Date: 31 December 2014 Wednesday
It’s the last day of the year! Happy Birthday to my dearest hubby and Happy New Year (2015) everyone! *Oops, I’m 2 years behind on my travel journal!*
09:45 Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk
Morning view from our room
We woke up at around 9+ AM but lazed in the room and got out at almost noon. We were blessed with good weather for the past few days but it was a gloomy one this morning. It started to rain after we left the hotel. According the the weather forecast, it will snow tomorrow! YEAH!
Decorations in the hotel lobby
13:00 PM Yanagibashi Rengo Market
It was a cold day due to the rain and strong wind. Our first stop for the day is Yanagibashi Rengo Market. We parked the car at a nearby carpark and walked over to the market. It was extremely packed and we had expected it to look like Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market.
We couldn’t find any restaurant nearby, so we bought a packet of salmon sushi at 1300 JPY from one of the stalls. It was expensive for such a normal looking packet of sushi. We left the market before it started to rain again.
We ate the sushi in the car, which tasted quite fresh and good.
13:30 PM Tenjin Chikagai
Next on our agenda for the day is shopping at Tenjin. We parked the car at Tenjin Chikagai, a large underground shopping mall with 150 shops and is connected to 20 nearby buildings and shopping zones. We walked over to Daimaru for shopping and lunch.
Bought a small slice of cheesecake.
We shared a bento from the Hokkaido Fair.
15:45 PM Canal City
Window shopping at Canal City in Hakata.
18:00 PM Hakata Station
We drove to Hakata Station next and parked at a nearby carpark.
Bought a cheesecake from Fondant Fromage for JR.
Finally found Deitos!!! ACB told me that there are many Ramen restaurants on the 2nd level of Deitos. We took very long to find Deitos, didn’t give up as we were determined to have ramen for dinner. As a typical Singaporean, we chose the restaurant with the most people.
Ordering via a vending machine.
Hot bowl of ramen to warm our tummies on a cold day.
Gyozas
Most shops were closed by the time we finished dinner. We went back to the basement supermarket and bought another cake for JR.
21:00 PM Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk
Back to our hotel room to celebrate JR’s birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! No blowing out of candles because we did not have any lighter / match stick.
We watched the New Year countdown in the room. We kept the curtains opened, wondering if there would be any fireworks but there wasn’t. It was a really quiet and peaceful new year in Japan. We celebrated New Year by eating the cheesecake while watching TV showing the Japanese praying at the shrines from different parts of Japan.
Yummy cheesecake!