Each time when I travel with my friends, we try our best to cover as many cities as possible so we will take off from work for more than 7 days (That is for sure) and we book as many nights as possible in a city. Diba, a friend who can jammed everything in those days for you but for this trip she got to find her own journey in Japan hence it was just YMK, Hendriq and myself most of the days.
As the train ticket allows you to travel across Japan for a certain days and states, we decided to do a little city hopping. Hence, we stayed a couple of nights in Fukuoka (Hakata) before moving on to another city. Well of course, there was some pit stops in between those cities.
Kokura
It takes about 16 minutes from Hakata to Kokura city and we did a quick stop here. Before we begin our journey, we had to check out from the AirBnB in Hakata, carried our 9KG bag, drag it across trains with an Onigiri in hand. Yes, we ate lots of Onigiri. When we reach Kokura station, there are lockers that allows you to keep your things for 24 hours so that was what we did. We head over to Tanga Ichiba, a street that is sort of like a market but they also sell tons of food and flowers. Something similar to our Pasar Pagi, we went from shops to shops, packing up the food and sitting by the side to enjoy the meal. If I remembered correctly, it was pretty yummy. Somehow, there aren't pictures from all those food. Hmmm.
Early sun
Tanga Ichiba Street
Some random food stall
We then head over to Kokura Castle but unfortunately, the castle was closed but the grounds were open to wander around. There were plenty of historical figures around so that was what we did - walked around and talk. There were tons of Sakura trees around but aren't any flowers blooming from it but there were pine cones!
YMK and Hendriq seen imitating Capcom Game
EGM with her cone which she finds facinating
A picture taken by self timer phone, balanced on a rock
Behold! Kokura Castle surrounded by the moat
Mojiko
After that, we head over to Mojiko Port, which is a fusion of western-influenced architecture and a tiny bit of modernization. Most of the buildings are dated back to the 19th century and when you step off the train, it felt like entering a different era. Back in those days, it used to be thriving with trading with Asian continent but today, it's a place where every corner is Instagramable. If only we had clothes to suit that era, that would have been fun. It was near the ocean so the weather there hits differently. It's like hot but at the same time cold enough to bundle yourself up. We had hot chocolate to match the weather and it was all good till we wanted to eat and somehow the restaurant that we wanted to go was close, and we only find out when we reached there. Sigh. We did however tried out the Yaki Curry which is supposed to be famous as local product but I don't remember it being delicious.
EGM posting with a peace sign, waiting for the boys
Western architecture
A real toilet replicate to be alike to the one in the old days
A café by the Port
Cute random building
Snack made out of banana
Oita - Land of Hot Springs
Now, Oita hits me somewhere in my heart. I will definitely go back that is for sure. Home to sand, mud and water hot springs is Oita Prefecture where every corner you can see steam coming from houses or even from the ground. Almost every corner, there is a hot spring that you can visit, beginning from the station itself. Once you step out, there is a hand hot spring where you can just dip your hand into the warm water, filled with minerals.
It was after a long day of lunging our belongings and we were so ready to hit back to our AirBnB for the night however, the ride from the station to the homestay took us close to 40 minutes. It was cute but when you are exhausted, all you could think of is food and rest.
Meat for a cold evening
The 3 musketeers with tired and hungry faces
Our dinner was one of the many best meals that we had as it was a beef heaven and boy, the beef do actually melt in your mouth ya! Before we went to Japan, most of our accommodation and train tickets are pre booked so we somehow exchanged a little more than we should, RM3000 if not mistaken so every day, we set a budget of RM100 to eat for each person. Although Japan's food is pricier, but there are ways to save (NO TAXI!) and that was how we spend most of our food buying skin care, junk food and also lots of delicious food.
Conclusion
This was where I learned that, washing clothes in a cold weather is not as easy in Malaysia. In our country, we wash our clothes and just hang it and the weather will take care of it but it was in Oita when we did the laundry and we left it out to be dry but somehow, although the sun comes out, the clothes remain damp and wet. Sigh.
xoxo,
eunicegm
