Fukuoka

Today we joined 2 other couples for a private tour, one couple from Dallas had set it up and had posted on Cruisecritic a couple months ago that they were looking for 2 other couples to join and share expense. We joined them along with a couple from Toronto and had the best day and a wonderful tour guide Erica, she is from the area but went to college in Michigan so had perfect English. We started with s bus ride to the train station where we then took a train to one of the most important Buddhist temples, Nanzo-in Temple.

We had a short walk to the temple passing over a cool little bridge, Melody Bridge with a xylophone type edge along the top to play music on.

At the shrine we were inspected by a guard as to if we were appropriately dressed, no tattoos can be exposed, and no knees exposed. I thought knee length was fine but not shoulders so had brought a scarf but he wanted me to use it to cover my knees, the men all had to pull their shorts down to cover knees. It was just so hot we didn’t want to wear long pants! They did offer blue towels and clips yo use to cover up but our group passed inspection and we continued on into the beautiful grounds. There were signs no pictures allowed but our guide said it was okay to just snap a few quick pictures here and there but no videos.

She told us that Shinto, the original and main Japanese religion and Buddhism main religion of China are very much aligned in Japan, so much so at this Temple, as well as others, include areas for both. We visited the Shinto Shine area.

Lastly we saw the largest reclining bronze Buddha in the world, its length is the same size as the Statue of Liberty.

To say a prayer here you hold the ribbons that are attached to the Buddhas hand and throw a coin into the offering.

Then we took the train back to town and had the famous Fukuoka ramen. Erica told us what makes this areas ramen special, rich pork broth, very firm noodles, all the optional toppings and helped us order on the machine since everything was in Japanese. For a gal who doesn’t like pasta I even enjoyed the ramen!

We walked around a big city park popular for families.

Went to a beautiful traditional Japanese zen garden.

Occasonally mist is released over the gardens for a cooling effect.

We saw couples there getting wedding pictures done.

Erica walked us past the Fukuoka Art museum, we didn’t have time to go inside.

We didn’t have time to go in as we all had to get back to ship early to go through customs before our next stop in South Korea. We ended our wonderful day with a beautiful sunset view seen from our little cabin window.

Hanmon Strait

This day was just a day on ship with cruising through Kanmon Strait.

Every morning I go up to the top front of ship to the Explorers Lounge and get an Americano from our favorite bartender James. He gets a 5 hour break in the middle of the day, we see him for coffee in the morning and pre dinner wine/cocktails in the evening.

We didn’t do much today other than listen to a port talk, go to a cooking demo, and enjoy time outside on deck with commentary as we sailed through Kanmon Strait, an important water way fur ships hundreds passing through a day. There is an underground pedestrian tunnel under the channel, as well as a bridge. We sailed under the bridge, it felt like it was only inches above the top of ship!

Views from both sides of ship.

Cooking demo.

I had a yummy burger on deck for lunch followed by some dessert.

Enjoyed dinner chatting with Mark and Barb, Barb gave Dave a Canada button! We enjoyed an illusionist and also stopped by the piano bar to listen to music for a while.We are enjoying the fresh local fish at dinner, don’t remember what this one was.

Kochi

We had a great day in Kochi, since I lost the whole post I already created this will redo will be short and sweet! Kochi welcomed our ship with music and flag performance.

The cruise ship was docked in an industrial area so ship offered a shuttle for 20.00 into town dropping us off at a bus station. From the station we walked to Kochi Castle, oldest surviving castle in Japan, started in 1601. We just explored the exterior and grounds as we were told inside is not that impressive. Picture below is Dave’s impersonation of the face on statue!

The views were from the castle grounds were amazing.

Next we went to the Castle Museum, a small museum the best part was the air conditioning! It was so hot and humid out.

We noticed a shrine down the street from the museum so we decided to go. Took off our shoes, entered and sat down, no pictures allowed in Shrines. Soon a priest or monk came and sat by us, he didn’t speak English but he really wanted to converse so another priest came over with a phone and we had a conversation using translation. We could tell they were enjoying this encounter so when we left Dave asked if we could get a picture of them outside, they smiled and nodded yes of course!

Next we explored a popular food market.

We were hot and wanted to find a sit down restaurant with air conditioning, we hit the jackpot with this great katsu place, luckily a kind local helped us with the machine you order from, had English translation for good but not for payment.

The waitress showed us how to grind up sesame seeds to put on top of your meal.

We did a little kitchen knife shopping, the guy we bought from was a hoot!

We found the iconic red bridge that has a sad love story between a monk and a young woman.

We found our way back to the bus station and took the shuttle back to the ship. We enjoyed wine and cards before dinner. We have seen this service dog a couple times at the dining room, the other night it was wearing a sparkling black tutu!