Sakaiminato: Small City, Big Presence

 Our next port of Sakaiminato is a small city of only about 32,000 inhabitants, but there is a lot to see and do in the area, as we found out on our all-day tour.

Our first stop on the tour was at the Adachi Museum of Art. This museum was established by Adachi Zenko, a native of the area, who became a businessman and art collector, especially of the works of Japanese artist Yokoyama Taikan. He was also a passionate garden designer, and when he decided to establish a museum to exhibit his collection, he created six gardens totaling 165,000 square metres in size to surround the galleries. We had about an hour here to see the paintings from Taikan and various modern Japanese artists, and also marvel at the gardens. These gardens are ranked #1 in Japan, and that's saying something, but you can understand why when you see them.

Adachi also purchased the hills behind so he could
curate the backdrop for this garden.

A poster showing the garden in all 4 seasons

A statue of Adachi who lived to age 91

After that visit, we went to see Matsue Castle. Matsue is one of the three great lakeside castles in Japan. It was built in 1607-1611 by the feudal lord of Matsue in the early Edo Period. That's when the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled Japan. The story as told by our guide is that at some point the castle burned down and the lord requested to be able to rebuild. The Shogunate denied him, not wanting anyone below them to have a castle. After a number of years, the lord asked to have a watchtower built on the site instead, to protect the area from attack from the sea. This was granted, so the lord rebuilt the castle with a few small changes to make it look more like a watchtower.

The tour includes entry into the castle and the opportunity to walk, in stocking feet as you have to remove your shoes, up into the five levels inside. The views are spectacular, but the staircases get steeper and the wooden treads narrower as you go up. Larry managed the second level and I went up one more.

The original decorations from the rooftop. You may recall
this mythical creature shape from a sculpture at the Imperial Palace Gardens
in Tokyo. It seems to grace all Edo Period palaces

The view from the third level

A statue of the first lord who built the castle

That certainly was interesting! After leaving the castle, we could visit the Matsue Temple next door as well as the Jozan Inari-jinja Shrine.

Matsue Temple

Jozan Inari-jinja Shrine, famous for its fox
statues

And you can never forget the appropriately
decorated vending machines!

Our next stop for the day was in another garden area. This time it was Daikonshima Island in Lake Nakaumi where Japan's famous peonies are grown. The island has been connected by a bridge for many years. This was done so that the workers in the peony fields would be able to commute to their families, rather than being away for their working week and unable to get back to the mainland.

A small island we passed in the lake
on our way to Yuushien Garden.

Some of the peony fields

When we arrived at the garden, our first stop was the restaurant where lunch had been set up for us....after all, we were cruise passengers who hadn't eaten for at least 3 hours! It was a little scary to say the least, to see all of this stuff set out in front of us. But our guide and the wait staff were very helpful, and lunch was delicious!

The pots on the fire contained broth and
vegetables. The bowl in front was our rice....

and there was a pretty lacquered box for
everyone holding 3 more plates of small
bites from pork to fish

We had bowls of peony noodles - yes, they
put crushed peony petals in the noodle
dough - to add to the broth

It was a bit of challenge to get the noodles out of the pot with chopsticks, but we managed in the end!

After lunch we had a brief tour with our guide and then were given 45 minutes to wander around on our own. One of the big draws of Yuushien at this time of year, especially during Golden Week, is the Peony Festival. During late April and early May the first blooms have to be cut off of the peony plants to encourage more robust growth. Rather than send them to the compost heap, they are brought to the garden and strewn on one of the large ponds. The effect is quite beautiful. We're glad we were here at the right time to see it!

It isn't just peonies on display; there are lots
of roses here, too!

The gardens are beautifully designed

And there is a Peony House where new
cultivars are displayed. There's a large shop
near the parking lot for you to buy plants as well.

The Peony Pool

Garden employees are constantly adding more
flowers to the display

Our final stop for the day was back in the city of Sakaiminato. This was the birthplace of famous manga artist Mizuki Shigeru, creator of the GeGeGe no Kitaro series, for anyone who follows this form of comic. He is such an iconic figure that there's even a whole museum dedicated to his life and artistic works. This is a photo of a photo showing him with one of his creations turned into a bronze figurine:

This is an example of some of his cartoons:

And some of his books. He seemed to have a real liking for weird creatures. He is accredited with turning Japanese folk creatures into modern pop culture, and influencing at least 2 generations of comic and animation creators.

There was a whole room dedicated to sculptures of his more 'monsterish' creations:

And in the main foyer a rotating Kitaro giving his father, who died and was reincarnated as a sentient eyeball, a bath.

Once we had examined the exhibits in the museum, which were quite fascinating, we had an opportunity to stroll along Mizuki Shigeru Road, where bronze sculptures of over 1,000 of his characters have been set along the sidewalk. Who could resist taking photos of some of them?

Even the manhole covers in the road have Kitaro
on them!

This is his version of his parents

This was unexpectedly interesting, considering we know nothing about manga. But it is quintessentially Japanese and a big part of the culture.

We headed back to the bus and the ship after this, as it had already been a pretty full day. The local public washroom near the parking lot was decorated in the spirit as well:

Kitaro, his friend Neko-Musume or Cat-Girl, and
his Eyeball father

There was a fair crowd of people at the pier to see us off as we left, probably because they'd never seen Crystal Symphony before. It's been really nice to see the drummers and the bands and the people in many of the ports sending us off. We had noticed that so far we hadn't seen another cruise ship anywhere, even in Tokyo. The larger ships likely go to the port of Yokohama instead.

Fukuoka Highlights

 The rain from Nagasaki had disappeared by the time we reached Fukuoka, but Larry's cold kept him on the ship. I went on the tour myself and experienced not only a couple of temples, but an hour's shopping time, before heading up the Fukuoka Tower. Had I remembered about the shopping I would have brought my sketchbook along to pass the time; as it turned out, our tour escort was the art teacher, Dori.

Our first stop on the tour was the Tocho-ji Temple, which dates back to the 9th Century. Japan's largest wooden seated Buddha is here, which we were able to see although photos were not allowed. It was quite impressive, although much smaller than some of the Buddha statues we had already seen, such as the one at Todai-ji in Nara.

One of the experiences a visitor can have here is walking through the 'corridor of darkness' under the statue. It is meant to represent the blindness of human ignorance and earthly suffering and is literally pitch black. One needs to feel one's way along the corridor and find a metal ring that symbolizes the key to enlightenment. 

Although most of the group went in, I opted to get a goshuin, or stamp, for my temple stamp book - goshuincho - instead. I had bought a stamp book, which is calligraphy paper in an accordion fold bound with a decorative cover, in Tokyo, and had been collecting stamps along the way as I could. A priest or staff member stamps the temple or shrine's specific goshuin in the book and adds the name of the temple and the date in Kanji script, all for a donation of between 300 and 500 Yen. I have set my book up so I can put a simple sketch of the temple/shrine on the left hand page with the stamp on the right. I'll add a post later of my stamp book.

Part of the temple main building entrance

The Rokkako-du, a hexagonal shaped
building that houses sutras and sculptures. It 
is only opened on the 28th of each month. We
missed that by two days.

This temple has a beautiful 5 storey pagoda
as well. Goo subject for a sketch!

Our next stop was at the Kushida Shrine, a Shinto sanctuary. This was a very large complex and quite interesting. It was also fairly busy as it was now Golden Week, a spring holiday for the Japanese people.

One of the important features of the shrine is that it plays a central role in a local annual festival, the Hakata Gion Yamakasa, which is said to be over 750 years old. It takes place in the first half of July, and includes the 'Kakiyama', or large floats that are carried or dragged around the streets by teams in 'float races'. A Kakiyama is displayed on the shrine grounds for the year following the festival.

Every Shinto shrine also has a divine tree called a Shinboku. This is usually a fairly old tree and is designated with a straw rope around the trunk. It is considered sacred as the dwelling place of the spirits or gods known as 'kami'. The shinboku are believed to be places where the boundary between the human and spirit worlds is thin, so they are good places for healing and rejuvenation. This tree is a 1,000 year old gingko tree.

The gate to the shrine is quite elaborate and includes a carving of the signs of the Chinese Zodiac in the ceiling as you pass inside.

The main shrine building.

This is one of the cranes in a fountain that
gives you a long life if you drink from it.

Many larger shrines also have a series of torii gates like these. Every shrine, no matter where it is, has one gate to signify the transition from the mundane to sacred space. There are a few shrines in Japan, particularly one in Kyoto, known for the tunnel of gates numbering in the thousands. We saw one series like this at Nezu Shrine in Tokyo where the azalea festival was taking place. These gates are usually donated by businesses for luck, so it is more a photo op than sacred rite to walk through them.

After we finished our tour of the shrine we had some free time to go wander the grounds or go into the Nakasuwabata shopping arcade conveniently located almost next door. Souvenirs, craft stores, and small restaurants abound in the arcade, but we're not shoppers and I couldn't think of anything to look for.  I did take a stroll to see what was there, but nothing caught my eye.

It was too bad that restaurants weren't opening early enough for anyone to stop for a bowl of ramen for lunch. I think many wanted to, but we would only have had a half an hour once the places opened and that's not enough time to do the ramen full justice.

After this interlude we climbed back into the bus and headed for the Fukuoka Tower, an observation deck 758 feet high right at the beach. It looks like an office building, but in fact there's nothing there except the elevator, the metal structure and a mirror glass exterior.

Looking up the inside of the structure

The tower has 360° views and very interesting 45° corners for viewing. It is actually a radio broadcast tower that is lit up with LEDs every night and sometimes even during the day. The tower is in the Guinness Book of World Records, a distinction it received as of January 22, 2026, for the 'Most number of days a radio tower with an observation deck has been lit up with pixel animation illuminations'. Unfortunately we left Fukuoka at 7:00, just around dusk, and weren't able to see the light show. But the daytime views were quite spectacular, even if a bit hazy.

After this visit, we headed back to the ship for the afternoon to relax a bit before the next day's stop at Sakaiminato. Hard to believe, but this would be a maiden stop for the 31-year old Crystal Symphony!