Japan adventures – Fukuoka

In order to make the most of our Japan Rail Pass, which gave us unlimited train travel throughout the country, we decided to do a day trip to Fukuoka. The choice was kind of random – we wanted to ride another Shinkansen, didn’t want to spend too much time on a train, and we also had a little hope that the transit to the other island would happen via a bridge. Unfortunately we didn’t cross the see above ground, but racing through a tunnel at 300 km/h can be quite charming too.

Since we didn’t have a lot of time in Fukuoka, we asked our trusted friend Internet what we should do. We had rented a mi-fi, so we were always able to tweet, facebook, and do some research on tourist attractions at the various locations.

What we found was the Hakata Popular Tourist Spot Course. It’s a 2-3 hours walking tour, which starts at the main station and goes in a little circle via a number of tourist attractions, before it returns to the station again. Sounded like a brilliant plan, so we simply followed the guide.

Sumuyoshi Shrine

Our first stop was at a shrine that brings good luck and safe travels, while it drives away bad luck. It’s a nice shrine in a wonderful little park, it even has its very own little shrine for cats at cats’ hight.

My favourite buddha on this trip.

A little shrine for cats, just at the right hight for cats to sit in front of it.

Rakusuien Garden

Unfortunately there was a huge building site next to the gardens, so the calm and relaxing atmosphere of the gardens was somewhat spoilt by the sounds of diggers and jack hammers. But it was still worth the visit, and we had a nice tea ceremony in a building that wasn’t affected by the noise from next door.

Entrance to the garden.

Waiting for our tea.

Green tea and Japanese sweets.

Canal City Hakata

Nothing too flash, just a random shopping mall. We had lunch there. And then we skipped the next shrine of the tour. We also skipped the Michiya Folk Museum.

Tochoji Temple

This temple is home to Japan’s largest wooden buddha. Carving started only in 1988, so it’s far away from being of historic significance, and took four years to finish. According to the tour description there’s an entrance to a tour of ‘hell and heaven’ beside the statue, but unfortunately we didn’t easily find the entrance and didn’t really want to start searching around. After all this is a religious place that people actively use to practice their religion. So we missed out on hell and heaven.

Japan’s largest wooden buddha.

Buildings outside the temple.

And that’s how quickly that day trip was over. Shortly after having visited the temple, we were sitting on a bullet train again, on the way back to Hiroshima.

Overall it was an awesome holiday, and I can’t wait to go back to Japan at some stage.  And with this my little series on our Japan trip ends. I hope you enjoyed it.