Japan - Fukuoka 2018

Went on a spontaneous trip to Fukuoka with my husband in July, and I'm absolutely in love with this city! 

We went with really low expectations because we just wanted to go somewhere low-key and relaxing. Was browsing through the SIA Spontaneous escapes miles promo and decided on this because the flight timings were suitable for us :) So we were really really surprised by how wonderful this city is!! It's a good base to explore neighbouring sites and cities if you like scenic places. 

Just going to share some simple information like where we stayed, where we went and of course our travel pictures!

We stayed at Grand Hyatt Fukuoka which is linked to this huge iconic mall called Canal City Hakata. The location is superb!! Highly recommend for you to book here if you are visiting too.

Rented a car because I wanted to explore other small towns and sites near Fukuoka hehe. Driving in Japan is a lot easier than I expected?! Just be careful of tolls! We ended up spending most of our money on tolls because it's so expensive - the car rental rate and petrol is totally affordable though. 

Took a whole bunch of pictures here because I've never been to a shrine before. Honestly, I've never been keen to visit shrines before because I thought there would be nothing much to see, but wow this place is beautiful! The tori gates are sooo photogenic hehe. 

This is Kushida Shrine - you can actually walk here from Grand Hyatt if you want! Just walk through the shopping street

This is the shopping street I was talking about! 

Kawabata Shopping Arcade - the nearest station to this place is Tenjin Station

And when in Fukuoka... you have to try their ramen! The famous Hakata Ramen originated from here. Ippudo is still my number 1 favourite - there's one in Canal City Mall!

Uminonakamichi Seaside Park

This was the one place I was really looking forward to, but was super disappointed. I even checked which flowers are in season and matched my outfit for it.. only to find barren fields sighs. Maybe I need to try coming back here again in Spring. There is an animal area with alpacas, monkeys and other small animals that kids will love though :)

Momochi Seaside Park / Marinoa City Outlets

We packed these two places in one day because it's really close by! A fun area with huge outlet malls and lovely cafes by the beach. To be honest, the outlet shopping here is not so great if you've been to the ones in Europe or USA before. But it is a nice area to spend a relaxing afternoon at! 

Yanagawa Town

This is my favourite place from the trip! This little town is famous for having the best eel rice... and it's really super yummy!! It's a gorgeous gorgeous place, you can go on picturesque canal rides as well. It's too bad we couldn't go on the boat ride because it was drizzling most of the time we were there. Will definitely want to visit this place again!

If you are planning to visit Fukuoka, please try not to visit in July because we encountered typhoon/heavy rain the last two days we were there and couldn't go to certain places that we wanted to go. I think spring or summer would be the best times to visit this lovely city :)