Day 4 - Transit from Tokamachi to Fukuoka

After a few days of R&R from the flight and a nice visit with family, the real job of touristing starts. We're off on a LOOONNG trains ride, since it involves two (maybe two-and-a-half) Shinkansen lines - Joetsu from Urasa to Tokyo where we change to a Tokaido/Snnyo train to Fukuoka, almost 8 hours of fast trains with scenery flashing by, which means not many pictures from the train; it also involves a lot of tunnels since Shinkansens go through mountains rather than over them. Our route:

This leg of the journey starts with the road down from Karekimata to Urasa station. Lots of roadside snow still to be seen and the surrounding mountains are spectacular on the bright day; the weather cleared up just in time for us to leave.

Sakae-san, Nobue’s brother and our host for the visit, drops us off at Urasa. The Joetsu Shinkansen will whisk us to Tokyo where we’ll change trains for the longer ride to Fukuoka. While it takes almost 8 hours to get there, both of us agreed we prefer trains as the travel option, especially when the cost about matches an air route, which would have been half the time with travel from Karekimata to Niigata airport. Trains rule, at least in a country as devoted to them as Japan.

Finally made it to Fukuoka in the early evening. We managed with a bit of minor fussing to check into our Air BnB - a nice little two room space common in Japanese cities, though clearly crafted for short-term rentals. The second room has a bunk bed, which is strewn with items that would raise objections if published 😄

Settled in, it was time for a walk to brush off the travel cramps and search for food. We headed towards the Tenjin district, one of the areas with restaurants and night life. It was about a 20 minute walk on a breezy, but not too cold evening. We soon found that Fukuoka is a city of rivers - it is a port city which has gone through a revival of its riversides.

Food Porn Alert!

After wandering for a bit, hunger pushed for attention. Not having much to go on for eating locations, we do what folks with empty stomachs and bit lost do - start looking at the menus out front. In big-city Japan, this includes multiple desirable pictures, models and descriptions. We found what turns out to be a youth-oriented izakaya (basically a Japanese version of bar-food oriented place, but with good food with a variety or styles) called Koronagirai - as Nobue pointed out roughly translate to "Hate Corona" as in the virus. That kind of vibe.

One of the things that attracted us in the outside sign was an all-you-can-eat ODEN [technically, all you can eat in 2 hours, the seat limit]. ODEN, as I may have explained earlier, is basically a pot of simmering broth with various goodies – various kinds of fishcakes, variety of vegetable, hard boiled eggs, and many other things. The first dish is brought right after you sit down with refills requested at the ODEN station in the middle of the shop.

The rest of the selections are basically upscale Izakaya items (sort of Japanese tapas), mostly aimed at the younger folks who are their target market and fill the place. We got a variety of dishes:

The pork salad is surrounded by Japanese potato salad and the last siu mai.

Small Butter Roasted Scallops in Broth, half were eaten at this point.

Salt and Pepper Yakitori

Sated, we wonder home to rest up for the first official tour day in Fukuoka - appreciating the view as we go.

As usual, the full gallery of photos from today are available here, though most taken today did make it into the blog.