During my exchange Kumamoto (the city) has always been synonym with shopping. An easy way for me to compare cities is with my very own hometown. My hometown has 45K inhabitants, about the same as Tamana. A bit bigger than Tamana, there was Kumamoto (700K inhabitants), that I compared to Montreal, even though Montreal has in fact more than the double of people.
I compared Kumamoto to Montreal because the only times I went there was, as I said, for shoppping. Past half of my student exchange however, I visited Fukuoka. Fukuoka..... That one city can be compared to mtl for real, with its 1M5 inhabitants. The thing is that Fukuoka is awesomely made, well when it concerns shopping downtown. Getting out at the Hakata Shinkansen station, you get out right in Tenjin Core, the middle of the middle of the shopping district. I never thought about Kumamoto for shopping after Fukuoka....
People say that Fukuoka's women are the prettiest in Japan.
I understand.
I never saw so many shopping districts selling ONLY women clothes and accessories, with all the girls walking in the street looking like the mannequins in the display window.
My brother wants to move to Fukuoka.
I am told that girls in Fukuoka are prettier than in the rest of Japan and renowned for that because there are many foreign people (other asians for example, a lot of koreans :P) so they are a bit more blended
Accessory shops.
Why oh why did I think I'd get to buy more later on on the trip? Why did I hesitate so much and buy only few? That was stupid. I remember however that, when I took the picture, I had already planned to regret not buying more, and intended to keep the picture to remember what I had missed...
Am I masochist?
Dunno.
 |
| This shop has the most awkward name I ever saw. I haven't actually entered the store. I think I was intimidated by the name |
 |
| Plate price chart (130 yen is approx $1.50CAD) |
 |
| My plates <3 |
I don't know why japanese are crazy about this actor/singer, but he was LITERALLY everywhere. My best friends would have been happy ha ha ha.
My brother when he saw the picture he said, had he not the sideburn, he'd have thought she was cute. Poor boi :p
 |
| Can you think of a weirder name for a bar? Oh dear japanese people, you never cease to amuse me |
 |
| Walking by this building we told ourselves we'd visit it the next morning, but weather the next day was incredibly unhappy, so we gave up the idea |
Both the Fukman bar and the traditional building were right in front of the business hotel we stayed at (Etwas). The hotel was awesome in that it was right in the middle of Fukuoka's downtown, right in the shopping district. They have a very basic breakfast included in the price and if you are not satisfied with it, you go out, turn left and get right in the Korean food district. The only thing I did not really like is that the hotel room was stinked with the horrible smell of cigarette. Everything in the room was really smelly and that, even if I sprayed the room freshener all around every 15 minutes.
What was funny about the room is that, it was probably meant for two businessmen having to stay overnight: long manly large shirt as pj in the room, stuff to help put on men suit shoes, shoe shiner and the like. I kept on trying to imagine two awkward japanese businessmen sleeping in a double bed, smoking their cigarettes while feeling shy in their man pj... LOL
 |
| If you want to look tall, feel tall, be told you're tall and realize you are tall, go to Japan. |
My brother's 2 ramen in Japan. Tonkatsu ramen from Fukuoka Tenjin.
 |
| This is a picture of the menu, cuz I wanted to remember the name of the food we got there, as it was insanely good (the first one) |
We were told to go at one very tasty sushi restaurant at the very top of a building in Fukuoka's downtown by my host father. Everything we ate there was really tasty, even the weird living fish they gave us as we sat in the restaurant, as appetizer. I really had no clue what they were...
After a look around, I saw that other customers also had had it, so I figured that they did not give these to us only to make fun of us foreigner.
I was a bit relieved.
I say a bit.
Then, the lady explains me how to eat it. It is a small bowl with small worm looking fishes, transparent, and alive. Very much alive. As she brings the plate, they are moving a lot in the water, but as the water gets still, so do the fishes. I wonder if they are dead.
She tells me I need to pour vinegar (a brown vinegar, don't remember the kind) in the bowl, put my hand over it, and slurp them, just like that. She tells me to try. I start pouring the vinegar, slowly thinking how I can avoid eating those, or if I can just try a bit instead of getting the whole lot in my mouth...
But life is never this easy.
As soon as I put the vinegar in, the fishes start moving like crazy - I probably would too, if I was a fish bathing in vinegar - and then the realization comes to me: I would have to eat it all, without a second thought, for if I waited they'd be like awkward dead small fish, and if somehow felt even grosser to think eating them as they just died suffering.
So I did.
As soon as I realized that I had to eat them, there was no doubt in my mind, so I did not even looked grossed out or anything and just got it as if I did that everyday.
Result: it tasted like vinegar. They go in too fast to even touch the texture of the fish on the tongue, so basically it just tastes like what you pour onto them. Lame.
Now my brother, how doesn't understand japanese, watching me doing that as if it was all good and normal - I did not really translate anything before I ate mine - was thinking about how bad his pride would be hurt if he actually did not follow the lead. Awww big brothers....
So he ate it.
And I filmed it.
So in the end, Fukuoka was for me - and my brother - both a shopping spree and the testing of new things food-wise. My brother bought a full suit with shoes (was really fun to shop that with him, suit shops are amazing) for around $500 total, and I felt I had to spen just as much: only, as I did not buy anything insanely brand-like, I bought a lot more stuff to reach that teh he~~
0 comments:
Post a Comment