Our first stop today was the Tochoji Temple. This temple houses Japan’s largest sitting wooden Buddha (10.3 metres tall). The temple and the statue were both very impressive. In 1992 a new pagoda was built in the temple grounds. It is really stunning! The temple has a number of guides who take visitors around, so we had our own personal tour guide who spoke very good English.
The pagoda at the Tochoji Temple
One of two guardians at the gates of a nearby shrine
After that we went (via a little workshop where a man restores old motorbikes) to the Hakata Traditional Craft Centre. This was a very small centre, but the items on display were very beautiful, including the traditional Hakata clay dolls and woven silk fabrics.
At 12.00 sharp, all the salarymen erupted from the surrounding offices
Our journey took us down a quaint little street with traditional small Japanese restaurants so we dropped into one for lunch. This was a ‘one woman show’ in a very small shop, with two basic items on the menu, which came in a few different variations. The set meal which we bought included a large plate of fried noodles, a bowl of rice, miso soup, some tofu and vegetables. All for 680 yen!
Yakisoba (fried noodles) being prepared on the hotplate
Our next stop was Canal City for some daytime photographs …
Canal City by day
…and then back to the hotel to recover.
We checked our email and have received confirmation of our changed ferry booking, but needed to find a way to cancel the original one. We booked it online with the help of a Japanese friend and did not have the login details to make the cancellation. The website had no email address and I wasn’t happy about trying to have a complex conversation in Japanese on the phone. I finally went down to the front counter staff at the hotel and explained my dilemma. The lovely young lady at the desk immediately picked up the phone and sorted it out for me. We love our Toyoko Hotels!!
We hadn’t decided about where to go for dinner but I’d read that the Tenjin area, which is a few subway stops away from here, has a large number of ‘yatai’ (street stalls) which are set up from about 6.00pm each night. We took the subway to the Tenjin station and wandered about. It didn’t take long to discover the little stalls which were scattered along the roads around the station. We went into one and each had a bowl of champon, with a couple of skewers of meat for John. It was delicious, inexpensive and fun to eat in a little booth on the footpath.
Watching our dinner being prepared
We did a bit of browsing and window shopping in Tenjin, which is a very lively place at night, before making our way back to Hakata station on the subway.
John found some new girlfriends in Tenjin
I forgot to mention yesterday that there is a large multi-storey store at the Hakata Station and we noticed that Floors 1,2,3,4,7 and 8 had ladies clothes and accessories, while only Floor 6 had men’s clothes Judging by the fashions that we see on the young ladies in Japan, this isn’t terribly surprising!
Back at the hotel, we watched Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia talking in Japanese. R2D2 and Chewbacca sounded the same as usual.
We’re going further afield tomorrow, so will need to work out how the bus system works.
hi guys, nice pick-up john, what about u kate?
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