#34 Taking a discount flight to Fukuoka, Japan

Transcript

Oh, man, I'm in Narita Airport, and I've got adventures with trying to keep my bag under the seven kilograms that it needs to be, so I don't have to pay for baggage check. It's like my whole body is covered in hidden items so that my bag will stay light, and then after I get through the initial check, I got my laptop strapped my back, again hidden underneath all my coats, but I can't sit in the plane with my laptop against my back, so hopefully I can sneakily after I'm weighed, get my laptop into my bag, I don't know, it's fucking annoying, but I'll talk about that when I get to Fukuoka. I just wanted to hop on my little phone real quick to say that I'm sticking with my plan of dehydrating on flights, and this isn't so bad, I'm at the airport two hours, and flights two hours. It's not that long of a time not to drink water, but I still think it's better that I don't, just so I can avoid having to bother people on the flight to go pee. But there's this Nescafe machine right in front of me. I was saying how much I like those machines with a little cup drops down, you know, they filled a little cup with stuff. This thing is like my fucking dream. It has so many different types, and then you can choose the level of cream and the amount of sugar, and even the amount of coffee, so I want to put it to maximum coffee, and three quarters cream, or half cream maybe, and just one little sugar. If even, maybe I would do no sugar. I want to experiment with this fucking machine so bad, but that's the super opposite of drinking water. I can't drink coffee, I'll be peeing all over the place, but I just, I just had to say it, man, I just had to get it in the podcast, but this machine looks so fun. I want to drink coffee out of this fucking stupid machine. I wonder if they have one in the Fukuoka Airport. That's the other thing, it's not even like expensive, it's not like how airport stuff in North America, it'll just destroy your soul, paying for anything. These are like $1.70. Maybe in the Fukuoka Airport, I'll keep my eyes peeled. Maybe they have a machine like this.

Oh, I suppose too. When I come back from Fukuoka in three weeks, if I remember, I could come get this coffee then. God, this is also insane. Why don't I just get the coffee? I clearly want the coffee, really bad. It's 130 now. The flight leaves at 330, but the problem is, yeah, they'll start shuffling us in early, like I'll be stuck where I can't go to a washroom. This would perfectly time out to force me to pee on the flight. It's not worth it, I'm not going to do it. I just want everyone to know that I'm in spiritual pain.

Well, well, well, well, what do we have here? This is a different machine that I'm in the Fukuoka Airport now. And it's a fanciest shit fucking machine. This is a coke on.

Although I don't know, is that the real Coca-Cola? Okay, it is. Something to do with coke, but this is a coffee machine. All right, let's get creamy cafe latte. I'm going to do this one hot because I might get advice after this. Three beans. I don't know what that means. Sugar. Zero sugar. Okay, doesn't seem like I choose cream level as predetermined. Plus 10 yen for cocoa or 10 for caramel. Caramel, please. 160 yen. Now I think I can use my transit card. My sweet card to pay for it. Holy fuck balls. Let everybody know. I got $129 on this thing. It's a little weird thing that it shows how much money you've got. Not that anyone cares. And now while it's doing that, it's going to take 45 seconds. I'm also going to get a bottle of water from the other machine because I am fucking charged. Suntory mineral water, don't mind if I do.

Oh, this feels so good. It's so good to arrive. The dehydrating is worth it for me. I just sat through that whole flight. Not a fucking worry ever that I'd have to get up and use the bathroom. I even went to the washroom. The first one as we got out of the plane because I just assumed I always have to go to the washroom. And there's a bit of a line so I didn't want to take too long but I like didn't even. Okay, gave the old, the old push, few little pushes to the old dick. And nothing was coming out. So I was like, all right, all right. I really am dehydrated. Holy balls. I'll take it. And I don't feel too terrible because that's the short flight. Less than two hours. Jesus, though, this is so hot. I can feel my fingers got burned a little from holding that cup. All right, let's try this fucking thing. Oh, I can see the little caramel on top that I paid 10 cents more.

Oh, that's really nice. God damn, I'm so fucking, I'm just a trash person. I just love airport coffee. I'm like so excited to get the little cup in the coffee. This is Georgia coffee, by the way. At least the cup says, were they affiliated with Coca-Cola? This is all just confusing mess of shit. But yeah, the no sugar was the right call. Because the little bit of caramel is delicious and I have these coffee candies that I got from some people at my Airbnb. Jesus, now there's a high-pitched buzzing. All right, I'm going to get out of here. I'm going to finish drinking this and then I'm going to get an iced matcha from that same machine. But I'm going to get outside because this place is fucking noisy. Oh my god, after no coffee all day, it's like 5.30 now. Fucking fuck, that feels good. I made the right choice, though. It's a good thing I didn't do this on the other end.

Test, test, test. Let's see if I can get away with talking to myself in a family mart without it's even too weird. Ooh, I'm more wiped than I thought I was. I'm going to have an eaten since this morning. I'll add just a bag of chips and some sweetened sour plum things that were pretty good. But man, I think I'm a lot more tucker than I thought I was. Because I'm losing my mind at Google Maps. I am truly coming to hate this fucking thing. The offline Google Maps is so shit if you're a pedestrian. I mean, I'm still glad to have the GPS stuff and it's good in general, but holy shit, all I want is my blue dot and the little green dot of where I'm trying to get to. That's all. And I mean, if you could draw some directions, a little direction line, that'd be nice, but apparently you can only do that in a car. I don't know why. But man, you can just tell nobody has tried using Google Maps extensively while they're walking around. Because Jesus, I just trying to maneuver it with a thumb. And if you accidentally touch the wrong spot at the wrong time, it brings up some random ass fucking shit that I do not need and do not care about, which then eradicates everything you've set up before. And it's just so frustrating. I yelled at my phone. I finally just snapped. I'm like, fuck you. Why are you doing this? What is this that's on screen? Just what a garbage. There needs to be a pedestrian version of Google Maps, offline Google Maps specifically. Oh, thing is driving me fucking nuts. Anyway, I'm at Family Mart. I got a ham cutlet sandwich and a yogurt drink. Plain yogurt, but it's very sweet, of course. And some kind of really fat on a giri. So since this is pretty obnoxious to record in here while I'm eating, let me just do that part. I'll just test out the on a giri. Let's just see what's inside this thing. Because I didn't bother translating it. And like, let's just find out.

Hmm. I was afraid maybe it would just be like one of the seaweed ones, but it's like a ton of stuff. It looks kind of like tuna and it looks kind of like the seaweed and it looks kind of like the beef. But it may be none of those things. Maybe I do need to translate it. I don't know what the eggs in this.

Oh, there was an English thing I didn't see it. So yeah, it is seaweed, cod roe, and mayo. So yeah, it is in fact what I thought. Cool. It's not bad. All right. Well, I'm just going to get this in me so I won't be a cranky little baby boy. And I get a bunch of crap to talk about, but I still want to talk about that much latte I got out 10:00 of that machine. I want to talk about coffee some more. But I wait till I eat this, and then I got to get off on a pretty major street. I got about a two hour walk ahead of me through Fukuoka, because I just watched from the airport because my... I basically just tried to get an Airbnb is close to Aburiyama Mountain, which is in the south of Fukuoka, as close as I could. Specifically, I wanted to get to Umabiyashi Station. I couldn't get one that far west, but that's actually good in this case. But yeah, none of the Fukuoka is interesting because the airport is really close to downtown. There were some airplanes flying over me. It was like Wayne's world. Like they were right there. It was kind of cool. Like going right over my head. So it's only one stop on the subway to get to the airport, you know, from whatever. One of the major stations. It's like really convenient. But in this case, every stop on the subway would only take me away from where I'm going. I'd have to take a bus. And I don't mind a two hour walk. Fuck it. It's a shame that it's dark out. But actually, that's kind of cool too. I'll get into that later too. So I got a walk ahead of me. I just got to get off. Get off the major street and it'll be fine. Have a nice little mosey to my Airbnb. Got my little check-in code. What's the hurry? All right, that's the report from Family Mart.

All right, my little Bluetooth headphones that I bought at Hardoff finally the battery died for the first time ever. But not bad because it's about 8 p.m. a little past eight. And I've been using them more or less continuously since about 10 o'clock this morning. So not bad. And now I got them recharging in my little pack. It's not after I yammer for a bit. They'll be good to go again. Those things are sweet. See, I was trying to podcast, although this means putting my book bag on my back rather than using the wheels. So we'll see. But yeah, geez, I feel so much better. Obviously, doing, I guess it is pretty extreme dehydration when after a two hour flight. I go to the washroom and I don't have to pee. Anyone who's listened to any episodes of this podcast, it's always about pee.

So that's fucking wild. I was seriously dehydrated. And also just didn't eat. And what an age we live in that I don't have to worry about food for survival. Like, oh, if I don't get some food, I'm going to die. All that matters is that it's like, oh no, I'm going to be cranky if I don't get some food. So here's some advice that literally no one will need. No one but future me. Because no one but me habitually tries to block from the fucking airport. Oh man, this restaurant has eels. Oh, look at that. That's weird. It's like got a tank full of eels and then it's got this fish that is so big. Probably tuna, right? I think tuna grows to the size of whatever it's in. That I somehow didn't see the tuna because it was too big. I didn't. My brain didn't know. That was a fish.

But yeah, again, it's just a navigational lesson that I've learned many times in the course of this trip that closer isn't closer. You know, I was looking at Hakata station and I'm like, okay, but that's away from the direction I'm going. I want to go south. And Hakata is a bit north of the airport. But ease of pedestrian access is really what matters. Japan is extremely good for pedestrians. I mean, it's the best place I've ever been for being a pedestrian. But it's not ambiguous about that. You know, when you're in a part that's not for pedestrians, it is seriously not for pedestrians. You know, they're like, we got trucks, man. We got trucks that need to go places. We set up all these subways for you. Why are you here? Why are you walking here? And I'm like, I don't know. I'm sorry. You're right. I'm wrong to be here. Happened in Chiba, happened in Fukuoka. Yeah, it was so difficult to get away from the airport because even though it's really close to all the major, I'm still going to say downtown, even though I heard that that's the wrong term. That maybe in Japan, downtown means the old town. But the North American downtown, you know, the happen in area where everything's going on. The airport's really close to it, but getting away from the airport is a lot of big industrial shipping yards and, I don't know, of just factory stuff. So as I was squirming my way through that, I walked past Hakata Station. 15:00 That's where I was finally like, okay, now from here I can just walk down a normal street with everybody else. And I'm not obstructed constantly with big fences and stuff. So I could have just gone to Hakata in the first place. You know, it still would have been faster. So just in general, yeah, just don't walk from the airport. It's dumb to walk from the airport. I gotta stop trying to do this. Just not paying off. I mean, I guess the experiment is worth experimenting with. What if I found some travel hack? Hey, travel hack, just walk from the airport. But no, it's fucking stupid.

Oh, this seems like a bad idea. Not only is this book bag ridiculously heavy, but I'm on a busy street and I don't have an option to get off it, because I got to go across a canal. But my very smart, important thoughts, I'll just burn through these real fast. That Family Mart I was at, it's only the second time that a bathroom is kind of smell bad. In Japan, that one smelled like pee a lot. And both times have been Family Mart. So, hmm, I got my eye on you Family Mart. But no, it's obviously just a coincidence. And I've been here a month. And there's only been two times that a convenient washroom was kind of bad. So I mean, that's a good, I'll take that rate every two weeks. One of them is slightly not perfect. That's alright. And I was reminded by my friend Brad, because he was here. He was taking a language course.

And when COVID hit, so he stayed longer because the borders were shut down. And it was an option to stay and easier to stay. So he got to stay longer in Japan, but it was obviously weird COVID Japan. And he was saying how all the convenient bathrooms were closed, which makes sense. I mean, it's the logical thing to do in COVID times. But man, that would suck. That would fuck me right up. What would I do without that?

Well, as I say those words, I realize suddenly that it's the least relevant thing to be worried about during a global pandemic. Who the fuck gives a shit? This is the goddamn washrooms of the convenience. But okay, last dumpsaw. Last dumpsaw until I get to a quieter neighborhood is the matcha. I got a matcha latte from that machine in the airport. And it was so good. And for 50 yen extra, I got a large. And it was at the point where you can choose sweetness, which is like the greatest. I love being able to reduce the sweetness on drinks. But when I used to be a barista, I learned that matcha lattes, it is good to have a little sugar. Straight up matcha is pretty bitter. So I was about to set the sugar level to one out of three. But then I thought, no, let's just do zero and see what happens. And it was delicious. It was still sweet. Because it's Japan. I don't know if there was sweetness in the milk. Probably there might have been sweetness in the ice. I don't fucking know. But it was really goddamn good.

I love those dumb machines at the fucking airport. It's a great example of the good parts of a low brow life.

You know, if you just like convenience store stuff and you just like coffee from the drink machine at the airport, it's easy to be pleased.

Developing a taste for the finer things is probably not a good, good path to go down.

And these canals are very nice, by the way, in downtown Fukuoka. It was the first thing I saw. You know, obviously you get off at the airport.

You normally take the subway from the airport rather than walk like I did. So you immediately come out in this area. And there's all the water and all the lights reflecting off the water. It's fucking very nice.

But all right, that was so important that I said that shit, that dumb pointless shit.

Now let me wait till I get actually out of central Fukuoka. So it can be quieter.

Oh, I'm all checked in. That one was tricky. It's almost 10 o'clock. And maybe this is like getting to be a recurring thing. 20:00 The benefit in the curse of Google Maps, I was just trying to follow the blue dot and it's really complicated neighborhoods like they all are. This one especially is multiple layers, you know, up a hill. Like the people behind me are up a hill from where I am. Like their house is start where this house ends. That's how how hilly it is. So if I got turned around, I couldn't cut through anywhere. You know, it's just tough. So eventually I just had to, the guy sent me a series of pictures. So I went to where the bus stop would have been if I had taken the bus. And I just had to very carefully follow all the pictures, which were daytime pictures. Now it's night. It was tricky, but I got it. I figured it out. I mean, in this place seems pretty cool.

I think it's a new Airbnb because the listing here says opening super price. So I think I got a better deal because it's new. I don't remember the exact prices of these places. I'm staying in Fuqua, but they're not super cheap. I think about $45 a night or so. I'll check in the future to see how much they were, but their entire apartment. So this one definitely the apartment itself very old. And there's like the little gas burner, single range portable stove hooked up to some gas, which I shall not be using. And then the fan that is like that is so classic, classic, just old, weird Japanese movies and stuff. You always see the fan running in old restaurants and stuff. But it's a very old building. You know, it's got the classic doorways that come to just above my eyebrows perfect for smashing your head on. But what's kind of cool is when you hear people describe apartments by tatami, that's what this one is. One, two, three, four, five, six. It's a six tatami room. Sliding door. I think this goes down side. I'll mess with that tomorrow.

And there's all the futon stuff over here in the corner, ready to be set up. But then it's got the air conditioner slash heater in the corner and the flats green. And for once, miraculously, there's actually a washing machine. All right, keep thinking there's washing machines and there isn't. And a tiny fridge, which is brand new. I will take advantage of that because I bought at 7.11 on the way here. I found this little thing I'd never seen before, then it's just a plastic cup with little cubes of cheesecake and a little plastic sword to stab them with. And it's fucking delicious. But it's so rich that I only ate two of the cheesecake cubes. It's like that'll last me. Like those $10 fancy chocolates I bought out of the fancy machine in Akiruno, those lasted me over a week because it's so rich. Now when you're a little disposable slippers, use a personal slippers. After using these slippers, you might take them with you. I never use the slippers.

I just walk around in my socks, but I guess it would seem weird if I never opened up the slippers. So you know what, I'm going to use the slippers in this apartment. And I wouldn't normally, I would just use my socks, but I guess that's Canadian style. We do take off our shoes when we enter a house, but the slipper thing is a step further than we normally do, unless it's winter and it's freezing on the floors. And here we go, cheesecake cubes. I got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven cubes left. It's like nine, nine or 10 cubes in here for a 324 yen and they're fucking very good.

Pop those bad boys in the fridge. I got some more of the sour dried plums that are crazy sour. I find sweetened sour plums are actually pretty, pretty edible, pretty tasty. Sour plums are just fun because they're so fucking sour. But any of the plums that are not sour, those I don't care for as much.

But anyway, yeah, there is a washing machine, just no dryer, but the sink is a bit more of that 70-style sink. Here, let's check out the washroom. The audio tour. So it is toilet and shower together, not separate because this place is very small, just not a lot of room.

And nobody, they're sad, but that's okay. This place is fucking cool, this is sweet. But alright, even though it's a bit late, now that I'm here, I do have some things I want to yammer about. 25:00 So I'm going to go for a little stroll. Join me, shall you? Shant you? Won't you?

Alright, going for a walk in the new neighborhood. This feels pretty good. So there was a time in 2019 when I was visiting my friend Brad here in Fukuoka. Where we were hanging out, he lived down by Hakata Station, which is where I walked from again today. But we were just hanging out, and it's like the trains do stop relatively early in Japan. And it was like a last train, almost time for the last train. But yeah, we're hanging out, it's fun, I just don't wanna. And it was, I mean, it's pretty damn warm now. I think it was 17 degrees today. Now it's a little colder, I got a little hoodie on, but I was wearing a t-shirt for a lot of the journey tonight.

So in the summertime, I was fucking hot as fuck. And I decided to fuck it, I'll just walk home, whatever. Forget the train, who cares? And I was staying at Uma Bayashi Station, which is pretty far. And of course, as I've chronicled many times, it was different in how I navigated where I had a really cheap cell phone. So whatever GPS capabilities it had were real shitty at best, you could not download a Google map of Japan at that time for whatever reason.

But there was Wi-Fi at all, the convenience stores, which there no longer is.

So I just walked, I just walked and walked and walked for hours. I mean, Fukuoka is not that big. Like, it's bigger than my hometown in Fredericton, but a bit similar in that if you just pick a point and then pick another point and you want to walk there. In my hometown, it would probably take pretty much three hours to get you wherever you want to go. If not for, you know, extreme locations. Or I think with Fukuoka, it's like maybe four.

If you put a solid couple hours in, you can pretty much walk wherever you got to walk. It's not that big. I think it's the fifth most popular city in Japan, but don't quote me on that. It's just not quite big enough to be famous, you know. It's not Tokyo, it's not Osaka, it's not Kyoto.

And I remember that being quite a bit more like what this is right now. I started drifting southwest. And I pretty quickly wasn't this quiet, I guess, but it was pretty quiet for most of the walk. And I was just kind of vaguely stumbling around.

And then recalibrating at convenience stores. So it took a long time. It took late into the night. I got there like three in the morning or something. But it was one of my cherished 2019 Japan memories. I'm like, ah, that was great though. Just to ramble through the Japanese city at night. Fucking fun.

So I thought maybe this would be a bit like that. Except with all my luggage, but first off, yeah. It's not fun to travel with a luggage, so that was a problem. But pretty much the whole walk here, which was a good thing for these purposes, was just pretty much straight south, more or less, from Hakata. So it was all major streets. I passed two McDonald's to get here.

So that's handy if I need major stuff. Lots of major stuff, not far from here. But this final stretch. This is perfect. This is exactly what I was hoping would happen.

Because much like what I discovered in Akiruno, that you just go a little bit off the beaten path and you're kind of in nowhere. You know, you're in the country all of a sudden. And that even happened to me in Chiba. When I went to the mid-in mound, the shell mound.

And then I found this just small river, this creek, or whatever, whatever, probably a river by the standards of Japan. Call it a river.

That was just like overgrown with like a path next to it. It's like, fuck, I'm just in the countryside. And then next thing, you know, all of a sudden you're back in the city. So that's happened here, too. I just had to get a little bit away from the major streets. And now I am in quietsville.

So, uh, over by Umebiyashi, it was right by the mountains. So you could also get into Natureville right away. I don't think that's going to happen here. I'll have a little hike ahead of me, but this is perfect. Exactly what I wanted. Because I like Fukuoka. I like the city part, but I have a feeling I might not go there a ton. I think I'm going to go the opposite direction most of the time.

It was also a similar situation to some of the other Airbnb's I've gotten where, you know, in the 2019 trip, it was pre-COVID. I could just kind of sort by cheapest and let the chips fall where they may, and it pretty much worked out.

So, where Fukuoka is kind of a perfect example of what has happened this time, where I kind of actively don't want to be in the center. I don't want to be down by a Hacada station. I'll just head down there if I want to. But most of the time I'd rather be here.

This is actually like, you're really calm. That's why I'm talking so quietly. I don't want to bother the neighborhood. This is fucking quiet as a fuck.

But all of the cheaper places to stay are not off the beaten path. You know, they're all like by Hacada station. And you can get hostile type communal places.

For like 30 bucks a night, which is okay. But when I was getting places like that in 2019, it was like cheaper than that. You know, it was like $23 or $24 a night. So, it's up a little, but it's not that bad.

But the location is just kind of unappealing to me, because I'm a weirdo. But I guess it makes sense economically. Even though I would prefer a hostel that's off in the middle of nowhere, who else would go there? So, of course, no one does that. But it seemed counterintuitive to me at first. Like, why are these places in such good locations? You know, why can't I find one in the middle of nowhere?

Jeez, I'm just checking my pocket for my phone with a good GPS. It's like, already. I'm like, where the fuck am I? I'm just walking through these back streets of this neighborhood. There's not a soul anywhere. And it's twisty and turny. Oh, I think there's someone on a bicycle, and just as I said that.

It's like the Truman show. He's noticing there's no one. He's saying someone.

Oh, but despite this extreme quietude, there is a family mart right around the corner for my place. And I think I see one up ahead, too.

It's just perfect. Ah, so perfect. But yeah, communal bunk type situations are not my favorite. And, in fact, oh, no.

Oh, no, there's just a parking lot up here, but it would ever. But yeah, in fact, the reason I liked the communal place so much by Nekke, I liked the Bashi was because it was so unpopular, and I was mostly there by myself, or even Noriiko's place, as amazing as that was. It did not hurt that he had the capacity for four people. He had four bunks, but it was just me. That place was so good that having other people in there would be fine. But yeah, just being that close to other humans, I don't, I don't love it. But yeah, it was basically a price increase of degrees here, just like at the other Airbnb's I stayed at so far where.

Wow, here's a shrine. I've never seen a shrine type I've never seen before.

It's like a little building, but with an open front, even though it's past 10 at night, the lights on. There's a bench right in front of it.

There's a little place to burn incense. There's four different Buddhist statues of what offerings do we have today?

Candies, a bunch of various candy offerings. There's the little...

Man, again, it's just miraculous. Here's a little broom to sweep up things, and there's even matches and candles. It just couldn't do this in Canada. There's just no fucking way. And yeah, as you can hear now, there's some traffic. I'm a little more near a street. There's like a park here. But anyway, yeah, the gradual increase, like boiling the frog, where I was like, alright, back in 2019, the place I got by Umabiyashi Station. I mean, again, it's quote-unquote out of the way. But for me, I loved that location. I loved it so fucking much. 35:00 But there is nothing there. If you didn't enjoy hiking up the mountain, you'd have no reason to be there. It would just be an inconvenience to have to travel 13 stops into town. But I loved it. And that place was less than $30 a day. I think it was 27 or 28. It does not... it does not an Airbnb anymore. So it's extra now for the hostile situation that I didn't want. But then I found to this place and another very similar place, both less than $50 a night, but in the mid to high forties. Because it's just, you know, once you move the watermark, if $30 is the watermark now, what's an extra 15 bucks a day to have a 6 to Tommy apartment all for me?

Yeah, you know, that's so much better. And like the reviews of the hostile places, they weren't terrible, but there just be weird stuff like there was this girl who said, you know, while she was trying to sleep, some drunk Japanese guy came and tried to get in her bunk. And it was because they had double booked. They don't just book through Airbnb. There's like hostile.com or whatever other thing. So the drunk Japanese guy wasn't wrong. It was the people running the place, fucked up.

And just various little stories like that. And it's just like, I don't even want to risk that. That just sounds like that sucks. And I think that was pretty proven, pretty right by the first place I stayed and sang in Jaya. That place was just a disaster. You know, it was like fucking so annoying. Being so close to everybody and then it had fucking bedbugs. And it's just like fuck all this. It's definitely worth a little more money to just upgrade your experience. Literally a hundredfold.

And being out here in the middle of nowhere to me is better. It's way better. So it's win-win.

I try to keep things cheap, but there's just a limit to how cheap you can keep things before you're just sacrificing the experience. And it's still all relative. I mean, I think most people would still consider $40 a day. Pretty good. I think I mentioned this before, but Airbnb every time I log into the app, they're pitching me these fucking $700 a night chalets and stuff. Okay, if you consider this, it's like, are you fucking crazy? What are you talking about? But there's a lot of places like that.

So the quick Fukuoka primer is it's in the south. It's the southern island of Japan, Kyushu, where there are wild boars, but there are no bears. It's noticeably warmer. Japan is so interesting because it's so small. It's like the size of California, right? But down here, it's like all beach seaside tropical shit. But apparently if you head up north, it's the biggest snowfalls in the world. It's like, man, they got everything here. They're like two inches away on the map from freaking Russia if you go up north.

And I was not aware of Fukuoka, but it's a little weird that I wasn't in hindsight because there's these three blonde Canadian women who I was watching on YouTube a lot. There was Makayla, Sharla in Japan, and Taylor R, all Canadian, all blonde, all with a vibe that I enjoyed. Good old Canadianness, because even just to paint with a broad stroke, but I think Taylor R was the most kind of artificial initially. She really just wanted to be like a J-pop girl learning little weird dances and wearing Kawaii outfits and stuff. But as she went on the Canadianness, just couldn't help but come out. Her voice got deeper, or she heard hold the meaner got more relaxed, and it was just like, whatever, fuck it, fuck it. Let's just chill and hang out. You can take the girl out of Canada. You can't take the Canada out of the girl. So Makayla, she lives around here in Fukuoka, and I just had never clocked that at all. I guess I didn't watch every single video from these people, just picking chews here and there. I'm in a neighborhood now with apartment buildings, so I feel like I can talk louder. It just passed like a supermarket. There's a drink machine. That neighborhood I was in before was like due residential with a capital resident with no residence. Like a fucking ghost town. It was scary.

But yeah, then when my friend Brad came to Japan for a language course, that finally got my gumshin up. It's like, oh, sweet, now I know somebody in Japan. You know, it was always in the back of my mind. I just never could get my shit together enough to go. And in a weird way, I don't really regret it. 40:00 You know, I don't really regret that I didn't come to Japan earlier, because I feel like the 2019 trip despite losing my passport and the weird shit that happened. And this trip, despite whatever, I mean, it's gone pretty smooth this time. Only tiny weird shit happening. These have just been so kind of perfect. It's like, if I had come earlier, I wouldn't have had those experiences. And I just legitimately wasn't ready to travel by myself till I was a middle-aged man. I mean, I kind of was practicing, practicing traveling by myself with like Canada and stuff.

But I feel like Japan kind of came at the right time.

Before then, Toronto was plenty interesting.

And what was that? It's heard like a clanging and there's just nobody there. Man, ghost stories, dude. I know I've said this before too, but yeah, if you just walk around Japan at night, you will understand Japanese horror. Way better. It's like no fucking wonder they have these wild ideas about shit. Everything is just spooky.

Yeah, when I was younger, Toronto was like super interesting. And Montreal was super interesting. And Vancouver was super interesting. New York was fucking difficult, but certainly not uninteresting. All that stuff was fine. That was plenty, plenty enough to interest my brain. I don't even know what I would have fucking done if I came to Japan when I was like 21. I'd have blown my fucking brains into pieces.

See, I think coming here in my late 30s was like just at the right times. Just when I was like, alright, I kind of made the loop in North America. Pretty good. I mean, I guess I could, I don't know, I could have like Austin or something. I could go to California. I'm sure that would be interesting to some degree. I really, it's about time to shake things up. I need, I need a little more interesting simulation and I'm ready to jump the hurdles to get it. And Japan is still the easiest one because I just grew up with video games and anime, you know. Just doesn't feel, feels weird and it doesn't feel that weird at the same time. That's my side rant about, it's never too late to travel kids. In some ways, kind of, it's kind of better. Physically, it's not better. Jesus, that flight today from Fukuoka is only two hour flight, thank God. My legs did not fit, my knees did not fit.

But mentally, it's neat to travel when you're, well, I guess it depends. I don't know, I really hope. I hope the reason people are always surprised when they find out how old I am, that I'm like 43. And I don't think it's physically, I don't think it's because I look particularly young. I definitely look like I'm at least 36 or 37. I think it's just because I don't act like it, I try not to. Anyway, I try to, for all my introvertedness and definitely have some karmajani opinions.

But I try not to let them rule me, you know. I hope I'm still relatively open to stuff. But anyway, Brad was here, so I'm like perfect. But I just presumed he would go to Tokyo, because I mean, that's all I know about Japan, or new of it, really is Tokyo. So he's like, no, I'm going to Fukuoka. And I was like, I don't know what that is. Fukuoka, what? What is this? And he said, like, that's where my Kayla lives. And I was like, oh, really? Shit. I missed out on that somehow. And then it turns out, yeah, once you realize that, it's like, oh, yeah. This lady has like a fucking million videos about Fukuoka. Somehow, somehow, somehow didn't clock it. I mean, it's the same way I guess I never, I thought I never heard of Ikabukuro before. But I probably did, because once you know about it, it seems like there's a video about Ikabukuro every fucking third day. But I guess when you don't realize, or you don't have like some reason for a name to stick in your mind, then it just bounces off or does for me.

So I did the Fukuoka sandwich where I went to Tokyo, then I came here to Fukuoka, then I went back to Tokyo.

But yeah, that's just, that's the basic how did I end up in Fukuoka. And next time I come to Japan, I will be interested to explore around more and try some other things. But for now, I was like, I know Fukuoka, I know how it works. You know, it's got like, I haven't checked if they've upgraded it since, but you know, like the subway is like two lines, it's like just small. 45:00 Like I was saying, you could walk even, even if I walked from Mayer B and B by the mountains, I could walk north to the shoreline in like an afternoon.

But it does have a bit of a different vibe because it's farther south, and it is more coastal. And you can actually go to the coast and hang out there. It's not like Chiba where it's like good fucking look, good like fighting through the factories. So yeah, it's safe to say, like in one sense, I feel like maybe any city you go to in Japan, there's going to be a lot of commonalities. It probably doesn't matter too much where you go, they're all going to be good. But the unique aspects of Fukuoka are very nice. I definitely wanted to come back, even though Brad is now back in Canada, and I'm here all alone now.

And yeah, I'm sure I'll get into it more as I mosey around. But I guess yeah, the other thing I wanted to talk about today's adventure was getting here.

So this peach airlines, they're a domestic airline. And that's just what I took last time, and I remember it going relatively okay, but I did have minor problems with the baggage. I had the exact same book bag as I do now. And they had like this book bag, you know, will it fit in this space, little test yet to do at the airport. And as long as I took all the items out of the front pouch, my book bag just barely fit. So it's like, okay, and I just don't remember specifically what I did back then, but I knew weight was an issue. And I'm pretty sure I just did a slight of handwear. I put it in the waiter thing, but I still had my hand on the top, and I just held it. It doesn't sound like something I would do, or that I would have the wear with all, or the sneakiness to do. But I did something somehow I got through that process initially in 2019 without having to pay for the extra baggage.

Supermarket. Supermarket jingle. Also, what the heck time is it here? Yeah, it's like 10.41, this place is still open. Maybe it's 24 hour, that's pretty cool. Okay, I walked by a book off on the way here, and I was going to go test out the music thing again. But it was again like right before closing, so I'd probably just go in and hear some fucking old-lang sign again, didn't get to do the test.

Yeah, one recurring theme on this trip has been that I don't quite, I don't know, I've got so many, like before it was three Airbnb's. Now I got nine.