Fukoka and Nagasaki

We arrived at Fukuoka (the main city of Kyushu) after a rather relaxed flight, and a somewhat disappointing bento box for lunch (probably the first meal I've had in Japan that's not been good - but then I suppose one shouldn't have too high expectations for a 4 euro bento box bought at the airport). A quick train ride later, we arrived at the main train station, from where it was a short stroll to the Ryokan we were spending two nights at.

Ryokans are traditional Japanese Inns. Normally they are very exclusive institutions that cost rather a lot - this one was a more "regular Ryokan", costing only about 50 Euros a night! Imagine my amazement when I realized that in spite of what to me seemed like a ridiculously low price (especially in a supposedly expensive country like Japan) this Ryokan was the real thing! Meaning that our room was a traditional Japanese one, with a tatami, nice Japanese furniture and all, very nice Yukatans were provided, slippers had to be worn. There was even an onsen (a hot spring bath), albeit a public one! OK, clearly the place was less fancy than the Ryokans we did during our last visit, but still, staying at a place like this is a real Japanese experience at a bargain price!

After setting in, we headed off to explore Fukuoka. It's a rather big city, with over 1 million inhabitants, so we had to make some choices, as we only had half a day to visit the place, basically, due to our tight schedule. We started off with a bit of shrine & temple hopping (this is, after all, Japan. Hard to avoid that...). There was a nice collection of them conveniently located just a few minutes walk from our hotel in a nice little park. Unfortunately, the most famous one, Tocho-ji (with its big wooden Buddha), was closed... We really liked Shofoku-ji, with its ideal setting, surrounded by trees and a calm pond (and local resident cat). It's actually the first Zen temple constructed in Japan. There was also a beautiful Shinto sanctuary called Kushida-jinja in the modern part of town, that we really liked.

The temples and shrine bit out of the way, we stepped back into the modern world by visiting Canal City, the biggest shopping centre in Fukuoka. It is quite a place - probably the most impressive shopping centre I've seen. It really is almost a city within a city - the place is 234,500 square meters of shops, restaurants and other attractions. All in a rather tasteful and zen setting, with a narrow pool (the "canal") running along the length of the shopping centre. We spent quite a while shopping there - I even found a Moomin cafe in one of the shops, if you can imagine that !? (I've not even seen that in Finland, ever...).

There is also a Ramen stadium in Canal City - basically a collection of restaurants serving different types of Ramen. (noodles of Chinese origin - a kind of fast food in Japan. Apparently they were "invented" in Fuokuoka...).

Since it was time to have dinner, we decided to go for that, then. Another interesting, if unspectacular, Japanese culinary experience. One of the other things to do in Fukuoka food-wise is Yatai, or Japanese street food. So naturally, since we came across one of these "mobile stands", we had to try it as well. It's a pretty nice concept, you kind of sit around a counter with other people, and the guy serves his fare - usually grilled meat. Excellent stuff! After a bit more "Fukuoka by night" (it seems to be a pretty happening place, judging by all the drunken "Salary Men" stumbling about in the streets, and into/out of strip joints and hostess bars...

The next day, we hopped on the early train to Nagasaki. Nagasaki is naturally known to most people due to the tragic events that took place on 9th of August 1945, when the American's dropped "Fat Man" (a 4.5 ton atomic bomb) on Nagasaki, with well-known consequences... However, there is much more to Nagasaki than just this tragic event - it's a vibrant city that has made a remarkable recovery, and one with a very interesting history. Nagasaki was in many ways a gateway to the west for the Japanese, since it was the first port that was opened to foreigners in the 16th century.

Hence, it was kind of appropriate for us to start our visit by heading to Glover Garden. The garden got its name from Thomas Glover, a Scottish businessman, who also played an important role in the events of the Meiji restoration that took place in the 19th century (when Imperial rule was restored in Japan, after some centuries of Shogunate rule). It's a beautiful place - both the buildings and the gardens being a kind of fusion between Japanese and European styles... It also gave an interesting insight into a very interesting period of Japanese history. Having a certain appreciation for beer, I noted with interest that Mr. Glover was also the co-founder of the Kirin Brewery.

From Glover Garden, we made our way towards the town centre, after a short visit of the very interesting Confucian shrine next to Glover Garden - interesting since it is said to be the only Confucian shrine built outside of Japan. Perhaps a testament to the power and influence of the big Chinese minority which is present in Nagasaki ? Anyway, the shrine and the attached museum were both very interesting (a pity there were basically no explanations in English, though...). Carrying on with the Chinese theme, we had dinner in the main street of Chinatown. (we tried some Champon, the local noodle dish).

Next, back to more traditional Japanses temples with a visit of Sofuku-ji. This impressive place was also built by the Chinese - although it seemed pretty similar to the Japanese temples we'd seen so far (apparently the red portal leading into the temple is a real model of Ming-era architecture). Most impressive. We carried on crossing Nagasaki, walking by quite a few temples (we were, after all , on Teramachi which means Temple Alley). Unfortunately, we didn't really have time to visit them all, so we carried on to the famous Megane-Bashi (means "spectacles bridge", for obvious reasons).

Of course, no visit to Nagasaki would be complete without going to a rather sad site - that is where the atomic bomb landed on that sad day in 1945. We started in Peace Park, just north of where the bomb struck, which is dominated by a huge Statue of Peace. This appropriately peaceful park also has many monuments donated by various countries (interestingly enough, in particular communist and formerly communist countries) in support of the city's suffering. A quite poignant place to contemplate events of that sad day (kind of appropriate to visit this place now in particular, since the "enlightened leader of North Korea" was also threatening to attack Japan...). We also visited the Point Zero park, where the point the bomb struck is marked by a black pillar. (it actually struck right above the catholic cathedral of Nagasaki - there are still a couple of pieces of the cathedral's wall standing next to the pillar).

We finished of our trip to Nagasaki in a more cheerful manner, by having a rather splendid meal for dinner at a place called Yosso. We went for Shippoku-Ryori, a kind of set menu which is normally served for a group of people (since there were only two of us, we went for the mini version). Another unforgettable experience - we were treated to a very nice selection of dishes for an extremely reasonable price (something like 25 Euros for two persons - the same would have cost easily 3 times more in Europe!). I keep getting amazed by the food in this country...

Time to jump on the train back to Fukuoka then, where we spent one more night at our Ryokan before catching out train for Kagoshima.