What a great day in Fukuoka City!

Today was fun! I met up with my friend Phee and we went to get our hair cut. Our hairdresser, Rod, is from France and has been in Japan for a very long time....well over 20 years. Here we are (before getting our hair cut). I'm on the right. 

His hair salon is cool! There is even a chandelier! 

A colorful closet for our bags.

The chandelier!

After getting our hair cut we went into Tenjin ( an area in the middle of Fukuoka city) to meet with my friend Kristin. We sat around Starbucks chatting. Then Kristin and I walked to her car so I took some pics of what I saw on the way there.

As it was getting late, Yatai food stall were being set up. These are super popular in Tenjin and when my friend in Tokyo comes to Fukuoka city, she always goes to one. There are many of these along the wide sidewalks.

Then we walked by a shrine.

Then we walked by a place where a Canada Day party was being held! Happy Birthday Canada!! They were serving Canadian beer, poutine, lobster and more and one lucky person will win a free flight to Vancouver!

While we were driving home I saw this pagoda and had to take a picture! 

Kristin and I ended the day with yakiniku! Yakiniku is basically Korean barbeque-you grill the meat at your table. As it was Saturday night and we didn't have reservations, it took going to 3 restaurants before finding one that had space for us. And we still had to wait about 15 minutes which I know isn't long and certainly better than the 1.5 hour wait at a different yakiniku place but at this point we were beyond hungry so 15 minutes sure felt long lol.

But it was soooooo worth the wait! Super delicious!!

 

Thanks Kristin and Phee for a lovely day!!

After the cute bus stop.....

So to continue my story from the last post.... After seeing the cute cat bus stop, my friend Kristin took me to this cute shrine which was up a large hill. No one was there so we looked around and I snapped many pictures!

The gates leading to the shrine.

Gorgeous bamboo in the gates-maybe they put candles in the the holes.

Water running down from the mountain.

After entering through the gates:

 

Can you see the koi? They were big!

From the shrine you can see the valley below.

 
From here we went to "inunaki damu" or "crying dog dam"

but on the way we saw some lovely tiered rice fields.

 

 

And here is the dam. We wanted to cross it but the walkway was closed.

In the parking lot, I saw this van and had to take a picture. Apparently you can hire "brains" in Japan.....perhaps if you don't have any?! lol.

Did you notice the guy is sleeping? There were a few cars and trucks parked at the dam and everyone was sleeping!

So after our mini side trip we went to the mall and enjoyed a drink at Starbucks and did a little shopping. It was a great day! Thanks Kristin!!

Possibly the cutest bus stop in the world! Meow!!

So today I hung out with my friend Kristin. We went out to eat and on the way to the Fukutsu Aeon Mall we took an unexpected and completely delightful mini road trip to 3 amazing spots. The first spot is this bus stop!

I believe this is just past the city limits of our city, Munakata, and in Miyawaka city. This city has a character called "Oisdashi-neko" which loosely translated by my husband means "push away bad stuff cat".  The Wakamiya Oidashi Neko is said to ward off bad luck and bring in good luck.

Here is the bus stop!

Seriously....how cute is that bus stop!!!

Of course there is a story about this cat and "they" were nice enough to include a story near the bus stop in both English and Japanese so I snapped a picture for you. I enlarged this picture so that you can read the story yourself.

As you can see from the next 2 pictures-this is in the "inaka" or countryside!

Here are some rice fields that were recently planted

And here are some beautiful and misty mountains!

Because this bus stop is so cute I'm giving it its own post. I will blog about the other 2 places we went to  in my next post!

父の日, Chichi no hi or Happy Father's Day!

I thought I would show you some of the items that are available online. While there are still sweet cakes and other goodies available...

A selection of green tea and green tea flavored sweets!

Flowers and cake!

It seems savory is more popular for dad as there are tons to choose from!

Raw fish!

Raw Fugu (blowfish)

Stuffed crab shells!

A selection of smoked fish!

Meat!

Of course there are options that include alcohol!

There are also other options such as

Jinbei-traditional clothing worn during the summer.

Bonsai tree and a beer mug!

And there is always fruit! Sending fruit as a gift is HUGE in Japan!

Happy "chichi no hi" to all the dads out there!