#48 Visiting Iwaya Castle Ruins, Fukuoka, Japan

Transcript

Here's Leven the apartment ASMR. Out the door. The auto lock. I just wanted to get this little moment of walking out of this place because it's so cool. So I'm on the fourth floor heading downstairs because the weather's so so light in Fukuoka. There's a lot of just open design that is just such a strange feeling thing to a Canadian. So I love in this place like I'm just walking down through all these little each floor has four apartments and there's a lot of them that are Airbnb's so they're cleaning them up in between. And then when you get to the bottom the doorway outside is just open. Ta-da! I didn't even have to open a door. I just walk outside and now I'm on the street. I've stepped up to the streets. It's such a nice feeling to just wake up and you just you just walk and it's just like ah look at that. There we go. I'm outdoors. Outdoors and indoors is just one big thing. I mean it's like that in Tokyo too but it's extra like that in Fukuoka. There was an apartment building I passed when I was walking to Umibiyashi where it was such a strange looking thing because it was like you could see the central windows in the building where the stairs were. They were like in the middle and the apartments were on either side. So that wouldn't be so weird if it's just windows that you can see into the hallways and stairways of an apartment except there were no windows. It was just open. You could just see right in. Which also wouldn't be that weird if there were no walls if it was just you know an opening like a courtyard in the middle of the building. Then it would just be the stairways up to the apartments and that wouldn't be so strange but just the way it was designed. It looked just like an interior hallway but it's just got big openings in it. It's just missing walls. It's just a big gap because the weather just never gets bad enough that you'd have to have a window there and it's just like man that's weird feeling. But yeah it feels really nice. I like leaving that place. I like coming back at the end of the day. I just like it that I'm just walking down the street and you just turn a corner and walk down a little alley and into a I know a permanently always open door and just now you're just in your apartment building. It's just cool. It just feels cool. This place even though it is a little pricey $48 a day Canadian I think it was. I feel like this one is kind of worth it. I wish I was here longer. I'm only here for 10 days but I believe I believe these 10 were these the only ones this one might have been available more I don't know. And then going down through the apartment and seeing all the other Airbnb stuff it's like hmm I didn't see those listings. Is everything just rented? I don't know Airbnb is quite slippery. It's quite a weird thing and I guess it's it's one of those things too. There's just a lot of people in the world. There's a lot of people coming to Japan. I kind of thought maybe the fall when I thought the fall weather was worse. I was like yeah maybe it'll help me get places. Maybe it'll make stuff be more available and maybe it did. I don't know relatively speaking who knows. But it's still not like I was spoiled for choice. There wasn't just all kinds of stuff available all over the place. It's still you still got a scramble a little to get stuff which incidentally reminds me I really should set up. I guess I'm going to Seoul after Japan and I don't have anything set up.

I should really do that. Yeah I guess it was the other place I focused on more because it was closer to Mbiaschi station. So yeah maybe this place was available a little more. It's all a bit of a blur now setting up all my flights and Airbnb's but I guess I set up three weeks in Fukuoka first. It's like I got the flight set up. Then I just squeezed some Airbnb's in there. But anyway yeah it's gonna be interesting because once I get back to Tokyo I'm going back to cheaper accommodations with less space because I certainly don't need it. I mean I got this big apartment. I don't need all that space. I really don't use it.

But I certainly don't mind it and it's just such a nice little location. It's so cool. Anyway speaking of the location I'm just walking down this nice little shopping street to I got to look it up because I can never remember the name of this station. Is that Honakuma station? Oh and I did look up the name of 5:00 this subway system. It starts with an end but I don't remember anymore. But it's not JR. I know it's considered one of the big 16. I didn't know there was a big 16 of regional train companies but there is and this is one of them. I think this station too they said it opened in 1924. It's so hard to just conceptualize even of stuff like that. What in the heck do you mean? What was it like to be here in 1924? You know I can imagine that to some degree if you talk about old New York subway stops and stuff. Still a little tough but I mean I've seen some footage and pictures and things but I just have no idea what that means in Japanese terms. Anyway for today's adventure there's some stuff I kind of had on my mind. I'm running out of time here in Fukuoka. It's nice that I'm near Hakata station but but dealing with Hakata is kind of a pain you know. Once I get to Hakata then to go beyond Hakata I got to deal with the tangle of Hakata and it's so confusing and I never know where to go. I was thinking too with the last episode when I got stuck in Hakata. I basically just left Hakata and walked to the next station because I'm like I don't know what's going on. There's a small chance maybe I was just supposed to stay on that train. I just presumed all the trains get to Hakata and then turn around and go the other way but it maybe they pass through. I don't even know. I just have no idea how anything works there. So it's a little bit of a pain to have to pass through Hakata. It's such a big crazy station. And then another idea I had that conceptually is kind of fun but I don't know realistically if I will do it is to just go the other way as far as I can go and just see where I end up. But the train system here is not like a flat rate. If it was then that'd be no problem. Instead you pay for the distance that you go and it's generally a pretty good deal like you can get short distances for two or three dollars. It's like great. But long distances like when I would take the train all the way west in Tokyo you know the ride would be like seven or eight bucks. So who knows how much it would be here if I just go and go and go. Because I'm just gonna I mean kind of the point is to end up nowhere but then I'll end up nowhere and I don't know why I'll be there or what I'll do and then the round trip. Next thing you know maybe I'm spending 20 dollars on this ride. I don't know. It's really not the conceptually it's a funny idea. Realistically I don't know if that's a good plan. So we'll see we'll see if I ever pulled the trigger on that one. Wow am I gonna do it? Did I actually just walk to the subway with no help? I think I did. And then there's also the consideration that that it gets dark really early. It's December early December. So I only have so much time in the day and it's surprising how long it takes to get up and get going sometimes. Because I woke up medium early today like 10 a.m. not early early but early-ish and I was like yeah right let's just get moving. So I get up and a lot of YouTube videos these days are just talking heads you know. So you don't really need to sit and watch them but I got a little program where I can just convert them to mp3 and then just listen to them on my phone as I wander around during the day. So fire up the laptop. Download today's YouTube videos. Text one of my friends tell me about the cool view I found yesterday. Charge up my little hair buzzer. Give my hair a little buzz. Take a shower. Next thing I know it's noon. It's like dang you know it just really eats up the time fast. So especially if I'm gonna go on a far-flung adventure up the northern coast or south to nowhere. A little extra time wouldn't kill me. So I think what I'm gonna do is a little alteration of what I did two episodes back when I went to Desifu. Is Desifu itself is alright? I placed this kind of cool but I feel like I did it. I saw what there is to see there. I'm only the fifth person on this subway platform because I'm not heading toward Hakata. I'm going the other way. See yeah what I did is I got off at... At Tofuru Mai, T-O-F-U-R-O-M-A-E. Oh there's the train station. Near the remains of the Desifu government office and I found a cool little independently seemingly run convenience store called the Best Convenience 10:00 System and there were paths going up into the woods possibly to a Waya castle ruins. So that's my plan. Now I got to get on this train.

Alright I changed plans very slightly. I got off one station early at Shimo Ori station. SHIM O-O-R-I because I saw on the map. Let me see. Mizuki Fortress Ruins, MIZUKI, which does seem to be the name of this little neighborhood. So I figured why not just get off the train one stop early and I can see what that's all about. There's also Mizuki Museum a little bit out of the way but you know that's alright. I'll give the museum a pass. It's kind of interesting to just go look at YouTube videos of these places I've been to and just see it's like oh yeah there it is there's all the stuff I did and you know so for Desifu it was like I guess a nice little confirmation that it's like okay I did see the stuff I didn't make some grievous error like I did at the Congo Falls where I missed the actual falls but the one thing that I did miss is there's a museum there that is like this great big giant building with reflective windows and it does seem like it's actually kind of cool. That might be worth going to check out but I do remember by the the weird children's park I did see signs that said this way to the museum. So in my perverse ignorant style I went the other way but then I went to a whole different shrine adventure and stuff so it all worked out fine you know but but seeing it in the YouTube videos I'm like oh maybe I don't know that might be worth it but that's a nice thing too there's YouTube videos about almost everything so it's nice that you can just pull up stuff you know since this obviously the big the big problem here is I'm lacking visuals but it's kind of cool you can just kind of pull stuff up you could just let somebody else's tour of an area play while you listen to me ramble it's neat that it's all there it's all available. People really liked the fancy Starbucks at Desifu everyone I watched was like look at this look at the fancy Starbucks which I don't know I guess it's just different tastes to different folks because I mean I love Starbucks's and coffee shops and dumb shit like that but the idea of the Starbucks trying to fit in to the historical place with like yeah but this isn't just a normal Starbucks this is a special Starbucks there's no other Starbucks it looks like this this is the cool Starbucks or to me I'm like not dude like I'm more than happy for there to be a Starbucks that don't bother me but don't pretend that the Starbucks is special don't pretend that there's any reason to care about the Starbucks get out of here with that I was going to wait till I got to the convenience store to get a drink, but now that I stopped early, and I got a detour to Fortress Ruins, it's like, I'll just get a drink now. Ayataka Cafe, Machalate. It is hot, though. Kind of go for cold. That is an a slightly awkward thing. I'm certainly not complaining. This weather is fucking insane. Every time there's a slightly bad day, and I think, well, that's it. The weather's bad now, and then it's just insanely good the next day. It's beautiful. It's like 12 or 13 degrees.

Maybe a little more. That's where it's a little awkward in Fukuoka, because I have to kind of wear layers. I've got a hoodie and a weather-resistant jacket and a thermal shirt in my back pocket. It's way too much stuff. I could honestly just be in my t-shirt right now, and I'd be fine. But once the sun goes down, I'm going to need this stuff. Maybe not all these layers, but maybe, because I also have little stretchy gloves tucked away in my pocket, and most evenings I need them. So, yeah, it's a pretty wild swing. It does get mighty cold at night.

Man, it's interesting, too, getting off at that other subway stop. The disparity between, sorry, train stop. That one's not a subway, but the disparity between the different stops is really surprising, because this is that fancy line that has the big, fancy concourse by Tengen. So, I'm surprised when I got off at the station after this the other day, and there's this teeny, weeny little station with a squat toilet. It's like, ah, geez, the return of the squat toilet. But then today, at this station, only one station before, it opens up directly into 15:00 a little mini mall, and it's super modern, and has a nice, awesome fancy toilet of the future. And it's just one stop away from each other. So, there'd be one thing, if the squat toilet station was like way out in the countryside or something. But nope, just the next one. Don't get off at that one. I'm not recommended. All right, I found a little path up through some trees. I predict, I think, I'm going the right way. I definitely try not to rely on the phone GPS too much, though it is very handy. And man, it sure is neat being on a train. I've probably said this before, but just seeing the blue dot actually move. When you're on foot, it's very hard to perceive movement in the blue dot. But on a train, it just zips right along.

All right, I am at what is listed as the Mizuki Fortress Ruins.

And it's kind of nice where there's, again, the mountains, the mountains of Fukuoka are just insane. They're so beautiful all the time. And there's like a little overpass in the distance. So I like that duality. There's the overhead highway, the sign of man. And then behind it, the sign of nature. But yeah, I think when they say Ruins, they're not kidding. It's just a field. There's really not anything here that I can see.

But yeah, I'll stroll through. See if I see anything. But yeah, I don't see statues or plaques or even, you know, a lot of the sites of Ruins I've found so far. There's foundations of buildings that are left. And that might kind of be it. But I don't even see that here. This is just a field. But that's cool. Get off early, take a little extra walk, see a little, a little touch more of the neighborhood. But yeah, let me explain better what I'm going to do today. I had to rush and get on to the train. So yeah, a couple days ago, when I came back from Desaifu, I found this convenience store that I think was called Best Convenience System. And it was really cheap. The Onigiri was only 100 yen. Really surprisingly, the little fruit sandwiches that are like fruit with whipped cream was 150 yen, which is like a third of what those things usually cost is weird. And then when I ate them, the Onigiri was a little smaller. And the fruit sandwich had a little less stuff in it. But it was just still awesome and delicious. And it was just neat to go to a store that wasn't one of the big famous brand name versions. So it's not that I I'm going to go back to that store. That's just a bonus on the way is that store. But like they don't have English labels, for example. So I just got a random Onigiri that had like four kinds. I got one that I think was the Teriyaki beef. So I'm just going to get the other three. Let's try them. I haven't had any breakfast or lunch. That's my plan. Just go to the best convenience system. But then right near there, speaking of foundations of buildings, the remains of Desaifu government office. I walked past that on the way to Desaifu station. And it was mainly just a park with the foundation of old buildings still there. But there appeared to be paths up into the mountains. And the mountains are obviously visually like there they are. They're right there. Paths up into the mountains, possibly to shrines. And I'm not sure how far that little map that I found there, how far it actually showed. But according to the map, all the paths were very clearly marked. And there seemed to be washrooms, you know, even as you get up into the mountains. So it's clearly a place you're meant to go do a little hike up the mountain.

Here's a good example of the blue dot thing. I got to be like, I'm quite sure I'm going the right way. But let's just make sure. And you know, there's a little cone, a vision cone to show which way you're pointing. But that is the one thing on my phone that does not always work.

Sometimes it's backwards, sometimes it's 90 degrees. I can't always be sure that it's actually pointing me the right way. So the good thing is when it messes up, it stays messed up. So I can just remember how it's supposed to be. Yeah, the little dot moving so slowly, but yeah, okay, I'm going the right way. But yeah, it seems like a very well developed little hike up the mountain. An inviting hike. Come do this type of hike. And it's so close. It's really close for me to get there. It's only a few subway stops away. So I thought that could be good because this will feed my urge to go explore, go see a new thing, go hike up a mountain, and go to a new convenience store again. All the stuff I want to do without having to go on a big epic journey. This is a nice 20:00 little nearby one. And that is still just one of my favorite things about Japan. That is so unique to this country, at least as far as the countries I've been to, that a mountain hike is so incredibly accessible. It's not even like, oh, it's pretty easy to get to or it's quite close. It's right fucking there. You go to the convenience store, you go across the street, you walk across a medium sized park, and there you go. You're at the foot of the mountain. It's fucking it's nuts. But now I got to make sure I don't miss best convenience system because I didn't see it as I walked past in the daytime before. I only saw it at night when the sign was lit up. So I got to be a little vigilant. I got to make sure I don't miss it this time. And just as a great demonstration of how this is not one of the major chains, it's only open from 7am to 10pm. That's unheard of in Japan. That's a wild idea.

And I got to take off these layers. Oh man, the sun is out now. It's feeling more like 15 or 16 degrees. I'm going to tie these bad boys around my waist like a kilt.

Well, I can see how I missed best convenience system on my way by because it's literally across the street from the Desaifu government office ruins. So my eyes were drawn toward this particular park that is just the foundations of old buildings and some statues and stuff. Currently a bunch of kids playing and I was looking at the pathways and the mountains and all that stuff. So yeah, I totally, totally missed this delightful little convenience store. And it really is awesome, man. It's like, it must be tough out there if you're not one of the major chains trying to compete because even their like brand name items seemed to be a little cheaper than usual. Like I think they're really just like squeezing to try to get people to come to their store. Yeah, I got the $1.50 yellow peach peach jam and whipped cream sandwich but then they also had this other sandwich delicious sandwich as all it says in English but it's only 270 and it's like a egg and ham and it looks awesome. It's like, let me grab that. And then I was going to get just the normal Onigiri's but then I saw that they have, this is something I found at a new days in 2019 but I haven't seen it all here and actually these ones are a little different but it's like an older style of Onigiri where they kind of fold it over like a big sandwich or like a hot dog almost. So they had some of those. These ones they're kind of shaped almost more like a little pouch, like a little you know they got the seaweed on the outside and then on the inside is the rice but I have no idea what they are. So I got a couple of those and then they had a bakery section too. I got a little melon bread for a hundred yen and I don't even know what the other thing is.

Maybe a pizza roll or something but yeah lots of like handmade stuff. Everything's really cheap. I mean I just picked out I got so much stuff and then I got my traditional carton of coffee for the way up the mountain but all this stuff even though I just was like oh give me this give me that give me all this stuff it was like $12. It's like fuck this is awesome. So I'm not going to sit here and eat in real time because that's of arguable entertainment value and it's possibly gross. Yeah these things are only 130 yen. These bigger fold it over Onigiri. I just want to try one of these and just see what it is or possibly both since these are brand new to my adventures. I guess one big difference is that the the normal Onigiri they're packaged so that the the nori the seaweed stays separate from the rice to keep it crunchy so the difference with this one is that it's all together so it's moist which is uh not better not worse just different so let's see what this one is. They had I think four of these I just grabbed two of them at random two different kinds. Alright I think this one is like seaweed innards not bad very traditional let's try this other one which is based on color this one's pink maybe it's plum. The shore is salted plum. I'm really coming around on plum. Plum's pretty good. Plum is kind of in the middle of like it's sort of like a dessert but also not but I kind of feel like I should save the plum one for last because it's a little dessert-y anyway fucking delightful so I'm going to eat this stuff cram into my belly then see if I can't find my way up the mountain.

Man what weird weather just on my way to best convenience system I had to take the little thermal shirt that was in my back pocket and drape it around my neck because the sun was so hot it's like dude I'm going to get a sunburn and this is fucking me up. Then I stopped in the convenience system hopped across the road had a little sit in the park and just in that little short amount of time the sun went behind some clouds and then I felt the chill and it's like oh I got to put on a layer then I got to put up my hood and now I'm just kind of back to wearing most of my stuff but if the sun comes out again could be back to death. Man though I thought I had a little and it totally worked is you know going up even though these these hills are right next to the park in the road and everything there's still like a little warning sign about wild boars and it's certainly not common but I did see one way over on Mount Abu Riyama in 2019 Hey, here's a little arrow, 0.3 kilometers to Citizen's Forest, is where I think I'm going. I think they call it that on Mount Eboriyama, too. That's just kind of a weird term that they seem to use around Fukuoka for a public forest part. Citizen's Forest, I don't know, it has that sort of eerie, like crushing government sound. The Citizen's Forest, I don't think they mean it that way, but that sounds to me. Yeah, I had this little package just as far as, you know, I was just trying to throw away my garbage each day, not to let it accumulate. And I did just get my review from my last Airbnb. And the guy mentioned, like, wow, the garbage was all sorted. The place was spikin' span. And the garbage was sorted because I never used the garbage. I hadn't put anything in those garbage cans, so technically, yeah, I guess you could say I sorted all the garbage. But he left a little private note. To me, it was like, man, thanks for, you know, leaving the place in such a good shape. Come back anytime. And that's exactly what I wanted. That is one of those little ego things I do like. I like being the good Airbnb guest. I like getting a little pat on the head because I looked after your Airbnb. See, I enjoyed being acknowledged.

Hmm, I started walking down a little lane, but I think I'm going the wrong way. I'm staying on the paved road, but then I just saw over a little crest of a hill, a lady walking her dog on a stone path. And it's like, ah, that's probably the one. That is probably the Citizen's Forest. The dog walkers, man, they always know where the parks are. They know where to go.

Man, there's leaves actively falling from some trees today. Still mostly green around these parts, but yeah, it is. It's like summer and fall at the same time. Back and forth, like I'm in a washing machine. It's all the weather, except the snow part.

Incredibly small amounts of rain since I've been here too, almost none. But yeah, I had this package at home, ready to be thrown away. It's this thing I buy pretty often, where it's just, ah, all the major chains have them. It's just like rice crackers and peanuts. And you can get normal ones, spicy ones or wasabi ones, which when I can find those, they're my favorite ones. So it's just a little snack, whatever. But it comes in a little package that has like a Ziploc bag top. If you don't eat the whole thing, which I usually just eat the whole thing, but theoretically you could seal it up and save it for later. So I grabbed that little thing, but I did not throw it away. I kept it on purpose, because I was thinking, if I go to best convenience system or whatever store you go to, if I get own a gearies and I get a sandwich in whatever, I got to keep all this garbage on me, unless I ate everything, you know, standing outside the convenience store.

Who the wind is picking up? Good time to go into the woods. But yeah, I'm going to have all these wrappers for own a gearies and sandwiches and turns out bakery and unexpected bonus. And all these wrappers, you know, they just have like residue on them. So even if I just keep them balled up in my jacket pocket till I get to a garbage can later, they'll still have the smell of food. And again, it seems super unlikely that I'll actually meet a wild boar anywhere. But the smell of food certainly adds to that possibility. 30:00 So I just put those wrappers inside the rice cracker and peanut bag and then sealed it up with this little Ziploc seal, folded it over, put that in my jacket pocket. And now it's all sealed away, so I don't smell like food. I just, I like stuff like that, figuring out little uses for the stuff that you've got with you anyway.

So here are some little stone monuments.

So I was saying last episode how confused I am by the idea of leaving offerings.

But here it's just little like socket cups. To me, that makes sense. That's kind of neat, like a little socket cup and you could just put some liquid in it. And it's a nice gesture, a nice second knowledge.

It's a nice moment where yeah, I won't keep harping on it, but when people bring in the juice cartons that are like wine in a juice carton, poke a straw through it and leave it there, I feel like that's far more akin to littering.

But just having the little tiny cup that you could just put a little booze in, that's kind of cool. Oh, here's a map. Does Iphus citizens forest trail map? All right, so I presume that that's me at the bottom. A variety of wetlands. I got enough wetlands in Canada, in Canada, that's okay.

Autumn forest ahead of me. There's a flower garden. There's a cherry blossom viewing site, though for me, that's probably no biggie. So I think what I'm going to do is basically just head straight through all this stuff.

There's one little path that just goes around in a circle and comes back. Oh, but there's an observatory. It's going to say I should avoid that one, but observatories are always worth it in Japan. So maybe I should do that. And then there's a bigger trail up the woods toward Iwaya Castle Ruins in the summit of Shioji Temple, so that's where I ultimately want to go. Somehow, it's already 2.30. I don't know how this keeps happening to me or the day just keeps slipping by. But when you're right at a mountain, I mean, it's a mountain. It seems like that should be quite an undertaking, but like that little side mountain road that I went up last episode. I mean, I walked up the whole thing in like 20 minutes. If you're just heading straight up a mountain, it's not that bad. Even the grouse grind in BC, which is a nightmare. I'll probably never do it again. It takes me like two hours or two and a half hours. It's brutal, but people can do it in no time at all. I think you can get up it again in like 20 minutes if you're in insane shape. So yeah, even though it's already 2.30, I probably have more than enough time to go find this observatory and then get to the summit temple. That's the plan for today.

So, let's go. Beautiful harmony, desaifu city. That's not fully a thought, but I don't disagree.

Man, this citizen's forest is like playing with my heartstrings for a second. I mean, I just ate a frankly repulsive amount of food. I got way too much stuff at the convenience system.

I could barely hold it all in my hands, but it's like, I don't know what I'm going to be back here. And I ate everything except some melon bread. I got some melon bread tucked away. But then I got to the washroom here, the last washroom on the map. So it's like, I registered head on in there before I continue up the mountain. And I saw the squat toilet and it's like, oh man, do I? Is it important enough that I use the washroom and that I deal with this fucking thing? But then they had a second toilet that was western. It's like, the beautiful angel chorus. There must be people that just legitimately really prefer the squat toilet. And I saw the dog walking lady at the bottom of this park, but she actually didn't come in. Everyone I've seen in this park so far has been three old guys. So, I guess if anybody's going to expect a squat toilet and be annoyed if there isn't one around, it's going to be a cantanker as old man, right? Well, you got your precious squat toilet and I got my precious western toilet. Everybody's happy.

Oh yeah, I also got to see the Christmas thing at herkata station last night. Since I got to herkata and again was just confused about how to even get on the train that I needed to get on. It just seemed easier to just get off and go walk to the next station.

But I also wanted to get off because I wanted to see, now that it's all set up, see the Christmas thing.

And I'm glad my friend Brad mentioned to me that it is a German themed thing because I probably wouldn't have caught on.

Oh, here I am at the path up to the shrine, but I'm going to continue on because I want to see this observation deck thing. So, let's do that.

Yeah, it's one of those things I think if I had been here with people, if I knew some people in Fukuoka, and I could go to the Christmas pavilion and hang out and let it soak in.

I think I'd get into the vibe, it seemed nice. But I literally just kind of walked past and I was getting pretty exhausted at that point, so I didn't hang around. I just just got a light brushing, got a tiny taste of the Christmas e-ness.

But yeah, I did notice that there is, there's a little bit of just, I don't know, just like scanned an avian even feeling. I think it is specifically supposed to be based on a German market, but it just feels a bit like you're in a fairy tale. There was like roast stuff and just foods that you wouldn't really associate with Japan. It felt like a hearty northern Christmas vibe.

Ah, cool, yeah, I'm definitely outside of the main park now. Everything up till now has been really paved. Now I'm going through the nice woods path, the path in the woods, you and into the side, with man-made steps. But yeah, the one thing I don't enjoy about the Christmas time, I don't usually notice it right away because I usually have headphones in. But it's always 7-Eleven is the worst, the worst culprit of bad music. Well, I guess that's not true, hard off, it's probably the worst.

But it used to be that 7-Eleven would play music versions of Daydream Believer and other corny songs in 2019. And I haven't noticed that as much, but they have started playing Christmas jingles now that it's December. And I just do not like Christmas music. I can count on one hand the number of Christmas songs I like.

The Christmas song that the band Slade did, S-L-A-D-E, is actually probably the only Christmas song I legitimately like. Oh, and maybe it's the old town road guy. Hey, it's a holiday. That's an okay holiday song.

But yeah, I don't know. Christmas music is extremely cloying and annoying and I really drove me nuts when I was a coffee shop employee and they put that shit on all day. It's just like, fuck off. Why do you hate me? Why do you want my brain to feel like it's a scared animal being poked at by a flaming spear?

Oh, and you're the bashy camera, the place where I found the, uh, Eurocamp gotcha. Loud holiday music. Oh, barf. I just don't like it at all. So it's the shame that Japan has picked up that bad habit. Because North America does that shit too, and it sucks. It sucks everywhere you go. Maybe you could play some holiday music a little bit here and there, starting like two weeks before Christmas. Don't start a month early and just never stop playing it. It's awful. Fucking sucks. So there's the Christmas update.

On to the observatory.

Alright, I made it up to the observation platform and actually that one was the break in the trees was pretty minor and we're not super, super high up. So I'd say if you happen to be coming to visit this park, you could give that a miss. You don't need to necessarily go to the observation deck. It's a little mid by the beautiful standards of Japan. But what I did find up there was a contankerous old man. And that was kind of cool because he's basically doing exactly what I want to do. When I get older, I really hope I can find somewhere close enough to an incline like this close enough to a mountain where it's so easy. And Fukuoka, they're everywhere. Back in North America, I don't know, but I mean I guess 40:00 there's that grouse ground in North Van, but that thing is a nightmare. That's too much. But yeah, this was my idea to just stay active and mobile as an older guy is you just got to have a goal. You got to have a reason every day to keep yourself in shape and the reason is just get up to the top of the mountain. Go on a hike. The trail near Umabayashi station is my platonic ideal, like that's the perfect one. But just anything like that, just a reason to just to get up and go every day. Keep yourself limber. And specifically along those lines, he was up there doing stretches. So yeah, it's just like perfect. You get up, you get up there, you get limber. Uh oh. I don't recognize where I am. Okay, well anyway, just got to get back to the park proper and then find that other path up to the castle ruins. Although it really was just such a minor little path in the woods. Was that really the right path? Cause here's another path, but I don't know where that goes. I'm back on a paved path. It's a little bridge with metal railings. I definitely did not pass this the first time. How is this possible? I feel like I'm in some weird story. I'm in labyrinths where they're just changing stuff behind me.

But yeah, that's where I feel like it just adds to a person's desire or enthusiasm for exercise. I mean, it certainly is this way for me. The idea of going to a gym. I don't like that idea at all. Just being around people, being observed, being indoors. None of that, having to particularly get into a car to drive to a gym. None of that is anything that I want to do. I want to be by my self. I want to be out in nature. Okay, these are like these wetlands. I must have come down on the other side of this mountain. Dang it. Okay, I'm going to go keep circling around. I think that's what happened. I need to circle all the way around this mountain with the observation deck.

Is this ain't right? Yeah, you get out in nature, you get fresh air, you go up. Going up is important because it takes so much more energy to go up. You know, you get so much more exercise out of going up because I mean, I can walk literally all day and it does have health benefits, but I think walking for like eight hours, it also breaks your body down. A lot of bad comes of it as well. I think the shorter distance of hiking upward for less time is better. Again, as long as you're careful, but it even helps you modulate yourself because you're going up. It's much easier to go at a slow, reasonable pace. Then at the top, he got a view. He got to see a view out across Fukuoka while he did his stretches. It's perfect.

It's all the stuff. Oh, except to go this way, I got to go back up again.

Let me just take a moment. But yeah, the other thing, being a gruff old Japanese guy, but there's kind of an upside to that too, is he just did the, he just ignored me like I wasn't there. But in this case, that wasn't bad because otherwise, I would have felt bad that I was interrupting him or like am I embarrassing him that I'm here while he's trying to do stretches. I still didn't hang around too long. I just kind of took a little breather. Got out of there. But it was nice to not have in this case the North American, Argal Bargal and Fufura of, hello, how you doing? And like having to pretend we're friends that didn't have a little chitchat, you know, like you would do in North America, which would actually interrupt him and get in the way of what he's doing. Instead, he just kept on doing it. He just kept on keeping on. He let me stand there to catch my breath. Then I left and it was kind of nice. It was nice to be ignored in this case.

All right, so there's the observation deck down. Now let's try to get to the castle ruins.

So I had to take a little circle around. That really was so much food that ate at that convenience store, just ridiculous. There's not enough room in my body. I am lucky that I have a fast metabolism. And despite the fact that it makes me pee all the time, the fact that my 45:00 internal organs are smaller than normal, which is a weird thing for someone to even know about themselves, but I had an MRI once and that's what they told me. But it's probably a good thing.

It's like my stomach is stapled. So I am a skinny man and eating all that stuff. Pushing out yesterday's poop. Let's just say what it is. I had to go back to the washroom, so I went around the other side of this park. A lot of plane fly over here. But of course in Fukuoka, you're always near the airport. Yeah, I went around the other side of the park and I thought for a moment, I'm like, oh my God, this one only has one toilet and it's the squat toilet. But there was a sort of, I guess what you would call the family washroom in North America. The wheelchair accessible washroom. Which yeah, I also noticed, I mean, this whole park, the main part, not the mountain I'm on now, but the main part of the park is all paved. This is a wheelchair accessible park, which is pretty cool. But yeah, there was no one around. I hadn't seen anyone since the old man at the observation peak. Old man, he's probably 15 years older than me. So I just used that toilet with the real, with the western toilet. I'm like, oh the hell with it, I'm using it. Got away with that one.