Transit to Fukuoka

Getting up early in the morning I was the first one to take a shower. We had already prepared everything the last evening not to disturb the other guys in the dorm. So after the shower I went to the common room to wait for René. The only person sitting there was an elderly man who soon started to talk to me. His first question was if I speak Japanese but my knowledge does not exceed „hello“ and „thanks“. But we could also communicate quite well in English which is not so usual here^^ He told me that he‘s from Kawasaki and already retired. He‘s 64... I think it will take me while to judge the age here^^

But unfortunately we didn’t have much time because we had to catch the bus to the airport and didn’t have breakfast yet. So we just went to a convenient store, bought a couple onigiris and went to the bus for which we had bought the tickets already yesterday.
Again we could only check in at the airport which was super easy this time at this tiny airport. Also the first time that I saw that you can take drinks from outside inside a plane...
Landing on time in Okinawa we had a couple of hours to kill before the plane to Fukuoka took off. Again not having a boarding pass we just followed the transit signs and walked through half of the airport just to find out that there was no transfer desk for our airline. So we had to walk back and out to checkin again. And of course the checkin counter of our airline was the very last so that I’ve probably seen the whole airport by now. But since we had lots of time anyway and could also buy a beer which we could take through the security check, this small detour was quite welcome.
We sat together in the plane and even with the stormy weather it was a pleasant flight. When we arrived in Fukuoka I was still wearing my shorts and t-shirt which didn’t go along so well with the five degrees and rain :-/. So I quickly changed and we went by subway to our hostel to meet with Claudi. A cool thing in Japan is that you can use the same card for most of the public transport in the whole country and just charge it with money! Even though they didn’t see each other for 5 weeks because Claudi went to travel in Kyushu, René didn’t communicate out return so well and she was very surprised and of course very happy to see us! After a couple minutes of greeting ceremony we checked in a very cool hostel and even hot a small upgrade and could sleep in 8 bed room for 2300 Yen each. After a small discussion what to do in the evening Claudi showed us on of the most important temples in Fukuoka. She had already been in the city and knows some sights. But the mood during the whole evening was very weird and the two didn’t seem to get along so well... Anyway the first sight we visited was the Tojoji temple and it was also the very first real temple I saw in reality, Well if I exclude the pity temple on Ishigaki... And this view was truly amazing! Even though it was raining and cold the whole complex really took my breath! It really looked like from some movie with these beautful roofs and wood constructions. There were many small buildings and one large main hall and even the Sakura‘s first blossoms were opening! We saw a beautiful red pagode with many floors where very very important regional personalities are buried and some other cemetery stones. Unfortunately it was alreade quite late and the all the buildings very close so that I just could admire them from the outside. But there was also a huge necklace with 108 wooden eggsizes pearls of which is one is marked as the start. Pulling down all the 108 pearls with produce a nice clonk is some prayer which we did of course :D But at some point we were even asked to leave the complex. So Claudi led us to the next thing which was a huge district with very old residential buildings, many small temples and cemetaries surrounded and devided by 3m high walls which also had these cute Japanese tiles. Even René said that he never had seen such a huge complex of that kind before.
Getting hungry from the walking we decided to eat some typical food from Fukuoka. We got a tip in the Hostel to try some old family restaurant which sells Motsunabe, a big pan with mainly cabbage and innards (I guess it was stomach) which boils in a tasty broth with some other incredients on a small gas stove in the middle of the table. As side dish we got pasta which one also heats in the broth and as drinks me and René took sake from potato and barley and Claudi took so Japanes plum liquor. A very cool experience and very delicious but also very greasy :D But it was so good that me and René got seconds and went out more than stuffed.

To relax after this feast we went to an Onzen, a traditional Japanes bath from a hot spring. We decided to walk there which was a very unpleasant experience since the weather was getting worse and worse with strong winds and cold rain... When we reached the Onzen we had to split with Claudi because men and women areas are seperated because you got there naked of course. But this bath was exactly what we needed. Many tubs with different temperatures and massage jets and also some saunas. But before you are allowed to enter the water you first have to wash yourself in a sitting position which was actually quite comfortable and it seemed many people also use it for general body hygene doing stuff like shaving. Well at least there faces... It was very weird to see all these big black bushes... :D Then we went to the hot tubs which reached temperatures up to 40C. Unlike a sauna 40 degrees are already quite hot and I didn’t stand it too long inside. But with the nice outdoor area with an open roofs it was very pleasant to cool down again. We also went to the 70C sauna but this was also a weird experience... Where in Europe sauna is a very relaxing thing with dimmed light and quiet, here it’s highly lighted there are already towels lying everywhere in order and the oddest thing: a hug tv in the middle with everyone watching... Well if they like it :D When we went to the massage jets something funny happened to us. René was trying one coming from the ground with two handles on the top and went there in a sitting kind of position making funny sounds telling me to try it too... When I went there I knew what he meant - a hard weter jet blowing up your arse is a quite weird experience :D But when we saw another guy standing there massaging his feet we thought that we may have done something wrong XD
After two hours of nice relaxing the rain had stopped and we walked back to our hostel grabbing a beer on the way. Initially we just wanted to quickly drink the beer and go to bed because we had planned to meet with a friend from Jena who lives in Fukuoka the next day. But after Claudi went to sleep we started discuss why René was behaving so weird today and what bothered him and ended up in bed at around 2.30...
So it was a short night again before Peter was supposed to show us some more nice spots of Fukuoka....Read more