Fukuoka - Day 4

Recap of my trip to Fukuoka, Japan, on Tuesday, 22 March 2016.

Walking around Fukuoka & Sento

It’s the start of the working week today, so our friend’s wife went to work this morning; our friend was still on leave. The three of us started our exploration of Fukuoka City by walking down the nearby street with the row of shops. We then went to one of the main shrines in the area, Atago Shrine. It quite a walk uphill, reminded me a bit of Namsan. At the peak was the beautiful shrine and we got to see breathtaking views of Fukuoka and the sea.

I noticed there were many stones with characters at the fence surrounding the shrine and asked our friend what it meant. He said that on the stones were engraved the names of people who had contributed towards building the shrine.

Clockwise from left: The gateway to one of the smaller shrines we saw on our way down from Atago Shrine, a shrine dedicated to the kitsune (fox) and one of the kitsune figures upclose.

Seeing this many shrines and bouzu (monk) figurines, gives me serious Rurouni Kenshin vibes. A few steps down the shrine, we saw some cats! We wanted to pet them but they didn’t seem too friendly so we left them alone. We went to one of the teahouses for a mid-morning tea break. There was a splendid sakura tree that was in bloom right outside the teahouse. While gazing at the sakura tree, we ate Japanese sweets and drank tea. One of the Japanese sweets even came with a small sakura branch.

We continued our exploration of the city. There still weren’t many sakura trees in full bloom but once again, the weather provided a brilliant blue sky to tide over my slight disappointment. We continued walking to the busier part of Fukuoka city, where tall skyscrapers and shopping malls were a common sight.

We entered some of the department stores and ogled at the food section of the supermarket. Chocolates, cakes, desserts, teas, packed meals, it was food porn for the eyes. We didn’t buy anything though. For lunch, we ate at one of the restaurants inside the department store. It had the usual Japanese noodle and rice dishes. My friend and I had rice and prawn topped with egg. It was the best Japanese rice dish I’ve had at any restaurant. I finished every bit of it.

We resumed our walking tour and explored some of the shops along the street that seemed like the downtown area. There were many souvenir, art and clothes shop. Interestingly enough, some of the clothes shop sold clothes usually worn by people working at the red light district! We can’t seem to escape it on our trip. Some of the shops also sold clothes typically worn by members of the Yakuza; the kinds that are flashy and loud.

Red light district and mob clothing aside, we saw two giant floats. These elaborately decorated floats are carried by men during the summer. This tradition is part of the Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival held every year. Kushida Shrine, the hub of the Yamakasa activities, is revered by the locals as the guardian of Hakata, which is also another name for Fukuoka. Most of the floats are tens of metres tall and the ones we saw were 80% the size of the real one.

We visited a few smaller shrines on the way back and I like how even in the large city, there are accessible shrines that instantly transports you away from the hustle and bustle.

Back at the apartment, my friend and I started getting busy because we were preparing rissoles for dinner again. We had to be quick because after dinner, we would all go to (gasp!) the sento, also known as public bathhouse.

Prior to leaving the house, our friend’s wife prepared little pails for us to put our toiletries and a small towel. We brought our own clothes to change later. We left the house around 8pm. According to our friend’s wife, the sento is usually open until 3am.

I was nervous on the way there. I’ve heard a lot about the public bathhouses of Japan and I’m not so comfortable with nudity but I decided when in Japan, you just have to try out the sento.
We arrived around 10 minutes later. Upon entering, we took off our shoes and placed them in lockers. We also saw a sign that our friend explained read that people with tattoos are not allowed. I thought that was a bit discriminatory but the reason the sento had such rulings was to prevent members of the yakuza, who typically had tattoos, from entering the premises.

Not surprisingly, we bought our bath ticket from a vending machine. We were then given keys to another locker for our clothes and went ahead to the ladies section. Apparently there are mixed bathhouses in Japan but thankfully this wasn’t one of them.

The lockers were in the changing room and it was reminiscent of a high school girls' changing room you typically see on US television shows. Everyone was nonchalant and I tried very hard to appear so. Our friend’s wife laughed at our obvious shyness and discomfort. It took a while but we eventually took it all off and joined her to the showering area.

In a Japanese public bathhouse, you need to clean and shower yourself before entering the many pools available. Once we were all scrubbed up, we went into a pool that had a jet massage. It was very strong, so after a while, my friend and I went out. There were other pools with various kinds of massages. There was even an outside pool! It was cold but after being coaxed, I tried it. Sure, walking out into the cool spring air (at night, no less!) was cold but once you enter the heated pool, it felt good. My friend and I tried the sauna as well but it was too hot. My face felt like it was on fire and my eyes stung. We went back to the outside pool, which seems to have grown on us.
After we were done, we waiting with our friend at an area that seemed like a cafeteria where you could order drinks and food. It was an interesting experience to say the least and like I told my friend, if we can survive this and have no awkwardness afterwards, our friendship survived as well :)