Truth to tell, I was a little apprehensive of the walking tour scheduled for Day 02 mid-morning onward – and specifically because the first day weather was so humid I wasn’t looking forward to another day perspiring buckets in the hot sun again. Thankfully, the weather was significantly cooler on the second day – I reckon about several degrees lower in fact, with highs reaching about 28 degree celsius, and there was also a strong breeze throughout.
Even luckier was that I turned out to be the only guest on the walking tour too. My host was a middle-aged lady – probably in her early fifties – Miwako Okada, and she spoke pretty good English. We didn’t have any language problems when she shared the history of Fukuoka City, its origins as a port city, why the port quarter is well away from the Ohori Park and castle ruins (historically, the residences and merchants in between were intended to act as a buffer in case of invasion), each place’s significance and meaning. And our conversations went even into photography and Adobe Lightroom, on account that she was a Canon DSLR user.
The 2 hour 40 minutes walking tour covers a number of locations, and in this sequence: Hakata Station => Jotenji Temple => Tochoji Temple => Hakata Machiya Folk Museum => Kushida Shrine => Kawabata Shopping Avenue => Hakata Traditional Craft Center. There were limitations to photography in a couple of places too, but there were no issues with photo-taking in the exteriors of each place we visited.
Brief notes of Hakata Station: the station underwent a major refurbishment eight years ago, and there were plans underway for a grand celebration and ceremony for 12 March 2011. But the devastating Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on the day before that far up north put a serious dampening of spirits also in the city. Miwako also gave a quick orientation of the Hakata City – the shopping mall that sits on top of the station – and especially where the restaurants for casual dining were. Something I’ll definitely check out soon!
The first stop: Jōten-ji, a Rinzai temple that was completed 850 years ago. It’s gone through several rounds of refurbishment, so doesn’t nearly look its age. There weren’t any other visitors to the temple grounds in the mid-morning.
Summary: beautiful temple and worth a visit of around 30 minutes.
The walking tour continues in the next post!
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