Garden
The story behind this wall is that after the Tokugawa Shogun unified Japan in the 17th century, he make use of the bits of destroyed castles for constructing various projects such as the wall to this garden. The things you see in the wall are bits and pieces of the destroyed Fukuoka Castle.
Buildings and stuff I found interesting
Tochoji Temple
A major Buddhist site dating to the 9th century
This temple has the largest wooden Buddha statue in Japan.
Unfortunately you can't take a picture of it.
So we took a picture of the picture of it.
Fukuoka Port
We still had time on our hands so we took a bus to the port where there is a free tower for views of the area
Unfortunately there is this wire reinforcing all through the glass making it very difficult to take pictures plus it was a hazy day. I decided to post these any way of the downtown area and part of the port
We were not at a particularly scenic waterfront area but the weather was nice and we were nice and relaxed.
My favorite shot no mater where in the world we are :)
Other Miscellaneous shots around the waterfront
Catching up on Gastronomy
Learning how to navigate restaurants and get food we like has been a bit of a challenge. I can safely say that real Japanese cuisine is not necessarily my favorite. There are too many combinations of fishy flavors and sweet flavors in what seem to me odd places. As is always the case, dealing with an alphabet that is completely strange to you adds to the ordering challenge.
We've managed to deal with this by only going to places that have English menus. There are more of these than one would think and it at least gives you a snowballs chance in hell of getting something you think you are ordering. Since doing that, we've had many fewer unpleasant experiences and many more enjoyable ones.
Korean BBQ
I've had this often in the US and love it. It is a cook your own meal over a grill
We started off on the right foot because this place had an iPad like device for ordering that the waiter could set for English
The sauces and the Kimchis (varieties of Korean pickled vegetables)
Daughter #1 - Sochu!!!
Our tools of cuisine
The total Korean BBQ experience
Fried Things on a Stick
I have mentioned many times in the past Wife and My love for food on sticks. There was this place right by our house that had the magical worlds 'English menu'. After death march two, we were so tired we decided to there. It's specialty is items on a stick that are deep fried...not tempura but with a more Panko bread crumb like topping.
Below are potato, bell pepper, chicken tenders and thigh, shitake mushroom, gyoza, asparagus, and shrimp.
I tried some other things as well such as this udon noodle with beef and grated radish
Probably the best deep fried tofu (Age Tofu) I've ever had
And a dish that was so weird I cannot even describe it other than it had some kind of sardines and radish in it.
