Fukuoka Memories: Day 6

Day 6 could have been considered as the day which I spent most of my money on food and goods. Why? Partially because it was already the 2nd last day, and I little did I expect the next day to also be a day of shopping. So for this day, we went to a place called the Dazaifu Shrine in another town outside Fukuoka. Luckily the bus ride wasn't as long as the ones we had previously.

There was another similar festival held in that shrine with children dressed in the yukatas heading inside the big room for prayer and chants. That place had very beautiful scenery as well, trees that looked like they were growing since ancient times and leaves of yellow and red. The floor was especially beautiful because there were like these ripple patterns on the little stone grounds all around the estate. The cold weather really made me feel like I was in one of those Korean dramas that stood by a house, looking out at the greenery with a lover, and slowly their relationships got even closer that the story reached its climax.

After the sketching we did at the beautiful temples and old houses, we headed back "downtown" into that street with shops on both sides. Guan Chao and I headed off alone again, leaving the rest of the group behind for our little own tour around the street. Firstly, we became rather hungry since it was lunchtime, so we settled down at this affordable and decent-looking restaurant that sold fine and sumptuous meals. Look at the natural smile that has been put on my face.

So, after our lunch, we went shopping like typical shopaholics. We started out window-shopping but we couldn't resist looking at the soft toy shop, like Totoro. I myself had to get one of those plushies cuz they were too cute to be forgotten. I also got myself a toy aeroplane and a lot of foodstuff. It was worth it, considering I still had a lot of space in my backpack to stuff them in.

Then we took the subway to Tenjin area where we visited another art museum called the Fukuoka Art Museum. They didn't allow photo taking so I didn't take any because I'm an honest guy. But their artworks weren't as good as FAAM definitely so I didn't regret a lot. Basically, that museum was structured with a theme of art movements. So I saw cubism and surrealism. Nothing much so we left after one and a half hours of seeing. One thing cool there though was that there was the first ever water-cooler we had ever seen since we first arrived in Fukuoka. Amazing right, so there was a must do thing then, which was to refill my empty water bottle. Lame huh... Well, the other AEP guys were as usual, playing card games again. They never fail to look for spots to sit and take out cards.

The sky was already turning darker by the minute but the landscape was still just as beautiful. I forgot to mention, to get to the art museum, we passed by a beautiful river that reflected the sun's rays to the green surroundings.

There was also this childrens playground on the other side of the lane we were walking, and it was really big. Instead of rubber floors, they were sand, so if someone were to fall, it wouldn't hurt as much as cement. The slides were pretty high and the swings were like golden man! We don't see swings in Singapore playgrounds anymore, at least not for me..

After that intense tour, we went back to the subway to take another train to a shopping district in the Tenjin area. Again, the 2 man gang ventured out on their own, and soon got lost. But it wasn't really considered lost as the main road was well pretty wide, and obvious to the eyes. So the subway entrance to the underground mall wasn't that hard to spot. The sky was turning cloudy, almost looking like rain clouds, so we quickly hurried to a small roadside food stall where we had really cheap udon and oden. I got this massive big piece of fried tempura stuff on top of my udon, so it looked kinda weird. Wait, I think it was rice..

So, then we continued shopping after that and one shop I particularly remembered us visiting was Muji, the no brand store. We bought quite a lot of stationery since they were rather cheap, and also we did trust Japan to produce really high-quality goods. So, a good buy!

Then we looked at the jeans and wow we were kinda shocked at the prices, I was very shocked. Over SGD $150 for a pair of jeans is like a bomb in Singapore, where the exchange rate is so worryingly high. So we quickly got down the shopping mall and went back to the underground shopping mall, where we took a train back to our dormitory.

One thing that I haven't mentioned in my previous Fukuoka related posts would be that everytime we went back from somewhere to our dorm, there was always the convenience store at the train station we alighted at. We always did some shopping for small snacks before the school bus came to pick us up and fetch us back to our dormitory. So I also did the same as the rest, purchasing a few bottles of sodas and juice, and melon bun and some sweets or chocolates which I planned to bring home for relatives to share.

So after we arrived at our dorm, Guan Chao and I again rushed to the shower to get our bodies washed and ready to do other stuff. So he continued his lesson of table tennis with me and the story goes on for the entire night. And as always, it always ends up as a good night sleep. Teehee.

I took many videos on this day and little photos so be sure to check out my video blog once it's up!