The Mietsu Naval Dock lies on the Saga Plain, where the Chikugo river flows into the Ariake Sea. It is a place that easily gets overlooked: a modest dry dock and a few stone structures among reeds and creeks. Yet UNESCO listed it in 2015 among the sites of Japan's Meiji industrial revolution, and the reason is the Saga domain's ambition. In the 1850s, under its daimyo Nabeshima Naomasa, Saga set about learning Western shipbuilding, cannon casting and steam technology faster than almost any other domain in Japan, and Mietsu was where the navy was trained and its ships were built and repaired.
The setting is lovely in a flat, watery way. The Ariake Sea has one of the largest tidal ranges in Japan, and at low tide the mudflats stretch for kilometres, home to mudskippers and wading birds, while the plain is laced with old irrigation channels. The land here is farmland, with rice, wheat and seaweed beds offshore, and the light has a hazy softness, particularly in the evening. Nearby Yanagawa is famous for its canals, where flat-bottomed boats glide through the old castle town, and for its steamed eel on rice. Ōkawa, only four kilometres from the dock, has been known for centuries for fine furniture and woodwork.
For a rider the roads here are flat, straight and quiet. This is not a place for tight bends, but a place for easy cruising, with the occasional bridge over a creek and long views over fields. In summer it is hot and humid, and the Ariake can sit under a warm haze, while typhoons occasionally bring heavy rain. Spring and autumn are much better, and the early morning has the best light on the water.
Fuel and food are no problem. Ōkawa, with nearly forty thousand people, and Saga city, a few kilometres away with some 165,000, have plenty of pumps, convenience stores and restaurants. Saga is also known for its beef and its karatsu-style pottery tradition, and the ride to Sakitsu in Amakusa or to Misumi takes you onwards to the islands of Kyushu's west coast, with ferries, shrines and sea views waiting.