Karatsu Walking Course

What?
The Kyushu Olle Karatsu course (九州オルレ唐津コース) is a walking course of approximately 11 kilometers in the northern part of Kyushu. The route takes you along the ruins of Nagoya Castle, the encampment site ruins of feudal lords and their armies, rural rice paddies and farming fields and along the north-eastern shores of Kyushu.
Where?
Located in the northern part of Saga Prefecture (佐賀県), the start of the course is quite tricky to get to. From Saga (佐賀) you need to take the train to Karatsu Station (唐津駅), walk to the nearby Oteguchi Bus Center (大手口バスセンター) and hop on a bus bound for Yobuko (呼子). At Yobuko you need to transfer to a bus disguised as taxi van and get off at the Nagoya Castle Museum (名護屋城博物館). The trail starts right behind the road station.
URL
Japan Guide Outline Kyushu Olle Karatsu Course Saga Travel Support

Because the ladies at the tourist information center in Saga couldn’t tell me what parts of the prefecture were interesting, I decided to do what is becoming a regular activity when I visit Kyushu: explore one of the many Kyushu Olle walking courses. These walking courses originated on the Korean island Jeju and the concept is now becoming more and more popular in Kyushu. I previously hiked the Takachiho course and the Ibusuki course, and especially the former was just marvelous. As I didn’t look up what the Karatsu course was about, I didn’t have any expectations; I would just be enjoying a good walk.

Maybe the lack of expectations was why I immediately became to love this course. The path behind the road station immediately takes you away from the busy road, right into a small patch of forest and through several historically important sites of ruins. Many a feudal lord apparently set camp in these regions, and the area is still packed with silent witnesses. Strolling around these ruins all alone made me feel small and oh so grateful. The course seems to spiral around without end and I lost any feeling of orientation left in me. I didn’t mind. Ruins alternate with fruit orchard alternate with ruins alternative with rice paddies. And after an hour and a half or so, the ruins of the what must have been monstrously big Nagoya Castle loomed in front of me. As I completely didn’t expect this – the spiraling around brought me actually back to very close to the starting point – I was utterly flabbergasted. I have seen castle ruins before. The Nakijin ruins in Okinawa were beautiful with the views on the ocean, the Takatori ruins are impressive and mainly interesting because of the many rock carvings, the Takeda ruins are famous throughout all of Japan, … but this Nagoya Castle must have been massive in its day. Again, I was all alone, safe from 2 caretakers I met. Keep your eyes on the Olle signage as it can become quite confusing if you’re running around to look at this or that. I would have liked to visit the museum to learn more about the castle and its history, but as it was a day after a holiday it was closed unfortunately.

Leaving the castle grounds there is a lull in the walk. The scenery changes to picturesque village streets, small fields and patches of trees. Eventually you’ll arrive at a kids learning center with a playground that might also be fun for adults, and a piece of shore. I sat myself down to eat my lunch and enjoyed the gentle clutching of the ocean against the rocks. Apart from 2 fishermen in a boat catching absolutely nothing a few hundred meters from the shore, I had met absolutely no one since the caretakers at the castle. Pure bliss.

Continuing the walk, you cross the small peninsula you’re on from east to west to walk along its shoreline. If you can ignore the big industrial site at your far left, the views were not stellar, but just very pretty. This coastline is also home to a few historical sites, but this time I was more interested in the many predator birds circling the sky. This area is popular with campers, and although it was completely off-season, there were still a few people left enjoying this rather warm winter day. Following the coastline, you eventually arrive at a patch of beach which is the end point of this fabulous walk.

Ruins scattered with fields. Or the other way around.

Even in December there was enough color along the road.

It's impossible to phatom the size of the Nagoya Castle without actually being there.

These Olle horse markers make sure hikers never lose the way.

As I had some time left before the bus would pick me up, I visited the small underwater tower – not worth the money – and the local food stalls. Apart from serving very tasty grilled seafood, I was again surprised by the friendliness of the Saga people. And again when the bus driver picked me up and talked to me all the way until the final stop.

Arriving back at the Oteguchi Bus Center, I decided to take some extra time to visit 2 spots in the center of the town. Having been enthralled with Nagasaki Kunchi, I wanted to see the floats of the equally famous Karatsu Kunchi Festival. The Hikiyama Exhibition Hall shows around 15 beautiful floats. Apart from these floats there was nothing to see (well, a video was playing some scenes of the actual festival), but I found it mesmerizing nonetheless. These floats are the most beautiful I have seen until now. Every floats came with a decent English explanation, and for only 300 yen there is really no reason to leave this place out of your itinerary.

The same can not be said about Karatsu Castle. From the bus window it looked like it might be worth a visit, but already during the approach I realized it wouldn’t be the case. The castle is surrounded by a school, a very busy road and houses on its ocean side. It’s possible to take pictures of the castle without any of these places showing, but it’s impossible to ignore the disturbingly loud and annoying surroundings when you’re actually physically there. I climbed the stairs to the castle, enjoyed a short view on the surrounding ocean which was quite pretty, but did not enter the castle and started my way back to the station.
The Karatsu Castle was far from convincing, but it couldn’t even spoil just a little of what was quite a perfect day for me. The Kyushu Olle courses… I will definitely walk more of them!