I hope that whenever I'm able to do that I look back and think that I made some wise decisions with the locations that I've visited and the things that I have seen.
Obviously I would love to be able to have had enough time to explore each country I've visited as thoroughly as I have done with Japan, because I really feel like my stay here has been different to any other because of the length of time I've been here.
Staying in any one country for a long enough period of time starts to give you a real sense of the place, the people and the culture, and I think I've been able to pick that up far better in Japan than I was somewhere like Laos or China where I made brief stays.
I do feel like I've picked up certain amounts from each place that I have visited, and I think that I'll certainly be able to give good and definite impressions to people who ask about the countries that I've visited, but I feel like for me it was beneficial to have a long stay in Japan, a country I've wanted to visit for so long.
I decided pretty early on that considering I was going to be on my own for pretty much four months that by having short stays everywhere would keep my mind active, and I certainly stand by that decision, even though at times it has given me some tough choices about what I'd like to fill my time doing in each city.
If I was given the option (visa and financial restrictions not included) of one other country to have spent three weeks in then I honestly don't know which one I'd pick.
Somewhere like Malaysia would be an obvious choice for me because I visited a few cities there, and I had to be selective about which ones to go to in the time that I had there. I also feel like Thailand would have been a good choice to spend some more time in as I missed out on the opportunity to spend time on any of the tiny 'paradise' islands that reside off the mainland.
A journey through China would definitely be fascinating, although I'm not sure how well I'd be able to cope with the lack of English in some of the other cities I might have selected to visit, as it was difficult enough in the two major ones I did find my way to.
I find it hard to play travel agent as pretty much everywhere I've been I've enjoyed myself, and if anyone was looking for one suggestion for a country to visit out of all of the ones that I've been to then I would certainly need some time to think about it.
The beauty of being able to travel for such a long time has meant that I've not had to be ultra-selective, and I'd like to think that I've done a relatively good job of spreading myself thinly enough between different places without completely overdoing it.
As I keep saying, this journey is not at an end yet (sometimes I have to keep reminding myself), I still have two more nights left in Japan, and then a special trip to Hong Kong which I hope will be extremely memorable. All of that is giving me enough to think about right now, but it'd be lying if I said that I wasn't already considering my favourite and least favourite parts of the journey already!
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I know that the last couple of cities I have only stayed in for one day extra, but I think the difference between one night and two seems massive. Although it was a strange feeling, I achieved everything I set out to in my penultimate destination, and it was more a feeling of trepidation as I headed to the station in order to get to my very last stop in Japan.
Although I have got one country left to visit after the 'Land of the Rising Sun', leaving Japan feels like some sort of punctuation mark on my journey; perhaps because I've been here so long.
Before leaving there are still a few i's to dot and t's to cross, but I think it will feel very different heading somewhere else after being here.
I have that strange sensation that you get when it feels as though time travels quickly and slowly at the same time. It feels like I just landed in Tokyo yesterday, but at the same time it feels like I've been here way longer than three weeks.
I can't remember when it was exactly, but a few blogs ago I wrote that Japan might now be the country I've spent the third most time in after England and Korea which after I thought about it again is absolute bobbins because I'm pretty sure I've spent three weeks in the USA before (on one holiday of about fifteen visits I've ever made) and also I spent a month working in Singapore so that's already ahead without even counting the hour or so I spent there this time as I went across the border into Malaysia. I do talk nonsense sometimes, and stand corrected (by myself) on that subject.
Still, three weeks has been great, and pretty much every day has vindicated my decision to spend quite so long here. If I spent three weeks in some of the countries I'd visited then I'm sure I'd need never return to them again in the future, but it's not the case with Japan and I will certainly look to come back in the future as it's a fabulous place and I'd really like to return to some of the cities I've been to on this trip as well as making the visit to some others.
Before I even think about coming back I have to make sure that I was able to get to the seventh and final Japanese city on my itinerary as I said "Goodbye" to Hiroshima and all its history this morning and made my way to Fukuoka.
Of all of the cities that I've visited on this four month tour of Asia, Fukuoka might be the least heralded and well known of them all.
It's a medium size city on the island of Kyushu in the south of Japan and was two separate cities until just about 100 years ago which explains why there are two city centres here. I can't lie and say I know a lot about Fukuoka itself, and the reason I decided to visit other than a conveniently located airport which has flights to Hong Kong is because that I read somewhere that it is an extremely nice city, even if unheralded and rarely visited by tourists.
I also wanted to make sure that I'd visited Japan thoroughly and had originally planned to visit the Okinawa Islands which would have made four different sections of the country, but that became complicated when I looked into it. In order to do my travelling justice I had (as I've mentioned too many times now) also wanted to go to Nagasaki which would have meant two cities here, but Fukuoka was always the final place I was going to stay.
It was time to get myself back on the Shinkansen train this morning as I made the walk from my hotel to the station. Thankfully, perhaps due to staying in what you might describe as a more 'up-market' hotel (it was on the tourist map which is always a good sign) I was able to check out at 11am giving me an extra hour to spend before needing to move on.
My bag was still empty from all the washing that I'd done, so having saved that for myself to do I actually got up to have breakfast and then came back to sort myself out. Thankfully it didn't take too long although I swear my bag has become much heavier than it was initially. It will be interesting to weigh it at the airport on Tuesday!
Having made the walk to the station yesterday to walk up the hill towards the Peace Bell, I decided that it as it was reasonable weather again this morning I didn't mind making the journey on foot with my rucksacks although I think it probably took me about 35 minutes to eventually get there.
As I suspected the other day when I arrived and checked for tickets it was quite easy to make a reservation for shortly after I arrived and the next train to Fukuoka Station (known as Hakata) wasn't long in coming after I got there.
The train itself was pretty much empty and any stops in which passengers did get on, the same amount got off. I don't think anyone extra added themselves to the carriage I was sitting in throughout the entire thing.
It's been nice to have a few journeys on the train whilst I've been in Japan; it was starting to feel like at the beginning of my journey that I was building up a bit of a collection of air miles, but I guess I haven't flown since leaving Beijing.
I don't really travel on the train in England mainly because it's expensive and doesn't always give you fantastic coverage, but I suppose as I'm able to drive at home it's much easier to avoid having to catch it.
When I lived in Korea I obviously spent the whole year relying on public transport, so a long period of time without driving isn't too much of a problem for me, and so far *crosses fingers* I haven't gone anywhere that I shouldn't have or fallen asleep and missed my stop (there's still time...) *crosses fingers again*. I didn't realise how reliant Japanese citizens were on trains and pretty much any time of the day that I have been at the station it's been busy. I've yet to ride a bus here as yet, so I probably should before I leave so that I have completed the full set.
I got to Hakata Station at about 2:15pm and managed to get a map from the station which guided me to the hotel in about ten minutes as it is just around the corner which is quite helpful.
For once I was actually able to check in as soon as I arrived although I pretty much put my bags down, grabbed a guide book and then headed out the door to find something to do with myself for the rest of the afternoon.
As it used to be two different cities, Fukuoka is quite spread out, but there's still enough round about where I'm staying to occupy myself.
As with most cities I've visited in Japan there are a lot of religious temples and shrines all over the place and after grabbing myself some dinner (good job I filled up on breakfast) I decided to head to one which is just round the corner from me called the Sumiuoshi Shrine.
The picture I'd seen on the map made it look quite large, but I must have walked in a side entrance because all I saw at first was a small shrine with a pond and some of the tori gates:
Once I kept walking through the gates I found the shrine itself and realised that if you kept walking round there was actually more to see:
I enjoy the scenery in most Japanese gardens and temples, but this one looked even more special with the bridge and the river surrounding it. The temple building itself wasn't that grand, but as usual it had a relaxing and peaceful atmosphere.
I continued to follow the path through to the main part of the shrine itself where the gates stood in front of me....
...... as usual there was the place where you could cleanse yourself before praying:
And then there was the actual main temple which was at the centre of the grounds:
I followed the path just to the left of the temple and came to another smaller two-sided shrine and then I got to some more gates which actually led me back to the area I was in initially so I think that I might have actually gone in completely the wrong order. Although if I did, I wasn't the only one:
After walking around so I could get back to the entrance - which I was now using as an exit - I continued up the road until I found the Canal City Hakata shopping centre which was a very confusing looking mall that I spent a little bit of time in, in order to continue to an area of green space that was right on the river.I sat there for a while enjoying the sun beaming down on me looking out at the river as occasionally fish jumped (yes, jumped) out and then splashed back into the river few a centimeters further on. I presume they were salmon, but I remember seeing fish do the same elsewhere and hopelessly trying to get a video of it.
I didn't even attempt to get one on this occasion, but in the same way I wish I had because it was so funny to watch, and also people reading this might not think I was crazy if I had proof!
I studied the gudebook for a bit and saw that the bridge that I was sitting near led to the other centre of Fukuoka which is known as Tenjin. I wasn't planning on going for any major exploration as I will probably end up spending time heading in that direction tomorrow, but I did walk through a lovely park where there were lots of people gathered listening to live music being played.
I looped around and back over the bridge this time continuing on past Canal City and in the direction of the Gion area of the city which is apparently a section of the historical quarter of Fukuoka.
There were another couple of temples there, only one of which was open - this one was known as Tochoji and had some rather large buildings on its grounds including a large pagoda in the corner:
In the opposite corner to the pagoda there was an explanation and some history about the temple and its layout and there was a cemetery where the ashes of the monk who built the temple was laid to rest:
From here I looped back round via the same street as Hakata station in order to get back to my hotel room where I'll be spending the evening making preparations for tomorrow, and enjoying the last day of my beloved Premier League football season.
The Final Countdown
Europe (1986)
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