Local Time : 12-21-2019
Today is Day 2 of my trip here in Asia. Still having some jet lag waking up super early around 4 AM in the morning, but it is really good time to let me reflect the day before and see what’s going on.
So once again, today’s adventure started with breakfast. One would think that breakfast is breakfast, but not so when you are having breakfast in a Japanese hotel. So the first morning here, we had the Japanese breakfast. We wanted the Japanese breakfast because we are here in Japan and I stayed in hotel rooms for over 90 days this year and I don’t want another western breakfast. So I thought. But this morning we were fulling intending to go back to the Japanese breakfast set, maybe choosing something different but going back there. But then I saw some other folks walking into the western breakfast area, so I said to Vicky, let go in and take a look. Oh my gosh were we surprised!!! I thought western breakfast means, Eggs, sausage, and some bread and cheap fruits and from concentrated juice. But in Japan, that is not what it means, what this means is that it is a buffet that includes western options. Oh my gosh … the breakfast buffet was amazing. In include almost everything from the Japanese breakfast as well. It was just amazing!! The breakfast also included may locally sourced ingredients from around Kyushu!
Not only did we had a wonderful breakfast, I’ve also learned that Yakult originated from Fukuoka. We tried to get a factory true today, but unfortunately the tour was full for Saturday, so maybe next time.
After breakfast our adventure begins. Since the Yakult factory tour is out of the question, we decided to head to the National museum here near Fukuoka and the Dazaifu Tenman-gu, the shrine near the museum. So instead of taking the train we decided to take the bus this time since the bus station is right next to our hotel as well.
After our 50min bus ride, which is longer than I expected, we are here. The first stop is to walk around this shrine. The Dazaifu Tennant gu is famous for people hoping for success in learning. As I failed my “Japanese Exam” last night, maybe I can get some help here :).
As most famous shrine in Japan, there is a front street with lots of shops as you approach the front entrance of the shrine, it was very active and lots of people.
Of course as two people from Seattle, we saw Starbuck and decided to stop in and check it out. After all, they are a customer of mine :).
Walking around the shrine was beautiful. Seeing some Koi really reminded me of my dad and his pond.
We decided to get our fortune, from our fortune box for 100 yen. Of course the entire fortune was in Japanese, so I suggested we find a spot to figure it out with Google Translate.
Yeah while trying to tie the paper on to the string… I tore my little good fortune. Does it mean I won’t be getting my good fortune anymore 🙁
After the shrine we walked a short ways to the national museum.
We had lunch there and I got a chance to try my Japanese to order some food. And of course the person spoke Chinese and said that the Katsu sandwiches are out. Oh if I am grading myself that is another F!!!
The museum is hosting a Three Kingdom’s exhibit. That sounded awesome so I insisted that we should go see it. Well… it was pretty much a bust! Great marketing, but the internals are really not that great. You see many broken plates and cups and small tiny things of the time of the 3 kingdom, Everything you saw may not even relate to the events of the story, but may some how connected to it. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was pretty small exhibit and definitely not what I expected.
The main exhibit was not much better either but much quieter and less crowded. Don’t get me wrong the museum venue is beautiful but the content is lacking a bit.
After our culture adventure, we decided to walk a different path back down to the station. This path is much quieter and less crowded.
This path brought us through some residential neighborhood and we found a small local grocery store and of course I got to get some fruits.
We got a pack of Fukuoka Strawberries. There were 6 large and red strawberries in the pack, and we decided to eat them right there at a near by bench.
OH MY GOSH!!! THEY WERE AMAZING. So Sweet so flavorful. It was definitely worth the $1 USD per strawberry price.
Of course to top it off we had to get some of their famous local red bean dessert. I don’t know what it is called but it was sweet, sticky, and warm goodness. Love it!
So the return trip to Fukuoka was interesting. We were in line for the bus back to Hataka station. But it was going to take an hour again and the line was long and we missed the immediate bus and it will be another 15 minutes until our next bus, since the train was right next to us and is about to head out, I told Vicky let’s just take the train. Vicky, keeps on telling me that, she doesn’t know why, but Google map is not showing the train as an option. I told her that Google doen’t know what it’s talking about, I know that it is not direct, we will have to switch train to get back in town, so let’s just take the train, it will be fun. Well, the first leg of the train is a regular train which is a mostly standing train, and most sitting seats were taking so we had to go all the way to the front of the train.
Once we are one the train, something did not feel right, so we continue to search and that is when we found out that there are two train lines in Fukuoka and they don’t cross. And that is the reason why Google was telling us to take the bus. But hey, I like adventures!!
We figure that we can just head toward the city first then we can simply walk from one station to the other. And we were correct.
After few exchanges in train and stations, we were back in Hakata Station. We did not want to come back out for dinner so we decided to have dinner near the station before we head back to the hotel. Even though, it was still a bit early, I was ready to eat!
Vicky suggested we try this famous local soup place. It is fatty intestine soup. It may sound disgusting but it was really hot and warm and really good and really hit the spot on a cold day.
Finally, we closed the night out to get some yogurt and desert from the convenient store and ended it with use enjoying few episodes of The Mandalorian.
Oh and Pro-Tip !!! Currently, Disney plus is not available in Japan, so you must VPN back home to watch it 🙂