Kyushu 2023 - Spring Time at Ohori Park Fukuoka

 

After taking a nap in the hotel to sleep off our red eye flight, we started to venture our again the later afternoon. Can't let our 100yen a day bus pass go to waste can we? We walk around to find the bus stop that would take us to Ohori Park. I was secretly hoping to see some cherry blossom at the park. But along the way there, we saw these beautiful tulips all popping out in the middle of the streets! They were so colourful and huge that they almost looked fake! I can testify that they are absolutely real cause I went up close to one to check it out, lol. They are just so beautiful, something I don't see everyday in my hot and humid hometown.

We also saw some cherry blossom trees near a small park near our hotel. I wasn't sure if they were actually cherry blossom, so I took some photo and send them to my friend in Tokyo to confirm. He replied back a solid Yes! I think this was my 2nd time seeing real sakura. My first was in Hokkaido long long time ago when I went backpacking with some ex-colleagues around Japan. Those were at the end of the sakura season, so it was quite a sad sight. During this trip, it was also at the tail end of the sakura season.

After a short bus ride, we arrived at Ohori park, and we saw more flowers! Loveliest tulips I've ever seen in my life! Whatever I saw in Garden by the Bay doesn't count as those are artificially planted with a controlled climate!

There were also all these small flowers on the road side, signalling the start of summer? 

Jogging tracks around the park. It was almost sunset timing as we made our way around the pond. 

Luckily there were still some day light left to take some nice photos of these pink flowers and the sculpture.

Ohori Park has a huge pond in the middle of it, kinda like Lakeside Garden in Singapore. I was surprised my husband say it was ok to walk around it! He is usually grumpy from lack of sleep on our first day :P Anyway, we saw some lovely pavilion going out into the waters. 

Some bridges, and buildings behind it. Actually, it kinda looked like a Chinese place, Taiwan or Singapore, lol. But it was still a lovely place for a walk.

There was some small land where some trees were located, filled with all these giant birds. Since it was evening, it was probably their nest where they come back to each evening. It reminded me of African safari somehow, and I was rather fascinated by it.

I wasn't planning on staying out late, but my husband assure me we can find our way home using google map, so we stayed on. At the back of my mind, I recall Fukuoka has the highest number of Yakuza in all of Japan! But I hope they really are organised crime with their code of honour! Anyway, I love this photo with the swan paddling boat thing. This one reminded me very much of scenes in Japan :)  It reminds me of Japanese romantic drama, or summer time with families in the park. It was a super productive first day in Kyushu!