24th and 27th March
I had heard a lot about Fukuoka from my friend who lives there but it was not until I was there that I realized what he was talking about. First things first, I love food. My friend used to tell me that Fukuoka has the best food so I had to go. The best of it all, the tonkotsu Ramen there is what I was the most excited about.
On my first night there, I arrived late having missed my train because I was so hungry on the connecting train that I had to go eat. But anyways, I managed to let the hostel let me check-in in the middle of the night so I got a place to stay that night. The plan was to stay there for a day and head to Hiroshima.
The next day was pretty fun. I went to the places that my friend had recommended to go for Ramen. Ippudo, Ichiran, and Hakata were some of them. Apart from that I found another Ramen store at the coral city called the Ramen Stadium where I found the best Tonkotsu Ramen I’ve ever tasted and the best Tamago ever as well. Also, I made sure to try Mentaiko which is a vinegar fermented fish egg with an interesting taste.
I got a map of the city from the hostel and wondered around on foot. The area around Hakata is divided into three areas with landmarks and sight-seeing places in close proximity – Hakata, Tenzin and Nakasu-Tenzin. In the afternoon, I wondered around the Hakata area. Close to the Torinji Temple I found a matcha tea place with a traditional outlook and a nice garden. Further down the road there was the Rakusuien Garden, Sumiyoshi Shrine, leading to Canal City. After a brief walk around the Canal City, which is a huge shopping complex, I went around the traditional district where I found Hakata Traditional Craft and Design Museum housing hundreds of lifelike dolls used in the ancient times. An interesting place for me was the Tochoji Temple where there is a huge wooden statue of Buddha. Also, at the Jotenji Temple I found out that Fukuoka is the birthplace of Udon and Soba noodles in Japan – priest Enni Ben’en brought the techniques to prepare the noodles from china and was also the founder of the temple.
An interesting thing in Fukuoka that I noticed is that there were a lot of Chinese and Korean tourists there. While I was wondering around searching for Ippudo ramen for dinner, I got lost so I asked someone, “Ippudo Ramen wa doko desu ka.” The answer I got was, “I am no Japanese,” in a Korean ascent followed by, “I will help you anyway so follow me.” She took me to the Ramen place and I treated her for dinner and we hung out at a bridge close to Coral city where a guy was jamming really funky to his bass guitar using a looper. It was remarkable that it was a single guy playing it but it sounded like a whole band (because the looper lets you record and replay tracks).
I am definitely going back to Fukuoka again!