Our last full day. Breakfast was onigiri and an iced coffee, then a slow walk around Hakata’s old temple town, before the heat got going.
Tochoji
Tochoji was founded by Kukai in 806, the same monk who founded the temple on Miyajima’s Mt Misen. It has a bright red five-storey pagoda, and the Fukuoka Daibutsu, a 10-metre wooden Buddha, the biggest seated wooden Buddha in Japan (no photos of that one allowed).
Shofukuji
A few streets away is Shofukuji, the first Zen temple in Japan, founded in 1195 by Eisai, the monk who also brought green tea to Japan from China. It’s quiet, with stone paths and a pond garden, and hardly anyone else around.
Kushida Shrine
Kushida Shrine is Hakata’s main shrine, the home of the Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival every July, when teams race huge floats through the streets. One of the giant decorated floats stays on display at the shrine all year.
Canal City
Then Canal City Hakata, the big pink and red shopping mall with a canal running through it, and a soft serve on the way. Totoro was at the Studio Ghibli shop, and the fountain show was on.
Lunch
Lunch was a seafood bowl, before the last special train of the trip.
Next: the Two Stars 4047.
Information About Hakata Old Town
Tochoji, Shofukuji and Kushida Shrine are all within a 20-minute walk of Hakata Station. Kushida keeps one of the giant Yamakasa festival floats on display all year.