Day 17 – Hakata

On Day 17 (Sunday), we checked out of the swank hotel in Tenjin.  We were going to hang around in Hakata right from there, but we had won so many prizes from claw game that it made more sense to head back home and drop stuff off… so we did that. 

Not much picture-worthy stuff in Hakata, but it was still fun.  We went to a kooky store called Don Quixote.  It’s like a weird store that sells all sorts of kitchy-gifty type stuff, along with a little bit of clothes and accessories.  It reminded me of the old It Store in Thunder Bay.  Got lots of fun souvenirs for people back home.

While walking, Carey pointed out this multi-level building… apparently it’s a high-end designer building filled with ritzy boutiques like Gucci, Coach, etc… only it’s called ‘eeny meeny miny mo’.  Hah!

It was raining again today, as we walked around town.  We went to Canal City, which is a great open area-type mall with multiple levels, that’s built over a part of the river… so you can look over the edge of the curvy concrete walkway and look down to see the canal, with plants and trees and stuff.  Very nice and serene… but again, rainy.

It rained for the majority of the time I was in Fukuoka…. just like our trip to Montreal.  It seems I bring the rain when I take trips.  Funnily enough, it stopped on my very last day in Japan…. and it will be sunny all next week.  Hrmph, figures.

That afternoon we went to a movie in Hakata.  We saw Hugo, in 3D.  It was an OK movie, better than most we had been watching at home lately… though all the previews were in Japanese with no subtitles, and we got nervous; we thought we had screwed up and got an all J-P movie… but when the main movie came on, it was English with J-P subs.  Phew.  Same deal as Tokyo: really expensive tickets but cheaper food, assigned seating, only allowed to enter theatre 10 mins before showing, people stay sitting in the dark until the end of the credits… even still, it felt like I was at home while I was in the dark.

By this point, my tourist muscle was exhausted.  There was still a Daizaifu shrine to see, and I didn’t visit a true sushi bar (where you sit at the bar and order straight from the chef, etc.,) but I only had a few more days in Japan with Carey… so I was more than happy to have the next few days be lounge days in joggers, with some low-key doings… mainly focused around food!

Not much to this vendy, just a Sapporo one… but I’m actually running out of vendy pics!