Wednesday Nov 4, 2026
Hi Folks! Ahhhhh… we’re back in Japan! We loved South Korea but Japan is our sweet spot. I’m already trying to figure out when we can come back here! Today we were docked in Fukuoka and while we had stopped here on our first cruise segment, we saw a bunch of places this time that we didn’t see last time. We did another private tour with the group we were with the last few days.
For this one, we had a tour guide meet us at the pier and take us all around but we did it via walking, metro and taxi, not via a private van. We stopped at six different places which were the Nazoin Temple, the Hakozaki Shrine, a local noodle place for lunch, the Shofuku-ji Temple, the Tochoji Temple, and the Kushida-jinja Shrine.
At the Nazoin Temple we saw the largest reclining Buddha statue in the world at 134 feet long, 36 feet high and weighing 300 tons! At the Hakozaki Shrine we saw the cutest little Japanese girl dressed in a kimono and feeding the pigeons. We then went to lunch at a restaurant our guide used to go to when he was young. We had the shrimp cake noodle bowl and to be honest, it was just OK.
Our guide then took us to the Shofuku-ji Temple, where his parents and grandparents were buried. Only family of the deceased are really allowed to visit (No tourists!), but he fibbed and told them we were close friends of the family and they let us in. He took us around to see the grave plot where his family is buried and he left a can of beer there for his dad who had recently died. Very sad and poignant moment.
We then went to the Tochoji Temple which had the beautiful red five-tiered pagoda. But at our last stop was where we had a déjà vu moment. We were at the Kushida-jinja Shrine and who do we run into???? Our old friend the lucky ox!!! You remember, the one if you rub him he brings good luck and I had rubbed him hard the last time and he brought some luck but not all luck. So I had a little talk with him and we’ll see how this rubbing works out! Lol
We then got back on the ship and got ready for dinner. We ate in the main dining room and I had Sweet and Spicy Chicken Tenders for my appetizer, the Honey Garlic Salmon Bowl for my main and the Chocolate Salted Caramel Torte for my dessert. Once again everything was delish!
After dinner we skipped the show since it was the female soprano singer from a few nights ago and she wasn’t our favorite. So we ended the night listening to the solo guitarist Drex, who we’ve listened to before and liked, since Kelly the pianist had the night off. Tomorrow we have a sea day (YAY)! We’ve had 4 straight days of getting up early and doing excursions so we’re looking forward to sleeping in! Hope everyone had a great day!
