat from just in front of Wakamatsuya. We approached an old lady who seemed to be the boat manager and bought the boat ticket from her. It costed 1000Yen aka about RM38 per person for 40 minutes ride.
Boat ticket
There are pros and cons of river cruising in Yanagawa actually. Let's start with the pros first.
Pros
1. The scenery was magnificent and peaceful
2. You are able to relax while enjoying the scenery and stories from the boat driver
3. Sometimes the boat driver will sing local song, so you can enjoy a very traditional Japanese song live
4. You get to see how talented the boat driver is when they have to pass through a very narrow canal. They will show you their ninja-like talent.
5. The boat driver will tell you which place is good to take pictures and sometimes they will offer to take pictures for your group.
6. Sometimes you'll be greeted by local kids
Cons
1. They speak 100% Japanese and no English
2. You cannot rent one boat so you have to ride the boat with other tourists too.
Here are some of pics that I took when riding the boat.
And here's the picture that I took before riding the boat.
After riding the boat, we decided to take bus to the nearest train station to go to Hachiomuta Station where we will be spending our night at but since the bus was late and it seemed like walking is faster than waiting for the bus, we decided to walk instead. The cons of travelling to countryside in Japan is the public transport is not as frequent as in big cities and people who live in countryside usually use cars to commute. Since I'm a fan of public transport simply because I don't have an international license and to be honest even if I can drive, I'm scared to drive, I commute everywhere in Kyushu by either public transport or walking. So far, at most I had walked for about 17km in one day and I couldn't be more proud of myself(it was hella tiring but I love it!)
Okay, that's all for this time's entry. I hope you enjoy reading my post as much as I'm writing it~
Oh and here are few advice if you want to travel there
1. I recommend you to travel here other than summer season(Spring and autumn recommended)
2. Check the weather. If it rains heavily, chances to ride the boat is slim because the boat cannot pass through the tunnel as the water level increases.
3. You can travel there by public transport but it is not recommended if you are going there without someone who can speak Japanese or you are going there with kids or old people because you might have to walk a lot as well.
4. Basically if you want to travel to anywhere in Japan, it is advisable to bring along someone who's staying in Japan or someone who's very familiar with Japan because it'll make your travelling a lot easier.
Yanagawa - 8/10
1. River cruising- 9/10
2. Eating eel- 7/10 (I wanted to give 8 but the price is too pricey so I gave 7)
Thank you for reading~
XOXO
-Nurin-
