Saga itself is not a big city, so I had already had visited the main attractions on my first day. On my second day I decided to visit the tourist information center at JR Saga Station where I found a leaflet about Yoshinogari Historical Park. I took a copy and went to the nearest coffee shop. I ordered a hot latte and took my time to read the leaflet.
The leaflet was great and the park definitely sounded like a must-see. It is not far from Saga; actually it takes less than twenty minutes by train from JR Saga Station to JR Kanzaki or JR Yoshinogari Stations, and from either station it is just a 10-minute walk. Yoshinogari Historical Park is a huge and complex area that contains the largest ancient ruins in Japan, dating back to the Yayoi period (300 BC to 300 AD).
I bought my train ticket and chose to stop at Yoshinogari-koen Station. That was just a random choice, but a good one! What a nice surprise that station was. Located in the rural Kanzaki district in Saga Prefecture, this train station is such a nice piece of modern architecture. It was so unexpected that I spent at least half an hour walking around the station and taking photos. It is an above ground station featuring three tracks, two platforms (one island platform and one side platform) and a footbridge connecting them. At the north entrance you can find an information center and a coffee shop. The surroundings are beautiful; you are in a large flat area but you can see the mountains in the distance. The mix of colors of the landscape around you is amazing and I definitely enjoyed my ten-minute walk through the fields towards Yoshinogari Historical Park—at lot.
That's what I love about travel so much; quite often you accidentally find amazing places you never heard of before. Before I started my trip to Japan I had never read anything about Yoshinogari Historical Park or Yoshinogari-koen Station. However, I am happy I found them both. Please put them on your list if you are traveling through or near Saga.
