Trip to Fukuoka, JAPAN. "Visa Run"

Well on Sept. 27 I headed to Fukuoka, Japan to get my work Visa to be able to spend the year Teaching in Korea. The Korean Consulate reviews my application and then stamps my visa number into my passport. It was a very quick trip. I left my place in Korea at 6am Thurs. and arrived in Japan around 11am, rushed to the Korean Consulate, spent the day and night, picked up my Passport at 9am Fri., then headed to the airport to catch a 12pm (noon) flight back to Korea. Then back to the Academy to teach 2 classes friday evening. Damn....that was quick. Not much time but it was a fun time, indeed.

So to start, I met a few other foreigners on the way for their "visa run" and we arrived at the Korean Consulate at lunch time, so we had to be back at 130pm. We walked around and found a place to eat, nothing to special, but some good fish. The Consulate was near a big baseball stadium. The Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome. Pretty cool place. The roof actually opens up. I even saw a few people camping out for tickets...must be a major team....Ends up it's the home of the "Fukuoka Soft Bank Hawks" baseball team.


Cool clock tower and garden area.....


This was up at the Stadium. Cool looking statue.....

In the afternoon I walked around solo and found the beach.....on my way a couple of Rastafarian's hippy dudes were playin' the drums....
Good sounds for a walk by the beach.

A view of the beach, nice and quite, sun beams coming down by the Fukuoka Tower. The tower is the highest seaside tower in Japan....234meters high. I decided I would be a tourist and head that way soon to check out the views from above.


But first, I found a pier to walk out on and take a rest by the water. It was nice and cool by the water, but inland the heat and humidity was pretty bad...instant sweat. I was amazed when I got back to S.Korea how much cooler it was. I am excited for the cooler fall weather. Anyway, walking down the beach, I picked up a few sea shells and enjoyed the lap of the water hitting the beach with the Rasta drums in the background.

A view from the pier, looking back at the Yahoo! Dome and the Jal Mega Hotel. The dome is the first in Japan to have a retractable roof. That's also an impressive slicey looking hotel.

The Fukuoka Tower in the distance.


Here's a self portrait shot from the pier......

Time to jump in and take a dip......just kidding.....

Follow the footsteps to the tower!!!

A view from the base of the tower.....

I made it. Glad I decided to come up here. Sweet view! Someone insisted on taking my photo, in the tower. Now...I am acting like a real tourist....! I guess, sometimes you have to. So I was having fun with it.


Long way up here....


A nice European style Restaurant area....called Marizon.


Chilling on a couch for a bit, I caught a bit of the Sunset.....Well it's getting kinda late and I need to hit the subway and find some food (preferably some Sushi/Sashimi) and a place to stay...so, I'm outta here.....

On the walk back to the subway, noticed this old mini cooper. pretty cool with the British flag in the back seat. I thought of a 007 movie. Although Bond....James...Bond, probably did not drive a mini......

Took the Subway to a major station, asked a few people where a good restaurant is and was able to find this place. Thanks to two Japanese sisters. The place is called "kakomi"



Lots of Saki on the walls.....Steve Sell, this is your kinda place....So I sat here at the bar and I opted for the Asahi beer on tap, which was so tasty and my favorite Japanese brew. None-the-less, I had a hard time leaving. I have really only had Asahi in the bottle and it's similar to a good Guinness on tap.....great head! The head chef did give me a really good Japanese Saki, so at least I tried one....

OK, time to eat...Yahoo! This time not meaning the Dome....he..he...! Check it out Maguro and Salmon sashimi. So delicious.....I think it is some of the best I have had. So fresh!

I did make friends with the head Chef and he styled me with a bunch of free dishes to try. Great guy, we talked about the Denver Rockies (baseball team) and the Avalanche (hockey team). Good times....So pretty much I stayed there for 3 hours or so....ate, drank and felt happy. Below are some Sobe cold noodles. Lots of tasty food....I even had raw octopus and some tie (which is kinda like snapper)....chicken, salads, other fish, dessert, etc...more Asahi....

So, I finally left "kakomi" found a hotel and crashed out. Did not sleep to well, but OK, You can always sleep. Right! So, below is the next day...I headed to a fish market but could not get in to take some photos, so I headed back to the Korean Consulate area......

I ended up eating at the Jal Hotel (mega slicey hotel near the Yahoo! Dome). They were having an all-you-can-eat buffet...I found my place....time to eat. So it was kinda expensive, around 2310 Yen which is around 20$USD. But it was worth it. Lots of good interesting food.




This is a shot looking in. Cool building.

Nice flower I noticed while I was walking around. Thinking back to eating, I think I spent almost 2 hours at the Breakfast Buffet...so it was worth 2310 Yen.

This was kinda cool.....molded brass hands of famous people that have visited the Yahoo! Dome.
The middle blue one is Michael Jackson..I remember one of my first cassette tapes was Thriller..I did take his glove off for the shot. :)



Was able to shake Frank Sinatra's hand in JAPAN!

Looking down at the row of hands....running down the line giving high-5's was fun! This time no one wanted to take my photo. hmmmmm.......


Time to pick up my passport and race to the airport.....I was pretty sure it would be complete and at 9am it was ready....OK, time to bee-line it back to the Airport for a 12pm flight.



Some posters of South Korea in front of the Consulate on Display.....lower right one is of Thai-Chi, very popular sport in S.Korea. I thought for a second, maybe while I am in Korea I should take up Thai-Chi......really, only for a moment, we'll see! So much to do!



This was interesting...some Ginseng in bottles, different roots, bark, mushrooms, etc. Kind of Eastern Herbal Medicine shop, if only I had a bit more time to check it out....

In the Subway area.....getting close. Like the Koreans, they like their Soccer. This was down at the subway line...


Japanese flag flyin' in the wind....what a beautiful day.


Well...I made it to the airport with plenty of time to relax before the flight....after a 20-30minute walk, subway and a bus ride, it's time to head back to Korea......flying Asiana Air, highly recommended, one of the better airlines out there.



Sayonara for now.....until next time....hope you enjoyed the "visa run" to JAPAN!