Day 04 - Nagasaki to Fukuoka

Today's route from Nagasaki to Fukuoka.

It was an early rise this morning which saw us getting out of bed just after 0500h. After showering, packing and locking up the apartment we headed off on our 20 minute walk to the Peace Park Trolley Car Station. The sounds of our collective rolling luggage filled the streets as we hoped that the noise wouldn't wake anybody. As fate would have it, the skies were beautiful and clear and the stars were plentiful.

After our short journey from Peace Park Station #19 to Nagasaki Station #27, we headed across the road to the Nagasaki Bus Terminal. Once settled there, Sky and I headed out to Lawsons for some breakfast which comprised Sushi, Onigiri and Sandwiches. We only had to wait around a half-hour for our 0715h Bus, before we headed off to Fukuoka.

Weary travellers at the Nagasaki Bus Station.

The distance to Fukuoka is a little over 150 kilometres travelling northwards up Kyushu Island which is the third largest and southern most of the four principal Japanese Islands. We were travelling on a Nishitetsu* Group Bus, and the bus was very comfortable with big wide seats and lots of leg-room. The added bonuses were free fast wi-fi, power-points, a downstairs toilet and a smooth ride. The journey took a little more than two hours, and the scenery along the way was lush green and very pretty, particularly as we passed Omura Bay.

We arrived at Fukuoka's Hakata Station which was just enormous. It is the starting point for the Shinkansen, which we'll be experiencing in just a few days time. Hakata Station also houses a large shopping mall.

Fukuoka** is Japan's fifth largest city and has a population of around one-and-a-half million people. Fukuoka was originally two separate towns, Fukuoka and Hakata. In 1889, they merged and a vote declared that the newly merged town would be called Fukuoka (even though Hakata was the larger of the two towns); however, as a consolation Hakata became the name of the newly established main railway station. 

Hakata Station

After reading up on the directions provided by our AirBnB host, we headed off in search of our Fukuoka accommodation which was just a short ten minute walk.

Checking out the directions to our next accommodation. 

Sky leading the charge to the accommodation, well ahead of us.

Found it! Actually it's the building behind the white-tiled building.

After dropping off our bags, we headed back to Hakata for some lunch, before splitting up and doing our own thing(s). Maureen and I went in search for an elusive fabric shop. In fact it was very elusive, firstly, there was some confusion regarding the name of the shop which sent us off in the completely opposite direction nearly a kilometre from our starting point. We quickly recalibrated, then took a one-and-a-half kilometre short-cut to the proper destination. When we finally arrived, we discovered that it was a fabric shop; it's just that the fabrics were in the shape of clothes. Oops! 

Here's some photos taken during our long walk...

No shortage of taxis here.

Some fast truck action.

We headed back to Hakata Station to check out Yodabashi-Hakata. Yodobashi Camera is a giant electronics store with many levels of electrical products. You could easily spend a whole day checking out the store. In total there are 23 of these stores across Japan, and they are all massive. Thankfully we left there empty-handed, though I did drop some subtle hints about some new Cameras, the Nikon Z7 or perhaps a Nikon D750, either of which would make the perfect replacement for my current Nikon D7100; but, I think my hints fell on deaf ears.

Afterwards we headed back to the apartment for rest, recuperation and clothes washing duties. Dinner was Ramen Noodles and Gyozo - Yum!

* Interesting Fact: Nishitetsu has more buses than any other transport company in Japan, with a total of 2,500 buses.

** Final Fun Fact: We are now closer to North Korea's Capital, Pyongyang then we are to Japan's Capital, Tokyo.