Hakata, 21.05.24

Today was a full sightseeing day. Early start with breakfast just around the corner, coffee and sandwich in Starbucks! Always there Starbucks when you need them. It seems every corner in the big cities has a Starbucks. 

In the morning we walked over to a temple district. It was only about 20 minutes away and we followed one of the canals and reached the first temple. Sesshinin Temple. A smallish complex which sort of looked private and we did not enter. Around the corner was a much larger one Shofukuji Temple but it was not open to the public. Wandering around these temples was very relaxing, no traffic and hardly any people. It was also much cooler than in the city as there were large trees all over providing shade. 

Temple Precinct

The last temple we visited was Tochoji Temple. It was built and founded by the monk Kukai, the same person we already came across near Osaka, in Koyosan, then Tokyo and Kyoto. He seems to have travelled all over Japan teaching his esoteric version of Buddhism. 

In Tochoji Temple is the largest wooden Buddha in Japan and after Nara and Kamakura the largest seated Daibutsu statue. It was carved quite recently beginning in 1988 and finished four years later. It is upstairs in a dark hall lit with candles. It was such a contrast to see this Buddha from the one in Kamakura. No tourists here just people to pray and light candles or incense sticks. No photos allowed either. So I did what almost everybody did and bought a candle, lit it and said my prayers. A nice thing to do and something done all over the world. 

Tochoji Temple

Not far from the temple we took the underground train to get to Ohori Park. A complete change of scenery and lots of fresh air and sunshine. It was a kind of oasis in the middle of town and very pleasant to walk around the lake and see people enjoying themselves. Other walkers, runners, cyclists, mothers with babies and tourists. Starbucks was there too right by the lake but we headed for the museum, one of the very few museums we visited on this trip. The Fukuoka Art Museum. Not sure why we ended up there but it made for an interesting change. 

The Museum

Going up the steps we came across the same work of art we had seen in Naoshima, the Yellow Pumpkin, by Kusama Yayoi. Not sure whether this was a copy or the original. Inside we saw the permanent exhibition. We are not really into modern art but a few works were outstanding, a Salvador Dali, a Marc Chagall, and a standing Buddha of the 12th century. 

Buddha

The museum was also a good spot to have lunch. Coffee and cake. We also made our plan here to attend a baseball game tonight. The stadium was not too far away and the game would start at six o'clock. It was not hard to find the venue as loads of people had the same idea. Just follow them and indeed after a while the round structure of the Dome of Fukuoka came into sight. 

Fukuoka Dome

It was busy! Food stalls everywhere and shops selling tea shirts and other merchandise from the teams playing tonight. We were able to buy tickets still in what looked like a sellout game. The Dome is completely round and inside there are, going all around, hundreds of more food shops and beer outlets and it was hard to choose what to get. In the end I settled for three filled rice balls and Christine had dumplings plus two beers. 

Rice Dumplings and Stadium

What a pre-game atmosphere inside. Light shows and dancing girls. Speeches and player introductions. We backed the local team, the Hawks. They played against the Eagles. We had no idea about rules or standings and just watched from our seats high up in the gallery. People were coming and going all the time and young girls flitted to and fro with beer barrels, the size of their own weight on their back and poured it into cups to customers. There was no rowdiness or bad behaviours by anybody. All civilized but roaring shouts, clapping of hands, flag swinging and loud encouragement to the teams. It was soon clear that our team was the one to watch. Their score went up and up and the Eagles struggled right from beginning never really able to get a shot over the line. In the end it was 21 to 0 for the Hawks. What a fun evening this was. 

Our little wine bar was unfortunately closed.

Ohori Park Gallery