Fukuoka - A Comfort Hotel with an unbeatable location!

We are back in Fukuoka, Japan again and I wanted to share another hotel with you. If you can get it for a decent price, the Comfort Hotel Hakata offers rooms much larger than your standard Japanese business hotel with a free included breakfast to boot! 

It was a real treat having enough room to move around and also keep our bags open if needed to pack/repack. This normally is not the case for most Japanese hotel rooms around this price range. The best part was the location being just a short walk away from Hakata station, the largest and busiest station in the Kyushu region! It hosts a department store and large Tokyu Hands store as well. Plus, around the station are plenty of other shopping and dining locations. The station also provides easy access to other areas of Fukuoka or Kyushu. 

I took a short time lapse video out the room window which you can see below, along with the room tour. 

I have also taken more interest in my YouTube channel lately and have been making actual thumbnails as well as properly hash tagging and labeling videos! I appreciate your subscription and continued reading of my blog as well!

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Fukuoka - A Frequent Destination

At the time of this post I have visited Fukuoka, Japan on many occasions. The below video is from one of many hotels I have stayed in during my trips to Fukuoka. For those living in Korea, Fukuoka offers very close access to Japan. Often low-cost carriers will have very affordable flights. The airport is also only a few stops away on the subway from the city, unlike Osaka or Tokyo where it takes significantly longer to get into city-center. Fukuoka also offers a good starting point for exploring Kyushu. There are other airports around to get into the region however, I feel many start with Fukuoka.

I still plan on maintaining this blog albeit with longer gaps of time between posts. I will continue to upload hotel room tours to my YouTube channel and will also continue to (try to) re-post them here along with more content for the blog.

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Spring Vacation Trip: Tokyo Day 3 - Asakusa & Tokyo Municipal Government Building Observatories (FREE)

Final day in Tokyo! Here are some shots around Asakusa!

Lunch...sushi as usual...only $1 per plate for most of the sushi!

And no one told me there was Wendy's in Japan T_T

Don't want to pay for Tokyo Skytree or Tokyo Tower, try the Tokyo Municipal Government Building! It's completely free! 

http://www.tokyometro.jp/en/attractions/metropolitan_govt_bldg/

There are two observatories and their hours vary so check the website above before you go!

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

2 Chome-8-1 Nishishinjuku

Shinjuku-ku, Tōkyō-to 163-8001

Japan

For dinner that night, I believe the place we went to eat steak is a chain. You get to choose your cut of meat and then they bring it out to you and tell you the weight for your approval (I think it was charged at a certain rate per 100 grams). Then you get to watch through the glass kitchen the chef cook the steak to your desired temperature. All the sides are sold separately except for what you saw here - a little sprinkling of corn, garlic, and onions. Overall the meat was good quality and quite tasty!

And that about wraps it up for this visit to Tokyo! Many people like to compare Japan and Korea and more often Seoul and Tokyo. While both Seoul and Tokyo are large, populous cities, they are quite different from each other...at least in my opinion. It's worth visiting both countries and both cities for that matter to appreciate the differences.  While I've visited Japan quite a few times now, there are still many places I want to see! I hope to head north next time I visit or maybe some in the middle of the country. If you have recommendations, please let me know!
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Spring Vacation Trip: Tokyo Day 2 - Ramen Museum & More

If you even remotely like Japanese ramen, this is a MUST VISIT!

Go to the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum and eat ALL THE THINGS!

http://www.raumen.co.jp/english/

For a small entrance fee of about USD 3.00 you can go to all the different ramen shops and sample a ton of diferrent kinds of ramen! You even get same-day re-entry! Need to take a break from stuffing your face full of noodles? You can! Come back later to resume the face stuffing! 

While some people call this place a tourist trap, I call it a version of heaven. The whole restaurant area is made to look like 1950s Japan, there are store fronts and pathways that look like Japan did 60 years ago. Each one of the small restaurants has its own ramen it specializes in and all have various language menus near their food ticket vending machines. If you don't want to get a regular size bowl of ramen, you can get a small portion at each of the shops so you have room to sample them all! There is a requirement that each adult order at least one serving at each restaurant (it can be the small bowl version). There may be a line for some of the more popular restaurants but I don't remember waiting longer than about 15-20 minutes. Some tour buses do have this museum as a stop so it may be best to visit between meal times to avoid long lines. I'll let the video and photos speak for themselves, enjoy!

Spring Vacation Trip: Tokyo Day 1

Once again I made a visit to Tokyo, Japan this past Spring! This was in part to see one of my Japanese friends who was in Japan at the time (he current is a resident elsewhere) and also just to enjoy another visit and eat a ton of great food!

After a crazy episode trying to sort out a hotel reservation error (I never found out who's fault it was, the hotel or the booking website), in the end I was able to get a proper room at the original rate I had booked. A month before I had booked a non-smoking room at a very affordable rate on the east side of town but a few days before I was about to depart the hotel had emailed and said they did not have my room type! A month advanced notice and just two days before my room type had disappeared? This was quite curious to me. I ended up having to book another hotel in another area of town for more than $100 more than my original reservation. After a back-and-forth with the booking website for weeks after the trip, I was finally refunded the difference. ANYWAY, the hotel I eventually ended up at was in a great location and was decent, however the room seemed on the small side even for Japanese hotel room standards.

After checking into the hotel room, I met up with my friend for dinner and an adventure in the Golden Gai area of Shinjuku. Our dinner was at a nice conveyor belt sushi restaurant where I tried an animal I had never eaten before...by accident. Check out a few pictures below!

Tuna Tuna Tuna!

..."Whale"...

Next was a stroll around the Golden Gai area and finding a small bar to enjoy a drink.

This area is known for its narrow streets and many small bars, restaurants, and clubs. It is said to look like old Tokyo during the middle 20th century. The place we went didn't charge foreigners a cover but I think they charged my Japanese friend >.< We didn't stick around too long as the place could only seat about 5-6 people and the other patrons were smoking quite a bit so we headed out early to get some fresh air and take a stroll.

That was about it for day 1! Stay tuned for more to come very soon!

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Fall Vacation Trip: Fukuoka Day 3

My third and final day in Fukuoka!

Ohori Park a great place to relax and enjoy the lake and see the local wildlife. There are paths for biking, jogging, and walking around the lake. Bridges on either end of the islands in the middle of the lake allow access to even more paths to explore. Fukuoka Castle and the Fukuoka Art Museum are located near the park and you can walk to both from the park grounds. If you'd like to enjoy time on the water, there are paddle boats available for rent.

After the park, I headed to a famous ramen restaurant called 一蘭 本社総本店 (Ichiran) for lunch. While there are tables for larger groups on the first floor, a lot of the dining is done at individual booths on the upper floors. You can also buy ramen kits to enjoy their ramen in the comfort of your own home. The restaurant itself is open 24 hours and prices are reasonable. Below are pictures of the ramen and a soft boiled egg - both were delicious!

That afternoon was spent strolling around the large shopping complex called Canal City, however I didn't take any pictures. There are many different shops and restaurants and in one of the stores there were a ton of the capsule toy machines (ガシャポン). Check out the capsule toy cats below!

Overall, the trip was really enjoable. Fukuoka is very convenient to get to from Korea and flights are normally reasonably priced. Low cost carriers such as Jin Air, Jeju Air, Eastar Jet, and T'way Air have daily flights. For hotels, check out agoda.com.

Thanks for reading! More to come soon!

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Fall Vacation Trip: Fukuoka Day 2

Just a short train ride from Fukuoka is Dazaifu, home to the Kyushu National Museum and a number of different temples and shrines. The main walk out of the train station towards Dazaifu Tenman-gū has many different shops selling souvenirs and places selling umegae mochi.

Platform and train at Dazaifu Station

Starbucks has a very interesting design

Store selling the local mochi

Totoro :)

There were tons of tourists at the shrine that day. The grounds are heavily wooded and there are plenty of paths to explore the shrine and surrounding areas. 

After walking around the shrine, I took a lunch break before heading to the Kyushu National Museum. Lunch was at a small restaurant near the train station. A cold noodle appetizer was served before the meal of donburi and udon. It all tasted great! The menu had pictures from what I remember. Unfortunately, I can't read much Japanese but judging from the large amount of tourists, I'm sure many restaurants and cafes in the area have either pictures on their menu or menus in languages other than Japanese.

After lunch I headed to the Kyushu National Museum. Photography was prohibited in the Kyushu National Museum but the building's architecture is still cool. The main lobby houses the ticket window, a gift shop, and an area where you can experience different Asian cultures through an interactive exhibit. General admission is JPY 430 with discounts for college students and groups. Lockers are available onsite as well.

Located near the water is Fukuoka Tower, a great spot to check out views of the city. Admission is JPY 800 and there are discounts for groups, children, and students. The exterior lighting of the tower changes depending on the time of year. It seems most people either take a bus or take the subway and then walk the rest of the way. You can also take a taxi or drive to the tower.

I did walk along the beach near the tower but the pictures I took weren't very good unfortunately.

Dinner was at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant called 玄海丸 天神店! It's located near Tenjin Station and was reasonably priced. I ate a ton!

Tuna is my favorite!

The stack of plates

Stay tuned for my final post about Fukuoka soon! ~