fuk!

Aaah, Fukuoka. When I first looked up information about what to do in Fukuoka, other than it's "city in a city" shopping centre, not that many sights came up that made me that interested in visiting the city. The only thing came that kept coming up was that they were famous for food. Would that really be enough to entertain me for two whole days?

Oh, how little I know me.

The first night we arrived happened to coincide with a huge fireworks display right across from our hotel. One of the few things that Gifu has to boast about is the fact that they hold two of the largest fireworks displays in all of Japan, which costs somewhere in the millions of dollars and goes for a couple hours. So, fortunately that left us with a perfect opportunity to roam arounds the streets of fukuoka while most other people flocked to the direction we had just come from.

Once we got into the heart of the ctiy, we found some yatai - food stalls with seating set up right on the streets. I would usually associate that kind of food with Thailand or other parts in Asia, so it was an unexpected change from the regular restaurants that I've seen throughout the Japan.

mushroom tempura

We settled for the emptiest one, which turned out to be a the only tempura stall as well. If my obsession with travel/food shows has taught me anything, is that the food places with lines for a reason, and vice versa. But, after talking to one of the other customers at the stall, turns out this place normally attracts a huge line of locals - the locals who all happpened to be watching fireworks - which is why the other tour guide -approved stalls were full.

Oh man, I don't even know where to start with how awesome the place was. It was run by a husband and wife who had been running this stall for 30 years - the husband's father was one of the first families to start up this yatai thing in Fukuoka. The drinks were cheap (5 bucks for like a litre bottle of beer), and the experience of watching this old man make fresh tempura batter out of the back of his truck, fry things in front of us and eat them straight away was amazing. Best tempura ever.

The next day, after making our way to the "city-within-a-city" shopping centre, we found ichiran, a famous chain for their tonkotsu ramen. Though I've been to a Ramen shop with tickets before, this one took their ramen a little more seriously. partitions separated customers with a curtain right in front. the waiters opened the curtain collect the ramen preference sheet and serve the food with minimal talking and eye contact. Apparently, it's to help customers appreciate the flavour of the ramen, though with Ramen this tasty, it didn't really need much help.

Dammit, I was hoping to go to Fukuoka just to say I've now visited every one of the main islands of Japan, but now all I'm thinking about is eating awesome ramen and tempura again.