Fukuoka or Hakata?

After a few thought-provoking days in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I took the train 🚆 back up north to Fukuoka again. It took me a while to realize that Hakata station was the main station of Fukuoka. 😅 Apparently, Hakata and Fukuoka had been two independent cities until the Meiji restoration and have then been merged into one city under the official name of Fukuoka. Now many places still carry their original name which causes confusion sometimes 😅
I found this article on the web, which explains the difference between both terms in more detail (in case you are interested): https://findingfukuoka.wordpress.com/2011/03/02… 🤓

I had booked two nights again in „The Millennials“ which I already knew from Kyoto. This time it cost me only a reasonable 30,- EUR a night. 😌
After dropping of my luggage (I was already there at noon and was not able to check-in yet), I spent that sunny Sunday afternoon walking around and exploring the city. I went to the Fukuoka Port Tower to get a nice view of the city. From there I walked all the way to Maizuru and Ohori park which was almost 1 hour away on foot 🦶The parks were nice. The Ohori Park is actually a big pond with some islands in it which are connected via bridges with its surroundings. I went over the small islands and observed the sunset. 🌅 In Maizuru Park there was a big area with food stalls - probably some kind of food festival. In general, I had the feeling that the food 🥘 here in Fukuoka was more international than in other places. But that didn’t keep the locals (attending the food festival) from trying various dishes. Some where also walking around in their Kimonos 👘 it’s what you do here in Japan 🇯🇵 I guess.
On my way back to the millennials hotel, I passed several Christmas markets 🎄 with
corresponding decorations and „hot wine“ … it felt almost like at home. Only the temperatures with approximately 10 degrees celsius were not right. 😅

On the next day I completely overslept 😴 I didn’t really had plans for the day. So it was not that bad. After that slow start into the day I eventually decided to visit the Uminonakamichi Seaside 🌊 park in the northeast of Fukuoka. Although the weather was not all too good, I had a relaxing afternoon while visiting the Flower Garden 🌹 and the Animal Forest 🐒 within the park. It started only to rain in the evening - shortly before I returned to the Millennials for the beer happy hour 🍻 As a guest of the hotel you get as many free beers as you like between 5.30 and 6.30 pm. I missed it the day before but I didn’t want to miss it the second day in a row. After all it’s free beer 😉Read more