What I love about Karatsu, Saga.
I was traveling across Japan to find where to settle then came across a fishing city 1.5 hours bus/train ride from Fukuoka City Center.
I wrote about it here.
3 months have passed and the experience is much better than I intended.
Today I want to share what I love about the city I settled in, Karatsu.
The reason I love Karatsu
1. The location
Karatsu is just 1.5 hours away west from downtown Fukuoka.
I was looking for somewhere to settle within 2 hours of transport from the city center of Fukuoka.
I even considered living in Fukuoka city center or in between Hakata Station and Fukuoka airport since it's so convenient and a budget to live.
But I also love nature, and not very much a city person.
Then I found Karatsu, where it's an hour drive from Fukuoka, and has both the sea and the mountains. Most importantly it is the hub to visit the smaller islands scattered nearby.
You can access Iki Island from the ferry terminal of Karatsu, a famous island for bluefin tuna and Iki wagyu.
From Iki, you get to access Tsushima Island, where it is one of the most famous island for good seafood in Japan.
From Tsushima island, (I didn't know this by the way)you can access South Korea by ferry.
I can't wait to go on a ferry trip from Karatsu~Iki~Tsushima~South Korea.
My favorite airport in the world: Fukuoka
I've flown A LOT both for business and pleasure, and been to a lot of airports.
Changi Airport in Singapore amazes me every time I go there, there's something new. But my favorite is, Fukuoka Airport.
It's not crowded like all the other airports in Japan like Chitose, Haneda, and Narita.
The best thing is, it's just a 5 minute train ride to Hakata, the city center of Fukuoka.
I hop on the train at the airport, then next thing I know I have to rush to get off because it's just 2 stops.
Keep riding the same train, then guess where you would end up. Karatsu.
②Karatsu has what I love.
I've tried living in a lot of places.
From all that expereinces I learned that I don't really like living in city centers or fancy places, but I love living close to nature and especially near the sea.
My priority is good food.
Karatsu has amazing seafood.
Not only does it have great seafood, you can fish good ones from the sea and the rivers.
Eels, seabreams, groupers, horse mackerels, squids, crabs... you name it.
I'm still a beginner in fishing but I already fished suzuki seabass and squids.
It just feels right to live here. It suits me.
How I found Karatsu
I didn't know about Karatsu until I tried working in Kyushu.
I worked in Tosu for 3 months in a hotel where it provides basic food and accomodation (you get one of their hotel rooms)Tosu is in the center of Kyushu, and is the transport hub city of distributors like Coca Cola and Amazon.
I asked the front desk where might be a good place to visit if I like seafood and the answer was Karatsu.
There was even a cleaner lady whose husband's hometown is Karatsu, and she told me they fished 80 squids in just 3 hours.
80 squids!! That's amazing. I need to go check that city out.
That's how I started to study about the city.
My decision to settle here was quite fast.
1. I fell in love with Umakamon Market
"Umakamon" means delicious things in local dialect.
It's a big farmer's market, and the variety of seafood was amazing!
The meat section probably had the biggest space for wagyu I've seen, and also the cheapest.
I bought it home to cook the wagyu and the seafood, and this was one of the biggest reasons I decided to settle to Karatsu.
By the way, I even started to work in this market.
2. I found an akiya on rent
I was chilling in the beach inside the car in Karatsu, and I googled,
"Karatsu station, abandoned house, rent" then there was a hit.
it's a 2 story 4LDK house with a garden.
The house is 60 years old, so it's a little bit of a risk to buy the house without careful investigation.
But if I were to be able to rent it, then I can just find out by living in it for awhile.
This decision was a good one.
The place is far from what I expected both in a good and bad way.
But I already know I shouldn't buy the place, but I would love living here for a period of time.
Karatsu can be the San Sebastian of Japan
Working in the seafood section of the farmer's market, I'm amazed by the freshness of the seafood, and the technique the fish mongers have.
Hokkaido has amazing seafood, but it doesn't have this techniques.
Tokyo has another kind of techniques but it's different from the ones here.
I've tried both Isaki seabass in Tsukiji (Tokyo) and Karatsu.
The Isaki comes from the same region, Matsuura.
They both have different kind of tastes, and I prefer the ones in Karatsu.
I will talk about it closely in another post.
Karatsu is already becoming known as a foodie city.
Tsukuda has been around as high end sushi restaurant and is now michelin starred.
The fish shop next to Tsukuda, Oyama Fish shop is very famous for the techniques to slaughter the fish for better taste.
My life work will be, to promote the city as a gourmet city and grow it to be the information city for cooking seafood.
Realated:
Thanks for Reading!
So follow me on my journey discovering the best fish dishes of Japan. I will open a fish laboratory in my akiya abandoned house I'm going to live soon.
I would love to connect with people interested in fishes, cooking, and Japanese food. Share me your interests, and let's hang out!
This will be my long game, and I look forward to sharing what happens.
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