Having the full day to explore we decided to rent bikes from the hostel for the whole day for a mere 500 yen. Having walk absurdly far the previous day the bikes were fantastic as they allowed us to cover the same distance in a ridiculously short amount of time. We did have one hiccup when one of the tires blew up but thankfully we were close to the hostel. We brought it back and ten minutes later there was a new bike for us. They bought a new bike or rented it from another place near by, either way stand up service.
Back on the bikes we wasted little time in attacking any and every paved surface we could find. We stopped by Tochoji Temple to see the face stack as well as the worlds largest wooden buddha. We ended up going down a hallway under the platform that the buddha was on and were quite shocked at what we saw. Some interesting pictures followed by a eerie, dark tunnel. It is comforting to know that Light has over come darkness.
From there we cruised to Hakata Station before crossing town to Maizuru Park where we stopped to feed some pigeons by which I mean that we watched someone else feed some pigeons. We happened upon Gokoku Shrine after seeing a market down a side street and decided to check it out, I don't think I took any pictures of it though. Ohori Park was across the road so we wandered through, stopping to watch a couple of older men race remote controlled sailboats in the lake there.
Stopping at a Mister Donut we wondered if our day would end with us running out of energy or if the rain would come before that time. Shortly after leaving we came across Nishi Park and just as we started to explore the rain started coming down, lightly at first giving us time to find shelter. We waited as the heavens opened all the while catching up on some much needed rest.
Thankfully our bikes had fenders as it was quite wet by the time it finished raining. Judging by our stomachs that it was about supper time we went in search of the sushi place. We found it fairly easily but were a little early so we went over to the Museum of Art to see what they had showing. Unfortunately they were between shows but they did have some comfortable chairs to sit in. After the appropriate amount of time had been used we headed back for what was hyped as incredible(it did not disappoint).
Sushi Den is a fabulous place. As the tip that drew us here mentioned, it has a high value to price ratio. For the atmosphere, presentation and especially taste, the price for what you get here is an incredible value. My stomach was felt so happy and content, I can't even describe it. I would have to say that it is the best meal I have eaten in the past 6 months, by quite a margin.
With our stomachs satisfied we headed back through Tenjin to explore what it had to offer. According to me we spent much too much time walking through a mall looking at stuff because it was Japanese. Once we found our way out of there we found that we had gotten warning tickets on our bicycles because, long story short, we had parked them in hallway of the mall.
In our wanderings we happened across an arcade, it being Japanese meant that we had to stop. This was where my understanding of the exchange rate was solidified. We decided to play one of the two person games available and after depositing our 100 yen started playing. Now in my mind because the 100 yen looked like 100 won it was only worth $0.10, it was a great deal. As I realized later 100 yen is actually more like $1.25, fantastic...
We also happened by a pachinko parlour and decided to check it out as we had driven past a large number of them. There were tons of machines with tons of people losing, what I imagine to be, tons of money. The thing that surprised me though was how unbearably loud it was in there. After how quiet the rest of Japan was, this was puzzling, but we didn't wait to figure it out, we had lost enough(hearing) as it was.
We spent some time people watching and using our minimal Japanese to engage them as they walked past and that just about did it for our day. Some where the day we also stopped by the Fukuoka Symphony Hall because I have a picture of it.
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