Onsen, Ruins, Shrines, Park, Canal City, Tower!
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2008
1
10
25
Trip End
Jun 01, 2008
Dazaifu,
Kyushu-Okinawa,
Japan
Monday, May 5, 2008
We got up early, went to Hakata Station (main station for trains, buses, subways, etc( and took a train to Daizufu, where we wen to an Onsen (aka Hot Spring). They are produced by the emergence of geothermall-heated groundwater from the earth's crust. They had two sperate rooms (men and women had to go in different osens) and you don't have the choice but to go naked......with a bunch of other people...needless to say it made for a very interesting experience!
After, we went to see some Shrines in Daizufu, which were really neat! They were surrounded by forest, mountains, big trees, etc...the scenery was absolutely beautiful! on top of that, we were able to see some dancing, which was fun! We visited many of the shops too!
We headed to a really nice and large park in Ohireon, where we saw some ruins, gardens, castles, lakes, etc. It was beautiful! After, we went to the Canal City, which is basically a large and expensive shopping mall with a canal that passes through it. We really enjoyed it there and ate our diner there!
After diner we went to the Fukuoka Tower, up to the observation deck (123 m( and took beautiful day and night pictures of the city! We stayed for a bit and went to their cafe before heading home to the hostel.
We absolutely ADORE Japan! It is such a wonderful place to visit! In comparison to south korea (which we also really enjoyed(, we have found that the Japanese people are much much more welcoming and friendly ( they don't stare at us, bump into us, tell us to be quiet..hehe( and they are very very helpful. Although we can't communicate efficiently,they try their best to help us whenever they can --some even offer their help without us asking!! But thank God for universal sign language such as pointing, head shaking, smiling, etc! I have NO idea what we would do without it! Often times we ask a question, get an answer, but we have to guess what they mean by their answer. For instance, today we asked for directions and they pointed us in a direction. However, they were really trying to tell us that we needed to take the subway, which was in that direction, but we thought the attraction was there....very confusing at times!!! Also, Fukuoka is very very clean, and a lot of people use their bikes here instead of driving. However, Japan is much more expansive than korea...especially in terms of transportation, it is similar to NYC, though (we were just spoiled with korea being so cheap!(
We had a lof of laughs today! One especially was when we were at the Fukuoka Tower. I was reading the brochure to Luc and said "there are bus tours of elderly, handicaps, and those on social welfare", knowing that it meant there were bus tours for them to the tower....but Luc said "what?!? that's mean!"..hahaha....thinking it was an option for us to hop on a bus and see the elderly, handicaps, and those on welfare as an attraction!!
Tomorrow we have another busy day ahead as it will be our last day in japan! We plan on taking a bus to a Castle which is celebrating it's 400 yr anniversay! then we want to go to more shrines in a different city, and have a traditional japanese diner!!
xoxox
Luc et Meagan
P.s. Monique et JP----figure this out: On etait au subway, et j'ai dit a luc "wow, je ne peux pas croire qu'on est ici, Japon!"....et il a dit, tout fort (et ca resonne( "OUFFFF"( hahhahah it took me forever to figure out why he did it....je sais que JP va le savoir dans une seconde--il ferait la meme chose!!!!
Comments
Japon.. haha
Ah Luc j'attendais le moment que vous alliez dire cette joke.. J'ai vous ai presque dit cette joke hier sur Skype lol.. Brilliant luc.. :)
xoxox
Julie