Fukuoka

With our one day in Fukuoka, we had options for a day trip or hanging in the city. I had weighed heading south to Kumamoto Castle which is another premier castle and known for being a prime cherry blossoms location, but since it’s past peak bloom and we were tired, we stayed in the city.

We slept in and stayed in the rooms until the last possible minute. When we left the hotel, we walked along the canal where you can see the cherry blossom leaves starting to fall:



For lunch, the hotel recommended Karen which is a sukiyaki restaurant in the basement of Panorama Square. Justin had wanted sukiyaki this entire trip, so we squeezed it in on our last day. We had the lunch set in a relaxing setting:



We then took the #8 bus to Iwataya department store. The hotel concierge had called all the high-end grocery stores as my mom had been on a mission to buy fermented sea cucumber intestines which is one of Japan’s “rare tastes”. My mom had memories from her childhood and wanted to bring back this delicacy as gifts to her friends. A photo of the shopping area with throngs of Korean tourists buying luxury goods:



We then got on the same bus back to Canal City which coincidentally is the same stop for Kushida Shrine:





This shrine is special to Fukuoka as it is the sponsor of the famous Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival celebrated in July and over 770 years old. Floats that weigh about one ton called Kakiyama, are carried and raced around the city by men. Here’s the front and back of one of the intricate floats in front of the shrine:





On a flagpole nearby were Koinobori, meaning “carp streamer” which are windsocks flown to celebrate Children’s Day on May 5th. They are flown in April and May leading up to the holiday wishing children a good future, health, and strength:



We walked by the city’s shopping arcade as they all have them - this one is called Kawabata:



I had researched a massage parlor that was across from the Grand Hyatt and they specialized in Thai and Balinese massage. I convinced the family to get one to refresh ourselves after all the walking and soreness from traveling. I had done something similar in Osaka in 2017. Japan is a heavy walking country and we needed the stretching, relaxation, and acupressure. Afterwards they offer tea, and I picked roobois which reminds me of South Africa!

We then walked around the corner to Nakasu which is known for their food stalls. They are set up each night on top of push carts and serving famous Fukuoka dishes. Nakasu means “island in the middle” as it’s between two rivers. It’s also the red light district, but the stalls, also known as Yantai, are on the canal walk. Here’s Justin posing with my beer as the sun starts to set:



The bustling food stalls:



We had a cheese omelette with the local famous fish roe, gyoza, ramen with mustard greens or tanaka, oden, beef, and a yakitori medley:



En route to the hotel to pick up our bags, I stopped in a Family Mart to clear out my mom’s Suica balance and buy Choco Monako Jumbos - the last of our trip!

It was a short ride to the airport which was swarming with Koreans. I guess it’s a good transition. For one thing, I kept saying the word for fireworks which sounds like cherry blossoms in Korean and my mom kept being like “we’re seeing fireworks?” We chased Sakura throughout Japan across 8 cities and it was a fun family road trip. My brother and mom delighted in the various pajamas offered by each hotel and Justin joking that they bought the vermillion orange paint from Home Depot for all the torii gates.

We also benefited from the strong dollar as Justin remarked, we were experiencing Japan on a discount. To the point we thought about loading up our Pasmo / Suica cards for next time. I would love to return and explore the north in Hokkaido, the south in Okinawa, and the famous museum island of Naoshima. So as my brother quoted my mother when she spoke in Japanenglish asking for more rice: “more gohan please!”

The flight to Seoul was about 90 minutes and our Suntransfer driver was waiting to drive us to our hotel, Ibis Styles Ambassador Gangnam. For the next 5 days, it will all be family time, but nothing that I have to really plan or lead.

My mom said it feels right we’re together for our first trip back to Korea as the 3 of us hadn’t been in Korea together since 1999 - we were last back for my maternal grandmother’s funeral. Here’s a photo of the entire family with the only Catholic cardinal at the time who said mass in my grandmother’s honor. We all look so young…