Kyoto to Fukuoka

Another 7:42 train to Hakata/Fukuoka. We got to the station, arranged for our ferry to Korea and got a hotel by the station. Clustered around the station were tons of businessmen’s’ hotels (they call them ‘sarariman’- salary man). The hotels have miniscule rooms, with adult movies, a stocked refrigerator and no room to move. We figured out that our room measured 4 tatami mats. There was barely enough room to get out of bed and walk to the bathroom without tripping over something.

We headed out to the “Anti-Mongol Museum”. In 1274, a reconnaissance force of some 30,000 Mongols landed near Fukuoka, just to the north of Kyushu. They had tremendous success but the death of their commander forced them to retreat. Seven years later, in 1281, Kublai Khan dispatched another force of 150,000 troops, the largest amphibious assault recorded in history prior to WWII. They were on the brink of victory when a typhoon (kami-kaze- literally, divine wind) sent most of the fleet to the bottom of the sea. To this day, the word kamikaze has survived based on this incident. The museum was sad- all in Japanese and not very user friendly, but it was interesting to see the Mongol weapons and clothing and see the farthest point they got in the East.
Then it was on to lunch- an Indian restaurant- we thought we were in heaven. A beaming Indian behind the glass window cooking up curries and vindaloos; the next table filled with Indians. One of them was the owner- he has 21 restaurants across the Far East.
After a filling lunch, we walked around the Naka-gawa River to see the street stalls being set up- there were hundreds of them set up to catch the saraiman when they emerge from the bars drunk and hungry.
Fukuoka was a very strange town…everyone was talking on their silver cell phones (and when they weren’t talking on them, they were fondling them or playing games on them. It’s an obsession. They also ride old 50’s style one-speed bikes.
We’d had enough of walking and headed back to the hotel for cheese and crackers and cheap wine..