Day 5 - Hakata (Fukuoka)

Lucy
Oct 12, 2024
2 min read

I am now hitting new territory, as I have never been this far West of Japan, Welcome to Fukuoka! The port district which connects Japan to South Korea. If you have watched 'Race Across the World' then you would have seen this beautiful city.

This time I didn't have to rush for the Shinkansen, so was able to take a photo (woo). The journey from Kyoto to Hakata took just over 3 hours. It was pretty chill the whole journey, headphones in, anime on etc. There was only one distraction which was a train worker, looking about the seats opposite me like he had lost something, then typed something on his tablet and started to walk away. Well at that point I saw a shimmer in the seat pocket and realised that someone had left their phone! So got his attention, went to the pocket and handed it over. He then typed a thoughtful thank you message on his tablet, translated to English, and left. Good deed done for today.

Hakata Station is more modern than I expected, but again such a large building. I accidentally walked us to the wrong hotel (same name so I blame them) which added an extra 15 mins to our already 25 minute walk. Due to it being a weekend and Hakata, the accommodation is expensive, so we are staying in a self-catering apartment. This one is dinky but it'll do for one night.

With most of the day already gone, it was off to get some food. There is a lovely fountain show nearby but its closed until 31/10 for repairs, so instead we went to Gundam Park. If you don't know what Gundam is, its a giant 24metre robot who moves and lights up! Only in Japan eh!

I then treated dad to his first full Japanese restaurant meal, Tonkatsu! I have no idea what most of the bits are surrounding it, except the Miso Soup, but it was very good.

Oh and lets not forget about me fangirling at an Anime Shop I found, Demon Slayer and MHA? Hell yes!!!

I'm sorry I don't have too much to share today, but tomorrow will be the Nagasaki Memorial Museum and then we head down to Kagoshima :).