Wanderlust UK – September 2019

128 wanderlust.co.uk September 2019

Perfect symmetry

(top to bottom)

The green tea †ields

of Yame in Fukuoka;

Tochoji Temple's

16m-high Buddha

FUKUOKA

INTO THE

WILD

In the south of Japan lies the

little-visited island of Kyushu –

a hotpot of geothermal activity,

where the volcanic, forest-

covered landscape wouldn’t be

out of place in a Tolkien novel.

According to a UK-based

survey for the Kyushu Tourism

Board, less than 10% of

people in the UK have even

heard of Kyushu – yet it’s one of

Japan’s largest islands.

My first stop here was

Fukuoka, Kyushu’s easygoing

‘capital’, which sits on the north

coast. The city’s free spirit is

evident in its yatai – fun,

clinking glasses and shouting

kanpai (‘cheers!’).

But Fukuoka is also a spiritual

place, home to more shrines

and temples than both Kyoto or

Tokyo, including the 16th-

century Dazaifu Tenmangu

Shrine, surrounded by 6,000

plum trees, and the 9th-century

Tochoji Temple, which houses

the largest seated wooden

Buddha statue in Japan, at

16m. Beneath this giant

Buddha snakes a pitch-black

tunnel that you can walk

through, symbolising your

movement from dark to light. I’m

not usually a spiritual person,

but having walked for five

minutes in the dark, I found

myself thanking the giant

Buddha that I didn’t trip over.

Later that day, I drove out of

the city and within 40 minutes

found myself in the countryside,

the water-flooded rice fields

reflecting the clouds above like

mirrors. I passed the almost

luminescent green tea fields of

Yame – famed for having the

very best gyokuro (shade-

grown green tea) in Japan –

and across to the small city

of Yanagawa, originally home

to over 930km of waterways,

which were once the centre

of the city's irrigation channels.

I gently floated along the canals

in a wooden boat, punted

by a local man in a straw hat.

He sang a mesmerising song

in Japanese, the breeze

making the willow trees billow

like silk curtains.

alcohol-fuelled street food

stands that can fit around eight

people on stools shoulder-to-

shoulder. I squeezed onto a seat

at one buzzing stand and

quickly found myself slurping

ramen noisily with the locals,