Just a little side trip between the time when we arrived in Japan and before we left for Nagasaki!
Since quite a bit of us came to Fukuoka early, we got to explore the surrounding area! I woke up and left at 7:30am with some friends and other students from the JASIN program to go sight seeing and shopping!! Our friend Matt had been there for a bit longer than we had, so he acted as our tour guide for the entire day!
Down the street from the hotel is a street full of temples!! They’re so beautiful~ It was early morning so unfortunately we didn’t go inside any of them. We continued to walk down a loooong way and went up Fukuoka Castle!! It was steep and a little bit tiring and scary, but the views from the top were gorgeous!
Here’s some with Gunter!
Our first meal of the day was just food from a 7-11, but we decided to walk around to the back and just eat there rather than going to the park lol.
After that we walked over to the park, centered around a HUGE pond. It’s pretty hot, so the nice breeze by the water felt so nice~ we walked around and through it. There were so many gorgeous views, it reminded me a little bit of Central Park back home.
We continued down and walked up a hill to a little area for sitting, and then wandered off from there to find a bunch of little shrines.
Some friends bought some gifts, and from there we turned around to go home.
On the way back, we stopped by this huge shrine!
I learned that people are supposed to walk on the sides, because gods and deities walk through the center. Shrine maidens (Miko) and priests walk through the middle as well. We saw a Miko talking to our friends and walked over, and into one of the shrines to buy souvenirs. I bought this!
It’s for making my wish come true (I wished for eternal happiness for me and my friends!).
After that we decided to go to a book off… which we ended up not being able to find… But we did find another mall area with a book/hobby shop at the top! I was so excited at seeing all of these anime series that I love.
Seeing the Haikyuu!!, Love Live, and Free! merchandise stands made me a little sad since it reminded me so much of my friends back at home. It was still only my first day there, so I held off on buying anything.
Fukuoka
Down the street from the hotel is a street full of temples!! They’re so beautiful~ It was early morning so unfortunately we didn’t go inside any of them. We continued to walk down a loooong way and went up Fukuoka Castle!! It was steep and a little bit tiring and scary, but the views from the top were gorgeous!
Here’s some with Gunter!
Our first meal of the day was just food from a 7-11, but we decided to walk around to the back and just eat there rather than going to the park lol.
After that we walked over to the park, centered around a HUGE pond. It’s pretty hot, so the nice breeze by the water felt so nice~ we walked around and through it. There were so many gorgeous views, it reminded me a little bit of Central Park back home.
We continued down and walked up a hill to a little area for sitting, and then wandered off from there to find a bunch of little shrines.
Some friends bought some gifts, and from there we turned around to go home.
On the way back, we stopped by this huge shrine!
I learned that people are supposed to walk on the sides, because gods and deities walk through the center. Shrine maidens (Miko) and priests walk through the middle as well. We saw a Miko talking to our friends and walked over, and into one of the shrines to buy souvenirs. I bought this!
It’s for making my wish come true (I wished for eternal happiness for me and my friends!).
After that we decided to go to a book off… which we ended up not being able to find… But we did find another mall area with a book/hobby shop at the top! I was so excited at seeing all of these anime series that I love.
Seeing the Haikyuu!!, Love Live, and Free! merchandise stands made me a little sad since it reminded me so much of my friends back at home. It was still only my first day there, so I held off on buying anything.
We had a lot of fun here!
Samantha Lee
Next Articlebetter late than never!