Declan Murphy wrote:
> 
> Dull? Yes. Original Poster - the hinterlands have rafting, debauchery
> yada yada yada, but not in January.

Were I the OP and living in Kita-Kyushu-shi.  And, were I still of an 
age where Little Head took as much interest in trip planning as Big 
Head, I'd bag Shikoku and head to Hakata and Dazaifu.

It's a matsuri weekend at one of the biggest temples (can't think of the 
name, all I can tell you for reference is that it is along the main road 
that runs from the large public library where the local newspaper 
archives are stored and the closest train station ... which, IIRC, is on 
one of the lines out of Tenjin).  It's one of the temples with the huge 
kanban out front explaining that this isn't the original temple because 
the Mongols (those bastards) burned it in 1271, but that every effort 
has been made to reproduce the original and the centerpiece of the 
temple is one of the noh / kyogen "onna" masks that is about two stories 
high.

Also there is that huge yattai-dori / restaurant-gai that runs behind 
Tenjin / Nishi-Tenjin.  Quite easy to cruise and strike up 
conversations.  Can't find a map to remind myself of the name, but 
everyone knows where it is.  Then there is Nakasu and the yattai-mura at 
Hakata-wan, too.  Knowing a bit of the area's history, the Nihonjiki, 
Sugawara Michizane (Tengu), the Mongol wall, and the story of the 
kami-kaze would help with sightseeing.

I found the young ladies of the women's university in Dazaifu to be 
among the most enthusiastic students of the horizontal form of English 
conjunctions and, unlike the locals in  many other places, most of them 
were fun to be with out of bed and sober, as well.  Many of them work 
part time in the restaurants around Tenjin as well as the tea houses in 
Dazaifu.  An interest in Sugawara Michizane / Tengu was a good 
conversation starter with the conservatively dressed / black haired ladies.

YMMV, of course.

-- 
CL