22Apr~6May2023 Around Kyushu in 2 weeks - day 1
Planning started since October 2022 when it was announced in Singapore we are open to travel to Japan. In fact, the rough itinerary for this trip had been completed during the covid lockdown period, where at that time, we could only drool over pictures of the places that we see online.
We had 2 places in mind to go to.. I suggested to head to Kyushu in April 2023, to catch the wisteria blooming period. 4 of us were confirmed at first, and since we planned to rent a Toyota Sienta, we decided we can add one more pax as there should be enough space for 5 people and 5 luggage in the car.
Flight time
Firstly, we gotta thank Jean for always offering to give us a lift to the airport.
Thank you Jean & Sam 😘
Arriving at 1030pm on Friday night at T3.
Our plane was due to fly on Sat morning, 120am.
No hiccups at the check-in counter, we were all set & ready to depart
Nails ready too
The guys wanted supper before the flight
And a visit to the butterfly garden
While we were shopping at Guardian near the gate, Keng went to check the departure screen and to her surprised, the flight had been changed to depart from T1 instead of T3 without any announcement.
We took the sky train and arrived at T1 before boarding time, way before many others arrived.
The excited people on the plane
- it takes 6 hours to fly to Fukuoka
We slept a little and woke to see the sunrise around the China sea
Breakfast being served at around 530am
Arrived!!!
We touched down around 830am JPT without much delay.
There is no direct bus from the International airport to Tenjin, hence we took the free shuttle to the domestic airport to transfer to subway, to get to Tenjin, our first stop in Fukuoka.
It took 15mins to get to the domestic airport
And the train station is just nearby
Buy 1-day train pass for use on this first day, and also top up our IC cards for use later.
All ready to take the subway to Tenjin
5 stops, 11mins later, we arrived
@Tenjin 天神
Excited to see many vending machines in a row
Slightly more than 5mins walk to our first hotel
Our first hotel in 天神, Fukuoka 福岡市
After leaving our luggage at the hotel, we headed for our first attraction
- Ohori park
Lots of Azaleas were in bloom outside the park.
And the weather was fine with the sun shining very brightly at 11am.
Ducks were swimming peacefully in the pond
We thought it would be nice to sit by the pond and enjoy some tea
We gonna cross the bridge and get to Ukimi pavilion
That's the pavilion
We met a retired ojisan from Kobe who wanted to practice his english with us
It was very windy on this little bridge island
12noon - the sun was shining right above us
Arriving at Fukuoka Art Museum to look for the first outdoor sculpture of Yayoi Kusama
We saw the pumkin on the second level outdoors
Everyone loves that pumpkin
including me 😍
Lots of baby blue eyes
Even Andy enjoyed looking at flowers
Passed by the playground while on the way to the subway
Tochoji Temple next, just 1 min walk from Gion station
We were here for the beautiful pagoda
Kushida Shrine next, 5mins walk from Tochoji
This shrine is interesting and beautiful, no wonder there were many tourists
A wedding ceremony was ongoing
Couple tree
On the way to Ichiran for lunch,
we walked into a shopping street somewhat like Teramachi in Kyoto
- Kawabata Shopping Arcade
And bought strawberries
Daifuku as I was hungry
And we arrived at our lunch venue 3pm.
Order the food first then join the queue.
We were not told to order at first and went to queue, but later found out and went back down to order from the vending machine 😛
We requested to sit separately so that we can enter soon.
We queued for about 30 mins or less.
Finished every bit of the food. Gochisosamadeshita😋
We love Ichiran
After the late lunch, we decided to skip Hakata Port tower to go check-in at the hotel
Passing by another shopping street on the way to the hotel
After an hour's rest, we were off again
.jpg)
Loot
Pretty and interesting shop
Loot from the Tenjin Chikagai underground shopping mall
We went to Iwataya Main building to look for Motoyoshiya Eel rice, but they were about to close and has only a set left. Decided to eat some pancakes and look for something else to eat later.
Second round - nearby Yakitori restaurant
That's the end of our day 1. It was a pretty nice while tiring day spent in Fukuoka.
The afternoon shone very brightly but the temperature was quite cool, we did not feel the heat a lot.
It was very windy too. We will be back again in the last 3 days of our trip.
Oyasuminasai
No comments:
Post a Comment