Chelle on Earth: Fukuoka Visa Run: Day 4

Exploration day! Having sorted out the adjustment of our flights and hotels for the rest of the week, we decided to just let ourselves relax and go for a wander. We were given a map by a lady at the front desk, which rather wonderfully has a couple of points of interest marked, as well as sightseeing walking routes that take you to mostly free or cheap locations that still let you soak up the best of what Fukuoka has to offer.

But first, breakfast.

We had breakfast in the hotel to save time. Fun fact: Japanese breakfast does not resemble a continental breakfast at all. In the interest of not having bad manners or offending anyone, we were totally unsure what to do, or what went with what. I've never had a more terrifying breakfast, haha. On the plus side, it was delicious! I don't know what any of it was (past raisukaree and miso) but I was happy to eat it anyway. The motto of our food attitude this week.

Having a whole day and some lovely weather for wandering, we decided to take a walk to the nearby Fukuoka Castle ruins and Ohori Park.

Click through the jump for more! Lots of photos in this post~
The wildlife here is DEFINITELY more unusual and interesting than at home. In the space of a few minutes we saw terrapins, carp, storks, gigantic crows and a load of various other birds.

Silly faces aside, we managed to navigate our way through the immaculate and peaceful castle "grounds" and up a hill to the leftovers of the castle itself, which is pretty much just the stone foundations. This thing is enormous, considering it was built in the early 1600s and appears to be largely drystone. Unless there's some form of adhesive further into the brickwork, but if there is it's very cleverly hidden.

GIFs ahoy, thanks to Google's witchcraft service.

At the top, a platform has been erected which would have been at about the same level as the original floor, and the views are incredible. Presumably even more so, back when there wasn't a sizeable city in the way on all sides.

There are a few restored buildings dotted about, naturally they're not open to the public, but they're still available to be admired from the outside.

Following the route indicated on the map, we started working our way to Ohori Park proper, which is only a short walk away. Furthering our opinion of everyone being lovely, the people tending to the grounds stopped their work to let us pass (so that we didn't get dust and plant gunk in our faces) as well as engaging us in some light conversation and making sure we were happy and enjoying our visit.

It's a lovely place for a walk, with a lot of open space and water to keep things relaxed and cool. People were taking naps on benches, eating lunch, jogging, cycling, playing music, juggling, all sorts. It was so lovely to see, and I wish there were more things like this going on at home.

Tiny friend! Hope he got home okay!

Adorable message on our Matcha Frapp

We headed back and had a lazy dinner at Mister Donut (Misutado) which was pretty much the epitome of cheap and cheerful. Also, meronsoda, yay! Ticking off a lot of foods on my Japan bucket list. As we had cash to spare from our allotted money for the day, we grabbed a little sample pot of doughnuts which were all strange and wonderful.