Japan 2012: Fukuoka Day 2 - Chuo-ku

On my second day in Fukuoka I was feeling a bit lazy to go anywhere, because I was still at a state where I could not believe I watched UVERworld live the night before.

breakfast ON bed

But of course, it would be stupid just lazing around in the hotel room (and a waste of money! -_-),

so I got out to go to see one of the sights suggested by the lonely planet Japan guidebook - the Yahoo! Japan Dome. I didn't know why I wanted to go by the way, I don't even watch baseball!

I walked into the town area to get to the 中洲川端駅 (Nakasu-Kawabata Station), taking my time looking at buildings to familiarise myself with, so that I won't get lost on the way back! XP

eeny meeny miny mo, catch a tiger by the toe, it's a shopping mall, just so you know, eeny meeny miny mo

 

the entrance of the Nakasu-Kawabata Station, in front of the Hakata Riverain entrance

Fukuoka City Subway route! for each station, the number on the top is the fare for adults while the one below is for children

To get to the Yahoo! Japan Dome, take the 空港線 (Kūkō-sen = Kūkō Line, which is the orange line) from 中洲川端駅 (Nakasu-Kawabata-eki = Nakasu-Kawabata Station) to 唐人町駅 (Tōjinmachi-eki = Tōjinmachi Station).

the ticket

i like how the stations have their own logos

I'll show you how I walked my way to the Dome! :D

the thicker red line is my walking path. i went through the Hawks Town Mall

No worries, there is a signboard telling which exit to take to go to the Dome actually. I can't remember what it was but from the map above I'm pretty sure I took the Exit 3.

On my way I saw random houses which looked like shrines, or shrines which looked like houses?

I even wanted to go into a graveyard but I couldn't find the entrance LOL

The walk from the station to one of the entrances of Hawks Town Mall 2 took about 15 minutes, but that was with stopping and looking at the houses and randomly snapping pictures.

Now, if you're wondering what the heck is HKT48, it's actually the sister group for AKB48, a huge (in numbers) girl group which is currently popular. There are also other sister groups, but AKB48 is the most famous. The HKT in HKT48 stands for Hakata while the AKB in AKB48 stands for Akihabara. Do you know there is also JKT48? Where JKT stands for.. Jakarta.

I wonder if there is gonna be a KUL48. LOL.

Finally found the Yahoo! Dome!

i'm not sure why but i actually went "waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh" for a few seconds when i saw it

The Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome (福岡Yahoo! Japan ドーム) is a baseball field actually and the home stadium of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks baseball team.

i was so scared that somebody would see me taking timed-shots that i did it only twice! hehe

Zepp Fukuoka, adidas store and Hard Rock Cafe Fukuoka from the Dome's view

Surrounding the stadium is actually a row of what I would call, the "Hands of Fame", hand plasters (and handprints) of people who've visited the stadium I suppose.

look, i "shook hands" with Phil Collins!

it's my life... it's now or never, i ain't gonna live forever!

i did it myyyyyyyyyyyy... wayyyyyyy

uptown girl, she's been living in an uptown world..

just beside the stadium

she loves you yeah, yeah, yeah, she loves you yeah, yeah, yeah

it don't matter if you're black or white!

The souvenir shop which I bought some stuff from. They have a lot of baseball-related stuff in it.

i actually like this dog character

this is so cute!

bui bui

they even have a Kuan Yin Goddess statue outside the stadium

UVERworld had their livehouse show here on July 14th

Was considering dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, but I would have busted my budget if I did.

-_- what face iz diz?

yes, that's the umbrella which provided me shelter from the rain throughout my Japan trip. i brought it home!

Had dinner at 風びラメン (fuu bi ra men) at the Hawks Town Mall 1.

this beer went so well with my ramen i should have asked what it was

haha so cute!

Had the とんこつラメン (ton ko tsu ra men)  pork bone ramen. The soup looks so light and this but it's really different when you drink it! The texture was as thick as cream of mushroom soup! It was good until the pork soup started having a strong pork taste.

It rained heavily when I was having dinner, and even when I backtracked to the Tōjinmachi Station. When I saw the river that I had passed earlier had gotten its water level higher, I thought, "whoa, the rain must have been very heavy to increase the water level"

Then I remembered the high-tide-low-tide phenomenon wtf.

Had this before I went to sleep that night:

Tasted like normal chocolate milk to me.

That wraps up my second day in Fukuoka. 3rd and final day coming up, which will be a short post, I guess.

XP