Fukuoka!! (Lots of Pics)

Super random trip the other day.

After I had dropped Jordan off at his ship (he was preparing to go to fire fighting school up north) I called my friend Sy and asked if she wanted to go somewhere. I didn't care where, just anywhere. I had spent that last full 7 days in the house and I  needed to get out of the house and off of base housing. So you can imagine my excitement when she asked if I wanted to head up to the city of Fukuoka!

Fukuoka is the capitol of the Fukuoka Prefecture on Kyushu Island. (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm still learning!) and it is this island's version of Tokyo. No where near as big but they have nearly every store imaginable. There's also tons of things to see and do there, its amazing.

We tried killing two birds with one stone there. Sy's husband needed to take his iPhone in to get swapped out for a new one. His is giving him all sorts of problems. We went there assuming we could get in and get out but this place was freaking PACKED! I mean, the hottest club in town kind of packed. We set up an appointment to be seen a few hours later which never worked out. So we spent the whole day hovering around the store unfortunately and didn't get to experience a ton of what Fukuoka has to offer, but it was still fun non the less!!!

Here's what the Apple store looked like:

Now let me try and describe Fukuoka. I'll start with putting a small picture into your brain...if you have ever been to Seattle imagine that for me. Just picture cyclists clogging streets and pissing off cars and Starbucks on every corner...you got it? Alright, multiply the bike traffic by 10 and instead of them in the streets, picture them all riding on the sidewalks, and envision a Starbucks every other store! There was even a Seattle's Best and Tully's!!! Minus the Space Needle, I felt right at home!

Holy BIKES Batman! Oh and by the way, I took this on our walk back to the car, double the amount of bikes here and you have an idea of what we saw at noon that day. Hahaha

While we were walking around we went into a few stores like Forever 21, H&M, Nike, etc. Even though these stores are from the states, the clothes and some sizes were definitely what I would define as "Japanese style". They were small sometimes and the style was crazy. In Forever 21 I noticed most the clothes were trying to revive the 1950s. There were 50's style letter sweaters, jackets, and other clothes that had a flare of some modernness to it. Lots of products with Disney and Coca-Cola too. Japan LOVES vintage American things, its crazy.

After just walking around for a bit we decided to get food. This turned into a total shit show! NO WHERE took cards! Our first problem was that all the restaurants stopped serving lunch at 3. Then the little mom and pop shops around didn't take cards. We were all so sure, that since Fukuoka was such a big city, every one would take cards. Not true when it comes to food. We almost thought we were going to just have to starve until we saw a Family Mart (just like a 7-11) and we knew they took cards. Weird right?

Oh but before we saw the Family Mart, we checked if Subway took cards and they had some crazy food options. I can't remember exactly but it was seafood and melted cheese combos. I think there was a shrimp, bacon, cheese melt sandwich I was excited to try...but of course they didn't take cards. No one here takes cards!!!

Anways, back to the Food Mart and another bonus of Japan...you can get some amazing food from Family Marts. Seriously. So I got this:

And as a dessert I had to try a Japanese candy and Sy suggested this:

They. Are. AWESOME.

During our lunch we caught something going down:

These guys started a processional of some kind...

Then this followed:

I have no idea what the celebration was for but just beyond where these people were walking, was live music and concessions. If we had Yen I would have totally ate some more to try it all out. Here's a closer look at what they were carrying:

It of course had a person in it. Who? I have no idea...but it was cool.

By the way, shrines out here are like churches in the states. You see them everywhere! Even dead center in the city. Here's a panoramic I took of an entrance to a shrine next to the bus stop:

Here's what the shrine inside looked like:

After 5 hours of realizing Mason's iPhone would never get fixed, we decided to walk back to the car. On the way we saw a bad ass Ferrari:

This structure that is half building and half hill side...seriously, its like a forest on one side of this place!

Alright, we get back to the parking garage and cram into the elevator. I had to take a picture. The freaking stroller BARELY fits!!!! What the hell?!

And last, but not least, the rest stops here are amazing. In the states the rest stops are dreadful. Deep down you pray to the rest stop gods that there might be a vending machine when you typically end up with super crummy bathrooms and creeper hitch hikers...not in Japan. This is a rest stop Japanese style:

It's a terrible picture cause it was dark and I was using my phone. However, I know you can see how there are like stores right? Yeah, they have a food mart, bathrooms, everything. They hook you up at the rest stops here. So legit.

Really that was our day! I mean it wasn't too exciting but never having been to the city (minus flying in when we first got here) I made the most of the day!