I LOVE Fukuoka

Fukuoka was a city I never heard of prior to coming to Japan for the second time. One of new travel friends mentioned flying into the city, but outside of that– It was out of sight, outta mind.

That was until I purchased my 7 day JR rail pass and realized I needed to go further distances to really make the pass worth the money. See, originally I was going to activate the pass on 3/23 when I went to Tokyo for the second time with a group of friends from Remote Year but realized I loved Japan so much that I wanted to extend my trip another week so I thought I should activate my JR pass on 3/26, on the way back to Osaka.

What I didn’t realize is that the trip to Tokyo from Osaka was the trip that made my JR pass worth it cause all the other trips I was planning to use with the pass were pretty close to Osaka. When I realized this, I searched for the further location I could go from ShinOsaka station, and that’s when I saw Hakata station (Fukuoka).

So I booked a round trip ticket to Fukuoka with my JR Pass and came into the city, not knowing what to expect. Yesterday I came into ShinOsaka around 11am and it was complete chaos. Everyone and their mom was at the station. By the time I got to the ticket machine all of the morning/early afternoon trains were booked! I ended up getting a train for 2pm that arrived in Hakata at 4.30ish pm. I mostly slept on the train, which was packed!

By the time I arrived in the city, it was quite foggy but I already had a goal. I had to see the Gundam stationed at the LaLaport mall. So I hoped on a bus as soon as I got off at Hakata Station.

When I finally got around to see the Gundam, I was in awe (again!). He was hugeous! And there were a ton of opportunities to get a photo with the Gundam without a million other people in the photo. That’s when I first noticed that the City wasn’t swamping with tourist. There might have been one other foreigner there that I noticed.

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I spent roughly two hours in that area, did a little shopping, ate while admiring the Gundam and took a ton of photos! I didn’t leave until I saw the Gundam show, which features Char. It was pretty cool. And I official visited all the Gundams in Japan during this trip. Who else can say they did that?! Especially considering Yokohama’s Gundam is being taken down. 

After the Gundam, I went towards the city to check into my hotel, The Lively Fukuoka Hakata. It’s a cute space that houses two different hotels. The location was actually perfect, on a little island in the middle of the city and a ton of attractions nearby.
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I recovered for a bit in the hotel cause I only had 4 hours of sleep from the night prior cause I was out throwing it back at this new club in Osaka (that’s a whole other story, don’t slam down Soju with parental supervision).

After I was done recovering I decided to go out to a gay bar, just to see the vibe. I knew it was late on a Sunday night but you never know. I walked down this really lively street in Nakasu and then down a street that was hella sketchy. It looked like a street full of strip clubs and E-Girl lounges. I had a few guys call out to me but I just sped walk passed the group.

When I finally made it to the tip, I ran into Canal City and heard someone singing their heart off at the Seiryu park. I thought to myself, lemme see what this is about. Went over to the park and saw a ton of food carts, the aforementioned live singer who was singing in English, and beautiful city views. I ordered myself some long fries since options for vegetarians were slim here. It was in this moment that I really succumbed to the charm of the city. It just felt so magical and I was living for it.

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I did go to the gay bar but never went in cause the area was quite dead, and I noticed street lights take over four minutes to turn in this area of Fukuoka, I admittedly jaywalked cause what the heeeeeck!?

Then I went back to my hotel and saw the hottest guy I’ve laid eyes on behind the counter of the hotel. Man had rizz. But honestly, let’s rewind a bit. I’ve been in Japan since March 3rd, and I’ve seen some cuties here and there but lemme tell you … The finest Japanese men are in Fukuoka. I saw many very attractive men here, far more than any other major city. Like normally I’d see one or two handsome guys a day, out in Fukuoka, the boys were coming correct.

I ended up oversleeping, walking up an hour before check out. I didn’t set an alarm but I was hoping I’d walk up at 9am to check out and explore the city. My day started around 12pm today after I ran to Hakata station to get tickets back to ShinOsaka at 6:45pm. It was at the station where I learned from a new travel friend that there was a Hello Kitty train that traveled the route I was going. Couldn’t book that train but I did manage to grab tickets for that train for later this week (Osaka -> Kobe).

After securing tickets and dropping off my bags into a coin locker, I headed out to TeamLab Forest, since I wasn’t able to get tickets for the activations in Tokyo, this would have to do! The experience was really cool! The Capture and Learn was a very unique experience. The colors and interactiveness of the first area was really fun! I spent half an hour in there before realizing there were other areas! My favorite area was the bouncing mushrooms. You had to jump on these little mushroom caps by color, they were quite bouncy and the room was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.  I spent about an hour at TeamLabs Forest before heading over to the Fukuoka Castle Ruins. Once there, I noticed cherry blossoms were everywhere! I saw the most beautiful walkway into the park, filled with people (most likely locals) taking photos. I swear I was one of the only touristas there. I’m sure there were others but Fukuoka is nothing like Osaka, Kyoto and Japan right now, literally swamping.

The park was really beautiful, filled with Cherry Blossoms trees at different stages but quite a few in the castle grounds blooming and others scattered throughout. Fukuoka gave me the Sakura experience I’ve been desperately waiting for! At one point I received a flyer from one of the park volunteers/workers and realized there were a host of stamps available at the park, 11 total to be exact! Turns out I was at the park during a Cherry Blossom festival! Yaaaaay, how serendipitous! I spent like two hours wandering around the park collecting stamps, taking pictures and enjoying the cherry blossoms. I also treated myself to some Takoyaki and a churro! I felt like have something Japanese with a side of sweetness.

(Picture of Stamps + Food from the festival).

I kinda spent too much time at the park, realizing that I was going to cut things close with my departure. I had two more things I really wanted to do in Fukuoka at that point… See Nokonoshima Island Park and go up Fukuoka part. At this point it was 3.40pm. I called an Uber to Meinohama ferry station, collected a stamped and walked for the 4.15pm ferry. The ferries come every hour and they only take ten minutes to cross over to the island. Once there I transferred on the bus to go up to the park. There was a very sweet attendant who was fluent in English there. She told me I only had half an hour to really enjoy the park since I arrived at the entrance around 4.50pm. She gave me a nap and told me the best route to travel to get the most of my experience. She also gave me a 500¥ discount since I was so late.

From there I made my way through the park enjoying all the sights I could soak up within that short time period. It was beautiful! I saw more cherry blossoms, marigolds, and field full of daffodils. Gorgeous!

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I was able to enjoy half the park in the half hour I was allowed before the park closed and the final boss left the entrance. On the way back I realized I wouldn’t make Fukuoka Tower if I wanted to catch my 6.45pm train. So fuck it, I would just ride unreserved on whatever train I could get back to Osaka.

I got back to Meinohama ferry station at 6.10pm and waited for the bus to Fukuoka Tower. When I finally got to see the Tower up close I was in awe. Japan makes beautiful sky towers and it’s now a goal of mine to visit EVERY SINGLE TOWER. Fukuoka Tower is the third highest tower behind Sky Tree and Tokyo Tower, which means I’ve visited the top three during this visit as well. Look at me being a travel baddie, period! 

Fukuoka Tower had gorgeous panoramic views of the city and ocean. I got there as the sun was setting so I got some awesome photos of the city at dusk and at night with all the lights. I collected more stamps, got a Fukuoka Tower gacha and made a wish on a Sakura petal.

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And after my visit, it was finally time to leave. I ventured out of the tower to snap a few more photos of this gorgeous tower with its night lights before finally grab a cab (for 3,150¥) to Hakata Station.

I got to the station at 8pm, knowing the next train I could catch was at 8:18pm but I wanted to at least see the Hakata Pokemon Center, which I did. I went up the elevator to the 8F, saw the closed store and snapped a picture with the Pokemon statues before hauling ass to the coin locker. I made it to the coin locker at 8.08pm, but realized very quickly that something was wrong… I never received a QR code nor did I use my ICOCA card to scan my locker. My stuff was just trapped.

I panicked and went to the JR Station help desk to ask for assistance. The attendants didn’t speak English but they told me to call the number on the lockers. I went back to the lockers to try to call but the number wasn’t working. I went back to ask for security and they called of a security guard. In the interim, I waited for a bit, researched the last train from the station (9.09pm) and panicked more. My anxiety started to get the better of me cause I went back to the locker for a third time, tried to go through the prompts again, and finally just punched the locker out of anger cause I had a feeling I was going to have to leave my stuff behind to catch the last train to Osaka. I have a photoshoot tomorrow morning in Kyoto (starting at 7.40am) and I couldn’t miss out on that.  Embarrassed that I resorted to a bit of anger, I went back to the JR Station attendees to ask what would happen to my stuff if I left it. Luckily an elderly security guard came and saved the day! He took my payment for the locker, took my information down and opened up that damned coin locker– freeing my belongings and allowing me to catch the second to last bullet train out of Hakata.

And now I’m on my way back to ShinOsaka. Planning to go check into my tiny little hotel room, grab all my essentials for my photoshoot and then meet up with Jean (long term friend whom I traveled all over the world with at this point). I’ll be spending the night at his Airbnb cause he has a private bathroom, perfect for getting ready for a photo shoot and then it’s off to Kyoto for a kimono rental /photo session with Donna (sister of a RY friend that’s in Vietnam now). I’m so looking forward to this shoot because I suspect I’ll barely get any sleep seeing as how late I’m getting back tonight. I’m also going to catch up with Jean and do some prep before the shoot so I’ll probably get five hours of sleep if I’m lucky!

All in all, today was one of the best days of my trip to Japan. Definitely a highlight of my trip … But then again there were so many highlights this trip that I’m honestly seriously considering living in Japan. I love it here. And if I were to live here, I honestly can see me like in Fukuoka. It has everything I need: Beautiful city, transit system, pretty boys, a beach and charm. I love Fukuoka and I’m so happy I got to spend the last 24 hours there.

I look forward to the next time I visit this beautiful port city again! 