Hey guys, sorry for not posting anything for a while. I was in Portugal for a week for business trip and after that I was sick. I need to work harder to catch up with my blogging now. I’m going to post about the Saga International Balloon Festival in Saga Prefecture, near Fukuoka. Stay tune with me.
Saga International Balloon Festival
Saga International Balloon Festival is an annual international festival that showcases a lot of hot air balloon design from all over the world. The festival itself always takes place at Saga Prefecture near Fukuoka.
I saw a lot of van from Brazil, Australia, Japan, and many other countries participating in this festival. This festival is usually held at the end of October for a week or 10 days. You can’t ride on the hot air balloons, I think because the balloons are for the competition. However, like other festivals, there’re a lot of food stalls and attractions that you can try.
Another thing to take notes is.. the balloons are usually fly in the morning (around 8AM) and they don’t fly again after that time (at least when I went there, they only fly at 8AM). If you really want to see it, come in the morning.
The nearest station to Saga Balloon Festival is Saga Balloon station. This is only a temporary station, it means, the station is only prepared during the period of the festival.
For me, I was really lucky because my boyfriend can drive. So we booked a hotel in Fukuoka. Then we woke up early at 3AM and just drive from Fukuoka to Saga. If you’re driving, it only takes 1 hour and 30 mins from Fukuoka to Saga via highway.
We came very early to catch the sunrise and I also wanted to take a good spot to take the picture. The best spot is across the river where you can get the reflection of the balloon. It was kinda challenging because the hill was quite steep and there’s no proper stairs or road. I suggest you to bring tripod with you too.
Super thank you to boyfie who woke up super early and drove all the way to Saga. ILU <3.
The balloons are launched exactly at 8AM to 9AM. After that we kinda wait there and see around until 11AM and there was no sign of any other balloons. So we decided to go out and look for food. I think it’s better to get there in the morning because it gets crowded as the day goes by.
I’d like to suggest this place if you’re really really fond of photography and you want to take different objects. There’re not many places in Japan that has hot air balloon. Saga has other places to visit too, but it’s not as famous as other places in Japan.
I’d suggest you to bring a proper camera, a tripod, and a zoom lens too to help you get a better picture. The place where they launched the balloon is kinda far from the photo spot, so be prepared. Wear a comfy shoes and pants too because you might need to walk pass a high bushes.
And that’s all my post for the Saga Balloon Festival. I’m so sorry for the short post, but I’ll write the next post as soon as possible.
Have a good day, and as usual, your comments are always loved <3