Yesterday was a pretty amazing day in Fukuoka. It is definitely a city I would like to come back and visit. In fact I am already planning the next trip to Japan in my mind. Visiting more places in Kyushu is something that I would like to do the next time I visit Japan, plus I can go back to Fukuoka.
Yesterday consisted of two tours with only a two hour break between tours and around 4.5 hours of walking. The tours were booked through Fukuoka Walks and I highly recommend this company to anyone who is interested in visiting Fukuoka. I was the only participant on both tours so I had a chance to ask lots of questions, which were answered by very knowledgeable tour guides.
The first tour was a half day city sightseeing tour and I would definitely recommend this tour for first timers to Fukuoka. On the tour I saw two different Buddhist temples and a Shinto shrine. Sachiko taught me about the differences between Shintoism and Buddhism. She also was able to educate me on the history of Fukuoka and the traditions there. We also stopped at a rice cracker shop, the rice crackers were so good I had to pick up a box to bring home.
The food tour was fantastic. Like Sachiko, Noriaki had tons of knowledge about Fukuoka. Plus he explained Japanese cuisine and was able to answer any questions I had about it. There was a vending machine on the tour that sold broth, it was pretty neat because I never even thought there would be a vending machine for that. We went to a fish market and I tried squid tempura, very delicious. On the tour I also had a chance to go to a stand up sushi restaurant, which was tasty. We also went into a department store, department stores in Japan usually have floors dedicated to food or restaurants or both. The department store we went to had different food vendors and I had a chance to try some skewers. For the last part of tour we went to a Yatai, which is a street vendor food stall that seats about eight people. There are different types of food they make. I tried ramen (so good), oden and gyoza (which is made smaller in Fukuoka). I highly recommend this tour as well.
I can’t wait to visit Fukuoka again.
Adairmoon 