[2014 Kyushu Family Trip - 8] Farewell, Kurokawa Hot Springs... Hello, Fukuoka!

December 23rd, 2014
After having some udon for lunch, it was finally time to leave our beloved Kurokawa Hot Springs.

The workers of Okunoyu gave us a ride to the bus stop, after my family retrieved our luggage.

It was hard to leave such wonderful place.
Bye, Kurokawa Hot Springs.
We'll never forget the soothing relaxing moments you gave us.

While we were on the bus headed for Fukuoka, my father and I had some hard boiled eggs for a snack.

Remember these eggs from the "Onsen Jigoku?"
Yup, these are those.

each one cost about 50 yen

With some salt

each of us had a hard-boiled egg.
Other than the egg made our mouth smell like sulfur dioxide, there was nothing remarkable about it.


After a couple of hours on the bus,

We arrived at the hotel we were going to stay, which was "Hotel New Otani Hakata."

It's a pretty premium hotel, compared to the one my friends and I stayed in at Osaka.

This is what our room looked like.

and this was the view from our room.
Looks very different from the rural environment of Kurokawa Hot Springs, doesn't it?

Well, now is the time to explore Fukuoka, and get a sense of what Japanese city feels like!

after walking from here to there...

We had arrived at Kawabata shopping street.

I've been to a couple of shopping streets and markets in Japan, and they all look really nice.
Everything was so clean and well-maintained.

and.... uh....
here's the thing you might probably see from animes.
uh.... that thing... that you roll and possibly win stuff?
I don't really know.

Lot of the stores were already closed, when we were there.
Might be because it was Christmas season, might be because we were just there late.

When we reached the end of Kawabata shopping street,
we came across a shrine.

This place was called Kushida Shrine.

I decided to take some pictures of the place (at least try to) while my parents were googling where they would like to go for dinner.

Depending on the light around the scene, some pictures turned out well,

and some just turned out mediocre.

some turned out all right, but not great.

These are some of the things that you can commonly see at a typical Japanese Shrine.
Be careful not to drink the water at the well, those are just for washing your hands!

and lastly, some areas were too dark, that it was unsalvageable even with the help of photo editing software.

after a short moment of intense photography(?), I went back to check if my parents have decided a place to have dinner.

and they were in front of one of the entrances to Canal City Hakata.
Yes, Kawabata shopping street, Kushida Shrine, and Canal City Hakata are all next to each other.

Thanks to the help of Google Maps, my parents have found a place to eat,
and we made our way there.

By the way, Google Maps is extremely useful for traveling in Japan.
I personally consider it a must.