Fukuoka and Hakata Ramen

Well, we're back! As usual, the end of the school year is far more frantic than it should be, and we found ourselves on a plane across the ocean with a bunch of work still to be done. I spend about 8 hours of the flight grading, and am almost halfway done...but the good news is, we landed in Fukuoka yesterday evening to start this year's cycling trip!

Getting here was a bit of a haul. We arrived in Chicago Friday night to park the car and work, Saturday we flew from O'Hare to Narita, arriving Sunday afternoon thanks to the International Date Line, a three hour layover, then another hour and a half flight to Fukuoka. Once we arrived, we dragged all of our stuff about 1/4 mile to Yado 01, a nice hostel with small rooms, shared baths, and decent Internet. After about 18 hours of travel, we crashed pretty quickly.

A view coming up the hill

Nice 

The following morning, we attempted to get our WiFi hotspot working. Actually, we attempted to open the bag it came in. The zipper was jammed, and all pulling on it did was break the tab off the zipper. A quick google search yielded all sorts of ways to unstick a zipper, most of them involving quite a mess. We opted for the graphite pencil trick (spread a lot of graphite on both sides of the zipper. And pull). So, a quick stop at Lawson for some breakfast and pencils and we headed back, hopeful we would have our hotspot.

Japan: The only place in the world where a convenience store pencil comes sharpened like a weapon and has its own plastic cap. For a pencil. 

As it turns out, the graphite pencil trick was not all it was cracked up to be, so we opted for Plan B: Scissors. While I'm sure the cell phone company will not be pleased with the sizable, if neat, slit in the side of their nice cloth bag, we do have our hotspot.

Armed with Internet and a day to spend in Fukuoka (we shipped our bags to Amakusa, where we will be starting our trip, but it takes a day or so for them to get there), we decided to explore some of the museums the city is known for...only to realize today is Monday, and most government facilities are closed on Mondays. Luckily for us, The Hakata Machiya Folk Museum is only closed on the fourth Monday of every month...which today also happens to be.

So, braving the coming rain, we set out of visit the Fukuoka Castle Ruins, which is located on the west side of the city among a group of parks. Castle Ruins can be anything from half-standing structures to mounds of dirt in a castle-like pattern. Fukuoka Castle is in between. There are a number of impressive walls still standing, and a few of the 47 turrets and a gate still remained, but most of the castle has vanished, via disuse and/or fire. The moats surrounding the castle grounds are still intact, and very impressive.

To the east of the castle is Ohori Park, a larger park with a nice pond that has several bridges connecting a small island in the center of the pond. There was a good amount of wildlife around, including cormorants, herons, turtles, and, of course, koi. These koi were massive.

This koi is at least three feet long. This is what happens when you don't let the locals fish!

Lots of Japanese Pond Turtles (their actual name) also inhabit the pond.

Fukuoka wants to be known as Flower City, and have a motto 一人一花 (one person, one flower). It loses something in the translation, but they did have a large number of flowers throughout the city, and in the garden, we saw some that we'd never seen before. Not being much of a flower kind of guy, I wasn't very surprised by this, but nevertheless, they were pretty cool looking.

Just a typical roadside garden 

Almost looks painted inside

The island in the center of the pond has a nice Japanese garden-style gazebo, which is one of its more famous landmarks and perfect for selfies and the like

One of the bridges connecting the island to the mainland

Approaching the gazebo

Not our picture. Too many people taking selfies and grey clouds for a good one.

After visiting the island, we decided to head towards Hakata, the neighborhood in Fukuoka made famous by their tonkotsu ramen, pork-bone based ramen soup. It was a bit early for lunch, so we stopped at Kushida-jinja, a famous shrine that dates back to 757 AD. Fukuoka's largest festival, the Yamakasa Gion Matsuri starts here. That festival lasts for two weeks and is famous for the final day race, where seven teams from the seven neighborhoods of Fukuoka race while carrying enormous parade floats, leaving from Kushida-jinja. One of these floats is currently on display at the shrine. It was quite nice and spread out a bit, containing some eclectic artwork and architecture.

In all the shrine we've been to, I've never seen one of these before. A traditional Chinese dragon.

Front side of one of the floats. People for scale.

Rear side of the same float. They weight a bit over one ton.

Nothing quite says ancient artistic culture quite like a peeing fountain

After visiting Kushida-jinja, we still had a little time to kill before lunch, so we stopped at the Hakata Traditional Craft and Design Museum, which had a small but nice collection of blown glass art, handmade dolls, etc. You were only allowed to take a picture of one of the dolls, the rest of the museum being off limits. Unless you are Sumi and can't see signs in English prohibiting pictures. Then you take a bunch before your embarrassed husband stops you. They did have a picture on their web page that gives a sense of the items in the museum, so I figure it's ok to post that

This guy is the only picture you're allowed to take. No idea why.

Finally it was time for lunch. We opted for what was voted the best Hakata Ramen in Fukuoka by the residents of the town, and that is pretty high praise. Hakata Issou is relatively new, but boast the "Longest Lines" in Fukuoka. It's a tiny shop with about six tables and a bar that seats five or six. True to their word, there was a line at 12:30, in the rain, to get into the shop.

Sumi is hungry and not amused

The ramen is unique in that it is constantly transferred from pot to pot while cooking, giving in a frothy look that has been dubbed Ramen Cappuccino.

Ramen and Rice Set

It's pretty light, as Ramen goes, and fairly tasty. But what pushed it into amazing was the fresh garlic cloves at the tables. There was a container with a bunch of peeled cloves and a garlic press. We shared a clove, and the fresh garlic mixed in with the light broth and al dente noodles was really something else. Sumi and I are self-styled Hakata Ramen connoisseurs (Ichiran being the best, due to its customizability), and this place is one of the best.

Full and tired, we headed back to Yado 01 so I could get my grading finished. Of course that means I promptly fell asleep. For eight hours. I woke up and 9pm wide awake and proceeded to work for the next nine hours finishing up all of my grading for the year. Finally done and ready to actually be on vacation, Sumi and I headed to the train station to catch the early Shinkansen to Kumamoto.