Kyushu 2023 - Arriving at Fukuoka

 

As promised, here is the start of my travel blog on Kyushu in 2023. It was probably our first trip out of Singapore since Covid ended. (excluding Malaysia). Kyushu is kind of a special place for me, and for many years I couldn't bring myself to visit this place. Eventually I managed to put my past behind me, and planning for this trip was quite an adventure! Will elaborate more on that in the later post, but thankfully Krisflyer extended my Elite Gold membership through out Covid, and I actually managed to use it for 3 more trips before it expired in 2023 August 31! 

There is always some confusion over the Krisflyer Silver and Gold Lounge. Just to clarify, the SilverKris Lounge is the more high class lounge. If you are flying economy, you can only go into the Gold Lounge. And frankly these days, airport lounge aren't as exclusive as it used to be. Most people with a high value credit card often have access to it.....

Still, it was free food and free alcohol, so no complain there. This was a night flight, so we had some supper and a glass of white wine to wind down for the flight. I was at my chilled Chardonnay phase in life... Lol. I don't know why though, it has been years, but it did bring back good memories somehow.

I managed to visit the newly opened Bacha Coffee shop inside the terminal. It looked really fancy. The price even more fancier. To-date (I'm writing this in 2025) I have yet to purchased any coffee from them. I have however drank a pot of coffee at their shop inside Takashima. It cost 10sgd a pot and good for 2 cups of coffee, so I think it's much more affordable to drink it at the shop than purchasing a drip coffee box from them....just my opinion anyway....

Since it was a night flight, I must have slept through it. No photo memories of it whatsoever.  Upon landing at the Fukuoka Airport, there was a massive queue at the immigration! That was not expected as I though nobody would be headed to Fukuoka. Surely it wasn't high on tourist's visit list in Japan! I think we were stuck for almost 1.5hrs in the queue! Upon clearing and collecting our luggage, we headed to the bus terminal, and I activated by bus day pass which cost only 100yen a day! How cool is that! I found this from social media, and downloaded the MyRoute app to purchase 2 100yen day pass and absolutely love it! For a start, it gave us a free ride to town - Hakata Station. 

Here's my husband on the bus. Since it was pretty early, around 8am or so, the bus was pretty empty. And unlike other location in Japan, Hakata Station was rather near the airport, so it was very convenient to get to.  First thing we did upon reaching Hakata Station was bringing my husband to buy  a pair of shoe. His disintegrated on his way to Japan. We have also left our luggage at our hotel nearby since it was too early to check in. 

Next task was to settle our train tickets as it was still too early for lunch. The queue at the JR station was just as bad. We spend around 45minutes queueing. I was very excited and nervous about it. I have bought a JR Kyushu 7 days pass, and have listed down all the trains I wanted to take in those 7 days in two sheets of paper because 1 sheet was just not enough, lol. This was like having the staff checking whether I did my homework correctly and did I pass my test. Luckily for me, I have worked in a Japanese company for 3.5 years before, so I am familiar with the culture of paperwork in Japan! I was so impressed when the staff handed me my stack of train tickets! Not a single mistake! Everything was OK! Yay!

Happy now, we went to look for our lunch to celebrate. I always like to settle everything before I reward myself. It's just a habit I have. And the first meal we had there was at a traditional Japanese restaurant. 

Ah! Authentic Japanese food. One of the best thing in Japan! And with the strong Singapore dollars vs Japanese yen, we were so going to eat so much of it, especially living through Covid and surviving mainly on Donki Sushi and Sashimi! Do note however that the air flight was ridiculously high for this trip, at least for my husband. I got my flight free via point redemption. I did help lighten his load by paying some of his train JR Kyushu pass for him since I felt guilty about the high price of his ticket :P

After lunch, and wondering around the station a bit to get ourselves orientated, we finally head to our hotel to check in. We stayed at Tokyo Stay hotel chain, and it was pretty affordable and very well equip! I would highly recommend this hotel again! I think I have some photos of the rooms in later blog post to tell you why I think this is a great place to stay. It cost maybe just 50sgd or 60sgd a night per room and quite near the station.

At the lobby they have a coffee machine. It was the start of spring, and the weather was still pretty cold, so it was so nice coming back to the hotel and helping myself to a cup of free coffee to warm my hands and my soul up! I realise most hotels in Japan has this, and it just a plus point that says so much about Japanese hospitality. These machines are also life savers during summer time cause they also serve ice coffee! 

Tea selection at the lobby to help yourself with. I went for green tea and houjicha of course! When it's free, I usually use two packet to make a cup of tea so that it is stronger. I love the green tea flavour here cause it's pretty strong and kinda taste like seaweed to me :P

Anyway, the purpose I motivate myself to finally start on this entry is so that I can guilt myself to finish it eventually. I have another trip coming up soon, and I can't afford to have more backlog than I do blog post! At the same time, I am also doing photo editing work on my most recent Japan trip too! So much to get done! Which idiot said I would be bored and idling when I stop working is surely a fool!