Clip-clop, clip-clop.The sound of my thongs as I walk down the seemingly endless liminal corridors of the hotel. My destination is the laundry room. The time is almost 1 am. I hate the washing.
It’s time to leave Busan and South Korea, but there’s a lack of urgency that almost gets us into trouble. Google overestimates our speed when dragging luggage.
An elevator is found rather than lug our bags down the subway stairs, then do so anyway. A subway train to Sarang, then change to the Light Rail. We just miss one. The elevated tracks have great views, but I’m worried.
We make it to the Air Busan desk at Gimhae International Airport with barely an hour before departure. This is an international flight!
Fortunately, the attendant allows us to skip much of the very long security queue, otherwise there’s a good chance we may miss the flight. I do not want to miss this flight.
Once through security I join another queue to purchase a drink from the convenience store airside. A Pepsi Mojito flavour! I need something as my throat is thick with gunk. The pus in PUS, the airport code for Busan.
Boarding of our Air Busan flight 142 to Fukuoka (FUK) is via another bus gate. Grrr. The attendant holds a sign with the symbol for “No photographs”.
It’s an Airbus A321 and it looks a bit old inside. No matter, the seats are comfortable enough and the legroom okay. Other than that, much the same as the flight up.
Row 15 is right over the engine mount on the wing. As I look out, a new Korean Air Airbus A220 pulls up at the gate, looking very modern.
As we taxi out to the runway I put the Paper Planes soundtrack on through my headphones. With a roar, we take off into the cloudy skies, then make a sharp bank to the left over the farmland, then the right.
The cloud layer is smooth and we rise into blue skies, the land obscured below.
The captain speaks to the cabin in Korean and English and he’s actually intelligible this time.
It’s a short flight, only 55 minutes scheduled. The sea becomes visible below, then islands of Japan.
When Kyushu can be made out it looks like they will have some weather on the main islands. I’m glad the airport is on the edge and that Turbli promised a smooth flight.
It feels like we are again fighting some crosswinds during our final descent into FUK. Then it’s a pretty hard landing.
The good news is that I’ve timed my music to perfection and the album finishes as we pull into the gate. It was actually an awesome flight, almost perfect for one that short.
This is our second time arriving in Fukuoka, almost 15 years ago.
The international terminals looks very spiffy. Unfortunately you need to catch a shuttle bus to the domestic terminal to ride on the subway to Hakata.
At Hakata station, I need to retrieve my Northern Kyushu and Chugoku Region rail passes and book some Shinkansen tickets. It’s crowded, there are people everywhere. Out the front is a giant er festival float.
First B wants to try Imonne mochi ice cream…
It’s very nice, especially on a day that a billboard outside the airport said was 36°C. Outside the clouds are starting to threaten and I’m glad we didn’t fly in later.
Our passes allow us to ride the Nozomi Shinkansen service the short distance to Kokura. As we board I see a group of young European males with huge rigid suitcases and, sure enough, they place them to the rear of row 1, the seats I booked to put our luggage in. I mean I could have put them overhead because I know to travel light in Japan. I also know the booking tools tell you explicitly to book only certain seats if you have big luggage.
DO NOT TAKE YOUR GIANT SUITCASES TO JAPAN IF YOU INTEND TO USE THE RAIL NETWORK WITHOUT A FORWARDING SERVICE.
It’s only a short ride to Kokura’s big train station. Our hotel is located in the station complex, but it’s too early to check in. We leave our luggage in the hotel’s self-store racks, with lockable chains and keypad stores for more valuable items.
It’s past lunch and some of us (me) haven’t had any breakfast. After some debate, we wait for a seat at Cheese & Doria & Sweets and then wait for our plates of rice flavoured with cheese, egg, proteins and sauces. These are based on western dishes, but you don’t usually get to eat them in Australia.
Our reason for visiting Kokura is the TOTO Museum, a museum about… Toilets.
To get there we catch the Kitakyushu Monorail. I love an elevated monorail, with its view down across the streets. It emerges right out from Kokura Station. The driver is elderly and the Kokura below shares that tired and worn down appearance. I like it.
From Kawaraguchi Mihagino Station, we then walk a bit under a kilometre in the heat to reach the museum.
It is a low, two-storey modern building sitting between the road and the TOTO factory.
TOTO are renowned in Japan for their toilets, especially those with a “Washlet” bidet system. Now, you might think that a museum about bum washing toilets sounds boring, but you’d be wrong.
TOTO came into being out of a desire to bring modern sanitation to Japan without relying on foreign imports. While demand was still low and the technology was being perfected, the company diversified into making ceramic tableware. You may be familiar with the name Noritake…
There is a lot of technology and knowledge that goes into making a modern toilet. For example, over the years they’ve gone from needing 13.8 litres of water per flush to 3.8.
They also have a trike powered by animal farts and with a toilet for a seat on display.
There is a fair amount of English signage and an online audio guide available. As a bonus, you get to use one of their very expensive models if you need to go to the bathroom during your visit!
We spent around an hour and a half in the TOTO Museum, only leaving because it was closing time.
On emergence, we could see that it had been raining a bit and there was the rumble of thunder. We stop by a supermarket on the way back, buy a big apple and some snacks, before catching the return monorail to Kokura Station.
Checking into our hotel room, we notice that it has fantastic views not only of the monorail, but also of the trains arriving into Kokura Station. There is also a lightning show in the background with that storm.
On our way out, a group of wedding attendees squeezes into the lift. A rather inebriated one asks how I am in English. I respond and ask the same of him in Japanese.
Opposite the station is the. SAINTcity shopping mall with a variety of interesting shops. Best of these is Loft, with its homewares, beauty products and interesting stationery.
The shops close at 8 pm. We head up towards the top level to the restaurants, hoping to find dinner. Alex is excited by the curving escalator at that last level.
It seems pretty dead and there isn’t anything we really want. This time we take the lift down.
So what are we going to eat for this late dinner?
There’s a McDonald’s and a Zetteria (Lotteria) opposite, a Cafe Gusto. None of which appeals to us. What’s that above the Gusto?
An all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu restaurant, Syabu-zo. Well, we always want to have at least one meal of shabu-shabu.
Robot waiters deliver our trays of thinly sliced pork while we use the soft serve and drinks dispensers to make melon floats. The meats and fresh vegetables are boiled in the stock and then dipped into sauces before eating.
We barely make it out before the 90 minute limit, a consequence of a teenager’s stomach.
So now I am waiting for the clothes to dry. The machines in the laundromat in Busan did this task in an hour. Here it takes three.
But it is good to be back in Japan. I like Kokura. There’s a kind of industrial grittiness here combined with interesting transport, shopping and cultural activities. I wish we were staying longer.