Day 7 (July 16) - Around Fukuoka and a gaijin doing his laundry

Our day started early once again. We headed towards the train station to take two trains (a local commuter train followed by a bullet train) to Hakata station: the heart of Fukuoka city. Despite the early arrival, we didn't have too much planned.

We first ventured to a Ohori park that was close to the ruins of Fukuoka Castle. It was a pleasant walk around the pond in the park, for there was a strong breeze that cooled us off from the blazing sun. We arrived at the castle ruins after an hour or so walking around the park. I was a little bit disappointed because I was expecting a bit more than half a wall standing. I was expecting to see half a castle or something, but there was just a platform overlooking the city.

After the castle ruins, we headed to Canal City. It's a gigantic shopping complex that consists of at least 200 stores, two hotels, a movie theatre and other forms of entertainment. Like Sunshine City in Tokyo, Canal City is a city within a city. We looked at a whole bunch of stores, ate ramen at the Ramen Stadium up on the fifth floor, and got the chance to hear a live performance from a Jpop idol (fumiki). After a lot of hours in Canal City, we headed back to Hakata station to look at a huge Daiso store and shop for gifts at Tokyu Hands.

After shopping and a dinner based on Okinawa cuisine (I got the Taco Rice), it was back to Saga to do laundry. Despite having three laundry and dryers available for use at our hotel, we had to wait for our turn since they were all being occupied. After half an hour or so, my brother and I were able to grab a laundry machine each (I grabbed the far right laundry machine out of the three there) and went back to our rooms to wait for the machines to do it's work. After half an hour, I went back down to load my stuff into the dryer located on top of the laundry machine I was using, but the person who was using the dryer last did not come to pick up his/her stuff. Also in the laundry room, there was a middle aged Japanese man. After the two of us stood in silence for a couple of minutes, he asked (or I assumed he asked since my Japanese is pretty bad) if the dryer on top of the laundry machine I used had my clothes. I said it wasn't and he started to say more things to me.

I was highly confused by what he was saying and said that I didn't speak Japanese (Nihongo wa hanasemasen). I thought he wanted to use my laundry machine, so I took out all of my damp clothes from the laundry machine and stuffed it into a small bag for the time being. The man started to speak to me more, but of course it was in vain. He became frustrated and kept pointing at the dryer on top of the laundry machine I used. He walked up to the phone located in the laundry room to call the front desk for a translator.

A person came from the front desk to translate what the middle aged man was saying. Essentially, the man wanted to use the dryer on top of the laundry machine I was using because he was waiting in the laundry room first. After understanding, and telling the front desk attendant that I understood, the front desk attendant went to grab a laundry bag to stuff the unclaimed dried clothes from the dryer, despite 30 minutes passed from the time I was waiting in the room with the middle aged man.

After doing so, an another middle aged man came in to grab his dried laundry from the middle dryer. The first middle aged man was having a conversation with the second middle aged man, and I understood enough of it to understand that he was talking about me (since he was calling me a westerner). The first middle aged man, that wanted to use the dryer on top of my machine looks at me, and told me to use it since the middle one is now free...

Ah, the difficulties of not being able to speak the language of the country you are in... I made a pledge to become conversational before I return back to Japan in 2015, but that's for an another day.

Overall though, a busy and productive day. Despite the minor conflict in the laundry room, I wasn't going to let that hamper me throughout the rest of my trip!

Day 6 (July 15) - Dejima, Glover Garden and Peace Park in Nagasaki

We left relatively early (7:40) to catch the train to Nagasaki. The ride was relatively short at around 77 minutes. As we arrived at Nagasaki, my first impressions were positive: it emitted a busy, yet not busy vibe. It felt to be a gentle bustling city.

Our first stop was to Dejima, the artificial island (though no longer an island) where the Dutch set up a trading post with the Japanese. There were many European styles buildings that were set up as exhibits. Essentially, it felt like a giant museum town. We wandered through most of the settlement, and stopped to listen to the various English audio guides they had around the place. I was never too fond of history, but they did an excellent job of portraying the main points about Dejima.

After Dejima, we ventured to a well known Chinese Restaurant for lunch. Nagasaki is known for Champon (the type of ramen we had yesterday) and a braised pork bun. We had to wait 30 minutes, but we were able to get both specialities. The Champon was good, though I have to say that I enjoyed the one at Ringer Hut more. The pork bun was pretty delicious, due to the softness of the braised pork and the freshness of the bun.

After lunch, we headed to Glover Garden, a Dutch styled garden. There wasn't a whole lot to see, making the admission price a bit steep in my opinion. The walk to Glover was pleasant though, with shops going up an incline. It wholly reminded me of the walk up Kiyomizudera in Kyoto.

After the gardens, we headed to the Nagasaki Peace Park. Compared to Hiroshima, it seemed a lot bigger. Perhaps I'm accustomed to Hiroshima, but the park did not evoke as strong of a feeling. What did evoke strong emotions was the museum. The museum housed artifacts from when the bomb was dropped. We saw objects like a burnt clock with the hands frozen at 11:02 - the time of detonation. We also saw many pictures of burnt corpses and people in despair. It really hit home the devastation of nuclear weapons.

After the museum, we went to visit the water fountain and statue that were dedicated to those who lost their lives during the bomb. After a full day, we took the train back to Saga. We grabbed dinner at a family restaurant before returning back to our hotel for the night. The family restaurant was an interesting experience, since we did not know how their system worked in terms of drinks. I've been to one before, but that was with my cousin, so she helped me with everything. All in all though, my meal was quite tasty, which vaguely reminded me of Denny's back home.

Day 5 (July 14) - Onto Kyushu Island and Saga Beef!

We checked out at around 7:20 so that we could catch our flight to Fukuoka. The terminal at Naha, where we departed to Fukuoka, seemed to be very old, but had a nice nostalgia factor to it. The flight was relatively quick, at an hour and a half. Peach Airlines is great for domestic flights, though the seats seemed a lot more crammed than usual.

Fukuoka airport was busy, and it strongly reminded me of Kyoto station in terms of the atmosphere (busy, but not Tokyo busy). We found our train that took us to the next prefecture: Saga. Saga was a lot quieter, which reminded me of Zentsuji in Shikoku. We found our hotel and deposited our luggage before proceeding to find a saga beef restaurant. Saga beef is apparently up there with Kobe Beef.

We found Kira Honten, which is apparently the best Saga beef restaurant in Saga, and a One Star Michelin to boot. Unfortunately, we were too late for lunch, so we stopped by at a family restaurant nearby, called Ringer Hut. I got something akin to ramen called Champon: it was extremely tasty. According to my research, Champon is a noodle dish based on Chinese Cuisine. It normally contains a broth made out of pork & chicken bones. Champon uses seafood and vegetables on top of thick ramen noodles.

We returned to our hotel to check in officially and rest up before heading out to find a department store to shop at. We found one a few km away, though it didn't have anything of interest to us. There was a shopping arcade nearby, though it was small and not interesting at all.

We then headed back to Kira Honten. We all ordered a set meal with two of us getting Saga Loin (sirloin I think) and the other two getting Saga Fillet. The meal started with small appetizers that I wasn't able to identify. They were subtly flavoured (expect for one), which I thought was a good way to start off the meal. After the appetizers, we got Tai sashimi. The wasabi, for me, was the game changer. It brought out the Tai sashimi well. Afterwards, we had a fish appetizer that was deep fried and tasty, before heading to the main meal.

The sirloin looked like the Kobe beef we had two years ago, but the fillet was amazingly fatty. Unlike last time, we had to grill the beef and vegetables ourselves. I don't think I did the beef justice, because I couldn't imitate what our professional chef did a few years back. The beef still melted in your mouth, but I did not like the texture of the surface. It was much crispier than what I remembered with Kobe beef. However, it was still quite tasty. The vegetables were relatively straight forward, and I believe that the flavour of each vegetable was enhanced from the melted beef fat on the cooking top. Our main course was supplemented with rice and miso soup.

After the main meal, we had dessert: a small selection of fruits (amazing single piece of grape, sour orange and alright watermelon) with a slice of roll cake, a creamy pudding (Hokkaido milk?) and some sort of sorbet. We also got tea to finish off our meal (and they gave us gyokuro as well during the meal).

All in all, lots to eat, but I wish they were able to grill our meat for us, considering the price we had to pay. I'm quite sure that it would taste better if a professional was able to cook for us.

After dinner, we headed back to stock up for breakfast before checking in for the night. We didn't see as many sites, yet it still feel like a productive day.

Day 4 (July 13)- World Expo Park & Churaumi Aquarium

We left later than the previous day: at 8:45. We traveled to the bus terminal station and luckily bought round trip highway bus tickets to the aquarium. The bus ride was about two hours one way, but unlike a plane, there's something to look outside the window. Okinawa has a lot of greenery and the Pacific Ocean (I'm assuming it's the Pacific Ocean) to look at, which made the two hour ride interesting.

My brother told me that when he last visited the aquarium, 3 hours wasn't enough to explore it fully. When we arrived, I could understand why. The aquarium was only one part of what is known as Ocean Expo Park. The park was divided into small sections. There were sections to display a traditional Okinawa village, dolphin tanks, manatee exhibits, turtle tanks, beach and a garden. Not to mention, I believe there were 3 different gift shops and a few cafeterias and restaurants. If I were to make a rough comparison of the size of the park, I would say it reminded me of Calaway park back home.

We first went to the dolphin tanks and managed to catch a snow where trainers had dolphins do some tricks. They are indeed very intelligent animals and we're able to impress me

With their tricks, like nodding hello to swimming upside down with the wave of one hand.

After the show, we headed l what I consider to be the main attraction: the aquarium. It is by far the largest aquarium in my books. We spent a good hour and a half going through the different exhibits. The main tank with the two whale sharks was the most impressive. The main viewing area must have been the size of an IMAX viewing screen, or even larger.

*Note: Not the main tank... I don't have one on my phone for some reason... I'll have to check my dslr after

After the aquarium, we headed towards the village. The houses on display had a rustic feelings to them. I had difficulties telling about some of the different houses because they appeared to be the same to me. After the village, and spending nearly 5 hours at the park, it was time to head on back to Naha.

We had a sushi dinner at a conveyor. Let restaurant. It was a delightful dinner in which I ate around 22 pieces! I had some extremely fatty toro. The salmon slices tasted extremely fresh and had a melt-in-your-mouth sensation.

Once dinner was over, we headed to the convenience store to stock up for breakfast. After dropping off our bags, we headed back outside for one last stroll through koukusai street. I was able to finally try blue seal (famous in Okinawa) salt cookie ice cream. It's wonderfully tasty and reminds me of cookies that my mom has been baking regularly that she buys from Costco.

And that essentially marks the end of our first leg in Okinawa! Onto Kyushu!

Day 3 (July 12) - Friendly Taxi Driver in Naha

I was able to get a decent amount of sleep (6 hours), despite waking up a multiple amount of times during the night. Unlike in previous years, we got out early to start our day. It was already quite hot at 8 AM, though it was not as humid. We traveled towards the bus terminal in Naha to find a bus that would take us to Seifa Utaki, the most sacred site to the people of Okinawa. According to Wikipedia, (It's not a bad place to start your research! Though I'm too lazy to look into it in more depth) it is where they believe that the goddess of creation first came down to Earth. As we approach the place, a taxi driver hailed us and asked where we were going. I was hesitant at first to answer, because I didn't want to pay high fees for something that I can easily do via public transit, I didn't answer at first. However, I just blurted out the place after deciding not to say anything and the taxi driver told us he’ll match the price and get us there faster.

It turned out to be a good investment. Our taxi driver was quite fluent in English, so we were able to have a conversation during our hour ride to Seifa Utaki. I noticed that he turned off the meter early, despite still being 5 km away from the site, thus keeping his word of charging us the same rate as the buses. Also, he recommend that we see a cape, nearby our original site, which turned out to be a hidden treasure. There were no tourists on site, which made it even more spectacular. Seifa Utaki was somewhat busy, though I was somewhat disappointed at the lack of things to see.

Our taxi driver for the day picked us up at a predetermined time and we headed to our second destination: Shuri Castle. He charged us what I thought was a reasonable price and turned off his meter before hand once again. Despite the limited amount of times that I used a taxi, I had to say that this was my favourite experience yet due to the kindness that he showed us that day.

At Shuri castle, we explored the grounds and ventured around the innards of the castle. They encouraged visitors to explore the entire castle and grounds by setting up a scavenger hunt to find stamps. We had our stamp brochures set up, but only managed to find 5 out of the 23. After touring the castle for about 45 minutes, we went to the cafeteria to eat lunch. I got myself a bento style box that had a wide variety of what was supposed to be Okinawa cuisine. Even my unrefined tongue noticed that the food, despite it looking like food elsewhere in Japan, tasted different.

After taking the monorail back to the city centre, we stopped by the department store near our train stop. There was another Pokemon store located here and we looked at a variety of men’s apparel. We ended our trip with purchasing food in the basement, which is always a must stop if you go to department stores.

After resting in our rooms for a while, we ventured back out to look at an shopping arcade, known as Heiwadori. Shops were plentiful, and reminiscent of all the other shopping arcades we’ve been to in the past. We stopped by the department store again for dinner at the top floor. It was a buffet location, though I can't say it was anything special. We then ventured to the bus terminal station office to scope out tickets to see the aquarium tomorrow, but they were closed.

We then ventured back to our hotel and called it an early night, since we were exhausted. Overall though, a very productive day.

Day 1&2 (July 10 & 11) - Start of Japan 2017!

Calgary was cold and dreary this time around. It was raining when we were heading to the airport. The new terminal was nice too look at, though it only had two flights scheduled to depart. I think, due to that, it only took about 3 minutes to go through security. We had three hours to kill before our flight. The terminal wasn't that big, so we were able to explore all of it in about 30 minutes flat. Sitting back down by our gate, I was dully entertained by a mechanical beaver and owl.

Once it was time to board, we got onto the plane relatively quickly. This time around, a Boeing 787 (instead of the 767) housed us, and the modern looks/technology was quite apparent. For one, there were no window shades, rather a “colour-changing” glass was used to give a dark blue hue to block most light from entering the cabin if you choose to do so. The entertainment systems worked this time around, so I occupied myself with three movies (John Wick 1&2 and Your Name) to keep me occupied. I probably managed about 10-15 minutes of sleep on the flight, but it didn't feel as long as last time because of the entertainment display. Also, it wasn't a full flight, so we were able to spread out more on the way to Narita.

Once at Narita, we waited 3.5 hrs for our flight to Okinawa. Since Narita airport was big enough, we had enough to do to keep us busy. We first got our wi-fi routers and then headed to check in our luggage with ANA for our later flight to Naha, Okinawa. Once that was done, we headed to get our JR passes from the basement of Narita’s terminal 1. We grabbed a quick bite from the Lawson’s found on the fifth floor before heading over to Terminal 2 via shuttle bus to check out the Pokemon store. No matter which Pokemon store I go to, it always brings me some joy. It was small, but there was quite a bit of merchandise to look at.

After purchasing some things, we headed back to terminal 1 to get ready to board a shuttle bus to take us to our plane. The flight was 3 hrs in length and I managed to sleep through half of the journey.

Once we arrived at around 9:30 PM, we got our luggage and headed to the only monorail in Naha to go to our hotel. Our hotel is located on Naha’s Koukusai Street, which is filled with lots of light, almost akin to a smaller Shinjuki district.

We went out to walk a bit after checking into our rooms. A lot of stores were closing/closed so we went to a Lawson (no 7-11 in sight and few Family Marts) to stock up for  breakfast.

Day 1 & 2 was pretty successful in my books! A good start to our trip.