Hi! I’m Tabiiku, travelling around Japan with my daughter under the motto of “growing a child’s experience.” We have relatives in Fukuoka, so we visit fairly often — but finding somewhere to stay is always a struggle. (Different from a trip built around a hotel you want to stay at or a place you want to go, a trip to see the people you want to see somehow produces more misses.)
We have stayed at With The Style Fukuoka, Garden Terrace Fukuoka, INN THE PARK Fukuoka and more — and apart from With The Style, most were big disappointments. This time we tried HOTEL CULTIA Dazaifu, themed around enjoying Dazaifu Tenmangu. Honestly? It was just okay, and I don’t think we will be back.
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Around the area
We had planned to head near Mount Abura for Forest Adventure (a favourite of ours) and a farm harvest experience, but the day turned rainy. A morning phone call told us the harvest experience was cancelled, so we changed plans on the spot and went to E·ZO, which I had been curious about.
E·ZO is an indoor leisure complex right in front of PayPay Dome, with teamLab and a slide that runs the height of the whole building. Unfortunately it was a holiday with a game on at PayPay Dome, so the roads nearby were jammed and parking looked hopeless. We pushed as close as we reasonably could and parked a little way off — the Mitsui Repark we used was about a 10–15 minute walk, manageable even for our 9-year-old.
I had actually booked the “Zekkyo Sankyodai” (Screaming Trio) slides, but we hit an age limit we had not seen coming (the slides are 10 and up, and 35kg and over — we failed on both counts!). So we dropped to the floor below, V-World AREA Credit Agricole.
It is full of VR and video-tech games, and we enjoyed it well enough — though after about an hour we had had our fill. We had bought a 2-hour ticket; I think a 30-minute ticket, topped up in 15-minute increments if needed, is the best value.
The room
One thing I wish they had made clearer, in an obvious spot: they recommend leaving your luggage in the car. So if you go, drop your bags at the car park first and then head to the front desk.
For rooms, we had 302, the largest, while our relatives had 202, the smallest. This hotel seems to have been a large house originally, divided up into several rooms, so many are two-storey — and simply very small. 202 was cramped to the point I genuinely wondered how you would relax in it, so I would not recommend it.
Even room 302’s ground floor is a tatami space, and modern children used to sofas find their legs ache and cannot settle! The upstairs bed space is roomy but has a lot of dead space; I found myself thinking the two floors would have been better designed the other way round. The bath, though, was a lovely, spacious spot filled with the scent of cypress, and the renovated plumbing areas were good.
The food
Dinner is a French course, breakfast a Japanese set. The French dinner used local ingredients generously and everything was tasty — I forgot to photograph it, but the wagyu confit was the best. There was no “I have never eaten anything this before!” surprise, but nothing that fell flat either, so I would call it a pass.
At breakfast the saikyo-yaki fish was excellent, and the rice was a local variety cooked just right. It came as a set tray; I would have been even happier with a dish or two served separately. I did really appreciate that they had thought about a menu for children.
Around the hotel
The hotel is a one-minute walk from Dazaifu Tenmangu. The restaurant looks straight out onto the main hall, so after dinner you can wander the empty precincts, and after breakfast pop in to pay your respects. The main hall closes at night, but the sacred ox — which has a queue during the day — was free for all the stroking we wanted, so if you are after a blessing, do go! It is also about a two-minute walk to the Dazaifu approach street, lined with shops; the food-stall grazing was great fun.
The famous umegae-mochi is on sale seemingly everywhere — there must be countless shops. The taste probably does not vary much, so if one has a queue, walk a little further and you will soon find one without — no need to force it near the entrance. The freshly grilled senbei was tasty too (my relatives say it is a newer shop that was not there in the old days!).
HOTEL CULTIA Dazaifu: not bad, but a place I do not think we will return to. That said, for anyone who wants to enjoy Dazaifu to the full, I think it is a fine choice!
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