{"id":8247,"date":"2015-10-31T04:53:06","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T11:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=8247"},"modified":"2015-10-31T16:10:15","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T23:10:15","slug":"japan-2015-day-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=8247","title":{"rendered":"Japan 2015 Day 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Really? Only day 4? I\u2019m already slowing down. I should\u2019ve slept better last night because the hotel was about as quiet as you can get but I\u2019m still having stomachaches at night. It\u2019s odd being that close to the train station and hearing almost nothing.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

I went walking around the train station trying to kill an hour and a half and I ended up just hopping on a shinkansen\u2019s non-reserved seating car just to get the heck out of dodge. I wasn\u2019t expecting that much from Kokura but it\u2019s a hopping little town.<\/p>\n

I got to the hotel early to drop off my bags and the place was a little creepy and dark. I guess it\u2019s just a business hotel and there\u2019s no one there during the middle of the day. It was much better later. I left and went walking to the one thing they told me to go see – Kokura castle. I took a picture but my phone deleted it somehow. Oh well. It wasn\u2019t as impressive as Kumamoto castle. Here\u2019s a picture of the shrine next to the castle.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

I also went to the market street, Tanga market, but it wasn\u2019t that different than things I\u2019ve seen in other towns. I guess the market streets are dying out.<\/p>\n

The shotengai was hopping though.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know what to eat and was almost about to go to Mos Burger when I saw a bakery that looked good. I bought a ham roll, a ham roll with egg, and a kare pan (curry bread). I was craving a katsu sando but I\u2019ll have to wait for that.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

The wind was chilly today so I went looking for a Uniqlo. It was a fifteen minute walk on the opposite side of the station. I almost bought a down vest but I couldn\u2019t find one I liked. I settled on a sweater and then headed back towards the station and realized I should probably just have a hat. It wasn\u2019t even 3PM (check-in time) and I was already tired and I went back to the hotel to use the bathroom. Fortunately, my room was ready and I took it easy and read a book on my Kindle. I only really headed out to try the green tea snacks close by.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t completely useless – I did my laundry like I\u2019d been planning to do. That\u2019s the best part about business hotels. Coin laundry facilities.<\/p>\n

I did get bundled up and headed out for dinner.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

I was going to go to Bikkuri Donkey, a Japanese chain of \u201chamburg steak\u201d restaurants, but I asked the guy at the front desk what traditional Kita-Kyushu food I should try. He said yakiudon, something fish, and something else fish. So I went to the place he suggested, Yamato-ya (the kanji for the place is crazy) and no, it\u2019s not the place upstairs. It\u2019s no place I could\u2019ve gone with my sister because people were smorking inside. But the fish was spectacular (way better than my $99 steak).<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

Something raw fish (buri?)<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

Nukadaki on the left.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

And of course, yakiudon.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s it for the evening. I was going to go into Fukuoka tomorrow but I think I\u2019m going to head to Mojiko instead. It\u2019s a \u201cRomantic Retro Town\u201d and the place I think my mom was talking about when she originally told me to check out Kokura. Andiamo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Really? Only day 4? I\u2019m already slowing down. I should\u2019ve slept better last night because the hotel was about as quiet as you can get but I\u2019m still having stomachaches at night. It\u2019s odd being that close to the train station and hearing almost nothing. I went walking around the train station trying to kill an hour and a half and I ended up just hopping on a shinkansen\u2019s non-reserved seating car just to get the heck out of dodge. I wasn\u2019t expecting that much from Kokura but it\u2019s a hopping little town. I got to the hotel early to drop off my bags and the place was a … Continue reading Japan 2015 Day 4<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8247"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8249,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8247\/revisions\/8249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}