First Visitors in Fukuoka

Pauline's brother and his family just arrived for a visit.  We went out for teppanyaki last night and around the marina area today.  Young Joshua whose third birthday is tomorrow had a ball today.

Josh intent on steering a straight course!

Hey Josh can be in two places at the same time with Photoshop 

The chef took this photo while we were waiting to eat

Sari Timur Tucked In

As we plan to head to the USA for a few weeks, we decided to move Sari Timur to one of the permanent berths.  The only one that could fit it was a tight fit and we needed to back her in.  But she is in tight as a bug.

Fukuoka - Sightseeing

Wednesday was a day for exploring Fukuoka.  One of the new people we met, Sakae-san, decided to use his off day and ferried us around in his van to a few of the many tourist attractions in Fukuoka.  Mena also came along to help make sure us gaijins didn’t get into too many problems.  First stop was the Yusentei Gardens, which are in the heart of town but still very picturesque gardens.  This used to be a resort for a samurai in the ancient times.  We especially liked feeding the koi, which chased us around from one edge of the pond to the other begging for food, and relaxing in the teahouse overlooking the pond.  After this we went for Sushi in a nearby restaurant complete with conveyor belt where you chose the food you wanted as it went by. 

Once our bellies were full and to keep us from napping in the van, we went off to the Kushida Shrine which is famous for the Gion Yamakaza festival, a tradition of over 760 years old.  This is a 15 day festival here in Fukuoka and one of the must go to events in all of Japan.  Unfortunately we will miss the climax part of this event as we are off to the US.  But we will get to see some of the buildup and maybe a practice run with the floats.  The last five days of the festival are a buildup to the actual race where the men of several different districts race carrying a float that weighs over a ton and is 7.3 metres tall.  We watched a video on this in the museum near the shrine, and also got to see them making the famous Hakata tops and some traditional cloth weaving.

After the temple we wandered around Hakata Canal City, which is a tourist and shopping area where Pauline’s brother and family will stay when they come to visit in a couple of weeks.  While wandering around in these streets we got to see one of the old floats.

After a long day we then went for our first Fukuoka Yatai.  Yatais are pushcarts that fold out into hawker style food stalls.  And each one has their specialty.  We kept it simple at first and had a local ramen and yakitori.  All in all a very full day and we were tired by the time we got back to the boat.

Painting the wooden tops and some finished tops

The Kushida Shrine

One of the old floats we found

The yatais by the Naka River

The pond in the Yusentei Gardens

Planning

Well we have organized a dry dock for Sari Timur starting on the 4 th of August so our  trip to USA may be a bit altered and we will probably depart the States before the famous Coast Guard week in Grand Haven..  Pauline's brother and his family will be here for the end of the month birthday party for her nephew.  So far we love Fukuoka, we have met up again with Mena and have finally met the famous Jaap and Marijke who have helped us organize our dry dock.  We have booked to stay in Odo until we decide to leave around the first week of Sept for the Setouchi Rally which starts in Hiroshima on the 20th of  Sept.

Fukuoka

Position 33 d 35.54 m N 130 d 18.68 m E.  It took us exactly two months from the day we left Guam 8 April til we finally arrived in Fukuoka 7 June.  We are still finding unseasonal cold temps but everyone assures us that will stop soon enough, and we will be wishing for cool.  Sari Timur will stop here for just shy of 3 months, while we catch our breath for a while, put her through a dry dock and hopefully get the heater installed just before the hot spell.  We have entered the Setouchi Rally.  If people are interested you should send us a private message and we will let you know if there is space during that leg.  Should be lots of fun.

Right now it is late and we need some sleep.

Hiding out in Iki Shima

Position 33 d 44.88 m N 129 d 40.70 m E.  We are currently in Ikishima and it looks like we will be here for a couple more days.  We stayed way longer in Hirado than we had planned because we enjoyed it so much but now a series of fronts are coming down on us for the next few days and making the weather kind of icky.  We therefore feel we will stay as we are, nestled up in a very protected little spot.  The weather isn't terrible out there but it would be a little messy so since we do not have to go, we aren't!  Iki is just a small little fishing island about 17 miles by 15 miles and not much else.  It is kind of a pretty island but we have been spoiled by the spectacular for the last little while.

It does not have free WiFi that we can access for more than 10 minutes and our on board router quit working (we think that is just a registration issue)  but we are going to be blind for a few days until the weather clears and we get into Fukuoka.  It is kind of famous for the Onsens but we do not have a car so not sure if we will be going to any.

Hey Chris hope you can post this for us.  We are stranded for a while. (yup, I did)

Sari Timur by the Iki City dock