Mar 11 - Fukuoka to Nagoya

Got up and packed to get ready to head to subway station and then to Shinkansen to get from Fukuoka to Nagoya, my next stop in Japan.

On the way out of Hotel MyStays I saw two "spidermen" cleaning the windows of a tall building just around the corner.   I wasn't the only one gawking --

there were at least two taxi's stopped and various other people looking at this "high wire" act.

Got a subway ticket to "Hakata" station (3 or 4 stations back towards the airport) which is where the JR Train connection is.

Got there without trouble and bought my ticket on the Shinkansen (bullet) train all the way to Nagoya Station (about 3/4 of the way to

Tokyo).   Got a window seat in a non-smoking car.

Stored my luggage in a locker and grabbed a subway ride one station away with a plan to walk back towards an open air wet (fish)

market I'd ready about.    I guess I must have done something wrong with "google maps" remotely, because I had thought it was only

an 8 minute walk from this other station.   When I got to the station it turned out to be a 40 minute walk just to get there.    I made

it about 3/4 of the way and decided this was a bad idea -- that I might miss my train, so I 'aborted' and just stopped at a bread/coffee shop

to get a bite to eat and then grabbed a cab back to Hakata station.

Back at the station I stopped at a food area and bought two pieces of fried chicken (little bits) for the train later in the morning.

Also bought some little cookies as well.

Hopped on the train and got my luggage stored (lots of overhead space, no problem).   The chairs were quite comfortable and reclined much more

than normal airplane chairs.   Lots and lots of leg room.     Here are some pictures I took out the window and of "where I was" from my iPhone.

Time for that chicken and cookie snack, along with some "Royal Milk Tea" I brought along:

Noticed that as we passed Shin-Osaka and headed "up into the mountains" (at least I assume that is what was happening) towards Nagoya that we had fields of snow!

Got to Nagoya Station around 1:45pm, about 15 minutes late due to the train running slower through the snow.    Tried to find a locker to store my bag for

while, but they were all taken!    I had noticed that the train really filled up around Shin-Osaka or Kyoto, so I went over to the JR office and bought a

reserved ticket for my Friday departure train from Nagoya to Ito -- wanted to be sure that I didn't end up not having a seat, just in case its always more

crowded on this last portion of the train ride towards Tokyo.    With that taken care of I went downstairs and found a place to have some tea and lunch.

Guess what?  Found an Unagi restaurant (or at least one that had Unagi!)

After lunch walked around a little more, but since I had my luggage on my back decided it was time to grab a cab and head to the Ryokan.   It was about 3:00pm,

and technically checkin wasn't until 4pm, but I figured I'd risk it (or wait in the Ryokan lobby area worst case).    Good call taking the cab as the Rykoan wasn't

all that close to the station (probably a 20 minute walk if you knew where it was!).   Even the cab driver had to double check his onboard computer to make sure

we were going to the right location... but it all worked out.

They were ready for me when I arrived so I was able to check in right away.    I had some uncertainty as to what this Ryokan would be like as some reviews listed it more as a hostel 

than a ryokan (it wasn't super high end, but looked nice to me online, so I had taken a chance).    Some of the rooms are, I think, hostel style with 8-12 tatami's and the whole thing shared.

I had actually booked into a 2 tatami room which I assumed (correctly) was a private room just for me.    It was actually quite large, having both the two tatami beds(mats) as well the working table and

chairs in the main area, lots of closet space, a huge TV, safe, mini-fridge, entrance area, private bathroom "pre room" and private bathtub/shower/toilet room.    All in all very very nice.

There was also a really cool fish in a fish tank at the top of the stairs to the level I was on.    It was, I think, a fish version of the "Sweet Boo" (my sisters

cat).   Check out this picture and the video:

Headed downstairs and talked to the owner/front desk guy -- very nice man.   He already had cheat-sheets posted in the lobby listing some interesting places to eat. 

There was actually a "food court" about 15 minutes away that had 4 different restaurants of reasonable quality featuring regional special food.   I decided to go that route

tonight -- was still somewhat full from the eel from lunch.     It was about a 15 minute walk, which took me more like 25 as getting to the exact spot was a little bit of a 

challenge for me.    Thankfully I had both his map AND my google map app on my iPhone.   Between the two I made it to the big building whose basement level had

this restaurant zone.

I decided to order the regional pork tonkatsu, which is prepared with a miso coating and a thick rich sauce.    A little different than the normal "breaded" or even "panko crusted"

variety I'd had in the past.   It was quite good.   I got the small portion, which for me was huge!    I also tried some of the local chicken, which they said was a special kind of chicken that was

more tender and soft than other chickens in the world.    As I ordered this dish as yakitori, I only got one skewer of the actual "main" chicken meat (which was quite soft and good), along with

some other parts on the other two skewers which were more "out of the usual" for me.    One was probably chicken skin/gizzard and I didn't like much (too chewy).   The other was probably organ meat,

maybe heart?, which was okay, but probably something I'd not bother with in the future.

Finished my meal and headed back to the Ryokan to enter this.   I might take a soak in their outdoor "onsen" area, though I am feeling quite tired so might just

call it a night as well.