Finally, our last day in Japan had arrived. It was a strange day, full of both nostalgia and an eagerness for a change. We woke up and started our day heading towards the Hiroshima Castle ruins. The forecast called for plenty of rain today, so umbrellas in hand we set off on our walk.
We wanted to try another conveyer belt sushi spot, and luckily one of the places we had found on Google Maps was directly on the route to the castle ruins. We got there a half hour after opening and were seating right up at the counter. This was a smaller one than the first conveyer belt sushi place we ate at, but there was a much larger selection, with dozen of plates up at once as opposed to the large gaps in between plates previously. We grabbed a few pieces and were delighted by how delicious and cheap this was compared to the first restaurant. Instead of listing everything, we did have a few more unique pieces:
Whale meat again (this time Caitlyn tried it raw!!), sea urchin, squid with quail egg, and a piece with baitfish fry. Our favorite pieces overall were: David – scallop nigiri, squid and raw quail egg, and raw shrimp nigiri; Caitlyn – scallop nigiri, squid and raw quail egg nigiri, tuna belly nigiri. We left after eating a ton more sushi than last time, yet paying less.
We got outside, popped open our umbrellas, and kept walking to Ohori park. Arriving in around 15 minutes, we first see a small waterway out front full of large fish and turtles! We wanted to stay and watch the fish, but mosquitos honed in on us, starting their meal. We found a map of the park and realized just how massive it is. We decided to start by heading to a close structure on the map and moving our way further in.
The first place was “the Kokoran Ruins Museum”. Unsure of what the Kokoran was, we decided to walk towards it and see what the admissions price is. Approaching the booth in front of the museum, we learn that we simply have to sign in with our nationality and number of guests, with no fee at all. We went inside to see that it was essentially an archeological digsite that they preserved, accompanied by display cases of ancient artifacts presumably from the digsite, as well as tons of informative maps and signs. Interestingly, we were the only people in there. It wasn’t more than 5 minutes before we started hearing rain plummeting into the metal roof above our heads. This was our cue to take it as slow as possible and hopefully wait the rain out. We spent probably 45 minutes in this small, one room museum, learning all about the ancient Kokoran. It seems that in the 600s a.d., the Kokoran was built as a place to great foreign diplomatic visitors and entertain them. Eventually, it turned to something of a trading center, but was then lost to time. It wasn’t until the 1980s that the ruins were discovered when renovating a baseball field (some of this may need to be fact-checked, but its pretty close). We read every single plaque and map, looked at all of the details in the rock beyond the roped-off area, and closely examined the scale reproduction of one of the buildings that they had produced.
Right around the time we finished, the rain let up enough for us to head back outside and head towards the Fukuoka Castle ruins. We walked a good way into the park, getting closer to the ruins, but the rain and greenery brought out our least favorite creatures – mosquitos. One or two bites is all it took for us to get out of there. To quote David after getting bitten once “I need my Benadryl itch stick right away before I literally die.”
We took a 45 minute walk to a large department store we had seen earlier and explored it for an hour or so, mostly looking at fresh food, baked goods, and sweets. Caitlyn ended up buying 3 small sweet treats for the ferry ride tomorrow and David grabbed an iced lattee from a coffee kiosk. We had been dying to try some interesting sake at a sake brewery, so we found one not too far away and walked over. It was a small place with just a few counter spots and windows into the brewery itself to see the giant casks. We ordered 2 flights each, offering 6 total sakes. We got strawberry & cinnamon, plum, melon, grape, verbena, and sweetcorn. They were all tasty, but David’s favorite was probably the melon, and Caitlyn’s was plum.
Our last stop in Fukuoka is the Canal City mall – one of the largest malls in all of the Kyushu Island and a good destination during this rainy day. Along the way, we walked past a sign that said “craft brewery” and decided to stop in for a quick drink. The drinks were crazy expensive, but we have a personal problem that if we go into a place and are seated (or standing at a counter in this case), we feel almost obligated to get at least something…added perk this time because we really needed to use the bathroom. We grabbed a small double IPA and a small triple IPA, which were both good enough, but we didn’t want to continue to pay ~3x the price of a standard beer elsewhere. We wanted a bite to eat at this point, and we still hadn’t tried tonkatsu ramen, which we will explain:
Tonkotsu ramen was invented around 70 years ago in Kurume City, Fukuoka. According to the tale, the distinctive milky broth was an accidental discovery, made by a food stall owner who over-boiled his soup. Instead of the usual clear soup, he ended up with a thick, creamy broth, but one taste of this delicious concoction was enough to convince him to sell it at the stall. Word soon spread, and it wasn’t long before other stalls started cooking up the delicious soup.
We found a super cool looking tonkatsu spot that had only 3 people in like outdoors. The rain had subsided now, so we hung outside for only 5 minutes or so before we were let in. This was the type with vending machine tickets, so we decided to share one of their classic tonkatsu (pork) “dipping ramen” and sat down. It was delivered soon with a bowl of thick creamy broth with a softboiled egg, generous portions of two types of pork, and other toppings. Another bowl of thicker noodles was placed next to it. We watched a few people eat, and it seems they pick up some noodles and swish it in the broth before getting a bite of broth with toppings and scooping the noodles in their mouth. As everyone has done so far (and so kindly) in Japan, they brought us a second bowl to scoop into so we don’t have to share the same bowl while we eat. It’s hard to describe this ramen aside from tasting like traditional ramen, but with a more creamy texture. We will say, the pork was absolutely phenomenal and the whole dish was clearly prepared with great care. In no time, we finished every last bite, and quickly vacated so others didn’t have to wait for our spot.
The canal city mall wasn’t far, so we made the short walk and then took in the sights. We aren’t big shoppers as much as enjoying seeing interesting things, so we walked around a little but didn’t find much in the area of the mall we were in. We strolled the lower level and enjoyed the atmosphere, but moved on rather quickly.
We realized it was getting late, and we wanted to do some laundry while we were here (didn’t have a ton of dirty clothes, but the machines were like 10 steps outside our room, and the machines were the cheapest so far). We decided to take the scenic route back, which put us along some cute smaller brides and through the shopping arcade. We got back to the hotel, packed most of our stuff up while doing a load of laundry, and had an hour of relative downtime.
It was getting pretty late, and after spending 2 hours doing laundry, we did need a little more food. For our last meal, Caitlyn found a wonderful Izakaya just blocks from our hotel (she knows this is David’s favorite…I guess she loves him!) This turned out to be one of the best ones we have gone to as far as consistently good food. We got a couple of skewers and they were all cooked perfectly and seasoned perfectly. David wanted a beer, and they had a very good deal on a large beer. We ordered it, and they brought over an ENORMOUS mug and called it the “king pint”. We definitely had to share it, and it did make us feel like royalty. We didn’t stay long, wanting a good night sleep before our ferry ride, so we walked back home, finished packing most of our stuff, and hit the hay.
Steps walked: 19,630
Miles walked: 9.54
Total miles walked in Fukuoka: 14,67
Total miles walked in Japan: 159.78
Japan reflections:
Favorite memories – Kyoto baseball bar for BOTH of us, also monkeys were awesome in Arashiyama
Favorite days
- David: miyajima; everything went perfectly. Lots of new interesting stuff to see. Great moods.
- Caitlyn: last day in Kyoto between arashiyama monkey park, good sushi lunch, golden temple and baseball bar at night
Favorite foods:
- David: mostly yakitori- chicken tail, neck, chicken or pig heart, grilled stingray/slate
- Caitlyn: gyukatsu tied with baseball bar yakitori – Favorite of everything
Reflections – we chose a great first country to start with. 98% of people super welcoming and helpful. Very Easy to travel as a non Japanese speaker.. great public transportation. Very clean country. Both of us have temperamental stomachs and despite eating some crazy foods like raw whale horse and other strange foods, almost no stomach upset whatsoever. Feel more regular and less bloated than at home. We saw almost no homeless people. In almost 3 weeks we saw 3 in Tokyo, and 1 in Kyoto. We love the izakaya style restaurants so much. Blown away we don’t have them in America- a cozy spot and can try small dishes. Prices are amazing compared to america Expensive beer is $5 for a huge glass. A nice hotel is the same price as a more budget one in the USA. Blown away with how many people speak English, though they all say “a little” when we ask. Friendliest, most polite and respectful culture I’ve ever experienced. Also vending machines everywhere with super affordable drinks is amazing. I just wish there were public trash cans and recycling because I can’t tell you how many times we’ve lugged an empty bottle of tea or water around for hours. I will definitely miss Japan and would definitely come back
New foods tried:
Raw horse meat
Raw & cooked whale meat
Raw live prawn
Pigs feet
Grilled Sting ray
Chicken butt
Chicken tail
Chicken neck
Chicken Heart
Chicken gizzards
Chicken liver
Pork heart
Pork liver
Shrimp head
Cow tongue
Pork rectum
Bluming Travelers 