Fukuoka

We've reserved the 12.28 shinkansen from Hiroshima to Hakata station, Fukuoka. This gave us plenty of time to have breakfast and get ready before our 11 am check out from The Knot.

It was our last shinkansen ride of this trip, and it took just over one hour to get to Hakata station - 300kms an hour! We arrived at Hakata station and got the subway to Tenjin minami, where we wandered to our apartment, the Virage. It was a mailbox key pick up, and we got in no problems. The apartment is compact, with a bedroom/living area, kitchen, and separate bathroom/laundry.

We walked across the bridge to the large Canal City shopping centre, mainly to check out the food options for the future - there are quite a lot of restaurants but the place was teeming. We walked past the station to a supermarket to pick up some supplies for our stay. We're going to have our breakfasts at the apartment for the next few days. We also grabbed some beer, wine, and cheese.

The area has heaps of food options, but it seems a little bit seedy. There's basically strip joints and brothels all around; it's pretty eye-opening. We played some cards and enjoyed some cheese and crackers.

Then we headed out for dinner. After wandering around, we settled on a ramen place where we ordered using a vending machine! This was actually the first ramen of the trip, and it was a very tasty Hakata style ramen. Gayle had gyoza and fried rice.

After dinner, we walked back to Canal city to a Saizeriya restaurant (its an Italian chain restaurant) for dessert and wine. We've visited these places quite a bit as they're smoke-free, you order using a QR reader, the wine is reasonable, and only ¥400 per half litre. It's a small bug bare I have in Japan: why do so many places still persist with smoking inside? Anyway, we had satisfied our appetites and now 'home' for some Netflix. After a week of no TV in English, we needed some mindless entertainment!Читать далее