Yoshinogari - Ancient Settlements

What?
Yoshinogari Historical Park (吉野ヶ里歴史公園) is a huge park encompassing a large archeological excavation site of settlements of the Yayoi Period (300BC-300AD). These settlements are the largest of their kind discovered in Japan, and some of them are reconstructed in the park, which also houses a small museum and a burial mound open to the public.
Where?
Located in Kanzaki (神崎), Yoshinogari Historical Park is just a stone’s throw away from Saga (佐賀) in the prefecture with the same name (佐賀県). Coming from Saga, get off at Kanzaki Station (around 10 minutes). Alternatively, if coming from Fukuoka (福岡) or Tosu (鳥栖) you can get off at Yoshinogari Park Station (吉野ヶ里公園駅).
URL
Japan Guide Outline Yoshinogari Historical Park Wikipedia

The first thing I did when I arrived in Saga – and what everyone always should do – was hopping in the tourist information center. When I asked the ladies what the peculiar charms of the city and prefecture were, they both said “you missed the balloon festival, there’s nothing else to do here”. And that is why Saga fails to position itself as an attractive touristic region. After leaving the TIC, I could immediately counter their stance with already one argument: the people here are extremely open-hearted and friendly. What I thought would be 5 minutes in and out were 20 minutes, and I had a lot of fun talking to these ladies.

Another simple argument lies right next to Saga city: the Yoshinogari Historical Park. This huge park must be one of its kind in Japan. It houses the ruins and reconstructions of a large ancient settlement of the Yayoi Period (300BC – 300AD). Walking in the park feels like walking in the town of Asterix and Obelix, but the Japanese version. There are different areas, such as the living area of the kings and other important persons, and such as the religious/ritualistic area; both are encircled by a moat and watch towers to keep people out. People such as the families of the southern settlement located right nearby. In these three areas the buildings have been reconstructed and mannequins have been placed so as to show daily life.

But the park also has a small museum which shows the work of excavation, or more interestingly an excavated burial mound that is still underground yet accessible to the public! Other burial mounds have been kept as such or have been “reconstructed” by putting replicas of burial jars in them.

The biggest settlements are encircled with these wooden spikes.

The smaller family settlements are left open and without protection though.

The coming year will be the year of the pig.

You can climb the watch towers and enjoy the view.

And even then you haven’t seen the full scope of the park. There’s also a flower garden, a forested area and a huge playground for kids. I spent 3 and a half hours in this park and still hadn’t visited everything. Spending more time would work counterproductive though, as a lot of the reconstructed buildings are quite similar and as 3.5 hours is quite energy-absorbing. That doesn’t mean though that the park isn’t worth a second visit, definitely not! I found it to be unique in its kind and extremely charming. And so were the people working there who again left an more than convincing impression on me. Did you read this, ladies from the tourist information center?!

One point of criticism about the park though: English signage is rather scarce and quite poor. Especially in the museum I could have used some extra explanations.