6/12/22 Tues: It's been three years since our last trip overseas to Bali, and travelling in the 'new normal' definitely meant more pre-trip preparation (i.e. filling up information for Visit Japan Web, buying insurance that covers COVID-19, bringing and wearing mask, test kits, knowing the COVID-19 situation there and what to do should one contract COVID-19 etc), but we had been looking forward to this since we'd zoned in on Japan with Jess! New Zealand was our first choice initially, but the air ticket prices were crazy, then we'd considered Club Med Bintan and Australia as well, but ultimately decided on Kyushu since it's less popular with tourists in winter compared to other parts of Japan. *Round trip tickets costed S$2022.76 for both of us on SIA economy, and the travel insurance with COVID-19 covers from etiQa was $173.16 for two.* We changed about S$2K for the trip (SGD:JPY 1: 103) and also bought the remaining S$1.6K or so we had from the previous trip. We rented the Changi wifi-egg from T3 (S$58.20 for 15 days) before leaving to take SQ 656 at 1.20am from T3, which would take us about 5 hour and 50 minutes to reach Fukuoka at 8.10am Japan time. I caught parts of the second half of Croatia vs Japan's World Cup match at the departure lounge. While on board, it was so hard for me and Potato to sleep even when I already had eye mask and ear plugs on... all because of a wailing young kid. Ate the kurobuta pork with rice for breakfast.
Arrived at T1 terminal and after going through the immigration queues, we were told that we had to take the shuttle bus right outside to go to the domestic terminal, where we rented our Demio 2 online from Times Rental (S$1087.59 for 14 days). The weather outside at 9am was slightly chilly for us, and after a 10 minutes bus ride, we waited for a while before Potato got the car!Our first plan was to drive to Canal City Hakata. Some of the buildings we passed by look like HDBs in Singapore, but they were mostly dull-looking imo. Got there at 10.30am and the first parking lot was very expensive... 900 yen for two hours. We walked past a small alley filled with brothels before reaching the huge mall.
There were mainly clothes and food, but we were not really there for food. It was also then when I start to realise one layer of jeans was not enough for me lol. Potato intended to bring us to this Mizutaki place called Hakata Hanamidori Gion for lunch but it was not opened. We walked into a underground eating street nearby and settled for lunch at a random eatery, which we saw many office workers stop by for super quick lunches. Jess and I are lucky that Potato could speak simple Japanese because the menus were all in Japanese, most owners can barely speak English and Google Translate was not helpful all the time either. I ordered the prawn tempura udon with two onigiri while the two had oyako don with udon (850 yen each). They were simple but tasty.
Then, we walked back to where our car was and went to Ohori Park, where Jess and I initially wanted to wear the Kimonos and walk in the park. We ended up spending more than two hours at the area and parking was much cheaper at 390 yen (220 yen for the first two hours). It was cold but I sort of got used to it. We saw some students walking and running by too. Three of us walked to Maizuru Park where the Mayunoyakata Kimono rental building was located, but no one was around the shop and we were not in the mood in this area either. There was also a mini abstract exhibition in the building.
Thanks to the staff, we were given a copy of the map to Fukuoka Castle Ruins and since we had nothing much to do, we thought to walk across the road to visit it... ended up our focus was not on the ruins but the pretty trees with maple and yellow leaves lol! *I snapped a photo of the base of the main tower that's it haha.* We were not the only people around holding on the to the tails of autumn either because there were a few other tourists snapping away too hehe. After that, we headed back and walked the middle stretch of the huge lake.
Decided to head over to our Airbnb at Rakuten Stay Hakata North (about S$320 for three pax for three nights). The address given pointed us to a different location at first, so we spent some time finding the correct spot. Finally, we checked-in at 4pm to the 7th floor of the building. There were two double beds and one single bed, and it was quite near the airport, so we could hear aeroplanes fly past now and then.
We left our room at about 5.10pm and walked for about 20 minutes to the central district. Shared one umegaemochi (130 yen) at a random roadside stall and it was hot and sweet. We went to BIC because Jess wanted to look for lens for her DSLR camera too. For dinner, we decided on one of the yatai (open-air food stands) which was a street food culture unique to the city. There were seven to eight yatai along the river, and we jumped into one because they sell oden. Again, they don't speak English at all so we ordered whatever Potato could understand on their menu lol. There were a few foreigners surrounding the stall, but they could speak Japanese mostly.
Jess and I both ordered one of the Hakata style pork ramen each and the noodles were similar to our mee kia. The oden set we shared was really shiok, especially in the winter! Potato's mentaiko cha-men was quite interesting and flavourful. He ordered one beer too and it costed us 4300 yen in total.
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