[Day 01] Short trip to Fukuoka

December 24, 2019

I'm back from my 4D3N short trip to Fukuoka. I can't wait to share on my travel experiences with you guys! This is my first time travelling to Japan in late autumn.

I took a midnight flight with Cathay Pacific on Thursday to Fukuoka, which had a stopover at Hong Kong. The flying time to HKG was approximately 3 hours and 45minutes, and thereafter the wait in the airport for the connecting flight was about 2hours+.

By the time I reached Fukuoka, it was already late morning in Japan. It was pretty chilly!

Yes I know this was definitely not appropriate gear for the weather, but I prefer to dress light and comfortably whenever I board a plane! The temperature was around 11-15C in Fukuoka. Luckily, it was a breeze to travel from the airport to the city, and I took the complimentary airport shuttle bus from the airport to the airport subway station. I then took the local train to Hakata Station, the main transport hub in Fukuoka, which was a mere 2 train stops away (about 5-10 minutes).

I made my way to the hotel by walking which took me less than 15 minutes. I stayed at ‘Mitsui Garden Hotel Fukuoka Gion'. The room was decent, clean and well equipped on the usual travel amenities. I changed into a proper gear upon checking in to the hotel before heading out!

I walked past Family Mart, and I grabbed a sweet bun for myself. OMG! It was Rilakuma, and I initially didn't have the heart to bite into it! I did some shopping at Hakata City.

When night fell, the mood for Christmas became stronger, as Christmas decorations were all over Hakata City! I took some random photos as it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Both Baby and I love Ichiran Ramen which is located at Canal City. Upon entering the premises, we purchased our ramen from the ticket vending machine. We were then given questionnaires at our seat stations to instruct us on how we wanted our ramen to be cooked. This means you can basically instruct how 'Al Dente' you want your noodles to be! The soup broth tasted awesome, and the noodles were firm and chewy too.

After dinner, we felt like chilling out at one of the themed cafes nearby in order to spend quality time with each other. We came across the Kirby Cafe by chance, so we went in to have some salad sticks and hot drinks!

Kirby is our favorite Nintendo’s characters and the cafe set up many photo opportunities corners for Kirby fans to leave their memories and footprints! We took many random photos before leaving the cafe.

Never leave Fukuoka without trying out dining at their unique open-air stands, which are known as ‘Yatai’. After our first experience last year, Baby was kinda addicted to this very local supper experience.

The food was surprisingly good, and was relatively cheap. It was quite awkward at first, to eat my dinner in a tiny 'restaurant' on the side of the road, and to be frank the awkward feeling is still there. These pop up covered stalls are amazingly small, and can only seat up to say, less than 10 people at a go. The interior of the small stall is mainly taken up by the chef with his cooking utensils in the middle, and a 'U'-shaped bar setting with seats. We had to huddle up next to strangers in close proximity. Oh well, it is much better now as compared to our previous experience.