Kyushu 2015 Autumn Self Drive Trip - Day 14

Day 14 : Shimonoseki to Fukuoka/Hataka (Kyushu)

Today will be our last drive for the trip as tonight we will return the car and then will be on public transport in Fukouka. Fukuoka = Hakata = Fukuoka ? sounds confusing ? Well basically they can be consider the same ? from wiki : "Hakata-ku is a Japanese ward of the city of Fukuoka in Fukuoka Prefecture".
The sky was very dark and looks like it's gonna rain , think the forecast is that kitakyushu will rain in the afternoon ard 1 pm. So we decided to skip the Karato Fish Market. Basically the reason why we wanted to stay in Shimonoseki is for 2 reasons , 1) see the night view from Hinoyama Park and 2) visit the Karato Fish Market but end up we skipped both due to weather. Anyway it's best to visit the Karato Fish market on weekends ( Friday - Sunday ) where there will have a lot of shops selling seafoods, sushi , etc on the ground floor and then you can buy and eat on the 2nd level, as we were there on a weekday + weather is bad so don't think we missed much.Why I stressed on weather when said skipping Karato Fish Market ? 1) the market is covered so nothing got to do with weather BUT you are supposed to see very nice view of the sea and Mojiko  (門司港) , 2) As I was mentioning that forecast stated it might rain around 1 pm ? yup we are rusing to the last Koyo spot for the whole trip - Kawachi Fuji Garden (河内藤園).
Kawachi Fuji Garden (河内藤園) is a private garden and only open 2 times a year during the Wisteria season ( late april to early may )  and the Koyo season ( late nov to early dec ) ( click here for more information on TA forum ). Also one thing very special about this place is the entrance fee, E.g. the entrance for Wisteria season can range from 300 yen to 1000 yen and when you are ask to pay 1000 yen you should be happy instead of complaining , this is means that the flowers are at its peak. Anyway we were quite lucky as we did managed to catch ( though not at it's prime ) but some big orange/red sea of leaves. Also just when we got into our car , it started to rain heavily for a good few mins , meaning we should have been drenched in the garden if it had rained earlier as the garden is actually quite big and have to climb up the slope a bit. Notice the wooden fence on the first picture ? Think that is where the Wisteria will be at , it will be like a "Tunnel of Wisteria"
From there our next stop will be Hakata but before that it's time to do last minute shopping ! We stopped by Aeon and Don Quijote , Aeon for the supermarket and Don Quijote for basically anything and everything. ( pics above from Don Quijote , all the cute characters clock )
There is a Tempura shop called 天ぷらひらお in Fukuoka which is really nice, they had quite a few outlets in and outside Hakata , there is one a short drive away from the airport too. ( got one in Tenjin also if you are not driving). You order and pay at the vending machine and then with the tickets , you pass it to the staffs when you are seated then they will serve you your order , all fried in the center of the dining area. Click here for the steps and the set menu , also there are like 3-4 side dishes that is on the table for free when you dine in the shop ( all you can eat )

Very nice Fruits from Aeon

famous chocolate cube

Chicken pot @ Hanamidori

Traffic in Hakata area is really quite bad , you almost late to return our car due to some jams ( we experienced bit of traffic jams when we first reach also). After we check in was already almost 8.30 pm so we quickly take a quick walk to the Hakata Station and did some quick window shopping before going over to Hanamidori (華味雞) for dinner. When we got to the first outlet nearest to the station , it was FULL !!! it was like 9+ pm ? then was lucky when they called the next outlet about 3 -5 min walk away and they got a last table for us. First outlet we went a bit "chicken + duck talk" cos the staffs do not know english/chinese, lucky he got a lady staff who speak some english and guided us to the next outlet. ( think there is an outlets in Tenjin area which had a chinese manager from TW. ) When we reach the 2nd outlet , lucky there is a chinese staff who speak chinese ( but not very helpful as he did not explained the steps clearly on how to enjoy the meal ). Hanamidori sells chicken hot pot , the soup is cook with the chicken until all the collagen is inside , when you drink the soup you can feel your lips keeps sticking to each other. also the chicken balls and their citrus vinegar is really good also. Also you can have chicken sashimi ( raw ) if you like , apparently they raise their own chicken and am confident of the meat freshness to serve that. So do make reservation if you wanna try the chicken pot ( think now Singapore also got an outlet but i prefer to eat at the place where it origin)
During Nov/Dec , there are 2 "Christmas Village" in Fukuoka , one in Hakata and the other in Tenjin , the one in Tenjin one will operates slightly later then the Hakata one. The pictures above are from the one at Hakata Station , they will have lights up ( called illuminations in Japan ) and some shops selling food and gifts ( usually germans (or from Europe) i think ) , Over at Hakata station there is also a stage where got some performances at night. Note : some of the underpass exit/entrance closes at like 9 pm so you might need to detour a bit if that happens.

Kyushu 2015 Autumn Self Drive Trip - Day 13

Day 13 : Yufuin to Shimonoseki

Today we will leave Yufuin and say goodbye to our last onsen for this trip. Plan is to drive to kitakyushu then to Shimonoseki. The plan is actually to try catch 2 different night view , one from Sarakurayama (血倉山) near Kokura (小倉) and the other is Hinoyama Park (火の山) in Shimonoseki(下關). But when doing my homework then realised that the cable car for Sakarurayama only operates till evening on weekdays , last car to come down is 6 pm , which means you can see the night view if you are taking public transport , although the day view is nice but it's the night view that is  what we are interested in, as it was voted as the "New" top 3 night views of Japan. The driving up will takes about 1 hour ( from navitime ) , google map put 5 mins …… , so we decided to skip it and focus on doing the one at Hinoyama , which also look nice with the bridge as view. Do note that the Illuminations of the bridge and the access to the park is around 9 pm to 10 pm only so do check again if you are planning to visit. ( In the end , we did not managed to view any night view cos it was raining that night !)

B-speak roll cake

nico soy doughnut

rice wrapped with pork slices

caramel pudding

Wake up in the morning and I thought that I can go out to buy bento for breakfast at the Yufuin station , cos I saw a blogger said the beef bento is very nice BUT to my disappointment , there is no bento sale at the JR station ! Also we tried looking for a famous bento from Cucu.chi , one of the shop along the main shopping street but seems that it was not selling the beef bento anymore. So we just bought some food and snacks and move on our way as it's gonna be another long drive today.
We detour to Yabakei Gorge (耶馬渓) 's Hitome Hakkei (一目八景) ,  it's actually a spot whereby you can see 8 different view of rock formations , can't seems to find the map online now , but at the visitors centre there , you can get a map and it will show you how to see the 8 different views. this is supposed to be a popular spot for koyo but we are a bit late in season but still managed to see some red leaves just that cos it was drizzling a bit then clears up do the weather is a bit gloomy.
When you drive past some of the shop , there are parking there but think they charges ( or maybe if you purchased from them it might be free ) but just drive further down to the Visitors Centre ( there are new toilets there that looks like just been built ) there are free parking there , it's about 5 - 10 mins walk from the lookout observation deck , you can walk along the roadside or from a mountain trail.
From there we make our way to Kokuro (小倉), via a tunnel called Ao no Domon (青の洞門) , it's said that it was hand dug by a monk long ago and took about 30 years to complete ?

Sunny bun

condense milk filling

melon pan

the cheapest bun think around 40 yen

It was raining quite heavily when we reach Uomachi 魚町銀天街 , It is basically a covered shopping street near Kokuro Station. We had wanted to reach early and have our meal at Daigaku 大學堂 in Tangaichiba (旦過市場) which is linked to Uomachi. While Uomachi is more for shopping , Tangaichiba is more for food and very special is Daigaku cos it will sell you a bowl of rice then you are free to walk along the covered street and buy food to put on top of your bowl of rice to create your own "Don" ( rice bowl ). But it's closed on the day when we were there ( ya right aloof of shop that we wanted to try was closed when we were there LOL). So we just stick to go some shopping in Uomachi , visited some drugstores and then visited one of the bakery which I wanted to try. Shiroya Bakery  is near the entrance of the shopping street if you are coming from Kokuro Station. This is a bread shop that sells cheap buns and one of the most famous one is their "sunny bread" it is a bun with condense milk inside , for ppl who like condense milk , it's heaven and the good news is that they just opened a outlet in Hakata recently so no need to travel to Kokuro for it. Think most of the bun are less then 100 yen with the cheapest is like 40 yen ?

Kaikyo Yume Tower

From there we said goodbye to Kyushu and drove over the straits to Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture. There are a few ways to get over there from Kyushu, for driving there is a tunnel and a bridge ( highway) , for walking there is a underpass ( free) or you can take a train ( thru under tunnel ).
It was still drizzling when we reach there so we skipped the night view that we had planned at Hinoyama park.
Note : The parking at this Toyoko Inn is first come, first serve. As when we reached , the parking is already full , we need to park about 5 min walk away from the hotel , the hotel staff will inform you of 2 different parking space nearby with different in pricing and will give you a map for it. Parking charges in Japan varies by company n places , it can be a carpark nearby but the rates might be a lot different , so always check carefully , If you can navigate ( or can guess ) Japanese , Navitime got a site which can let you check nearby carpark in advance.It can show you the charges also but I am not sure how updated it is but i find it not very user-friendly so i just check a few and give up.

For dinner we had at 笑笑 , it's about 5 min walk form the hotel and around here that are actually a few different Izakaya (居酒屋). You can refer here for it's menu. The food is actually quite good , esp the skewers. A funny incident here though due to our bad japanese : the staff actually direct us to the locker  when we reached , but we had not bags with use just jackets so we thought we prefer to bring with us so we just follow on to our seat. They try to talk to use in japanese but we do not understand then just smile ( if they use body languages , i would have understand what they meant LOL ) , after we seated , they bring us 2 keys , which we were puzzled. Only after we finished our meals and leaving then we realised , the keys are to the lockers and the lockers is to keep your shoes ! So paiseh ! means they have to help use take our smelly shoes to put into the lockers as we don't understand them in the first place.

Tomorrow we will be going back to Kyushu Again !