Fukuoka - Day 5

Recap of my trip to Fukuoka, Japan, on Wednesday, 23 March 2016.

Last day in Fukuoka

Sniff, sniff. Today is our last day in Fukuoka. Our flight back is scheduled at 1.40pm so we had time to explore the neighbourhood (and hopefully see sakura trees in bloom!). We said our farewell to our friend’s wife in the morning before she left for work. We were really grateful for her hospitality and felt sad that we had to part so soon.

We walked around the neighbourhood together with our friend who took his dog for a walk. It made me realise again that the place our friend stays at is a nice, friendly, quiet neighbourhood. He spoke to a few people he knew and easily struck up conversations with other people who were out walking their dogs as well.

We saw a few sakura trees that were partially or in full bloom. We even saw a hybrid sakura tree that had pink and red sakura flowers on one tree. One of its flowers had pink and red petals!

The park we went to had a small hill so we went up and once again got a wonderful view of the city.

I saw clovers at the park and was instantly reminded of the scene in Honey and Clover where the characters helped their friend search for four-leaf clovers. I tried looking for some but didn’t find any.

To get to the airport, we walked to the train station, took the train and then boarded the airport bus. We were a bit early so we went to the souvenir shop to do some last-minute shopping. I didn’t buy many souvenirs from Fukuoka so I bought a lot of souvenirs from the airport shop. It was then time to say goodbye. We thanked our Fukuoka friend profusely, wished him well and extended an invitation to him and his wife to visit us sometime in the near future.

The line to check-in was not that long and when it was our turn, we decided to check-in together. The Korean Air staff at the counter told my friend that she had missed her flight! We were like, “What?!” She showed us my friend’s ticket and it showed that she was supposed to board the 10am flight to Incheon. We were flabbergasted because we thought surely her travel agent would’ve booked us on the same flight, especially when I had requested for it. Also, the way the ticket was folded didn't make it very obvious the time of the flight. Since my flight was at 1.40pm, we asked if they could change my friend’s flight to the 1.40pm flight. She told us to wait a while and wait in suspense we did. After what seemed like a distressingly long time, we were told to go to another counter and there, my friend was given a new ticket for the 1.40pm flight. Hurray! My friend had her credit card out, prepared to pay for the extra charge but there wasn’t any. Even better!

We had to queue back at the line we were at earlier to check-in. No issues there; we were just glad that my friend could take the 1.40pm flight. Only after the both of us successfully checked in did we heave a sigh of relief. Phew.

Our flight from Fukuoka to Incheon went smoothly. We had about an hour at Incheon before we had to board the plane to KLIA. I took the opportunity to buy more Korean souvenirs. I realised I didn’t have enough souvenirs to distribute back home. I bought rice puffs like the one we had at the teahouse in Insadong. It was nicely wrapped in traditional Korean pouches which made it perfect for souvenirs.

We touched down at KLIA around 10.35pm. It was a truly enjoyable trip but I was glad to be back.
Until the next time!