I didn't wake up that late, but I didn't end up leaving the hostel until noonish because I was so groggy from a lack of sleep that night (and the following night. This was all due to the most inconsiderate traveller I had ever met. If you don't know, generally most travellers are very considerate to one another despite being complete strangers, because we're all in similar situations and generally enjoy being friendly and helpful. So back to the story, a Korean guy joined the dorm room I was staying (and Khaosan Fukuoka had really small rooms, so it was only a 4 bed dorm, and generally, dorms with less beds are easier to stay in (which is why its more expensive if you book a dorm with less beds)), and he was really friendly, but that's about the only good thing I could say about him hahaha. He seemed completely oblivious to other people and his surroundings. He sat on my bed several times (I was on the bottom on the other bunk!) to take off his socks, and most travellers won't sit on someone else's bed because the bed is the only bit of "privacy" a budget backpacker has at a hostel (obviously just a false feeling, but it's something). And on both nights he was there, he stumbled in quite loudly after midnight, turned on his bed lamp towards the centre of the room (really who does that?) and listened to music on his laptop while the rest of us tried to sleep; music that was loud enough to wake us up, and when I asked him politely to turn it down or go to the common room, he pretended not to hear me (he didn't reply and the music kept on playing at the same level)! And, the icing on the cake, he was a loud snorer. So I didn't get the best sleep in Fukuoka the 2 nights I had to share the room with him.
Asahi Beer, one of Japan's major beer breweries, had one of their factories located in Fukuoka, so when I found this out, I had the hostel set up a tour reservation for me (the only way to see the factory), which was set at 3PM for the final tour of the day. And the great thing about the tour was that it was not only free, but there was a free tasting session at the end of the tour for 3 glasses of beer! I also found out that Fukuoka had a couple of Japanese gardens that offered tea ceremonies - something I had forgot to try to participate in while in Kyoto - so I wanted to try that too; unfortunately tea ceremonies were only offered for large groups, but still offered tea (at a price of course) to individuals. So I decided I had time to grab some lunch, then go to a nearby Japanese garden, and if I still had some time, to walk over to the Gokusho-machi area, where many of Fukuoka's temples were concentrated, before heading to the Asahi Beer Hakata Factory. I actually managed to do all those things, but ended up having to do a combination of speed walking, jogging, and then running to the factory because it was a 45 minute walk from the Gokusho-machi area, I only had 30 minutes to get there (let's not forget how punctual the Japanese are), and I stupidly decided not to take the bus there. And of course to really show me how stupid I was, the bus actually passed me on my way to the factory (I had to pass through the train station, which is where the bus stopped, on the way to the factory, but I thought the bus wouldn't make it to the factory on time since it arrived at the station around a quarter to 3PM and buses in Japan are the one thing that quite often are not exactly punctual). I arrived at the factory just on time (actually around half a minute or so after 3PM) to find the tour guide still patiently waiting for me; I had actually been asked to show up 10 minutes to 3PM when making the reservation. After signing in, I found out I was the only one scheduled for the English tour, so I got my own private tour with a very friendly guide! Needless to say, it was worth the extra effort to get there and I really enjoyed my time at the factory!
The Nissan Fairlady Z, the name given to the Japanese versions of the Nissan Z-car line - this one is the 350Z in North America.
I headed back to Genki Sushi again for lunch, located on one of the upper floors of the Yodobashi Camera store building, because I really liked the sushi and the whole experience. Despite being known as the cheaper chain restaurant, the quality was still miles better than the sushi in Toronto (can't compare to Vancouver, never had it there yet). And this time, I had more plates, tried a greater variety of sushi, and remembered to bring my camera! I had 10 plates in total, all delicious (though I can't remember now exactly what I had), and it all cost only around $12 CDN...better than anything you'd find in Toronto for that price. The piece of nigiri-zushi in the photo is chutoro (medium fatty tuna belly), which is why it's only served as one piece and on the more expensive plate.
At Sumiyoshi-jinja, the shrine right next to the garden I planned to visit. The shrine is dedicated to the Shinto deity of fishermen, hence the funny looking fisherman statue (in the 1st photo). The thing I remember most about the shrine was the surprising number of mosquitoes that were there (mainly in the more wooded area); I was not prepared for or expecting that.
At Rakusuien Garden. I chose the garden because it was the closest garden offering tea service to where I ate and where I wanted to go after. It was a small garden though; if it wasn't for my desire to try the traditional tea service, I wouldn't have paid the fee to enter the garden. Can you spot the butterfly in the second photo?
Inside the tea ceremony room of the garden. The guy looking my way in the first photo wasn't staring at me because I had a camera, but because I accidentally wore my slippers onto the tatami mats (a big no-no!). But the view great, and the couple in the next room were finishing up when I got in, so I had the entire area to myself for most of the time. There was even a sectioned off area of the garden just for those who chose to have tea to walk around in (see if you can spot me in the traditional sandals in the 4th photo). It was the perfect setting and atmosphere to just relax and appreciate where I was. The price was a little hefty in my opinion for what I received (in the 3rd photo, which is missing a very small piece of flower-shaped candy that I ate before I could take a picture on the insistence of the hostess to try it); it cost 300 yen (almost $4 CDN) for a cup of green tea and a few Japanese sweets, but I guess it's quality over quantity, and I think it was a worth it for the experience alone (and I knew other places charged a lot more). It definitely was delicious though: the green tea was made to be quite frothy (different from how it's normally served in a restaurant), the small candy was perfectly powdery and not overly sweet, and the 2 thin pieces of sweet glutinous rice (at least that's what I think it was) were lightly dusted with some powdered cinnamon that complemented the rice and the tea very well.
At Shofuku-ji, in the Gokusho-machi area. The temple is the oldest Zen (a school of Buddhism) temple in Japan, thus making it one of the more frequently visited temples in Fukuoka.
At Tocho-ji. They were doing some construction at the temple, so the grounds were as accessible to explore as at Shofuku-ji (plus the temple itself wasn't as big). Despite being crunched for time, I decided to visit the temple anyway since it is home to the largest wooden seated Buddha statue in Japan (coming in at 11m tall and weighing 30 tons).
I noticed a music performance going on as I walked towards the Hakata train station (the name for the JR station at Fukuoka, because before April 1, 1889, the present day Fukuoka city was 2 separate, adjacent cities called Hakata and Fukuoka; the station is situated in the Hakata-ku ward of Fukuoka). It was part of the annual 2-day music festival held in Fukuoka called Music City Fukuoka, and it just happened to start that day. You can tell there wasn't much of a crowd there; almost all the musical acts occur in the Tenjin area (hence the name), and I'm guessing the band wasn't quite a popular or mainstream one (especially since it was only early afternoon).
At the Asahi Beer Hakata Factory. Photography wasn't allowed during the actual tour, but I took plenty of photos in the tasting hall haha. That's me with my very friendly tour guide in the first photo - she even escorted me all the way to the outside of the factory(!); I couldn't believe they did a tour group sign for me (since it's usually only needed for tour groups)! The beer was excellent, and they even gave me a free cheese snack and flavoured rice crackers (you usually need to pay for snacks at tasting halls). I had a glass of the famous Asahi Super Dry (super crisp and refreshing clean if you've never had it before), a glass of the uncommonly found Asahi Black (Asahi's dark beer; it was surprisingly pretty good with a good creamy texture, not as strong or nearly as heavy as a Guinness), and a glass of the Asahi Premium Jukusen (pretty tasty and decently complex, with a hint of the usual crispness associated to the Asahi label). You can't complain about good, free beer served in a good sized glass! I made a couple of purchases at the gift store (no it wasn't because of the beer hahaha): beer cake(!, I've never tried any before) made using Asahi beer, and a bottle of shochu (I don't remember the name of the brand, but it was recommended by my tour guide since it was produced from the most famous region for sweet potato shochu in Japan, Kagoshima, where my guide was actually originally from!). An interesting little fact I learned on the tour: see those massive silver modern fermentation tanks in the last photo? Asahi was the first to invent them, now used by every major beer brewery in the world!
A Shell gas station I passed by on my walk back to the hostel...it was the only one I saw while in Japan.
Back at the hostel, my souvenirs from the day: my beer cake and bottle of shochu (which I still haven't tried yet).
After lunch, I had actually played a few UFO catcher games at the game centre on the same floor of the restaurant at the Yodobashi Camera building. Yes, it was only a large party pack size of the popular Japanese koala chocolate cookies, but I only played games where I knew I had a good chance of winning something.
For dinner, I headed back to the Yodobashi Camera building because there was actually quite a large selection of restaurants available there (and it was only a few minutes' walk)...like I said earlier, it puts Futureshop and Best Buy to shame. I decided to try a restaurant that was supposed to specialize in Hokkaido-style ramen (I guess that's why they had that big bear statue)...it was actually pretty decent and a nice reminder of Hokkaido.
It just so happened this day (Oct. 3) was the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival day. The full moon was clearly visible in the empty skies. And in keeping with my annual tradition, I had to try and find some mooncake! A quick search online revealed they were eaten as snacks all year round (instead of being a once a year thing in Chinese culture), so I set out to the nearby convenies in search of some. I first visited a Lawson and came out empty handed, but got lucky and found some at the Daily Yamazaki I visited next. The tradition lived on! Though it was different from the Chinese one (obviously); they're called geppai in Japanese, contain no egg yolk, and are usually filled with azuki (red bean) paste (as opposed to the Chinese mooncake that are made with lotus seed paste and usually contain at least one egg yolk). As you can see, mine was the typical geppai.
My last day in Fukuoka turned out a lot better than I thought it would be at the beginning of the day; I was worried I'd have to find some boring activities just to kill time.
Khaosan Fukuoka. Just a few quick words about the hostel. This place was a joke of a hostel (for Japan). The front lobby smelled disgusting, the shower rooms weren't private and were only divided by flimsy curtains that didn't even go the full distance, some cockroaches were found in the TV room but the staff never went to spray some bug spray when he said he would, one of the computers running a pirated copy of Windows (what is this, China?), and the super tiny rooms (much smaller than the average hostel room in Japan) with the bare all metal bunks made the rooms feel like jail cells (I actually didn't perceive this at first until a girl I was talking to mentioned it to me). But the staff were really helpful and the Internet was free.
At Hakata train station (in Fukuoka) the next morning, waiting for the shinkansen back to Kyoto!
These photos were taken when I returned back home for a couple weeks, where I finally opened the barrel of beer cake. It was...different hahaha. Very strong aromas of hop and malted barley, but the cake had a very sharp alcohol taste...so sharp that it was the only thing I could taste, save for a hit of cake batter every now and then. I'm glad I got to try it, but I don't think I would buy it again. And at least I got a souvenir (the barrel) out of it haha!
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