Nothing to Do in Saga...?

What?
Saga (佐賀市) is little known even in Japan, apart from its International Balloon Festival held every year around October-November. Other attractions include a reconstructed castle palace and a few museums. Saga is a rather lively mid-size city though, with an anything but a dull nightlife, and with extremely friendly locals.
Where?
Saga is the prefectural capital of Saga Prefecture (佐賀県). There is an aiport that is served from Tokyo, but I flew on Fukuoka Airport and took the JR Nagasaki Main Line (JR長崎本線) from there. If you want to go to the center of the city you either need to walk 20 minutes or take a bus from the station.
URL
Saga Trip Genius Japan National Tourist Organization

On my first day in Saga, the ladies at the tourist information center told me there was nothing to do, but they also told me that this was because I was there out of season. In fact, the main claim of Saga to fame is the International Balloon Festival that is held every year in autumn. But being off-season doesn’t mean that the balloons completely disappear out of sight. References to balloons are everywhere in the city, and on a rainy day like today a visit to the balloon museum would be ideal.

But first I decided to take a look at the Prefectural Museum and the Saga Castle Museum.
The Saga Prefectural Museum is free of charge and it’s ok to take pictures. These 2 reasons should already be enough to hop in, even for a few minutes to see what it’s about. It’s rather small and English signage is scarce, which makes that if pottery and stuffed animals don’t interest you, you really are in and out of there in a few minutes. Given the rich historical and archeological finds in the area, I had hoped to learn a bit more about the excavations in nearby sites such as the Yoshinogari plain and the Karatsu Nagoya Castle and encampment grounds. They are mentioned, but I found it to be too little. Visiting the actual sites has really sparked my interest, but as the Yoshinogari Museum lacked English information and as the Nagoya Castle Museum was closed, I kind of hoped I would find ample background in here. But these periods are not being talked more or less than other periods in the museum, which I find a pity.
Next to the Prefectural Museum is the Prefectural Museum of Art. They showed a temporary exhibition of Tokujin Yoshioka, famous for his glass tea house. That’s the reason why I dropped in, but the permanent collection wasn’t really convincing.

After crossing the street I entered the partly reconstructed castle palace of Saga that houses the Saga Castle museum. They have English audio guides which were very useful. The castle resembles a bit the Nijo Castle in Kyoto, and I already explained why I wasn’t really a fan. The same goes for Saga Castle, however, although it lacks in authenticity, the English explanations make it a more interesting experience than Nijo Castle (truth to be told, it could be that there are also English audio guides in Nijo Castle, I don’t know).

Saga is also known for its pottery.

Glass Teahouse of Tokujin Yoshioka.

The reconstructed castle palace from the outside...

... and the inside.

Lastly I visited the Balloon Museum. It’s something different, it’s something fascinating. The museum is rather small and hasn’t got the least English explanations. But I was intrigued by the beautiful images, and it’s just fun to for example step into the flight simulator. The museum is also very well designed and decorated, and I really felt the love and enthusiasm of the Saga people for there balloon festival. It surely made me want to visit the place during the high season.

All in all it was a relaxing day. All museums are bundled in the same area and are mildly to quite interesting, so the perfect way to spend time on a rainy day.