Fukuoka

Today's primary goal was to visit the Dazaifu Tenmangu, a shine near Fukuoka which took 2 changes of train to get to. At the entrance there was a Bronze Ox statue that people were queueing up to take their photos with as they rubbed his nose which looked quite different to the rest of its body.... greyfriar's bobby? There were various temples and bridges and ponds, all quite beautiful. The Kyushu National Museum was nearby so headed to that and it had a special exhibition of the Haniwa, thousands of clay statues found in Japan going back the the 3rd century often quite funny shapes. The photo above include a Haniwa Dog, coz I'm missing mine!

Then the train back into the city and to the Fukuoka Castle that we visited last night in the dark. This time we got to see how many blossom trees there were and it was so busy with people waiting for the light shows again. The photo is taken from the castle looking over to the city.

And that was our lot here, Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima... 180 miles in 1 hour... easy to work out it's speed? But that included one stop which it had to slow down for! It felt like we were in a plane again from the sound outside. 

After checking in we headed for a pub, Beer The Base, hosting beers from a local brewery and serving food. We were sitting at the bar and the fish and chips were cooked right in front of us with salt ice cream to finish, and another hazy IPA. That was good, Fish'n'Chip Japanese style.

We were in Hiroshima in 2018 so we're only stopping here overnight before getting a car, but we headed down to The Atomic Bomb Dome again which really gets you thinking. The bomb exploded right overhead hence why it is still standing, almost nothing else was back afterwards.

Finally a long walk back to the hotel. 3 cities in 3 days, all very different. Tomorrow we are venturing away from the cities and taking it a bit easier, in theory.