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  • Day 23

    Fukuoka

    October 23, 2014 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Cesar, who I met in Seoul highly recommended Fukuoka so obviously I had to check it out. It was rated as one of the best places to live in Japan.

    Day 1:

    I took my first Shinkansen (bullet) train from Tokyo and it was amazing. It only took 5 hours to cover over 1,000 miles, I had WiFi, loads of leg room and it was so smooth. The trains are bang on time making it so easy to get around and work out where you're going. So different to China. Unfortunately for me I will have to use National Rail again when I get back to the UK ?

    When I arrived I met 3 guys who had just finished cycling all day. There was a Brit (Mike), Canadian (Tanner) and Korean (James). They offered me a beer and we got chatting about our trip so far and future plans. They were really nice guys and we decided to head out together for some food and drinks. I arrived late so there wasn't much else I could do.

    The owner of the hostel told us that there was an Oktoberfest going on in the park. We had to check this out. It was only 5 but this tent was rammed. I don't think the Japanese knew much about Oktoberfest but it was an excuse to have a few drinks. It was so much fun, there was a German band on stage, the usual sing a long, many "prosts" and a conga line. It turns out Tanner knows some Japanese. He claims he only learnt it 3 weeks prior to coming Japan but he was chatting away with some cool older guys behind us that were singing and dancing along and even invited us out for food. Then Tanner started chatting up a secretary we was sitting next to who was so shy.

    It was amazing to see the locals open up when a tourist can speak some broken Japanese. They were so friendly. I really wish I could speak a little Japanese as it would have been a very different experience.

    James apparently got to a semi final of a Korean drinking contest so Tanner bought him a half pint to down. This guy had nothing on my mate Dave but it was probably impressive for a Korean.

    We all had the munchies so headed to a yatai, basically a street food cart where you walk through a curtain and sit down. We pointed at a few things and the food was delicious which we washed down with some sake. Tanners Japanese was in full flow, I don't believe he had only been learning this for 3 weeks but it was impressive nonetheless and the locals were loving it. I was a little jealous. Maybe I'll have to learn some Japanese and comeback.

    Day 2:
    Not much to report. I basically rented a bike and cycled for 7 hours taking in the sites of the city. I sat on my first beech of the trip and wondered around this gorgeous park. But there weren't many attractions. This place comes alive at night but I couldn't afford to go out after Oktoberfest so had an early night to grab an early train the next day. Before going to bed I ate my first Sushi in Japan. It was one of those conveyer belt places. It was quite cool, you sit down and place your order on the touch screen above you and this Scalextric car zooms around and parks in front of you and you take your dish, press a button and it zooms back off to the chef. Each dish (2pcs) was less than a pound and much better than anything you would get in Wasabi.

    So not only will I be going back to shit trains in the UK I'll also be going back to bad sushi. Any jobs going in Japan?
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