Backdate: Japan Kyushu Dec 2022 Day 14 &15

19/12/22 Mon: We woke up at 7am to go for buffet breakfast at the health restaurant, Aura, which was next to our building. The food was okay. Potato drove the car over to the hotel lobby to fetch me and load the luggage up before we began our long drive (toll paid was 3,760 yen in all) north-east towards Fukuoka's Shingu Port, where we took the ferry towards Ainoshima Island.

It was 10.20am when we parked the car (300 yen) and then bought the pair of one-way ticket over to Ainoshima Island (960 yen for two pax) using their e-ticketing machine. The ferry departs only at 11.30am so we had some time to spare... spent the time patting the few cats inside the station because it was cold outside.

The staff already told us to sit near the end of the boat because “big waves” and it was no joke man! The 20-minute sea journey across was bumpy like a rollar-coaster and I was a bit scared the ferry would capsize la.

The weather was nice close to noon and we were greeted by so many cats! We also bought the ferry tickets back at 1.50pm. *They are so cute they literally snuggle up to people, however one playful cat actually scratched my skin with his paws. Luckily, nothing serious.*

Saw a barber shop that's pretty expensive as we walked, and also a Primary school facing the sea... the cute students waved at us haha!

We continued walking for a long while on slopes, towards bushes, past a shrine and where there were less and less residence, until we hit a deserted corner of the island.

Stayed for a short while and we had to walk back to find lunch near the port. During this time, a lost cat followed us back and dumped us after it found its way lol!

Settled for lunch at Maruyama restaurant manned by two ladies because it was the only choice near the port but omg, the sashimi set PotaTOHs ordered (2,600 yen for two pax) was, again, one of the best I had in Japan! There were fat sashimi and the fish meat croquet was so good! The presentation whetted our appetites too.

Bade goodbye to the cats and arrived back at the main land at 2.10pm. We drove over to Rakuten Stay Hakata North (S$71 for two pax for a night) but Potato accidentally took the expressway on the way, so we forked out an additional 630 yen for the toll haiz~ *To make things worse, he realised he'd forget to take his red thermal bottle from the ferry when we came back! Poor him.*

It was about 3pm after we checked-in. After that, we walked for 15 minutes to Hakata JR station to shop for some souvenirs at Ming and other shops. *Found the milk at Hakata JR station’s supermart and I liked the texture and taste, not as sweet as Meiji’s.*

I wanted to try the Mizutaki dish, so we shared a simple one at Deidos for 1,200 yen. Tasted like chicken thigh meat in collagen soup. *Also realised that the mall at Hakata station was huge!*

I wanted to eat Ichiran ramen again since my last trip to Japan, and even if that was not the pioneer 24-hour branch, it was more because of the fact that Ichiran originated from Fukuoka. We queued for a while and I tried the two-times spicier version with softer noodles (980 yen) and am glad to say I enjoyed it! Potato had the medium-spicy level, but he already found that too much for him haha.

20/12/22 Tues: Had to wake up early at 6.15am because our SQ 655 flight from Fukuoka International Airport departs at 9.45am. I ate clam pasta for breakfast, but it was not as nice as the one I had in Kyoto with mushrooms last time. Potato ate oyako don.

He refueled his car to full tank (3,263 yen) and on hindsight, we did not realise we were returning that car so early in the morning, but luckily, there was one staff around who helped to take back the car. Had to take the 15-minute shuttle bus from the domestic terminal over to the international terminal but the nightmare only began after we checked-in our luggage...

The snaking queue was very long! To make matters worse, one Japanese officer tried to break up the queue in two in front of us but because he wasn't very good at it, many people ended up cutting our queue instead and it remained as a single file in the end. 

We queued for more than 45 minutes until the SIA ground staff came to pick us up and expedited our queue into the luggage check and departure lounge area, otherwise the flight won't be able to depart exactly at 9.45am.

I ate sweet and sour chicken fried rice onboard which was not bad. They served us mango mochi ice-cream too... huge! We touched down at 2.50pm, half an hour earlier than expected, returned our Changi wifi-egg and hopped onto Ian's car for the ride home!