Tuesday, April 8 - Hakata / Fukuoka

I failed to set my alarm and ended up sleeping until 10:00. Since the room is almost pitch black, it was really easy to sleep in. I was lying there debating whether or not to get up, when I heard rustling from up above. Vaso had gotten up so I guess I should too. Check out time was 11am, which meant that we still had an hour until we had to get out. Since we payed for it, we decided to hit up the bath before leaving. It was just like any other hot springs. They even provided aka-sleeves, razors, and toothbrushes. No other hot springs does that! We freshened up and headed out.

We had previously decided not to spend too much time in Hakata because it was a big city and there was not too much to do here. We went to the information desk to grab a map and ask what there was to do around Hakata. Apparently there is a castle just like in every other city. That sounded like a perfectly valid option. We hopped on a train and went to Fukuoka castle. Sadly it was merely the castle ruins, but it was still pretty cool. Vaso and I split a bag of cotton candy with Doremon on it as a snack. We saw the castle ruins which were just a couple of walls and some stairs leading up to them. I don’t exactly know what happened to the castle because there were no signs explaining it, but it was interesting just the same. The sakura were still in bloom so we got to see a lot of pretty flowers.

Vaso and I found some benches near a lake that had swan boat floating around in it. I could not convince Vaso to go with me on one of the boats. “But it will be fun!” I kept saying. We ate our cotton candy and watched the Koi swim by when the unthinkable happened.

Vaso and I decided that it was time to head out and check out this “Fukuoka tower,” the tallest building in Fukuoka. I grabbed my bag and stood up. Just then I heard a small “splash” and looked into the lake to see a small silver object sink into the abyss. It took me a couple of seconds to take in what happened but once I realized, I turned to Vaso and very calmly said “My camera just fell into the lake.”

My camera had just fallen into the lake.

He responded with “Well it’s gone now.” I countered with “No, it’s not that deep, I can still get it.” Finally he told me “You better get it then!” At this I rolled up my sleeves and plunged my arms into the water. The water was only a couple feet deep, but I could not see what I was doing. I felt along the rocks until finally I latched my left hand around my beloved camera. After salvaging it from the water, I immediately took out the battery and the memory card. “Screw the camera! I want my 1500+ pictures that I have taken on this trip!!!” I thought. I dried off the memory card and battery and shoved them into my pocket. Now how am I supposed to dry the rest of my camera?

We walked along looking for a hardware store where I could purchase a small screwdriver. Instead of that, we ran into a photo printing place. I charged inside and asked if I could borrow a small screwdriver and canned air. They obliged, and I was hard at work opening up my camera to dry it off. I got most of it apart, and by using the canned air got most of it dry. After an hour and a half or so I put it back together and tried turning it on.

IT TURNED ON!!!

Sadly though, when I tried turning it off the lens would not retract. Yay, a dead camera… Once I got back to Tokyo I tried turning it on and it worked. It would take pictures with the flash and everything, but the screen was completely white. I need to get a small screwdriver and open it up again. I think that I did not get the screen plugged in all the way, which is why the screen is white. There is still hope!!!!

After that depressing moment, I decided that it was not worth pouting over and we headed towards the Fukuoka tower. Along the way we ran across a large stadium with people sitting around waiting. On closer inspection, a lot of them were wearing towels that said “Orange Range” on them. Are you kidding?!?!? There is going to be an Orange Range concert (one of my favorite bands) in Fukuoka, and we happened to stumble upon it? What luck. A passerbye tried to sell us tickets, but due to our flight leaving at 9pm, we could not attend the concert. Sucks!

We ended up at a bus stop and took a bus headed for the Fukuoka tower. It was much farther than we originally anticipated. We arrived and bought tickets up. It was really weird that the building is exclusively for sightseers to climb. It looks like a normal office building from the outside, but there is nothing on the inside but structure and empty space. It was similar to Tokyo tower, but without the tower part. It was a good view in any case. Sadly I could not take any pictures of the city. On the floor under the observation deck there were sofa’s on each of the four corners. I secured one of these and spent about an hour just sitting and looking out towards the sea. On that same floor there was a compass in them middle that supposedly grants good luck towards love. You face the house of the person you love and make a wish. It is supposed to come true. I faced towards Tokyo and made a wish that has yet to come true.

Back on the ground Vaso and I visited the beach. I took a walk by myself along the sea. Barefoot and with pants rolled up I walked along the shoreline as the sun went down. It was very relaxing. Shortly thereafter, Vaso and I decided that we should head back to the airport and check-in as to not miss our flight. We got the airport a little before 8pm and checked in. The person behind the counter said that planes were running late due to bad weather in Tokyo. She asked us if we wanted to be bumped up a flight and we said yes. We got put on the 8pm flight which was delayed until about 9pm. The security for domestic flights in Japan was very lax. We did not have to take our shoes off and did not get scanned even though we were obviously foreign. Vaso was still carrying his wooden sword which was considered a prohibited item. The took it from him and gave a voucher to pick it up once we arrived in Tokyo. Before departing we ate at a small Udon/Soba shop.

We arrived in Tokyo at about 10:30, it was just enough time to catch my last train home. Of course my host family was worried about our flight being delayed, but it is alright now. I made it home to Tokyo in one piece.