FUKUOKA

This weekend I went to Fukouka, Japan's 8th biggest city (for some reason I wrote 4th before... typing when sleepy=bad), on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's 4 main islands, thanks to the miracle of shinkansen. Wonderful city. Has a nice feel to it, less chaotic than Osaka and slightly more modern.






GION
We walked from Hakata (the Shinkansen station) underground over to Gion, where the temples mainly are. Shofukuji, the first Zen Buddhist Temple in Japan, had some nice grounds, but we couldn't go in as they were doing some work on it. We wandered round the garden then headed back to Daiji temple near the subway station. I like the contrast of those temples that are right in the middle of the tall officey buildings area.




CANAL CITY
Then we headed over to Canal City (they call it a city within a city) a large complex next to the river which is a series of large red buildings housing shops, restaurants, etc. I don't normally like shopping centres/malls, but this had a very different feel, mainly due to the interesting design of the buildings and use of indoor/outdoor space. (Again with hearing fantastic music in cool shops, in a shop where I got a shirt they were playing Morning Dance (like pans used to play) then some weird remix of the Laputa music.)

We went up to the 5th floor where there was a 'Ramen Museum' and ate delicious ramen and gyouza. Mmm. (I love how in the random pic I've taken, the guy who's wandered in just happens to be wearing a NBHD shirt. Ah, Japan. Always with the music and the clothes.)



Nerdily played a couple of games in the Sega World downstairs on the way back down.



We ate mochi cream at the Comme Ca Cafe (they had every flavour under the sun) while making plans with maps (exciting) before heading out and walking across the city, dumping our stuff at the hotel, then heading for Tenjin.




TENJIN
Tenjin is the downtown area, the slightly more stylish shops and restaurants (and at night bars and such). Spent a while around here exploring and also looking out for places we'd checked in advance. I may have mentioned it before, but i LOVE the navi on my phone. Just type an address into www.navitime.co.jp on your pc, then it gives you a link to mail to your phones, then it'll give you a little map to get there complete with little icon of a man who represents you. The bar on the left fills up as you get closer, like a videogame. Ahem. I probably enjoy this more than I should.

We browsed a number of little shops in Tenjin, picking up a few bits and pieces. I nearly bought a shirt from BAPE, it had some interesting transfers and patches on but also a massive american flag on on the arm (and not in a knowing wink wink kind of way) which kind of ruined it.



NAKASU KAWABATA
Walked to Nakasu Kawabata next to the river for dinner. Fukuoka is famous for Yatai, which are basically roadside stalls selling food, but the feeling is more like a portable restaurant than a mere shack. Ate overlooking the river, ate Yakitori, Oden, and a Fukuoka speciality version of tebasaki with mentaiko inside, which is crispy chicken wings stuffed with cod roe.



梅酒屋
Wandered back over to Tenjin. I mentioned a couple of posts ago about my love for Umeshu, and we headed to this tiny little bar which had a maximum capacity of 10, simply called 梅酒屋, or Umeshu Shop, where they had over 150 different sorts of Umeshu! The master was an interesing guy, got a phone call and though I couldnt follow it, Trish filled me in on his side.
"Yes, this is Umeshuya. Hmm... how many of you are there?"
"yes we have room. Do you know where we are? The building opposite family mart. It's kind of a shady building." [full of snack bars - where older guys pay to go and talk to girls.]
"oh, is this place shady?　Ah... Hmm... I don't know... why don't you come and see?"
He recommended a few to us, between us we tried brown sugar umeshu, homemade umeshu, obaachan's delicious umeshu, fruity umeshu, honey umeshu, and 'excellent' umeshu (which happily was excellent). Really cool place.



We wanted to see club Indigo, but there didn't seem to be anything on that night. So after tipsily wandering round the excellently named "Book Off" for a while (who knew drunkenly browsing second hand manga at midnight was so fun) we called it a night.

Momochi / FUKUOKA TOWER
Next morning, after catching Sesame Street in Japanese as we got ready (always a good start), we jumped on a bus and headed northwest from Tenjin to go to Fukuoka tower. This looks stunning, a really tall building whose surface is entirely mirrored.




Up to the top where there were fantastic views of the city and the water (wonderful weather).


We ate lunch in Cafe Refuge a floor down, overlooking the Fukuoka scenery.


OHARI PARK
Took a bus from the tower over to a wonderful park in the middle of the city, Ohari Park. Has a massive lake in the middle and a little walkway over a long island in it. Seriously nice place, little running track around the lake with people jogging as a guy was practicing playing his trumpet with some serious vibrato at one point and a couple of high schools girls playing sax somewhere else as low flying planes flew overhead. Nice! Afterwards, walked back to Tenjin along the side of a river covered with where water lilies (or something similar).



@cafe
As always in Japan we found a really cool little cafe tucked away in the middle of some design shops in Tenjin.



Japan is very big on the stylish little one off cafes. They've got your boring chains like Starbucks too, but they have a lot of love for individually styled places, which I think is great.



Finally we walked back stopping off at some shops (where I picked up this fantastic Bill Evans album) over the river to Hakata to take the Shinkansen home.