Fukuoka!

After Beppu I went to Fukuoka, the biggest city in Kyushu, and one of the larger cities in Japan.  It was actually one of my favorite cities too.  A lot of Japanese cities and towns are really nice charming, but literally after 5pm, four-fifths of a city shuts down.  Fukuoka really felt so much more vibrant and alive and full of activity and color than most every other place I went to during the day and night, on a level, I thought, with the super-city of Tokyo.   

One thing Fukuoka is known for its Yatai-food stalls.  These are litteraly wheeled food-carts with vinyl tents set up over them, serving assortments of pub-eatery foods, such as ramen, yakitori, oden, and gyoza.

Its super easy to strike up a conversation, which happened to me a couple times, with they people youre bumping shoulders and sharing a bench with, which was actually really fun.  Also, like I said, they are literaly carts with tents over them, that just set up on the side walk nightly!

I also decided to head into a Yakitori place by myself, which was delicious and also a good place to do some people watching.

Nothing like a cold beer, and some juicy, salt-and-peppered, delectable, skewerd and grilled chunks of meat! (plus some cabbage and tasty crunchy seasoned lotus root, occasionally, to accentuate the beer and yakitori) 

It was also nice to see the staff having fun and laughing and interacting with the customers too.

The next day I went out to a lake-park and was impressed by this super hotdog van.

The lake looked like it actually had trout in it, as well as humongous Koi, and a whole bunch of kinds of birds.

Birds freaking out around some people feeding them

In a market that was predominantly seafood.  In this one picture there are octopi, eels, sea-cucumbers, at least 6 kinds of clams, 3 kinds of shrimp, 2 kinds of crabs, and I think theres a shark in there too, to give a sense of the variety and selection available at these markets. 

I also went to a place called "Ramen Stadium".  This is "Black Ramen" with a shoyu based broth.

This one is a tonkotsu-pork bone based ramen

And this one is a Hokkaido style, miso based ramen with sweet corn and butter.  All delicious!

I also walked through an arcade and there was video game horse-race-betting!

Even at like, 10pm, the city was still up and moving.

One of the more popular spots for yatai-food stalls along the river.

Takamatsu to Beppu!

So by now, its actually January, and I've already been home for over a MONTH!  Its crazy.  Anyways, I decided I needed to finish out this blog here, so I'm making some posts with pictures from the last few cities I traveled to during my time in Japan.  After Matsuyama on the southern island of Shikoku, I took a ferry to the town of Beppu on the eastern side of Kyushu, the southernmost of the "main islands". 

Beppu is best known as one of the biggest hot spring-onsen towns in Japan with literally hundreds of bath houses.  Also, it's been historically known as a "Las Vegas" of Japan, not because of gambling, but because of a huge sex industry there.  They have also been working hard to clean up their image though and I only knew this fact from reading it online.  Beppu also has the only "Sex Museum" I came across in Japan, which was interesting, in a weird, zany sort of way.

One of the onsen I went to, that was VERY hot.  I remember trying to get into jacuzzis on occasion when I was younger, and they were just tooo hot to even get into, but I think I've now developed a taste/feel for  nice, very hot, baths.

One of the sights in Beppu are the hotspring "Hells" that are too hot for bathing and have unusual colors or characteristics, and have been turned into sort of amusement attractions. 

At this one they boil eggs in the mineral rich water for people to buy and eat.  There were also ones where the water is a deep dark red, or were bubbling mud pools, or were milky white.

Inside the Sex Museum.  This is a display with erotic ukiyoe-woodblock prints, including foggy spots on the display case to "censor" the prints.  The museum was more like a showcase of various sex-related things from over the world, including a big display case of erotic ceramic saucers and such, and a display case with replica animal parts.

Also, various "Hindu" figurines.  Overall, it was an interesting, if not wacky and different, place to go. 

Also, I saw a guy walking his cat!