Day 11: Asakura to Nanzoin
Today, we had to return the van, and the weather remained grim, but there were a couple of sights to see on the way back to Fukuoka.
The first stop was Amagi Park at Asakura, which was one of the top spots to view the cherry blossoms. The annual Sakura bloom was initially forecast to begin around Kyushu on March 22 and peak on the 31st, but the cold snap had put it back a couple of days in some places. Nevertheless, there were still some trees in bloom at the park, but again the weather did no favours for the photography, with washed-out gray skies leaching color from the otherwise vibrant blooms.
The next spot was the Nanzoin Temple, which was a very touristy Buddhist temple featuring a 40-meter reclining Buddha, said to be the largest bronze statue in the world.
This old historical temple did not have any of the gold bling you typically see at Thai temples and was serene and surrounded by greenery, running water, and hundreds of Buddha images. There was no entrance fee, but we had to pay 300 yen to park.
From here, it was a short drive to our final destination, where we started out on this campervan odyssey ten days ago, Chikuzen-Daibu Station. Alan, the company rep, had gone AWOL, so we were left waiting for over an hour for someone to collect the van before we could jump on a train and head into the metropolis.
Our accommodation for the next four nights was to be an APA hotel in the Hakata district, a modest budget option that was our only option, considering everything else in Fukuoka was booked out or price-hiked for Sakura season. Rooms at APA hotels are marginally bigger than the van we’d just spent the past ten days so we were used to living in tight quarters.
I was already beginning to miss the van and the freedom that came with it – staying in a hotel in a city just isn’t the same!
Day 12: Fukuoka
Our first day in Kyushu’s largest city would be dedicated to shopping, so we took a walk to the sprawling Hakata Station and a large tax-free shopping complex nearby. I wanted to check out gaming laptop prices, as everything tech-related is priced at a premium in Thailand. However, there appeared to be no advantages in buying in Japan as prices were high here even after the 10% tax discount for tourists. The same was true for portable hard drives, but camera gear was cheaper.
What I did find was some Salomon hiking boots to replace my shoes that had been battered on this trip with all of our trekking. These were almost half the price of what you’d pay in Thailand. The outdoor stores were huge, stocking high-end gear and everything an avid camper and hiker would need.
From here, we jumped on the subway and headed over to the Tenjin area, Fukuoka’s primary shopping district with huge malls housing all the top brands. We had little interest in hi-so brand shopping, so we wandered through Kego Park to the large Don Quijote store to load up on confectionery, Matcha, and cosmetics, which were also ridiculously cheap in comparison.
I was after some high-end Japanese whiskey, and fortunately, there was a state liquor store called the Whiskey Bank just around the corner that had a good selection of Hibiki and Yamazaki malts. Even decent Scotch was way cheaper in Japan than directly from the distillery in Scotland and a fraction of the ridiculous prices in Thailand.
We were getting pretty tired by this point, so we headed back to the subway station that would return us to the APA for the evening. We found a fantastic supermarket called Sunny next to the hotel where we could load up on reduced sashimi rather than queuing in the cold to get into an overpriced restaurant serving the same thing!
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