The Golden Week - Part 1

Ok after writing a 16 page, 8000 word epic blog about my Golden week escapades I decided no one would want to read all that in one go and as a result have split this blog into 2 parts. Part 2 will be released a week from today so please check that out when its up. Ok, here we go…

This week was awesome as I set off on my first proper epic trip completely on my own. On Friday night I went to Nagoya station to begin my adventure, although I first stopped off at The Hub in Sakae to meet some friends for a quick drink.

When I got tho the station I looked around for the bus going to Fukuoka, Kyushu (my first destination) and eventually found a guy with a sign for the time my bus was leaving. After introducing myself I was instructed to wait a second. A few seconds later a Japanese couple introduced themselves to him, and he gave them instructions on how to find the bus, before asking them if they could guide me as well.

The bus was round the corner and on the way I made chitchat with the couple about their lives and why they were going to Kyushu etc. When we found the bus I got on and was seated next to another fellow gaijin named Thomas who was a German student studying Japanese language and regional science. The bus was going to be a 12 hour journey, travelling through the night to get to Fukuoka, so it was good to have someone to chat to, and Thomas was a pretty interesting guy.

The journey was ok although I found it impossible to sleep, and due to traffic we arrived an hour later than planned. When we got to Fukuoka it was about 9am on a beautiful sunny day, and I first found a restaurant to have some breakfast in. Before long I was chowing down on some lush Udon tempura and after that I went to find my hotel to check in.

Because Golden Week is a ridiculously busy time, finding accommodation in Fukuoka was next to impossible but eventually Ayae had found me a Capsule Hotel that had some availability. I had never stayed in a Capsule Hotel before so was looking forward to an original experience. The idea behind a Capsule Hotel is that each person sleeps in a space a bit bigger than a coffin, and because of this economic use of space you can sometimes get a hundred or so people in each room.

After checking in (which had to be done entirely in Japanese), I was given a key to a locker to put all my stuff in. After putting my stuff away, I headed upstairs to take a shower. The Capsule Hotel I had been booked into was somewhat of a luxury hotel (except for the fact that everyone sleeps in matchboxes) and had services like massages, restaurants and various health thingys. Anyway there was 11 floors, and the top one was for the showers and baths (completely public of course).

After a shower, I decided to have a relax in the baths to get myself ready for a hectic day of sightseeing. The baths were well lush with loads of varieties. There was one which had these balls in the ceiling that sprayed warm water on you while you soaked. Also there was one called “Blue Silk” and which had really cloudy blue water. Another one had underwater chairs which you could sit on while a fountain sprayed water up from underneath you, and as well as these there was a variety of baths at different temperatures, some of them ludicrously hot.

After getting suitably relaxed, I got dressed into some shorts and T shirt and set off to explore Fukuoka.

Fukuoka is the capital of Kyushu and actually used to be 2 cities, one called Hakata, and the other called Fukuoka. Anyway after deciding I wanted to visit Kyushu I decided to go to Fukuoka as had read that it was a cool cheap city with good nightlife.

Using the Lonely Planet Japan book as my guide, I started with Tocho-ji which boasted the largest wooden Buddha statue in Japan. This was a well lush temple and the statue was proper epic. I was told that I wasn’t allowed to take photos although luckily this was after I had already taken one.

I saw a tunnel under the statue which was marked entrance in Kanji, so decided to head towards it. Inside there was a dark gallery of paintings of Buddhist hell which were lit up. After seeing those I continued through the tunnel and the lighting suddenly finished. I wondered if I should turn back as I thought I might be going into the monks private quarters or something. Anyway I continued a bit into this pitch black, then turned around only to find that the route behind me was completely dark and I could literally not see anything.

I decided that I had to keep going although I was a bit scared that I would walk into a wall or something. I outstretched my hand and eventually found a wall. This curved round and round so I had no idea if I was going towards or away from the Hell gallery. Anyway after about 30 seconds of walking I got a bit nervous as it was still completely pitch black, I literally couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. I figured I had no choice and so continued. After a while I saw a faint light a few feet in front of me and so walked towards it. The tunnel curved round and there was a lit up painting of Buddha with loads of light around him.

I continued into the tunnel and eventually it curved round back into the temple area. This seemed well bright after the perpetual darkness I had just experienced, but was slightly relieving.

After seeing the rest of the temple I continued toward central Fukuoka and after walking for a few minutes came across Canal City. This is an epic shopping mall that was built next to one of the many canals of Fukuoka. The mall was basically about 5 shopping malls together that were joined by balconys. In fact the shop fronts were all on lush balconys that overlooked the canal. Anyway there was a good 5 floors to Canal City which meant it was like a city unto itself (thus the name presumably).

After doing a spot of clothes shopping, I continued round Canal city and found a Sega Land arcade on the top floor where I indulged in some video gaming action. After that I decided it was about time I found some lunch and had decided a long time ago where to have my lunch. Throughout Japan, Fukuoka/Hakata is famous for Ramen noodles and more specifically Tonkotsu Ramen which is where the soup is made from pork bones. Everyone I had told that I was going to Fukuoka had said that I had to try some Hakata ramen and I had found out about a place in Canal City called “Raumen Stadium” (they had spelt it wrong!) which sounded very appropriate.

Ramen Stadium was basically a floor of Canal city that had about 15 Ramen restaurants all next to each other, as well as Ramen based gift shops and displays. In the middle there were TV screens showing a documentary about Ramen. In this theme park like atmosphere, I decided I had made a wise decision on where to try Hakata ramen.

The “Stadium” was packed with people, presumably mainly tourists on their Golden Week vacation. After finding the restaurant with the smallest queue outside, I ordered some Tonkotsu ramen from the vending machine and collected my ticket. When I got inside I handed my ticket to a waitress and she asked me something in Japanese which I didn’t understand. After several attempts I eventually heard her say the word “Katai” meaning “hard”, and put 2 and 2 together. She was asking me how I wanted my noodles, hard or soft. I ordered them nice and al dente and sat down at the packed counter to wait.

After a few minutes my ramen came, and Im not sure if it was the Ramen infused atmosphere or just the intense build up of expectation, but this ramen was the nicest I had ever tasted. Its difficult to describe how nice, but basically it was delicious.

After leaving the restaurant I checked out the rest of Canal city and found some awesome escalators that had no stairs (instead they were like the walkway things in airports, but at an angle so that you got up to the next floor), as well as finding some really cool things going on on the ground floor. There were clowns, Shamisen (3 stringed Okinawa guitar thingys) players, as well as some awesome statues of animals made from like plants and stuff. In addition to this the Canal itself had loads of awesome fountains that performed at regular intervals.

When I left Canal City I headed to find central Fukuoka. On the way the streets were absolutely packed with people, some of them groups of dancers wearing matching costumes. I had actually arrived on the day of the Hakata Dontaku Matsuri (festival) which was a parade thing which traditionally featured dancers banging rice paddles together accompanied by some Shamisen players.

After walking for a while I took a right into “Tenjin chuo Koen”, a massive park featuring the ACROS Fukuoka building. This was some sort of international cultural centre, and looked awesome. There was this massive central dome within an artificial hill like structure. The sides featured a “Step Garden” which was flight after flight of steps to the top featuring a variety of different plants and trees.

To get to the ACROS building I had to walk across the central green of the park which was packed with people including loads of dance groups practicing, including some capoeira dancers and some absolutely awesome breakdancers. I also checked out some of the “Yatai” (food stalls) which is another thing Fukuoka is famous for. Following the Yatai, I ended up on one of the main high streets where the parade itself was going on.

The streets were packed with people watching the parade of various floats and dance troupes go by. At one point this huge lion thing came by with a guy standing on top of it screaming stuff in Japanese. The “lion” routinely breathed out steam as well which was awesome. There was also some rice paddle bangers doing their thing which was pretty cool.

After watching for a while I headed to find some more shops and found a good English language bookstore where I bought a book, and a sunglasses stall where I bought some new shades. After that I headed back to the ACROS building and decided to make an attempt at climbing this thing. After what seemed like forever I eventually made it to the top and got some awesome views of the city. I could see the dancers practicing in the park, the parade going by on the main road, and another stage where some other random thing was going on.

After taking a breather, I went back down the other side and admired some of the plants on the way. When I got to the bottom, I bought an ice cream and sat on the main green to relax for a bit. There was one more thing I wanted to see although it was already getting late and I had a strict timetable to stick to that evening.

Hawks Town was kind of like Canal City although it was on the sea instead. It got its name from the Fukuoka Sea Hawks baseball team, whose stadium was located there. There was also a resort called the Sea Hawk Hotel which was a really tall building that apparently gave awesome views of the city. I travelled there by subway and after about a 20 minute walk managed to locate the stadium and the hotel. I headed into the ridiculously posh hotel, and a smartly dressed doormen opened the door for me, not so smartly dressed in shorts and a T shirt and sweating profusely.

I took the glass lift up which was awesome although it did make me feel a bit sick. On the top floor all the windows looking out seemed to be in restaurants, and as I couldn’t possibly afford even a starter at these kinds of places, I turned down all the door people offering me a table. Eventually I found a restaurant with an unmanned door, and subtly crept in to take a few pictures before slipping out. The view was awesome and I got a great view of the baseball stadium where a Sea Hawks game had just finished, meaning there was also an awesome view of the crowds.

After I left it took me a while to get to the subway as there was huge crowds of people. Many of these were taking the subway which meant it was well cramped when I eventually got on a train. After a few stops I realized I was on the wrong line. Nagoyas subway system is something I deal with every day but even so I consider it the best I have ever used, better even than Tokyo. Fukuokas however is properly confusing with a really bizarre color coding system (not really a system, more like a random color for each station regardless of which line it is), and in addition to this the trains aren’t that regular. Anyway after a while I managed to get back to my capsule at about 730pm.

I had decided that I really wanted to experience the Fukuoka nightlife but first required some sleep having not had any on the way from Nagoya. I got inside my capsule and slept for a couple of hours before my alarm went off. I then had a shower, got dressed and went out.

The main nightlife district was called Tenjin, and there was a series of bars that I had read about in my LP book that sounded pretty good. Before that though I wanted to get some food and decided to go where there were supposed to be a load of food stalls. On the way I saw a man dressed like a frog surrounded by loads of guys dressed like tadpoles and one woman. Which was weird.

After getting lost a few times I eventually stumbled upon a few Yatai, and sat at one where there was a space. As I said before, Fukuoka is famous for Yatai, and a student of mine recommended it as a highlight of visiting as the owners were so friendly. Whilst most of the usual Takoyaki, Fried chicken and other fried foods stalls were there I decided to stick with the tradition and go to a ramen Yatai, where they had a proper counter and chairs.

I sat down and ordered some Kim Chi Ramen and relaxed. Whilst he was cooking, the owner was talking to all the diners and eventually I managed to engage in the conversation. There was a couple next to me named Nobu and Kumiko and when I asked where they were from, I was surprised to hear them say Nagoya. In fact they live in a suburb a few miles from Nisshin where I live. After talking for a few minutes my food arrived and it was pretty tasty although after I had finished I was still a little hungry. I had overhead some other customers order some Gyoza (Chinese dumplings) and so ordered some of those as well.

Whilst I waited Nobu and Kumiko asked me how you say certain Japanese words in English and I suddenly got a flashback to the first time I came to Japan, when me and some friends hassled a Japanese barman on how to say certain English words in Japanese. I felt a minor sense of accomplishment in how far my Japanese skills had come as I had crossed to the other side of the fence of being better at Japanese than the average Japanese is at English.

Whilst I was relishing my achievement my Gyoza arrived and I proceeded to cover them in a ridiculous amount of hot sauce which Nobu kindly suggested might make them taste horrible. After a load of soy sauce was added into the mix, I was good to go though and thoroughly enjoyed them.

After talking for a few minutes more I figured I should start drinking and after getting a picture with Nobu and Kumiko I got up to leave. I was about 20 metres down the road when I heard someone shouting. I turned round and walked back to the Yatai. The woman who also worked there alongside the male chef said something to me in Japanese which I didn’t understand. She bowed though, so I bowed back said thank you and left. She continued to talk though, and eventually someone walking by came up to me and said in English “You haven’t paid yet”. After all the ego building of the previous hour of Japanese conversation, and feeling like my skills were awesome, it all suddenly came crashing down as masses of embarrassment washed over me. I paid the bill and left, tail firmly between my legs.

After a few minutes of convincing myself to appreciate my successes rather than my failures, I found myself outside a bar that I had read about in my book. There were a few others that sounded cooler but upon visiting them found that they were either closed, had an entrance fee, or were impossible to find.

The bar I eventually settled on was a rock bar called The Dark Room and was on the 8th floor of a building on Oyafuko-dori which is the road with all the bars and clubs on it. When I got in I ordered a cocktail and sat down at the bar. The drink was considerably cheaper than drinks usually are in Japan , and in fact another thing Kyushu in general is popular for is being cheaper than the other islands.

I made chit chat with the bar staff for a while before striking up a conversation with a German guy who had only been in Fukuoka a week or so himself. When asked what he did I expected to hear either “English teacher” or “Student”, so I was a bit surprised when he said he worked for the Circus. He was a scenery director and had been working for Canadian company Cirque de Soleil for the past 2 years, which had taken him all round Japan. I met some of his friends who also worked for the circus and after talking for a while they left, and I started talking to another random. This guy was an American called Moses who it turned out, was the owner.

I talked to him about what its like to own a bar in Japan, and he was really safe although he was proper wasted, and went off on a tangent about a story about REM which I didn’t really understand. Anyway, what I didn’t know is that the Dark Room is often frequented by rockstars when they do tours of Japan. There was a few screens on the walls which Moses directed my attention to, and they had a slideshow of pictures playing. On occasion a picture would pop up of Moses with The Offspring, or Slash, or Sum 41, and even Keanu Reeves.

Anyway after a few minutes, Moses disappeared (probably to part the red sea or something; Sorry!, Couldn’t resist), and I started talking to an American called Tyler. Tyler had originally come to Fukuoka with the Navy a few years ago and was now studying Japanese here. Anyway he was a nice enough bloke until I asked him which clubs he recommended and he said this club called Infinity “used to be good but now its full of Blacks”. After that I made my excuses and left.
After walking down Oyafuko-dori for a while I came across a club called “Sam and Daves” which was a chain of nightclubs that ran all over Japan. I had visited 2 of these establishments in Osaka and had had maybe the best night out of my life in one of them, so I figured the Fukuoka branch would be a good bet. I was still on my own at this stage despite having set out at the start of the night to make some “friends for the night”. Anyway, undeterred I headed into Sam and Daves and started drinking. The club was absolutely packed with both Japanese and gaijin and the music was vaguely hip hoppy.

After chatting with a few gaijin, I eventually happened on a group featuring some English and Australian people, and found that they were actually really safe. I drunk, chatted and danced with these guys for a while and decided I had found my “friends for the night”. As the night wore on I spent a silly amount of money, but the night was proper awesome. We left the club around 5 and after saying my goodbyes I headed back to my Capsule Hotel. This was a fair distance, and the trains still hadn’t started, so I had to walk for about 30 minutes. Eventually I ended up in my capsule around 6, and tried to get some much needed sleep.

Ok thats the end of day one. Next week Ill go into what happened on days 2 and 3 of my Golden week excursion. Til then yo!!!

Peace out

Jack

P.S Heres a couple of videos, one of Ramen stadium, and one of the dancers and parade and general mayhem of Fukuoka from the top of the ACROS building.