25 days in Japan - Part 1
We travel to Fukuoka and Hiroshima.
Part 1 - Fukuoka to Hiroshima
Singapore (12.5 hour layover)
Note I'll eventually turn these into more detailed itineraries for each city where we'll go through what we did, what we ate and any travel tips.
All photos shot on Ricoh GR IIIx and are straight from the camera (unedited). Adrien Sanguinetti's Yawarakai 160 recipe.
We took an early morning flight into Singapore and decided to have a long layover so we could explore and catch some friends.
Hung around Jewel Changi for a couple hours and finally tried out Birds of Paradise. Their cones and ice-cream were great!
Dinner was at Cicheti. I was initially a little skeptical with "how much better can the Italian food here be", especially given the premium on western food in Singapore. I was wrong. Food here was delicious, with the menu erring more on the premium side (something we don't have as much of in Perth).
By the time dinner was done, it was time to head back to the airport. We squeezed in a much needed shower before the facilities at Hub & Spoke closed at 10 pm (currently working on an article on showers - yes, showers, at Changi Airport). Our red-eye flight into Fukuoka was at 1:20 am.
Fukuoka (3D2N - 3 days 2 nights)
Made it to Hakata, Fukuoka. The first stop of our 25 day adventure. We landed at just past 8 am. It felt magical to be back in Japan. Last time we were in Japan was 4 years ago, in late 2019.
Not pictured - our first dinner which was gyutan (BBQ beef tongue) at Gyutanyaki Sendai Henmi, our first konbini (convenience store) sando and a mentaiko baguette (Fukuoka is famous for mentaiko).
We didn't want to head back to the hotel after dinner, so we went on a walk and found some yatai - food stalls that are popular and scattered throughout Fukuoka.
Our first "proper" sleep in over 36 hours was great. Felt refreshed on waking up.
Day two involved checking out Nanzoin - a reclining bronze statue. It is a place of worship, so do keep in mind the dress requirements (info on their website).
One of my favourite shots I took all trip was down this random alleyway.
The afternoon involved a trip to Dazaifu which felt like a mini Kyoto. Sadly, we got there a little too late and stalls were closing up.
Our last day in Fukuoka was spent doing some shopping before heading to Hakata station to catch our first shinkansen (bullet train)
Can't forget to get the ekiben (literally railway bento) - a bento specifically eaten on trains.
Hiroshima (3D2N)
By the time we arrived at our hotel, it was around 5 pm.
It started to snow!
We grabbed dinner with a friend. Afterwards, we headed to Cafe & Bar PRESS. Thanks to our friend and talented marimba and percussionist, Machi, a Hiroshima local, who recommended us the bar!
The second bar we hit up was.. a (pardon my French), fucking vibe.
A disco ball hung from the ceiling and beams of soft light bounced and danced around the room. All to the tune of some boopin beats.
It wasn't particularly expensive either.
We unlocked a new core memory here.
We vibed to Miki Matsubara's city pop hit, Stay With Me. A fond memory to look back upon and one that we'll never forget 🥹.
The night ended with an obligatory visit to Makudo, which is the Japanese nickname for Maccas (note those in Tokyo call Maccas "makku") and a walk back to our hotel.
The next morning started with me going on a mini photowalk after breakfast, before we headed to Miyajima Island.
Deer in full loaf mode.
Excuse me ma'am, have you heard about our lord and saviour?
Oysters are famous in Hiroshima. Paige and I aren't oyster people, but I guess we had to try the local specialties.. The oyster chowder really hit the spot on a cold day. The curry pan, equally as good.
We did get to Miyajima Island a little later than we would've liked as the iconic tori gate was at low tide.
It was a fun afternoon regardless, and we're already looking forward to returning and doing an overnight trip here!
The morning of the next day - my usual post-breakfast photowalk and a bunch of shopping before hitting up the Mazda Museum.
Photos weren't allowed during parts of the tour. The tour was great fun and free. I highly recommend it for the petrol heads who read this. English and Japanese tours are available.
The night wasn't particularly interesting from a photographic perspective. We hit up an Aeon mall and man, it was a great decision to.
It had all the big stores we wanted to check out - Uniqlo, GU and Zara being some of them. Best thing - it was pretty quiet not packed with people.
We ended up shopping a little bit past the last orders of many of the food places, so dinner ended up being discount sushi and sashimi from AEON Supermarket 😂 (it was still delicious and probably better than the stuff we get here, made in restaurants).
Onto our last day in Hiroshima before heading to Osaka.
You can probably tell where we're headed.
I really loved how the light hit this shrine on a diagonal. So I thought I'd include it 😂.
Onto more serious matters now..
If you follow me over on @shreddyeddy_shoots you would've read my post about this.
The first time I ever went to Japan was in 2009. It was on high school exchange. During the two weeks we were in Japan, we had a day trip to Hiroshima and checked out the Hiroshima Peace Museum. It's not hard to imagine how one would feel at the memorial. After visiting recently, I felt exactly the same feeling as I did in 2009.
We headed back to the hotel after lunch, grabbed our bags (luggage storage at hotels being the prime reason we booked hotels over airbnbs this trip) and headed to Hiroshima station to catch our shinkansen.
You can buy shinkansen tickets in advance but we didn't want that type of time commitment, so we got them when we arrived. This time around I tried to "test my Japanese" and ended up.. Failing with flying colours 🥲 .
I completely butchered the tickets - getting the wrong fares. Luckily, at the station they have a dedicated help desk at the station office for foreign travellers. Thank you to the lovely lady who sorted my tickets out!
That's it for the first part of our Japan trip.
This took me surprisingly longer to write than expected. See you next week, in Osaka!
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