My next trip to Malacca, Malaysia

I've decided to go Seoul, Singapore and Malacca, Malaysia for 8 days from July 3 to 10. Going to Malaysia is a long time, since October 2014. Last time I went to George Town, the center of Penang Island. I bought a discounted ticket of Singapore Airlines from Seoul. The price is 718.300 KRW (=about 63,100 Yen) including all taxes, fees and surcharges. This time I want to take either Thai Airways or Singapore Airlines from Seoul, so I was checking out prices from late March. Finally I was decided to go with Singapore Airlines because their flight schedules can be better and earn on my Kris Flyer miles. Between Fukuoka and Seoul, I fly by Korean Air as a connecting flight.

 Flights are as follows:

• July 3 KE788 FUK 10:30 - ICN 11:55/SQ609 ICN 16:40 - SIN 22:05
• July 8/9 SQ5341 KUL 21:45 - SIN 22:40/SQ608 SIN 00:10 - ICN 07:45
• July 10 KE781 ICN 18:40 - FUK 19:55

The first day, I take a Korean Air flight to Seoul, then a Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore. The transit time at Incheon is 4 hours and 45 minutes, so it has a plenty of time to change planes. I'm staying in Singapore for two nights. On July 5, I'm going to Malacca by bus. I don't decide what to do in Malacca yet, maybe later. After spending 2 nights there, it's scheduled to go Kuala Lumpur. I only have one day in KL, therefore I really want to visit the Petronas Twin Towers, the world's tallest twin towers. On July 8, I'm going back to Seoul via Singapore. From Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, I take a code-share flight operated by Silk Air, the regional airline of Singapore Airlines. This is a very short flight, it only takes 55 minutes. After a short transit time in Singapore, I take on an overnight flight to Seoul.

Strolling the old streets of Tsuyazaki

After seeing the Miyajidake Shrine iris festival, we headed off to Tsuyazaki Fishing Port. Near the fishing port, there is row of old streets along the central Tsuyazaki called Tsuyazaki-sengen (津屋崎千軒). Tsuyazaki is greatly prospered as a shipping port for export salt which has been carried out from the Edo period to until the early Showa era. During that time, many houses were built around the port. This town seems very crowded with thousand houses so that it is named as Tsuyazaki-sengen.

The Umigame fish market in Tsuyazaki Fishing Port. The feature of the fishing port is landing rich species of fishes. Various types of seafood is sold throughout the year.

The morning market in roofed arcade will be open on Sundays from 6 am.

While blowing the pleasant sea breeze of Genkai-nada and go straight down the street, you'll see traditional houses of Japan made by wood. This area is actually called Tsuyazaki-sengen, a quaint town with some Machiya (町家) style houses still remain in this street.

 Ai-no-ie (藍の家) or the Indigo house folk museum is a symbol of Tsuyazaki's old streets. It was first built in 1901 by Zenbei Agatsuma, the fifth owner of the original dye shop. There is a history of more than 100 years, the typical Machiya building still standing in Tsuyazaki.

The Toyomura Sake Brewery company head office and factory right next to the Indigo house folk museum. The company boasts a long history, they have been making local sake of Tsuyazaki over the 130 years.

Tsuyazaki-sengen Nagomi (なごみ) tourist information office and rest house offers you more information on this retro town. They have fun activities such as riding a horse-drawn carriage that is only available in Fukuoka prefecture. It depends on the day of departure, so please check out at the office. They also provide electric-assisted bicycle rentals, you can borrow your bicycle here and return it at JR Fukuma Station.

Seeing iris festival at Miyajidake Shrine

On Wednesday, we had decided to take a drive to see iris in bloom at Miyajidake Shrine, Fukutsu, Fukuoka. The shrine's annual iris festival (菖蒲まつり shobu-matsuri) will be held between May 31 and June 10, with 100 species, of 50000 pieces of iris flowers has been planted.

A Romon (楼門) tower gate with lion-dogs in the background.

The hall of worship. There are some pieces of iris flowers in front of the hall which was moved from the Edo iris garden.

Going through the inner path, we came to the Edo iris garden.

The gasshō-zukuri (合掌造り) styled houses are currently under repair.

The Kagiya (鉤屋) styled minka houses have been saved in Shizen-koen (自然広苑) open-air museum where examples from Ogori city are kept on display.

Carps in Misogi-ike (禊池) pond.

Ducks went up and looking for something to eat.

A distant view of Mount Tachibana (立花山) from a small observation platform.

Before going back to parking lot, I want to climb the stairs approaching to the shrine where Ainoshima (相島) Island on the Sea of Genkai is visible. When I went up the stairs and took a look back there, I could see a long straight road continues until the sea. Here is famous for the sunset going down on the extension of the approach to a shrine twice a year, in late February and late October.
Sorry, I forgot to take a picture. I found a great photo on wiki, so I put it into my blog.

After that we went to Miyajihama Beach. It's a short away from the shrine, about 5 minutes by car.