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The Hakata
International Ferry Terminal |
So doing a visa run in Japan was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I really stressed myself out knowing that I’d have to go over there alone, figure out how to navigate the city via bus alone, and figure out all my paperwork alone – a daunting task, but I made it a bigger deal than it actually was. Turns out the bus system is really easy; Oddly enough they enter the bus in the middle, take a ticket, exit through the front door, and pay according to your ticket number. Toward the end I was taking buses all over the place, it got to be quite fun!
I got to Fukuoka at about 1:30pm, then immediately had to get to the consulate to file my paperwork. That took about an hour. Luckily I met a really nice girl on the ferry that was doing the same exact thing (even staying in the same hotel!) so we could kind of rely on each other not to get lost. Unluckily, she knew even less than I did about what to do and where to go, so I had to do a lot of the navigation myself. Regardless, it was nice to have company along the way. Filing my paperwork literally took 5 minutes, so I had the rest of the day to go do whatever I liked. But, of course, it was raining, so that really limited my options. I wasn’t about to let this trip get the best of me though, so I busted out my little touristy travel map, borrowed an umbrella from the front desk, and looked for the nearest indoor activity.
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| Canal City |
What I found was “Canal City” about a 20 minute walk from my hotel. This place was a massive indoor/outdoor mall: It’s got all sorts of shops and a huge canal that runs down the middle (hence… Canal City) I pretty much just walked around here for an hour and picked up a few souvenirs. I fully intended to eat myself silly on this trip, and Canal City did not fail me. I found this little ramen shop (it sounds, unimpressive… I know) that was absolutely delicious! Apparently, Fukuoka is famous for it’s ramen throughout Japan and the rest of Asia, and it did not disappoint! It’s very different than the little ramen packs or cup-o-noodles that you’d get at home. The noodles are made of a special kind of wheat, and are pulled very very thin. It’s cooked in a “tonkatsu” broth, which is basically pork bone soup. The restaurant I went to also has it’s own “special sauce”… I’m not sure exactly how “special” it was, but it was soooo tasty. It looked a little weird: an opaque white broth with tiny noodles just below the surface, and some green onions floating about on top. It’s very hard to describe just how it tasted, but it was really really good. I actually chose this particular restaurant because they have “special seating for flavor focusing” – their words, not mine. That is, you sit on a bar stool facing a tiny door while surrounded by little walls. Kind of like a small eating cubicle. So if you lean forward, as you do when eating noodles, you can’t see your neighbors. Perfect for the single traveler who doesn’t want to look like a weirdo eating alone… There’s also 0 communication between you and the wait staff because all you do is buy a ticket for what you want outside at a vending machine, then hand it to the waiter through the little door. Also, really great for someone who doesn’t speak the language! This was a really fun experience, and I’m glad I gave it a shot.
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| My little eating nook at Ichiban |
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| There's even a water show every 30 minutes. Hard to capture in still images, but really fun to watch! |
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| One of the turrets at Fukuoka Castle |
The next day I woke up really early to get my free breakfast. This was a very western looking hotel so I kind of assumed it’d be a continental breakfast – you know, toast, bagels, eggs, etc. BOOOY was I wrong! There were some eggs, but with the plethora of other delicious tasties offered I steered clear of them. So my breakfast consisted of: baked salmon, potato salad, egg rolls, fresh fruit, normal salad with a yogurt dressing, some miso soup, and of course rice with sheets of seaweed. Once I had my fill I made my way back to the Korean consulate to pick up my passport complete with brand new visa. I was done with all that by 11am, so I had until 2:45 to explore a bit before needing to head back to the ferry port. Stupidly I spent about 30 minutes waiting for a bus that wasn’t running that day, but eventually figured it out and caught another. I decided it was a nice day for a walk, so instead of getting lost again I walked from the one bus station I memorized to Fukuoka Castle. It was a really beautiful day, as you can probably see by the photos, and the castle was eerily quiet considering it was in the middle of a bustling city. I was glad I went, but unfortunately there wasn’t a whole lot to see. Only 2 turrets remain standing (and those have been rebuilt) but all the rock work was still up. It was nice to let my mind wander as I contemplated the sheer age of the structuure, and how exactly it would have been to live there way back when…
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| The outer perimeter of Fukuoka Castle |
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| The entrance to Fukuoka Castle |
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After the castle I was hungry again (of course) so I made my way to a sushi restaurant noted on my little map. It was really hard to find, and I ended up having to walk for about 10 minutes down all sorts of windy alleyways (don't worry, it was the middle of the day and there were a ton of school children about). When I finally found the shop it was a blank white building with only one small sign reading "Fish Man." I assumed that since it was mentioned in the most touristy of tourist maps there would be some foreigners there, and they would at least be accustomed to
having foreigners there. Wrong again! I was literally the only westerner there, and there weren’t even any pictures on the menu! It was basically just a list of Japanese words with prices next to them. So, in typical Stephanie fashion, I gave my waiter a blank stare, kind of shrugged my shoulders and hoped for the best. He pointed to one of the words and said “sashimi” and I said “ok!!” Now THAT’S how you order food in a foreign country!! Haha! Needless to say, the sashimi was the best I’ve ever had in my life.
After lunch I just headed back to the ferry port and killed some time at the duty free shop - got some really neat chopsticks too! Surprisingly, I had a really good time on this trip, and I even learned some things: Moral of the story: 1) Never assume anything about anything, and 2) traveling alone sounds a lot scarier than it actually is.
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| The staff at the terminal waving goodbye! |
