Rainy Huis Ten Bosch

The weather decided to go to crap today. It's been pouring rain since 6am and apparently won't stop until 3pm which is when we are due to arrive in Fukuoka! Luckily the hotel allows us to borrow some very large umbrellas and leave our bags there, so we went over and braved it (thank god I wore my waterproof snow boots, they worked a treat). Also, everywhere you go indoors, you put your umbrella in these machines that lock in the water with plastic bags. Super cool! Not for the fish, but for not slipping over inside.

Once we were in the park, we split up to tackle different things. Michael went back for round two of the Chocolate place, grabbing both a hot and a cold one to relax whilst he did his journalling. He said it was perfect drinking temperature and easily the best drinking chocolate he has ever had, and that coming here for that was worth it alone. He also got some baked goods before entering the park, especially loving this curry sausage pastry.

I went on some of the indoor technology rides. The first was one of those ones you harness yourself in and there's a massive screen and you glide all around the earth. Super fun and cool. The next was so weird. It was a play thing where people played some sort of game underneath you whilst you bounced around on a ropeway above. I did have a bit of a relax up there in the end. And the third one was a space exhibition thing that used sensors to have people step on diamonds to form star constellations, then took you into a cinema of different galaxies where the lights all around you matched and flashed in time with the picture. This was really cool.

We had some stress with the taxi, as it couldn't find us and the trains only run a few times a day here so I had a bit of a menty b. The pouring rain certainly wasn't helping, because if the taxi couldn't find us we were gonna have to run a km to the station in the pouring rain to get there on time. Luckily Michael took charge and worked out the issue and got us to the right spot so we could find the taxi, and the station was small so I was able to sort out the pre-purchased tickets quickly, go to the bathroom, and be at the station ready to go with 10 minutes to spare.

Now we are stuck on the train somewhere, not moving, and no idea what is going on because it's all in Japanese. Bleh. I'm blaming the rain. Luckily we can tell from our air tags that our bags have arrived at our hotel in Fukuoka. I'm off to a tattoo friendly onsen for a bit before having a chill night in and Michael will head off and explore the technology shops at the station near our hotel before joining me. We have two bigger days of sightseeing over the weekend, and now with all this stress I really need the onsen!Read more