Former Karatsu BankPhoto: Ippukucho / CC BY 3.0
- Getting there
- Taxi about 10 min (our estimate); 10 min on foot from JR Karatsu Station, 5 min from the Otemachi bus centre
Checked · Researched, not yet visited · times from official timetables and our estimates · Takumi Yamada
The red-brick head office of the Karatsu Bank, finished in March 1912 in the Tatsuno style, red brick banded with white granite under small towers and domes. Tatsuno Kingo, who studied at Karatsu’s domain school, supervised; his pupil Tanaka Minoru designed it. It was a bank until 1997. The banking hall and the vault are on the ground floor, a Tatsuno exhibition upstairs. Free, 09:00–18:00, last entry 17:40.
- Short enough to be certain of: 1 hr door to door.
Former Karatsu Bank and your ship
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Where the 1 hr goes
The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside. The minutes are our estimates from timetables and maps, not timed on the ground.
If your ship is late, cut the 40 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.
Routes that already include it
Finished days timed from official timetables and our estimates, with this stop in them.
The castle town: castle, floats, a Meiji house and the bankNeeds a 6-hour call · ~4h door to doorA 12:00–18:00 Star Seeker call: off at 12:30, back by 16:30, with no time to spare. The walks between the four places take 10 to 15 minutes each (OSM routing, our estimates); the bank is only if you are ahead
Floats, the bank and a Meiji house, all under a roofA wet day · ~3h door to doorA wet day on any call of 5 hours or more; three indoor sights 8 to 12 minutes’ walk apartWhat to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
2 hr for bothKaratsu Jinja
The town’s shrine, said to date from the Nara period, and the home of the Kunchi festival: every November the 14 floats escort its portable shrine through the streets.
See the detail
2 hr 30 min for bothThe 14 Kunchi floats
The giant lacquered floats of the Karatsu Kunchi festival, lions and samurai helmets among them, all 14 under one roof; the oldest, the red lion, was made in 1819.
See the detail
2 hr 30 min for bothKyu-Takatori residence
The seaside house of Takatori Koreyoshi, who made his money in coal, built in the late Meiji era and now an Important Cultural Property.
See the detail