For our last full day in Japan, we opted to spend the day in Fukuoka prefecture. We started by heading to Yanagawa to try out the river cruise that they had there. It was an extremely hot day; I didn't feel like the umbrellas did much to help us keep cool. As we arrived at the dock, there was the option of renting bamboo hats. Since we won't be able to deploy our umbrellas during the cruise, we thought it would be wise to rent the hat for our 45-minute trip. We boarded the boat with the help of our guide - a thin middle-aged Japanese man. He provided a lot of commentary in Japanese and with some English as well. There was a rest stop for us to grab something cool. We got some ice cream to help us beat the heat. At this point, I was sweating buckets.
After the tour, we walked around Yanagawa and waited for a bus to take us back to the station. My girlfriend was able to find us special day passes that allowed us to travel on trains (and the river cruise) for a discounted price. It was tight, but we managed to make it on a train that would take us to our next stop: Dazaifu. There's a special Ichiran that serves ramen in pentagon-shaped bowls. If I remember correctly, it's popular with university students since this ramen is supposed to help them pass their classes. Not only were the bowls shaped as pentagons, but the chopsticks and seats were as well. I believe the pentagon shape is similar to good luck charms?
After we finished eating, we went outside to a heavy rainstorm. Despite having umbrellas, we waited for the storm to ease a bit before heading to a nearby Starbucks. The Starbucks was beautifully crafted with a lot of wooden beams supporting the building. It was quite busy, making it difficult to find a spot. After a few minutes though, we were able to secure a table. We spent some time relaxing here before proceeding to Tenmangu Shrine, which is a shrine dedicated to a scholar. It wasn't very crowded so we were able to walk at a leisurely pace throughout the shrine.
We proceeded back to the station to head back to Hakata station. making a pit stop at a nearby bakery to grab some food to eat when we arrived back at our hotel. After resting for a while, we headed back out to LaLaport Mall. The main reason for me going there was to finish the trifecta. Nu Gundam was magnificent to see. I want to say it looked bigger than Unicorn and RX-78, though didn't seem to move as much compared to the former two. We ventured inside the mall to do some shopping and look around before heading back to the bus stop to take a bus back to Hakata Station. We stopped by Yoshinoya to grab dinner before returning back to our hotel to rest for the night.
Thus mark the end of our Japan trip. Not a lot of new prefectures or cities this time around, but there were many areas within the same cities I've been to before that I never explored. I always thought I had a good grasp of traveling Japan, but it's certainly different traveling with someone who lived in Japan and can actually speak the language. There were many fond memories formed, and a lot of good food (instead of eating konbini like I used to do back in 2017 and 2019) was consumed during this trip. I never would have expected to go camping in Japan, nor go to as many onsens as we did this time around.
This isn't the end though! It's off to a new country tomorrow!
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