"Tea Museum" in Hoshinomura is a place where you can fully enjoy green tea. Yame Gyokuro is considered one of the best green teas in Japan, and here you can try it and an assortment of other varieties. But beyond just tasting tea, immerse yourself in the culture of tea here. The Yame Cha Kobo in the facility is a place where visitors can experience tea from other perspectives. Grind your own matcha tea powder, roast your own tea leaves, learn the secrets of preparing the perfect cup of tea, and even learn how to make the Japanese sweets served with tea (some of the workshops require advance reservations).
 

Ukiha Inari Shrine is known for the 91 torii gates that frame the stairs on the steep path climbing the mountainside. If the hundreds of wide stone steps don't take your breath away on the way up, the contrast between the bright red gates, green hillside vegetation, and big blue sky will. At the top, you will be rewarded with a generous panoramic view of the city spread below and the mountains on the horizon. If you have more time and energy, you can also walk around to the back of the shrine and hike further up the mountain for an even more splendid view of the area.

 

Ukiha's roadside station is centered around a wooden building modeled after a traditional kudozukuri minka folk house, featuring the distinctive connected rooftop architecture. This popular Michi no Eki has been successively ranked first place among Kyushu’s roadside stations for the past six years. Here you can choose from a wide variety of locally harvested agricultural produce, including fresh fruits all year round, as well as homemade deli food and sweets. It's the perfect place to pack your picnic, which you can enjoy right outside on the rear terrace, perched on the Onohara plateau overlooking the Tsukushi plains.
 

Harazuru Onsen is one of Fukuoka Prefecture's largest hot springs villages and is popular with locals and overseas visitors alike. It is particularly popular with women, because the mineral components of the hot springs water have "double effects" on beautifying skin, removing dead cells and whitening age spots and other blemishes. Choose to stay at one of 13 hot springs ryokan that are members of the Harazuru Onsen Ryokan Cooperative, and enjoy a relaxing, beautifying experience in this charming onsen village.

English Available.

Shirakabe means "white wall", and it will become quite obvious how it was named as you walk down Shirakabe Street with its 250 houses preserved as National Important Traditional Buildings. A major fire in the latter part of the 19th century prompted residents to rebuild the houses with tile roofs and fireproof clay walls, which were painted white for esthetic value. Wealthy landowners and merchants began to compete in building the grandest, most beautiful structures that showed off how wealthy they were. Today, these elaborate original buildings still stand with the walls that have protected them for over 100 years. This area known as Yoshii flourished as a post town along the road that connected Kurume and Hita.

As the oldest winery in Fukuoka Prefecture founded in 1972, Kyoho Winery is located in the forest of Tanushimaru, within the city of Kurume. This was the place where "Kyoho" grapes were first planted in Japan, and the first Japanese brewery to successfully cultivate and brew Kyoho grapes, which are notoriously difficult to make into wine. Visitors can taste draft wine with their meal in the Heurige restaurant overlooking the vineyard, and learn more about the winery’s history and original equipment in the cellar museum. The winery grounds welcome you into the atmosphere of an enchanted forest, with several benches along a winding path, a barbecue area, and a large shop selling Kyoho’s extensive range of wines, from fruity to limited editions.

Located at the foot of the Minou mountain range, Beniotome was the first brewery in the world to produce a distilled spirit using sesame seeds. Here you can taste the rare sesame shochu as you enjoy a Japanese meal in a traditional house that was built over 400 years ago with a thatched roof and without the use of a single nail. Another restaurant showcases the antique Alambic distiller imported from France used to distill the spirits, along with clay brewing pots from Okinawa. Several other buildings on site have stained glass windows and various architectural styles inspired from European designs. Don't miss the church-like Choujou "longevity" warehouse, where the shochu is stored in wooden barrels imported from Germany for a distinctive flavor. Some of the barrels are signed by visiting celebrities, as the distillery hosts a festival every spring and autumn.

If the timing of your visit is right, be sure to try the fruit picking experiences available at various local farms in the area. Fukuoka has many sweet and juicy fruits that are unique to the area, and an opportunity to sample them fresh from the source is not to be missed!

Early July - late September Grapes
Early Aug - late Oct Figs
Late Sep - mid-December Persimmons
Mid-October - late November Mandarin oranges
Mid-December - mid-May Strawberries