Food, Travel and Doodle: Japan Busan 18 May-5 Jun 2023

Day 1: Changi Airport T4 / Dazaifu / Miharu Tofuten

At the airport! My flight was at 1.20am, so by the time I reached the airport I was actually feeling tired already. I took SQ to Fukuoka so could explore the departure area at T4.

Very suaku but there's a cinema!

Making my way to the gate

I booked an aisle seat for my flight hoping that it would deter others from taking the seat beside me. But alas, a couple came over and the guy was really tall, and quite big sized too. He looked so uncomfortable taking the middle seat that I offered the aisle seat to him. Of cos that would mean I'll have to take e window seat beside his female companion, totally making my life abit better on e plane hehe. I was very pleased with the result of my win win offer and the only one on e losing end was the female companion who ended up in e middle seat hehe. But since I'm a pretty considerate fellow passenger, I think it wasn't too bad for her lah haha.

Being on SQ, I was going through the e movies on the in flight entertainment, and came across this pretty good Korean movie called '6/45' about South and North Korean soldiers in the DMZ who connected over a lottery ticket. It's funny, heart warming and thought provoking too. Totally worth watching again.

Had brekkie on flight. TBH, I was abit taken back by the brekkie presentation. I thought usually the SQ meals are abit more.. hmm ups?? Anyway, it was super filling and wasn't bad tasting, so ok ler. Reached Fukuoka in the morning at about 8.20am and made my way to immigration.

There was a trial to take fingerprints n photo to speed up the passport clearance process and it really looked like they activated alot of ppl from the immigration authority / temp staff to help with that. I also saw alot of Koreans and quite a few golfers. Finally got my passport chopped, and got out to collect my SunQ Pass n Sugoca card from HIS counter (got these from Klook in advance, glad that I did it, because it was super convenient with the Sugoca card)

I had 2 days in Fukuoka before my flight to Okinawa; I wanted to take it easy but also wanted to explore places I've not been to before, so I was very torn lol. I planned to visit Dazaifu and Mojiko, but decided to allow myself flexibility to put the plans aside if I feel too lazy ^^

To get to my hostel, I got a bus ticket to Hakata Bus Terminal. Normally I'd take the airport train/subway if it's available but the subway was connected to the domestic terminal, and you had to take a shuttle to the domestic terminal to get onto the subway. In this case I thought it was more straightforward to take a direct bus from the international airport to Hakata Bus Terminal (Nishitetsu busstop #2 outside Int Terminal to JR Hakata (270¥, 15min ride):

From Hakata Station, I took the subway to Kushida Shrine station and reached Fukuoka Hana Hostel after a super short walk. I deposited my luggage at the hostel and came out to look for fooooooood.

The hostel is situated at Kawabata Shopping Street so it's a pretty good location for convenient stores, restaurants and souvenir shopping. I made my way to Family Mart and decided to try mentaiko n natto handroll, and paired it with a green smoothie.

I fell in love with this flavour!!

My hunger was already satisfied but I had to check out this ramen place that had a queue when I walked past: Nakasu Kirin Ramen Tsukemen.

I ordered the Tsukemen; the noodles were so on point, and the thick broth exactly the type I liked; thick with bonito flavour. I just wished I ate it when I was more hungry!

Got onto the bus to Dazaifu at Hakata Bus Terminal at about 11am and reached at about 12pm. Founded circa 663, Dazaifu was also the ‘capital’ of Kyushu from the 7th to the 12th century. I was going to visit the Tenmangu Shrine 5 min walk from the Dazaifu station /bus stop. Extract from Japan-Guide.com below on Tenmangu Shrine:

"Among the hundreds of Tenmangu Shrines throughout Japan, Dazaifu's (太宰府天満宮, Dazaifu Tenmangū) is the most important one alongside Kyoto's Kitano Tenmangu. Tenmangu Shrines are dedicated to the spirit of Sugawara Michizane, a scholar and politician of the Heian Period. Because of his great learning, Michizane has been associated with Tenjin, a Shinto deity of education, and is popular among students."

Michizane displayed his remarkable talents from a young age, and had already begun composing poetry by the age of eleven. His political career developed quickly, and he was able to gain much influence within the imperial court, which was then dominated by the Fujiwara clan. However, his rise to power resulted in rivalries between Michizane and the Fujiwara, which ultimately resulted in Michizane's exile from the capital city of Kyoto to the far-off government office of Dazaifu.

Michizane passed away in Dazaifu in 903, just a few years after being sent into exile. Shortly after his death the country was ravaged by natural disasters, and people came to believe that the calamities were caused by the wrathful spirit of Michizane, still angered by his unjust treatment. Offerings were made to the spirit of Michizane and the tradition of Tenmangu Shrines was begun. The Tenmangu Shrine in Dazaifu was built on the site of his grave"

Came across a Dazaifu Miffy store and was checking with Ser if she wanted something.

Tried this Umaegaemochi (grilled red bean mochi) from one of the shops leading to and fro the shrine, which was yums. It was like how you'd expect good quality red bean grilled rice mochi to taste like. :D

According to google, when Michizane came to Dazaifu, an old woman gave him a plum branch with mochi, and it was named Umegaemochi. It is now a Dazaifu specialty!

I walked about the shops abit and waited around for Ser to decide on what she wanted to get from e Miffy store. Luckily I managed to get her on the phone, bought the goods, and ran to get on the 5.30pm bus back to Hakata. I walked ard the dept store above bus terminal, and got a t shirt on discount (800plus y). Actually the clothes were priced very well! I tried a few tops, and totally regretted not buying the below striped T Shirt. HAI!!

Side track abit, I was abit taken back to have to remove my shoes to enter the fitting room. I see the benefits of doing so. But as I was only trying on tops, it felt kind of inconvenient ><.

I was to meet RJ and Wendy for dinner since they were in Fukuoka with their ex colleagues as well. It was really nice seeing them in a foreign land though I have to say seeing RJ just feels like seeing RJ. HAHAHA. RJ suggested dinner at Mihara Tofuten which was a great choice! Will post up more pics later!

After dinner, I walked back to hostel and started unpacking. There was a Japanese lady in the lobby area who struck up a conversation with me, and I found out that she's a print artist who was in Fukuoka for her exhibit. I was thinking that it could be a fun to check out her exhibit the next day and took down the address. After unpacking, washed up and concussed! Fukuoka Hana's futons are srsly comfortable, they aren't the softest but I always sleep so well on them. I took the 6 bedder, and can only silently apologise to my room mates tor snoring away hehe.

Day 2: 19 May Fri - Hakata Matchiya Folk Museum / Hakozaki Kubricks / Gyukatsu Motomura

Decided to lunch at a tempura shop beside the hostel called Tempura Daruma Ichiban. It looked unassuming, and the ordering is via a machine from the front which makes it feel abit more casual, but the food was really good!! I got the mixed tempura set, and the chef places the tempura in front of you when he sees that you're more or less done with the earlier piece. You can taste the sweetness and flavours of the veggies and seafood under the crispy batter.

I was particularly blown away by the squid and took like alot of pic of it. The presentation doesn't look the most atas but I'd definitely return to eat this great value n yums tempura if I'm in Hakata again.

After lunch I walked over to the Matchiya Folk Museum. You can find out abit more about Fukuoka / Hakata's history and also hands on with some of the traditional crafts.

Something interesting I learnt at the museum; in older days, the port city on one side of the Nakagawa river was called Hakata while the samurai town on the other side was called Fukuoka. In 1889, the 2 cities were combined during the Meiji Government's effort to rationalize Japan's geographical areas and Fukuoka was chosen as the name of the city after much debate. As a concession, the new railway station was named Hakata. Throughout my trip, I could see that Hakata was used abit more in daily life? Like I'd see Hakata Ramen, Good Old Hakata, Hakata dialect, Hakata Port, Hakata Bus Terminal etc.

I was also pleasantly surprised when this display started moving when I approached!!

On the 3rd floor of the museum was an exhibition space showcasing the memories of people who lived in Hakata. The average age of the artists for the current exhibition is 69! I loved going through their works and reading about their memories. I thought it was so heart warming, more so than trying to decipher 'creative' pieces of art that couldn't speak to me at art museums.

The first price that caught my attention was one where the artist's childhood chore was to fill the bathtub with water. Check out the expression and taxed posture of the boy in the drawing hahaha.

This was my favorite one; of a boy who attempted to 'fly' with an umbrella and shocked the people around him. The artist is 74, but aren't his memories as a boy still so vivid??

I liked this alot as well. It's so meticulous and has so much variety.

Made a mini collage of a few of the paintings/drawings. I really liked some of them, and some of the words/explanations for the drawings provided by the artists were so heartwarming and nostalgic.

Went on to check out the folk museum/ crafty area. There were fixed timings for the crafts showcase and crafts experience, which I missed. Nonetheless, I was feeling shy and probably wouldn't participate on my own anyway. I took a quick look and moved on!

Popped by Kushida Shrine to take a look since it's on the Hakata Old Town map.

And took a break at Cafe Veloce. Pretty nice spot for solo stoning as proven by my fellow solo-ers.

Instead of exploring Kitakyushu, I decided to make a trip to the exhibit of the prints artist I met in the hostel. I thought it could be qte fun and something abit different, and made my way down to Hakozaki-Miyamae Station and walked to Kubricks book shop where the exhibit was held.

It was a pretty small bookshop and the exhibit was on the 2nd floor cafe. Being an awkward solo-er who couldn't speak Japanese, I wanted to just quietly go, peruse, purchase and leave. But I was the only customer around at that time, and ended up being engaged by the cafe owner, who also called the prints artist over.

We ended up chatting abit and trying our best to understand each other. It was abit chicken and duck, but I really appreciated their efforts to talk with me, and it ended up being a great memory that enriched my Hakata experience. Check out her Insta (@Keikokochiya) for more great prints!

The black and white prints are actually carved on wood blocks and printed. I found that so amazing. Kochiya-san mentioned that wood printing is something that all elementary students in Japan do. I suppose it's like how SG pri sch students all end up doing veggie printing in art class ^^. The colour prints are done by printing different colours by layers. I really liked her perspective, and some of the prints are so whimsical and cute. Her messages are also very positive. Got a few postcards to share with my friends!

Kochiya-san also gifted me with a 2023 calendar (T.T) isn't that too kind of her?? I am glad I made a detour and experienced something I couldn't have on my own. After I left the bookshop, I made my way to a dinner place recommended by Kat; Gyukatsu Motomura. There was a short queue, with some youngsters in front of me. I must indeed have aged to feel that they were abit amiss in their manners when they sat down on the side of the shop and spoke in loud voices. Nonetheless, I managed to get in shortly after, and ordered a set with grated yam, mentaiko, and warabi mochi!

When the katsu arrived, I was thinking that it didn't look so mouth watering, until I realised that the meat is barely cooked, and a hot stone was provided for you to sear the meat to the doneness that you like. I was seriously blown away by the whole set up. Just look at the meat below, how not to be delish???

I loved eating the grated yam with the rice, and I super loved the meat with wasabi. It was just so full of greatness, I regret not visiting it one more time before I left Fukuoka.