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Published: February 18th 2009
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Kokura castle sitting alongside the more modern Riverwalk shopping centre...this is Japan I'm now in Fukuoka, I'm sure you've all at least heard of Fukuoka, they held the world swimming championships here a few years ago, I remember they showed all the swimmers eating ramen (noodles) at some of the restaurants on the TV. But before I start with Fukuoka let's get back to Kitakyushu or Kokura, whichever you want to call it. After a quick breakfast I deposited my backpack in a locker for the day, I swear the train station lockers are going to make so much money out of me during this trip!
Anyway, the main reason for going to Kokura was to shop! I had heard that if you want to go shopping in Kyushu then Kokura is THE place to go, so thats exactly what I did. I did visit a few attractions in the morning first, I went to Kokura castle, which looked like the original on the outside but was just like a museum on the inside. It was good though, the exhibits were intereseting and most of them were interactive so you could press buttons and move things and stuff so that made it better. I also went to some Japanese gardens that were
Tiger
Inside Kokura castle just outside the castle grounds, small but very pretty.
But around lunchtime I headed to the big department store/ shopping centre whatever it was called and did my thing there all day. The place was called riverwalk and is located, yep you guessed it, on the edge of the river. On the bottom floor you can sit on the wooden pier bit outside and have lunch or coffee or whatever your heart desires, quite pretty. But the rest of the building or bulidings were 5 or 6 stories high and they had so many shops! And good ones too! I had really missed my shopping centres, they don't have big ones in Hakodate so I was having withdrawal symptoms I think!
I would have loved to buy so many things but my backpack is already full to capacity so I couldn't fit any more in! As it is I now have an extra bag to carry, when I was in Hagi and bought that tea bowl for my tea ceremony teacher the old lady gave me this big bag to put it in although the tea bowl itself is only little, the bag funnily enough has a huge
English flag on it, so now people think I'm English! One lady that I talked to on the train even asked me what part of England I came from, I promptly told her I was an Aussie and proud of it!! Anyway, that huge bag has now come in handy!
I stayed there til about 4.30 in the arvo, my dad will read this and say how can you walk around the shopping centre for four and a half hours? Well Dad if you were a girl you would understand! The shopping centre was quite cool actually, it had this fountain in the middle that did "shows" every half hour. It spurted out the water to the tune of music and had light displays and everything, very cool. Kept everyone mesmerised every half hour thats for sure! They also had a dance battle competition on today, that was really good to watch. The little kids were the best though, I was expecting simple little dances because these kids were only around 4 and 5 years old but they were really good, better than anything I could do! They were dancing to rap songs and doing hip hop dances, one
of the little boys was so cute, wearing baggy jeans and a hat sideways and a big red t-shirt dancing like he was a professional, he would have been the youngest I reckon. You would have loved it Kels, right up your alley, I could see you doing something like that actually.
They had absolutely every type of shop you could think of, even a jewellery shop for couples, every thing on sale was for couples, matching this and that, saw a couple of girls drag their boyfriends into that store and then point out something they like and give the puppy dog eyes, do we really all look that pathetic?!! Some Japanese girls can be so meek though, this one couple wanted this set of necklaces or something and so the boyfriend told his girlfriend to call the shop assistant over and ask for it, she actually started to shake and half hid behind him and said she wouldn't do it because she didn't know what to say!!! Umm, let me think , what about "I'd like to buy this please" thats a good start! I don't mean to generalize, not all of them are like that but
I've seen quite a few.
Anyway, after my day of shopping I went back to the station to catch a train to Fukuoka, here. A little girl at the station stopped me and wanted to talk english with me because she was doing an assignment for school and had to interview foreigners. Asked me a few questions and the took a photo with me and shook my hand. Why do Japanese people always want to shake foreigners hands? Its sort of wierd cos as a girl I never really do it, occassionaly but not all the time. I suppose its a nice gesture really, they are acknowledging a custom of ours just like they expect us to bow to them when we meet a Japanese...right?
It took me just over an hour to get to Fukuoka by train, and because both Kokura and Fukuoka are big cities they have direct trains between them, no transfers! Yatta!! Fukuoka is a lot bigger than Kokura, found my hotel easily enough but after I checked in I wanted to find this internet cafe and also an international ATM where I could get money out and it took me awhile to get my bearings! I went to the information booth at the station and got a map and found out that it would be easier to catch the subway to this district (where the internet cafe is), so I did that but you kow what subways are like, they have 20 different exits and they all come up at busy intersections and you have no idea where you are or which direction is north, I thought I had found the way but after walking for 5 minutes and not seeing the cafe which was supposed to be really close to the subway station I asked at a convenience store and found I was walking in the complete opposite direction! This is why I couldn't live in a big city! The size of Hiroshima was about as big as I would go, easily navigatable and no need for subways!
So here I am, in Fukuoka, my second stop in Kyushu. Kyushu is the 3rd biggest island of Japan, have I mentioned that? Japan has 4 main islands and this is one of them and is also the furthest south, well Okinawa is further south but thats not included in the main islands and they are really a chain of islands anyway. It's been hot here (as in Kyushu) so far but there is a wind all the time so it doesn't feel so bad. I'm here in Fukuoka for 3 nights, one of the things good to do here is also shop, maybe just window shopping this time though! But there are also a few other good things to do and see so I'm looking forward to it.
Well thats all my news up to date so far, one week in and its going too fast already! But I am determined to enjoy myself and make the most of my time!
Till next time...
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Tom Gowing
non-member comment
thanks
I really enjoyed reading your experiences in Kokura - its a good place - My wife grew up there - ! thanks and all the best in your travels !