I was only in Fukuoka for an evening on the way to Dazaifu, however given it was one of the larger cities in Japan, I thought I better have a look around. When I arrived it was pretty bustling and had more of an energy. Tokyo is by far my favourite city still with so much to do and I was quite surprised that cities like Sapporo where so quiet (maybe its just the areas I had been to).

It was a pleasant discovery to find another hustle bustle city. I’d met a random fairly elderly Irish gentleman at the hostel who was ‘over from Korean for the day’. Couldn’t work out exactly why as he said he worked in the education sector. Most people just say teacher and if he was really there working then why was he in Japan to reset his Korean visa?

I had read about the Yatai street food stalls that Fukuoka was famous for. I head to Nakasu island which is just a small area by the river connected by bridges. On arrival I’d probably call them more street izakayas. They generally seat no more than 10 people and you can eat well for $10-20

They all pretty much serve the same kind of thing, Yakitori, Ramen, Stir fries and a special type of tempura.

It is always a bit challenging to try everything when you only have one evening in a city/restaurant and travelling by yourself, but I certainly tried. I ordered the yakitori set which had various innards and seafood on a stick. The one to the right of the picture below is probably the one I haven’t encountered yet. It was some spiced Tarako (fish roe) wrapped in a shiso leaf which is then wrapped in pork, sliced and skewered. The saltiness of the fish egg and the fattiness of the pork is nicely cut through by the freshness of the shiso. Pretty yum.

It certainly wasn’t enough to fill me up but I wanted something a little less fatty. I noticed the dish the 2 people sitting to my left had so pointed and asked for one of those (one of the phrases I had just about managed to get a handle on). No idea what it was at the time but a bit of stir fried veggies would never be a bad thing. A well seasoned dish I had wondered what the squid like bits were, but on biting they were like little chunks of fat. Tasty but very chewy.

Thats when the retired couple next to me asked me where I was from. Maybe I hadn’t mastered my Japanese so well they spotted the gaijin a mile off. Ha. Anyway we got into a interesting conversation in patchy English and Japanese. They offered me their remaining tempura and some of the Nihonshu the old boy was drinking. He warned me the Nihonshu was pretty spicy but I thought it tasted pretty sweet. They told me the tempura they had ordered was the speciality of the region and in particular this Yatai was famous for. I had randomly stumbled into this one out of the 10 others that lined the river.

The tempura was similar to the new yakitori i had tried. Tarako wrapped in shiso leaf which was then deep fried in a light tempura batter. Nice with a beer, but pretty rich so couldn’t eat too many. Sorry no photos, but I was too busy bowing and saying thank you to the generous hospitality to remember to take a shot.

I’ll never forget the friendliness and generosity of the Japanese people to strangers. So nice for them to be genuinely interested in where I had been, why and what I had particularly enjoyed. I’d constantly reminded that a 3 month sabbatical would never be heard of here.

I walked back to the subway station hunting for a watering hole for a cheeky pint when I realised I was in the more colourful end of town. Confirmed only by the pretty blatant signs and door men trying to get me to pay $200 for an hour.

I kindly refuse and continue to head back a see a few more legitimate watering holes. One called The Shooting Bar. Why not give it a go? The worst it could be was a themed bar, the best could be a shooting range. It was something in between and there was a menu of lots of different types of BB guns some famed from movies such as Robocop and Leon. Others from various computer games

I had a couple of beers and shot a few guns, yes the Robocop one and yes it was just like the film. brr-r-r-r-r-r-r. ” You’re move creep”

Time to head back and rest, ready for a bit more culture in Dazaifu tomorrow.