Channeling Anthony Bourdain in Fukuoka

Day 21, Grand Asia 2018

Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018, Fukuoka, Japan:

With our stop today in Fukuoka, we have visited the four main islands of Japan. Later we will go to the fifth, Okinawa.

Fukuoka is known for its food. In 2014, Condé Nast Magazine named it Japan’s Next Great Food City. Not one to pass up a good meal, I joined a group that ate as the local do – at a yataistall along the Fukuoka canal. These are small open-air stands, with about eight to 10 small stools crowded on three sides of a central counter where the chef cooks. Ramen, yakitori and oden soup seemed to be the most popular choices, and each of us who were game to try the street food had our fill. Having watched a lot of Anthony Bourdain’s travels, I was determined to jump right in.

After eating edamame, I ordered the yakitori, which came with six skewers. What I think might have been lamb was too tough to chew, but everything else was delicious — especially the pork belly. Even what looked like a skinny hot dog was flavorful. Of course, I washed it all down with a giant Asahi beer. I had planned to sample other options, but was too full between the grilled meat and the beer. We could have chosen from among a dozen or so stalls, each of which was brightly lit with lanterns facing the canal. Even on a Sunday night the atmosphere was festive.

Our ship didn’t arrive into Fukuoka until noon. Around 7 a.m., we entered the Kanmon Strait, a narrow and heavily trafficked channel between two islands that took us to the Sea of Japan north of Kyushu Island. Our on-board guide Ian’s running description of the transit played on the outside decks and in the Crow’s Nest.

After lunch I took the city-sponsored shuttle into the heart of Tenjin, the center of the city. It is full of high-end shops and department stores. Once I heard that Fukuoka is the sixth largest city in Japan, I thought it might be the place to solve a computer problem I was experiencing. My external hard drive – the one with ALL my photos, had started making ominous noises, and the backup I had brought quit mounting to my Apple Macbook Pro after Yokohama. So I used my handy Pocket Earth app and found an Apple store not 10 minutes from the shuttle stop.

Of course someone there could help me – in English – to buy a new hard drive that would pair with my Apple laptop. The line to pay was long, and the 1-terabyte hard drive cost 9800 yen (about $90 dollars). Not as cheap as at home, but hey – no sales tax! And by the time I went to bed, I had copied my 800-plus gigabytes from one drive to the new one. I slept better for it.