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…

Miyajima

One of the reasons to come to Hiroshima, is to visit Miyajima and see the most iconic image of Japan - the floating torii! This was our agenda for today:



For breakfast, we stopped into the train station food court which was clean and had great light options. We each picked different veggie rolls, soy bean roll, and rice rolls and had tea and traditional and matcha lattes to pair:



We took the Sanyo commuter train line south to Miyajimaguchi station which takes about 30 minutes. You then walk a few blocks to the port and pick up the JR West Ferry for a few minutes to cross the water. Both run about every 15 minutes and can be paid for on Pasmo / Suica cards. Here we are getting on the ferry and arriving at Miyajima island:





Walking along the island to the shrine and torii, we stopped to have our first set of grilled oysters which the area is known for. Apparently, Hiroshima produces 60% of the country’s oysters. They were plump and so fresh!





After about a ten minute walk, we arrived at the shrine complex entrance:



We started taking many pictures of the floating torii:







The island is called Miyajima meaning “shrine island”, but the official name is Itsukushima, with the key shrine being Itsukushima Shrine. The temple complex also is the first I’ve seen sitting over water as most are on hillsides or mountains:





You can see the tide has started to go out from the shrine buildings / docks:



We queued for a central position to take photos when it started to drizzle, but it was worth waiting for:



You could also see the torii through various buildings which we stood under to get a break from the rain:



Some folks decided to kayak up to the gate which is a popular activity:



Here you can see the water receding again and when it’s at its lowest, you can walk up to the gate:



As we exited the complex, you can see the pagoda and warning signs such as for tsunami and earthquake - we are indeed in Japan:





We walked along the walking paths that were lined with cherry trees:





There are other temples and a popular hike or cable car ride up Mt. Misen, but with the weather, we decided to indulge in snacks and eating on Omotesando Shopping Street:



We had the traditional oyster curry bread:



What’s famous here is momiji manju which is a sweet bun in the shape of a Japanese maple leaf that can have various fillings, but the most traditional is red bean. This place served them fried, baked them onsite, and had a long queue of Japanese tourists. In addition to red bean, we had custard and lemon (Hiroshima area is known for their lemons too):





We stopped at another grilled oyster spot with many Japanese patrons. My mom had the one with eel which is famous here while Justin and I split the one with cheese and another with soy butter - very oishi!:



We then bought some treats, and the store gave us complimentary snacks - you can see I had done my nails in honor of cherry blossom season:



After stopping in a café for mango sorbet and some lemon and apple juice, we headed to the ferry. This island, like Nara, is known for the sacred deer and they sent us off near the pier:



As we departed, you could see that the tide had receded enough for folks to walk up to the torii:



After the smooth ferry to train transfer, we returned to Hiroshima Station and ran an errand at the nearby department store as Justin’s suitcase wheel broke off. We also picked up our Shinkansen bullet train tickets at the vending machine. Despite buying them online, you still have to print the tickets at the station.

An option for today was to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, but my mom really didn’t want to go and I was neutral on it. And because we visited the park last night in case it rained heavily today, we were able to relax at the hotel.

So we rested with some drinks and then headed back to the station to take the famous bullet train. My mom was looking forward to this and thought we could take trains the whole trip, but the rental car was the right call for flexibility and also multiplying by 3. Also, we did not predict she would twist her ankle in Kyoto on one of the many steps, so the car was helpful. Nevertheless, she’s been a trooper and we have been taking it slow.

Conveniently, our hotel is connected to a walkway straight into the train station and we inserted our tickets and waited at our platform. We are coincidentally taking the Sakura Shinkansen - so meta! Here’s a selfie all aboard in our reserved last row seats. Being in the last row is clutch, so we could have our large luggage stowed behind us instead of having to ship them in advance:



In planning the trip, there were no airports near Hiroshima that would fly to Seoul, so either we would have to double back to Kansai airport in Osaka or move further south to Fukuoka. I opted to head south for the last leg of our trip and for the train experience.

The train ride was about an hour and Fukuoka is the 6th largest city in Japan situated on Hakata Bay. At the taxi stand, we had to try a few different taxi trunks that could fit our suitcases. The winning taxi was a Prius - the same as our rental car!

Our hotel is the Grand Hyatt Fukuoka connected to a mall called Canal City. In search of food, we crossed into the mall when they were starting a light and water show which had robots “Targeting Fukuoka”. It felt very Japanese:





We ended up on the 5th floor Ramen Stadium where there were about a dozen ramen shops, but some were closed already. I suggested the one with local Japanese queued up and it was Hide Chan! There’s a Hide Chan a few blocks from my office. We had gyoza, fried rice, and kimchi to complement our tonkatsu ramen:



We are checked into our last room in Japan and my mom thinks our room numbers are pretty funny. In Tokyo, one of the rooms was 701, in Osaka we had 702, and here we have 703 and 704. My mom thinks it’s lucky number 7’s and as we make our way sequentially through Japan in 7 cities and now in our 8th city!