Kyushu 2023 - Hakata Food and Bye Bye Kyushu!

Last day in Fukuoka/Hakata. I spend it shopping on my own at Hakata JR City area, while my husband went for the Evangelion Exhibition. I actually bought clothes while shopping! Got a t-shirt I wanted for only 500yen! Which was less than 5sgd! Got it from Uniqlo in on of their off-season bin. Score! After that, I met up with the husband at a restaurant we first dine at when we landed in Fukuoka. Good start, good end! 

Sorry for the dim lighting. The restaurant was kinda dark. We were there just for lunch, so we just sat at the counter since the place was pretty packed! I know some people hate sitting at counter seats, but I actually love it, cause there are just so much more to see while eating! It's almost like a dining show!

We went for traditional fish set and enjoyed every single bite of it.

It was a family restaurant, but the range of sake served here is amazing! The husband did tried some.

For dinner, I decided that I needed to try the Motsunabe once before I leave Fukuoka. This was intestine hotpot, and I told myself I would eat this if I won't the 5000Yen prize money from a contest, since I mentioned this as one of the things I wanted to try. I wanted to try their Yatai food too, but that was rather intimidating, and we didn't really went to those streets with Yatai Food. Anyway, Motsunade for dinner! And it cost way above my 5000Yen! Hahahaha. That was because we ordered a set meal instead of just the hotpot.

I love that it has so much chives on it. And the soup was super nice and creamy and hearty! I would eat this again any time! It was delicious and I can understand now why it was the soul food of Fukuoka. It just warms the heart when you eat this. Goes well with almost anything!

I also managed to try this Canele from the Hakata JR Station. It's opened by a French man living in Japan, and I've been following his instagram. Since I was here, I thought I'll support him buy buying some of his snacks. I follow a lot of Japanese instagrammer and Youtuber and I do support them, usually by buying their books as most YouTubers also sold books.

We also managed a last sushi meal at the sushi restaurant at Canal City before we left.

This time we just ordered plates and plates of sushi instead of any set.

Me and my tower or sushi plates! I don't know if it's rude or not to stack up the plates, but it was a habit I picked up from my foster family in Hiroshima last time. Sushi was a food the kids love and get excited about. And no, Japanese don't eat sushi everyday! It's practically a treat for them too!

Time to leave beautiful Kyushu. 

Not much to eat at the airport lounge, so I entertained myself with these small snacks.

Had some simple noodles and coffee and that was about it. Premium Lounge is probably the most un-exciting airport lounge to go to. 

Oh well, free food is still food! Got to load up before the long flight home. Bye bye Kyushu! You have been amazing and I would love to come back as I still have so much more places I wanted to visit but didn't get a chance to. Stay safe! Until we meet again!

So ends our trip to Kyushu. For the next blog entry, I am thinking of doing my China Beijing trip instead of another Japan trip. This is to also motivate myself to plan for my September 2025 Shanghai semi-solo trip. So let's see! I might have to take a short break to sort out the photos though. Hopefully I can still manage a daily post without a break as I would like to keep my momentum of posting daily.

Kyushu 2023 - Hakata Canal City

We took some time to wander around Canal City, and Gundam Base shop was one of my to-visit store here. I think this is my first time going to a fully Gundam store. I've only ever been to a pop-up stall before. I thought it was the only Gundam Base store in Japan, but later found out there are a few more around Japan. But this one was pretty impressive!

Besides being a grown up boy's toy store, it also houses exhibit of all types of Gundam. The display was pretty extensive and detailed. Even if I'm not a fan, I enjoyed just browsing around the shop looking at the display. The oversized boys there were pretty much buying up everything in the store! There was consistently a long queue at the counter to pay! And the toys they bought were mostly in the 3 digit range (3 digit SGD, not yen!)

Life size Gundam at the store. Yup, the husband also bought some smaller ones. He told me it was for a friend..... Yeah.....

At the generic mall area, they also sold super cheesy stuff, like ultraman merchandise!

Or this wrestler from Fukuoka! It actually reminded me of this character call Hard Gay from Japan, a comedian which I was pretty much obsess with once. His clips available on YouTube is hilarious. I wonder if blogspot is gonna ban this post because I mentioned his name.....

I saw these super cute ultramen soft toys and was contemplating whether to buy them, either for myself or for a friend who super loves these. In the end, I didn't get any cause I wasn't really a big fan. Ultramen was before my time or generation. 

Totoro shops are everywhere, so nothing special. Yet every time I see one, I still need to go in to walk around and think of how expensive everything was, and whether I would regret not buying anything. I do love Ghibli, but their things are just too expensive, even in Japan! But if you manage to find some made in China ones, sometimes the price range is lower. I got a thermo and some lunch boxes of Ghibli from Donki Japan before and they were below 20sgd each. 

Saw an Anpan-Man museum too. Didn't went in cause you have to pay for tickets. It's catered mainly to young kids, and although I do like Anman-man, I wasn't going to pay for the tickets to go into a kids' playland!

Kyushu 2023 - Nagasaki to Hakata via Train

 

The next morning, we were checking out. My breakfast, egg pudding overlooking Nagasaki City. Yes, I do consider pudding as breakfast material as it has eggs and milk, so protein! Besides, all these black caramel pudding in Japan is simply delicious! I can't go without eating one whenever I am here. Of course there are those freshly made ones in glass bottle sold in onsen town, but those are usually more expensive. These plastic ones found in convenient stores or supermarkets are just as good.

We were taking the train back to Hakata City. And since we've already used up our 7days Kyushu JR pass, we had to pay full price for the train ride back. It wasn't that expensive thankfully! Note to self, next time plan how to get anywhere before booking the hotels!!!

Our tickets. Around 60sgd one way on a bullet train. Not too bad, right? And it was just a 1 hour ride with a transit in between. A transit of 3 minutes! Which was pretty scary! But the lady who sold us the ticket at the station assured us that we just need to walk across the platform to catch our connecting train, lol. 

The landscape as we speed our way back to Hakata.

At Hakata, I've also booked us into our final DormyInn, which is just next to the Canal City Hakata! Canal City is actually just a gigantic mall with a canal running through it, hence the name. And there were also light and music show at the canal at designated timing. All very cheesy touristy money making gimmicky place. But I just had to visit it at least once while I was in Hakata!

Managed to catch the music show. Lots of people actually watch it. 

We also found an affordable sushi restaurant here, and dine here twice in our 2 nights stay in Hakata! lol.

It was on the 2nd or 3rd floor of the mall at some corner. We saw many Japanese people dining there, so we went in as well. They also cater to foreigners, but mainly spoke Japanese. But fear not, I think the menu was also available in English..... Can't remember. But you order your food via an ipad.

The menu! I ordered the set meal that cost 1430yen cause it was less than 14sgd for so much sushi!!!!

Plus it was the recommended menu, and I was curious about it. Totally no regrets!

Here is what it looked like. We also took some sushi and food from the conveyer belt.

All those burned cheese sushi was surprisingly good!

Kyushu 2023 - Nagasaki Tsukimachi Shopping Street

Good morning! Our last day in Nagasaki, and since it's near the end of our trip, I had nothing planned for the day! We woke up at our own leisure time, and admire the beautiful view of the city. Today, we're just gonna take it slow.

My breakfast, some matcha red bean pound cake along with my free DormyInn Hotel Hot Coffee. I don't really spend a lot on my travels as I tend to enjoy eating snacks for breakfast, street food for my meals, and maybe an occasional splurge on a nice restaurant. My highest cost for travelling is usually just the flight, and the hotel. In some countries, I can get pretty cheap hotel below my daily allowance of 50sgd a day. But in others, sometimes I have to up my budget to 100sgd a day. And when I travel with friends, sometimes it's way beyond 100sgd, but I guess it does come with the experience. 

So on our free day, we decided to just take a walk to the nearest shopping street and wander around there. It was a share that the Nagasaki JR area was going through extensive renovation, else the main shopping area was just across the road from our hotel. But with the renovation going on, it was extremely noisy and dusty there, as well as disorientating since you have to follow all the side roads to get to where you want. No luxury of just wandering in any direction there :(  But as I am writing this in 2025, I read that the renovation has been completed and the malls are all opened again! 

Reached the shopping street. The usual covered walk ways with individual shops at both end. It was pretty long, and lots of people around. Was it a weekend? I can't quite remember. I don't recall we did much shopping at all!

We did sat down for a coffee. Or at least, the husband had a proper latte. He didn't like the free coffee from the hotel as it wasn't a 'proper' latte with real fresh milk.... I wanted a coffee too, but with almost the same place, why settle for something usual when I could have okinawa brown sugar coffee with red beans? Yup, that was what I ordered! And I don't regret it!

We were also pretty sick of Japanese food at this point, and decided we wanted some western bread. We ended up having baguette at the cafe and sat there just people watching. There were many solo diners there, and the seating arrangement do cater to them as it seems they are the majority here. There were also a lot of solo senior customer. I don't know whether it was a sad sight or an independent one. But I do like it that solo people can just go out and enjoy themselves in Japan and that was the norm here. When you dine solo in Japan, sometimes you get the best seats in the cafe! None of those facing the wall at the back of the shop kind of seats!

We did bought back our snacks and dinner from some supermarket to enjoy back at the hotel.

As usual, since this was our last full day in Nagasaki, we kinda went overboard with the sashimi and sushi and all sorts of food again. Maybe I kept some for next day's breakfast to! Who knows! But it was very affordable to enjoy our favourite Japanese food here when you are in Japan!

We even save some space in our tummy for our free ramen from the hotel. Above is what it looked like.  Although there aren't any meat inside, the taste of the ramen is pretty awesome! Very light and hearty supper. I think they serve it from 9pm to 11pm every night. You could get the usual free drinks there too.

I can't actually remember where I got this pen, but I usually don't keep more than one favourite pen with me. Interestingly, I now uses 2 such pens with 6 different colours at a time! So far I could only find the character ones in Japan. Those in Singapore are usually just the normal pen that cost twice the price. I recently also saw one with Hello Kitty, but decided not to get it since Hello Kitty is quite a common thing. I decided to only have one character pen, and it was going to be Moomin! Yeah, I should probably make a Moomin pencil case to go with it.

Sunset at Nagasaki from our hotel. Bye bye lovely city! Hope I can visit you again in future.

Kyushu 2023 - Nagasaki Walking Back and Sushi Dinner

The walk back to our hotel from the pier area was very enjoyable. I mean, look at the view! And it wasn't crowded either. I especially love the flat grass area, pair it with the slopped villages and hills. I felt almost like I was in some western country. Maybe in Europe or the Alps! On our right side was the sea!

It was around sun set 5pm time or so by now, and the sea and sun was super hot.

All the boats docking at the pier area. Lovely breeze and blue skies!

Although there were giant seagulls and birds flying above our head, we were considered lucky to have nothing hitting us from above as we enjoyed our walk by the pier back to town.

The historical bridge. Since we have more time now, we could stop and read some of the signs. 

The whalf area above which I initially wanted to come for breakfast or lunch or even dinner. But it looked kinda deserted, and kinda expensive too. So we didn't eventually dine there at all.

We also walked passed some industrial amusement ground where you could go in for a visit. But it looked pretty deserted too, so we skipped that as well, lol. It was basically just old warehouse area for Nagasaki Port during the industry revolution. 

I think it was called Daijima? Which translate to Big Island? It was a man-made island if not mistaken. You could just cross the bridge to enter the area to take a look. 

The beautiful waterscape of Nagasaki. 

And sun setting.

My husband (with the help of Google) wanted to eat at a traditional Sushi Shop, so he lead us to this small shop in a nearby town on our way back.

We were the first customer, and was later joint by another foreign couple, and one Japanese salary man. I guess because the shop had good ratings in English in Google, hence it was visited more by foreigners. The staff tried to put up a show, but it was rather forced (in my opinion anyway). It was kinda sad, that they only have foreign customer, yet kinda glad that foreigners were keeping them in business. I had mixed feeling about visiting this place.

Our sushi order. We ordered one mixed sushi platter.

And one of sashimi. It was delicious, but not outstanding delicious. I wouldn't say it was that authentic an experience. But at least they have business to keep them going. Kyushu, especially outside of Fukuoka area, seems to be in a need of more tourism to keep them vibrant and going! Please visit these area when you consider your next trip to Japan.