The ferry from Busan to Fukuoka is amazing. It’s called “the Beetle.” I don’t know why. It’s not like a “ferry” in the sense that I would think of ferries, because I guess in my head I have picture an enormous ship carting people around — it’s actually pretty small. I’d say there were maybe 100 to 150 passangers; some on top, some on the bottom. We got on top because we wanted a window seat. But anyway. It’s on stilts. I assume the stilts are connected to the white boat-like things that are on planes that land on the water. My internet is bad right now so I can’t go look up the fancy word for that. Shame. The Beetle is really fast: it goes 213km in just under 3 hours. When we looked outside we saw the water just flying by. There was a warning at the beginning of the ride that going outside while the ship is moving is prohibited, because the high winds could knock you off the boat, and another warning told us that sometimes the boat has to maneuver to avoid whales and other marine life, so to please keep our seatbelts on. It didn’t really matter though — we were knocked out from partying the night before with our Gwangju friends. We didn’t move. Here’s Seth, impressed with the Beetle.

When we arrived in Fukuoka and checked into our hotel, we walked around outside and ate some amazing grilled macarel and a raw seafood salad, then later some shrimp tempura over udong. Looks like we won’t be keeping things as paleo as we’d hoped on this trip, but we are walking all over the city so I imagine we won’t get too fat.

So much delicious udong

This morning I pulled Seth out of bed to make sure we’d get to do the things we wanted to do. First we were off to Ohori Park, which included the ruins of Fukuoka Castle, from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Seth with ruins

Then we rode around the pond in Ohori Park on a swan boat!! The park was beautiful. There were turtles everywhere and enormous coyfish that had to be on steroids. There were giant lillypads with the last head-sized lillies of summer. We walked out onto an island where a woman in a hanbok (Korean traditional dress) was doing a story for a Korean news network. I’m pretty sure she was saying something along the lines of “don’t come here! It’s not interesting at all. Everything you could ever need is in Korea. Japanese people are weird.” I’m not sure though. We were pretty far away.

Swan boat!!

Afterward we went and checked out Japan’s largest wooden Buddah at Tochoji temple. We weren’t allowed to take pictures but I would have if there hadn’t been a scrutinizing Japanese lady in a window observing us. It was really big and intricate. Instead we took pictures of the worshipping part of the temple, which reminded us of a time in Busan where we actually crashed a temple ceremony by accident. Here’s a tip: if you hear noise coming out of a Buddhist temple, don’t go in unless you’re sure you know what’s going on and you’re ready for it. Otherwise you will be invited to chill on the floor and chant with everyone for an indefinite amount of time, unless you want to seem really rude for leaving in the middle of the event. Afterward we headed to Canal City, which came recommended by a friend, making sure to stop by a cool indoor market for some $1 avocados and some tempura over udong noodles again (this one came with a raw egg and some seaweed! Om nom nom). Turns out  Canal City is one of the biggest shopping complexes in the world, the cost of which coming in at a whopping 1.4 billion dollars. Having no desire to increase the weight of our backpacks, we walked in the opposite direction of the hotel for about 20 minutes before realizing we were going the wrong way and then walking back to the hotel, which probably took about an hour. That one was my bad. It’s a good thing we weren’t carrying our backpacks all day or Seth’s fake anger may have been slightly more genuine.

“I have to go in there. I just want to go in there.”

For dinner we almost went to a jazz bar, but Seth was told he needed something more than a tanktop, so back at the hotel to get a sweatshirt we opted for a sushi joint. We found an underground conveyor belt sushi bar a short walk from there. At these conveyor belt sushi bars, which are amazing in themselves, you can also order special from the chef. There were two sushi makers in front of us and one spoke really good English. He also had impeccable taste and kept recommending different dishes for us. I think he was a foodie too (but what good chef isn’t) because he kept looking at our faces whenever we tried something. One dish in particular he recommended was raw red tuna, avocado, and crab, wrapped with seaweed and rice and then topped with caramalized onion. I now understand the appeal of raw fish. Thank  you, Japan.

Hiroshima tomorrow!