{"id":22172,"date":"2014-06-18T06:01:32","date_gmt":"2014-06-18T11:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/?page_id=22172"},"modified":"2014-06-19T08:55:04","modified_gmt":"2014-06-19T13:55:04","slug":"fukuoka-day-1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/?page_id=22172","title":{"rendered":"Fukuoka Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Seoul Day 5<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWe are leaving Seoul today and heading to Japan!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAt the subway, we saw a whole group of seniors all waiting to get their hair cut…inside the subway station. Some sort of charity free haircut?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nArriving at Seoul Station to transfer to the airport AREX train.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMiss my dog, that bad mutt.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOn the way to the airport. Surprisingly, the train to the airport is not very clearly marked in English and we originally boarded a train that didn’t go all the way to the airport. So, we had to get off at an earlier station and catch the next train, which did go all the way to the airport.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAt Incheon Airport.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI feel like we are in some sort of a spaceship.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWe checked in our bags, and they asked us to wait by the check in for 5 minutes until our bags went through their xray machines. OK, sure, why not.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThis is what we saw after we passed through security and immigration. Seriously, I’ve never seen so many people who shop cosmetics at a duty free shop.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSeriously, the Koreans must be the biggest consumers of cosmetics per person.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nIt’s around lunch time and we are looking for food…except, there is no food to be found. We walked from one end of the terminal to the other and saw only a few coffee shops. I guess when you wear tons of makeup, you don’t have the time for hunger. Seriously, we are starving, where is all the fucking food!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWell, that’s nice, but I can’t eat sunglasses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAAAHHHH!!!! Getting Hangry!!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWhat the fuck! I don’t want to know where the shops are at, where is the food? Is there no food in this international terminal??<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nFinally found! We actually had to ask an information desk to find the food. It was hidden away in the corner with a very small sign. I don’t think Koreans eat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Some sort of sweet rice drink.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nBibimbap.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nTuna sashimi rice bowl.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWaiting at our gate, and the girl in the center of the photo spent a good 20 minutes taking selfies of herself. As vain as Koreans are, this girl takes the cake. She is currently posing for her next shot right now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMight as well make good use of the time and blog.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOur plane is parked next to this giant beast A380. That’s a fat plane, I am always amazing at how big it is whenever I see one.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOur checkin agent hooked us up. Row 1(in the pleb section) with lots of leg room.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nGoodbye Korea.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNice plane with individual tvs, but mediocre sandwich. But look, individually packed wedge of pineapple.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nGot lots of blog catching up to do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nHello Japan! Really short flying time of an hour. The air quality is even better here since it’s even farther away from China. If you look back at when we left Shanghai, once in the air past the smog, you couldn’t see the ground beneath the smog. I can’t believe I spent 3 weeks breathing that terrible air.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOh!! We see our hotel. It’s the bluish grey building right across the river in the middle bottom third of the photo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMade it to Japan!! We’ve been so looking forward to this moment. This part of the trip will be a cake walk and relaxing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nHitchhiker sticker is still on my pack.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nGotta take a free shuttle from the international terminal to the domestic in order to get on the subway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nFirst time in Japan for RL and she’s super excited. She’s been wanting to come here since she was 15.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOK….now this could be a little difficult. Japan does not cater to English speakers, so often there is very little English support for travelers. We lucked out this time, there was an English menu for the subway ticket kiosk.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nLittle paper tickets, sort of like the Paris subway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nDamn you blurry photo!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n4 stops, easy breezy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSuper excited to be in Japan!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nUgh, why is North facing some odd direction?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nStairs…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNice, the first thing we see when exiting the subway is a 7 Eleven! Love it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThis is just about the second thing that we see, a porn movie theater???? Our hotel is located on a little island in the middle of the city, and it’s the red light district of Fukuoka.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWithin a minute from the subway, we’ve arrived at our hotel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThis is what $67 a night gets you in a very awesome location in Fukuoka. Pretty awesome price for Japan. This room is actually a lot bigger than most Japanese hotel rooms.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThis being Japan, everything is immaculately clean. On top of that, heated toilet seat with heated bidet!!! I could sit on the throne for hours.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWe also have a city view.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOK, we’ve got an immediate task at hand now that we’ve arrived in Japan. We need to find a Lawson convenience store, there they have a ticket machine that we can purchase tickets to Studio Ghibli?? Museum in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nGood thing Lawson convenience stores are everywhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThis should be the machine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe machine is only in Japanese with no option for English. No worries, there are instructions in English on the museum website on how to purchase tickets and I took photos of it on my phone.<\/p>\n

Despite having instruction, this was still a pain in the ass. The dates that we are looking to purchase tickets are over 2 weeks away, but many of the entry dates\/times are sold out. But instead of displaying what tickets are available, it only gives you an error message if the tickets are sold out on that date\/time. So, we spent a good 10 minutes really frustrated going through every single date\/time option to try to find tickets…We were literally down to our last 3 options(out of 20ish) when we finally found tickets. Yes!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWell…shit!!! We run into some real issues here. The machine was supposed to print out a ticket once we select the date. Then we take the ticket to the counter to pay…well, the machine displayed some sort of message and menu that’s not on the online instructions…WTF! I ask the Lawson employee to help, but he spoke zero English and was unable to help. I am getting very pissed and frustrated. Why give instructions online that are only half assed? Damn you!!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSo, we took a photo of this and showed it to our hotel concierge. Supposedly we need to either swipe a Lawson card, or use our NFC enabled phone that can communicate with the machine…Fuck!!! Fuck this shit. We were unable to figure this out….so….we gave up. Japan 1, KRL 0.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWell…I guess if we can’t have our museum tickets, I’ll take a photo of the naughty magazine section in the convenience store. Quite the selection, and it’s like this in all Japanese convenience stores.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nRemember this!!!! I can’t believe they still have it here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nGUESS WHAT MOTHERFUCKER!!! Got my museum tickets!!! Just after we gave up on buying tickets to the museum, we saw another Lawson store that was right across the street. In a desperate move, we tried the ticket machine at the other Lawson store. Of course, got stuck in the same spot, so I asked the employee to help me. Fortunately, this guy spoke limited English and he figured out that I can put in my name instead of swiping a Lawson member card. But the machine only accept names in Japanese with no options for English…Shit! I pulled out my credit card with my English name on it and asked the guy if he could type in my name into the machine phonetically. I conveyed that by pointing to my name and saying it followed by “same same, but different.” LOL!!! Well, it worked, because the guy tried to sound out my name and afterwards we’ve got tickets!!! I am 90% sure that these tickets will work….so we’ll see. Either way, victory!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nVictory shall be celebrated with fried chicken and beer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThese are the online instructions. Does not mention anything about having a Lawson card or inputting name. Asshole.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNot nearly as good as the pudding in Taiwan.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWe settled in our hotel room for a couple of hours, and now it’s time to head out for dinner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Yeah, exactly what I was hoping for. Furry little dogs and eels on the sidewalk…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nGirl, you are nippling badly and your hooha is showing. Plus, why do you have a stick up your ass?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nCame across our first yatai, small food stalls that Fukuoka is known for. Eating at a yatai is one of the reasons why we came to Fukuoka.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThis being the red light district, things are starting to go into operation at night. I believe most of the places are where you pay to talk to a girl. Then, of course, it gets more graphical and physical from there.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAlright, let’s find one that we like and sit down to have some dinner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThis bbq stand will do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThis being Japan, nothing is in English here. We resort to pointing to what we want to eat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nGot our drinks, and now waiting for the food.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nFish eggs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMixed grill.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nEverything cooked right here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nFavorite, asparagus wrapped in bacon. That was a really fun experience!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNow, let’s take a quick stroll around the island and through the heart of the red light district. This being Japan, red light districts actually are still very nice and perfectly safe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOHHHH….no, not the escort service. The 7 Eleven!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMust try.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSo excited! Green tea ice cream is the best!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAll over these areas, there are young men in suits standing outside the establishments(hostess\/host clubs). They are the door people who approach the guys on the street to see if they would like to come in. They never approached us because we were obviously together, but we did see them talk to other men walking in the area. They are actually very polite and courteous about trying to drum up business for their “clubs”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThere are also plenty of girls wearing stripper high heels. Some are standing around just “waiting”, while others are holding signs. I think some said about $50 for 50 minutes and some for $40 for 30 minutes. I think that’s just to chat with them at a bar…it seems weird. Why not just go to a regular bar and hit on a girl?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nGirls of the night…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe men in suits manning the sidewalks to drum up business for their establishments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWell, that’s that, time to head home for more important things.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nGot some sushi at Family Mart and it’s time to finish season 4 of GoT!!!<\/p>\n

To be continued at Fukuoka Day 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Seoul Day 5. We are leaving Seoul today and heading to Japan!! At the subway, we saw a whole group of seniors all waiting to get their hair cut…inside the subway station. Some sort of charity free haircut? … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":22170,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-22172","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22172"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22470,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22172\/revisions\/22470"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}