WHY WE LOVE JAPAN & CAME BACK! 🇯🇵 FUKUOKA

WHY WE LOVE JAPAN & CAME BACK! 🇯🇵 FUKUOKA

[Music] Good morning everyone. So today we’re finally back in Japan. It’s going to be our second time visiting the country. We came here the first time last year, I think around the beginning of the year, cherry blossom season, and it ended up probably being one of our favorite countries in the world. Yeah, that’s why we are back. It’s probably like on a top five, I think. Yeah. Top five or top 10, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. We really love Japan. Uh the culture and the places that you can visit and temples. Yeah, the temples and also the beaches which I think we might visit again this time. Yeah, but also the big city. Then we’re starting here in a new place for us. Fukuoka. Yeah, Fukuoka. So this is on the island of Kushu which is below the main island of Honshu if I’m saying that correctly where Tokyo is. So we’re staying in a ward called Hakata. That’s the main station right there. Train station, bus station. and we’re staying in this building. We’ll show it later on. So, a great location. So, first we’re going to make our way to a Shinto shrine. It’s about a 10-minute walk. So, I don’t think it’s going to be very busy here with Western tourists. It’s not really on the Western tourist trail. I think the majority of the people are just from South Korea, China, Taiwan. From what I read online, the majority of the foreigners will be Koreans cuz you can actually get a ferry to here from South Korea. Only a few hours it’s very close. And just like we remember it last time, it is very quiet. The cars are usually pretty quiet. I think there’s a lot of electric cars. And then the people are always really quiet, too. They don’t speak loud, so never really has that big city noise. This is the sixth most populous city in uh Japan, so it’s not a small one. It’s actually really hot, too. As you can see, it’s a nice sunny day. It’s over 30° C right now. I don’t think we were expecting it to be this hot. No, I don’t know. For some reason, I thought it would be around like 25 or something. Yeah, I thought that too. Max, we’re at the end of September and Japan is way up north. So, I just thought it would be cooler, but at least it’s a nice day. So, this is the shrine right next to the main road. I think it’s called Sumio Yoshi Shrine. Don’t know if you have to pay to go in here. So here in Japan, you’re usually going to find either Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples. So Shintoism is like the indigenous Japanese religion, some kind of nature religion. It’s easier to differentiate them cuz you won’t have the Buddha statue obviously in the Shinto ones. And I think they pretty much always have the gate at the entrance, the Tory gate. It’s so nice to be seeing all this again. Yeah. Yeah. We love it. The red uh bridges. Yeah. Cuz throughout Japan, it’s usually the the same colors and styles. I remember always seeing these two. I think it’s to clean your hands, maybe. Also, these things. Not sure what they are. Maybe for candles, I guess. Lights. [Music] [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] A big thanks to the sponsor of this video, Surf Shark, for supporting our adventures. Surf Shark is our recommended VPN provider that we’ve been using for the past 5 years while traveling. As we are constantly jumping from place to place, we are always using public Wi-Fi in airports, restaurants, and other places. And sometimes that can be risky. That’s why we use Surf Shark to be able to have a private connection, keeping our personal information and sensitive data safe from potential hackers. Apps and websites that we use to book things like hotels, flights, and car rentals may change their price depending on the country that we are booking from. We recently had this happen to us when renting a car in Houston in the US. When we set our device location to Guatemala, it was cheaper than if our location was set to the US. By using Surf Shark, you can change your device location to check for the best prices. We also use Surf SharkVPN to avoid online restrictions. While traveling to different countries, some of the series and films that we watch on streaming sites are not always available. And I also have issues when trying to watch football highlights. But with Sur Shark, we can select a different location and still be able to watch everything that we want. With just one single Surf Shark subscription, you can connect to unlimited devices for your entire household. Go to surf shark.com/jumpingplaces or use our code jumping places at checkout to get four extra months of Sur SharkVPN. So the main complex inside, you weren’t actually allowed to take any pictures or film. So you just have to come here yourself. That was the building right there in the middle. The gods enshrined in Sumi Yoshi Shrine have been worshiped for protecting the nation and sea voyage since ancient times as well as for promoting wacka poetry since the middle ages. Says that the main hall was rebuilt in 1623. So, we were just making our way to a mall and then we came across I think what is a Buddhist temple. So, completely different style to the last one that we went to. Doesn’t seem to be open though. I don’t know if this is one really for tourists to enter anyway. The classic Japanese vending machines. You see these absolutely everywhere. I think there’s one on our floor in our building. Yeah, in our hotel inside. inside also outside every every corner that that we walk we can see something like that. Yeah, a lot of them always have like coffees and stuff. I think there’s different things. Orange juice, but the majority do seem to have coffee. Everyone’s addicted to coffee now. Just walking down this nice little back street. Oh yeah, over there. That’s a Coca-Cola one. So this mall is one of the main attractions in Fukuoka. It’s called Canal City Mall. Really beautiful. Kind of in the shade right now, but yeah, there’s some like really nice turquoise water down there. It’s all very green, too. Different plants everywhere. I think sometimes there’s like a water fountain. I don’t see that right here. Maybe it’s down that way somewhere. So, we’re not going to be buying anything, but we’ll just take a quick walk around. We finally just saw two western tourists. Yeah, first time today. Yeah, in like an hour. So, there really isn’t many at all. Maybe check out the view from this bridge. Grand Hayatt. Ah, so this part’s a hotel, I guess. Right next to the mall. I think in the images that I saw the fountain was here. Can see there the equipment. Maybe only at specific times. Yeah, super unique design though for a mall. We didn’t see any mall like this in uh other places that we went to in Japan. Not at all. And I think uh if I saw an image of this place, I would guess it was maybe in the Philippines cuz they have malls like this with water. Unusual styles. Yeah. I think in Japan it was just usually just a normal like rectangular building. Nothing like this. There seems to be a lot of people waiting around. So, I don’t know if there’s going to be a fountain show right now. Possibly [Music] [Applause] [Music] Pretty [Music] [Applause] [Music] cool. [Music] [Applause] So, Fukuoka is famous for its ramen. We’ve come to a place to order some ramen. Now, we’re just in a queue. And the famous ramen here is this tonkatu ramen. So, I think that’s it on its own. And yeah, this is like a set. Probably get that one then. 1,580. So, the machine gives you all these tokens for the food. And then the lady just gave us this paper. We can choose like the amount that we want of different things. Carol went for what’s that? Half a clove of garlic. Yeah, cuz I love garlic. Yeah. Medium on the other things. Richness. Yeah. All sorts. So that’s the name of the place. Ichiran. I think it’s famous. That’s why there’s a queue. So that’s cool. We have like our own little cubicle each. Carol’s small one. We also got some Ichiran original tea. We’ll see how that is. I got the salted egg with mine. I think you can order refills from what it says here. You can just call them here and this opens up. This is where they’re going to bring the food. Also says you can make requests without speaking. Yeah, I guess you just show one of these uh things to them. I don’t know the ordering process. And you don’t have to speak into their girl. [Music] Yeah. So, since I got the bigger set, I have extra slices of pork to put in the soup and the egg. I think Carol’s is without the egg. M spicy. Yeah. I don’t know what those are. It looks like spices. Yeah. So, the broth is made from boiling pork bones, I think, for like almost 24 hours. So, supposed to be full of collagen, I think. Nice thin little noodles. Oh, absolutely love noodles. Oh, yeah. I can feel the the spice now. has a bit of a creamy taste. The broth. Well, really spicy now. So, I guess I’m supposed to put the egg inside. I don’t know. Mix it up. Put some of the other slices as well. Enjoying it. Yeah. Really good. Really nice flavor, isn’t it? Yeah. The broth is really good. And Carol also got a dessert. It’s like a matcha pudding. Yeah. Tasty. Yeah. That’s a very strong taste. Matcha. Yeah. They they’ve given this sauce as well. Did you put all the sauce on it? No, just a little bit. But it’s very very strong. Okay. So, you probably won’t be putting more on there. No. There’s also an almond. I’m allergic to almonds, so I can’t have that. [Music] So right Next to the mall, you can cross over to an island in the river. It’s actually really dried up right now. I saw other videos of this place, but never seen it like this before. Barely any water in there. So, yeah, this is the the island. We’re not going to stay here. We’re just passing through. So, I had to stop filming there quickly cuz we saw a sign saying no photography. And then we realized why. Because when we turned the corner, it was basically like a red light district, I think. Yeah. There were many stores and you could could see that uh like pictures of women and even some signs in many languages like Korean and even Portuguese, I think, like showing which girls they had and you could choose. That’s a bit weird. Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that all of a sudden. So, this is the main river. I think it’s called the Naka River. can do like a river cruise here, which would be cool. I think you can do it at night time, too. So, this river side is supposed to be really cool at night. I think they have all these food stalls. So, we’re probably going to come here at nighttime, too. And especially nice cuz you get to eat right at the side of the river. I always love cities that have a river flowing through. It’s always really nice. I think it’s just down here where you can do the river cruise. It’s at specific times though. I don’t think it’s all day. [Music] So, we ended up booking the river cruise for tonight at 8:00 p.m. 1,500 yen per person. That was nice. We weren’t even thinking that we were going to be able to do it. That’s an interesting building there. Almost looks more like a a European style. Don’t know what that is. Right next to the river. The sign says that it was the previous Fukuoka Prefecto Civic Hall and honorary guest house completed in 1910. It also said that it is a French Renaissance style. So yeah, that’s why I thought it looked European. Got another nice little bridge here. Yeah, I’m loving all these bridges. And we came here to come to this building, Acurus. I think it’s like a concert hall. Looks even nicer on this side. Super green. Trees everywhere. And from what I saw online, I think you can actually climb on top of this building. Walk up. It looks like there’s a cafe inside. Not only a forest on top, also a a waterfall. You wouldn’t imagine that we’re on a roof of a building right now, would you? No. Really? No. It’s like a a park. The sign said that there’s an observatory at the top, but it’s closed now for some reason. But I think we can still get some good views from up here. [Applause] So, this is as high as we can come, but still pretty nice the city views. Anyway, so that was the mall over there. And look, now you can see all these massive mountains in the background. Bet you could do some pretty cool hiking around here. I did see that there’s some waterfalls that you can visit. Some pretty nice ones. So, some nice nature options, too. Oh, so hot. Yeah, it’s it’s really a contrast from our last trip to Japan cuz it was in March, so we were wearing like big jackets cuz it was very cold, but now it’s super hot. It’s actually feeling hotter than Vietnam almost. We were just in Vietnam. It’s like the same temperature. [Music] So now we’ve come to the ruins of a castle here in Fukuoka. We just got on that bus right now cuz it was like a 35minute walk and we used the Swicker card which is still on our phone from last year. So that’s on our Apple wallet but you’ll need a iPhone for that. I know when we came last time they didn’t have the physical cards. I think because of some issue because of co but maybe they have the physical cards at the stations now. Not sure. So, on our previous trip, we went to the castle in Osaka, which was really cool. And then we also went to one in Tokyo. The one in Ozaka was the best though cuz it was the most complete. The one in Tokyo was mainly just the ruins, like the base from noisy insects or birds. Don’t know what that is. No, no. No. Yeah, they’re in Japan. They’re not allowed to make noise. already got a part that we can climb up. I just read online that this castle was built around the early 1600s. That was the base of the castle. It’s only going to open in December. Would have got a better view from over there, but yeah, still not too bad here. You can just see a bit of the lake that we’re going to head to next. And also, I don’t know if you can see the huge tower in the background there. We’re planning on going up that, too. probably have to get another bus to go there. Looks far away. So the pictures on these signs are just like a a reconstruction I guess of what it would have looked like. So when I was mentioning the base, that’s the only part we can see at the bottom. So there right now all the buildings are gone. All right. So there is one part that actually has some buildings. Looks quite nice. Not sure if that’s a reconstruction, but at least it gives you an idea of how it would have looked like in the past. It probably is the the least impressive of the three that we visited though, cuz Osaka, you had the main building in the middle. That was amazing that you could go up and then Tokyo, the castle there, still had a few buildings, too. But besides this, it’s pretty much just all the base in this place. [Music] So now we’re at that park ori park. And there’s a Japanese garden here which you have to pay for. It’s 250 per person. If you just go to the main park with the big lake, I don’t think you have to pay anything, but it looks pretty nice. Japanese gardens are always very beautiful. Can already see some of the koiish over there. I thought it was cherry blossom, but it’s a different type of tree. Oh, it’s not not cherry one. Almost the same color though. Yeah, similar. But I do know that you can come to these parks and the castle when it’s cherry blossom season and it’ll be ultra colorful. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] So, now we’re at the tower. There it is. Going to head up there in a few minutes. First, we’re just going to check out the coast cuz there’s actually some beaches here in Fukuoka. So, another bonus of this place since we love beaches. So, this is Momoi Beach. There’s a sign back there saying you’re not allowed to swim here. So, I wonder why. Don’t know if it’s dangerous or something. Looks pretty calm right now. So, there’s the beach here and then on the other side there, there’s another beach. And the sign said that this is a place for wedding venues. Can see like a bell tower at the back. Kind of looks like a a church in a way. We’ll be showing some better beaches in the next video though. Oh yeah, way way better. We’re heading to a place in Okinawa called Mako Jima, an island that we’ve never been to. And it looks absolutely stunning. So the next video should be really awesome. And this is the other side of the beach. I don’t know if it’s still considered the same one that we were on before. This this side actually has people. Everyone comes here for some reason. Some nice little beach cafes down there. [Music] I’m not sure what they want. So, it cost a,000 yen per person to come up the tower. We’re around 123 m high. Get some really nice views. So, that was both of the beaches that we saw before. I think it is just one beach. The wedding venue place looks really cool though. There’s a pool inside, I think. Yeah, I think that is a pool, isn’t it? Nice place to get married. Now on this side we got another big river that’s a completely different one to what we saw earlier like a snake bridge over there. Even better shot of the mountains now. So the tower that we’re in is actually the third tallest in Japan. I believe we’re not right at the top. So that’s the the complete peak. Which one did we go to? Tokyo Tower. Yeah, we went to that one last time. 333. Wow. Look at that one. It’s like double. I think we’re going to this one on this trip. On this trip? Yeah. Yeah, we’re going to the big one. Tokyo Skytree. So, Carol was just saying how nice it is that the windows are completely spotless cuz in other countries that we go to, it’s usually like dirty windows, isn’t it? Yeah. Even though the the price to enter at the tower is expensive, sometimes the the windows are are not as clean as expected. But here, I was already expecting because it’s it’s in Japan, so it’s really really clean. Yeah, Japan’s always like super clean, isn’t it? [Music] So, it’s around 7:45 p.m. Now we’re back on that river once again, the Naka River. Just going to cross that bridge and then yeah, head out on the boat tour. I think that’s actually the boat we’re going on, the pink one there. So, as I mentioned earlier, it’s 1,500 per person, but I think from Monday to Thursday, it would be a,000 per person. Today is a Friday, so we kind of pay the weekend rate, 500 extra. Yeah, that pink boat that was pulling up is ours. I think it’s a 30 minute tour overall. [Music] Foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] So the boat toe was nice. We pretty much went to where the sea or the ocean, not sure what it is, meets the river, the entrance. There’s a cruise ship there. So, it is a place that you can do cruises to and a cool red tower. The guide was speaking in Japanese though, so not sure what she was saying. I think she was explaining the different regions that we were going to. We liked her dance moves, though. Yeah, we were not expecting that, but she was really good. Really nice. Yeah. And on the bridge, we got some live music. these dudes here. And then there’s a lady over there playing traditional old Japanese style music. A nice vibe here on the river. All the singers are out now. We saw some other boats also where it looked like people were eating. So I guess there’s different kind of tours that you can do. So I’m not even sure what you call these things. Everyone grouped around the store. They all seem to be jam-packed though. Did read online some people saying it’s like a tourist trap. Another boat going through. I think that’s our same boat. So, we decided to come to some quiet isizakaya that Carol found online instead of those those food places on the riverfront. I think you read that people were complaining that it was just overpriced. Yeah. Uh for the quality and the quantity. So, yeah, that’s why we’re not trying it. Yeah. So, right now we just paid around 2,700 yen. Not for this. Obviously, there’s more food coming. Some skewers over there. You can see them on the the grill. And we got the plum wine. Since it’s a isakaya, you have to buy some form of alcohol, right? Yeah. I think most isakayas are like that. Not only food. And we got the edamameis, which we always get. The plum wine is so delicious. I think I actually prefer it more than grape wine. Really, really tasty. Very sweet though. And the food has arrived. So, even here, the portions are not really very big. We didn’t go to the food stalls cuz we thought it would be little portions, but it is also here. It’s tasty, though. I just had the chicken gizzard. Really nice. I always love that. And then I think that’s liver. And I have no idea what this is. I also got some pork belly arriving. Carol’s was just a chicken karagi like a fried chicken. [Music] [Music] So, it’s the end of our stay here in Fukuoka. We ended up spending 3 days here overall. Yesterday, we went to the gym. Didn’t really do any filming or anything, but we did check out one of the old Buddhist temples that’s nearby, over a thousand years old. really nice one. You can’t film inside though, but there was this massive wooden Buddha statue. Probably one of the coolest statues that we’ve ever seen. So, definitely recommend checking that out. And the place that we staying is called Comfort Hakata. It’s $115 a night. That includes breakfast. It is very simple. It’s basically just this bed. Got a tiny little desk area here, TV. This is some of the views from our room. We’re on the 12th floor and this is the bathroom. Got a little bathtub, the high-tech Japanese toilets that you see pretty much everywhere. And we’re about to head to Okinawa now. So, the island of Makoima does show that there’s a typhoon coming. But yeah, hopefully the weather’s going to open up towards the end of our stay there. So, stay tuned for that video. If you like this one, just drop a like as usual to support us. Subscribe to see more videos like this. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook. And we’ll see you in the next one. [Music]

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In this video we explore Fukuoka in Japan

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