FINALLY, after 5 long years we are going back to Japan! Yeah!

Left Perth bound for Singapore around midday. Interesting note – we caught the train to the airport. Works great for us as its only a short walk to the station. Thanks Transperth!

Flight to Singapore was freezing cold and we didn’t get served lunch until 5:30 pm so I nearly died of starvation. Other than that it was a pretty uneventful flight, which is always nice.

Got in to Singapore around 7pm. Our connecting flight to Fukuoka was at 1:20am!!!! Yes, that’s right!?! Who catches a plane at that time of the morning? We do, apparently.

So we went out to check out the new(ish) “Jewel” part of Changi airport and also to get us some dinner. The waterfall thing was actually really cool and sci fi looking. Singapore really is living in the future.

We found a bunch of cute stores, including an excellent Pokémon store, and then decided to have dinner at Shake Shack, because why the hell not? Here’s a photo of me getting excited about the sauce options.

After Shake Shack dinner, we wandered around a bit more, looked at the waterfall thing from different levels, and oh yeh – bought tickets to see Wilco in New York. That was stressful let me tell you. But it was meant to be – I mean the tickets went on sale during our layover, talk about perfect timing!

Then we went to our departure terminal, but first we went to the wrong terminal and had to go back to the one we were originally at. Changi airport is huuuuge. We went and hung out in one of the airport lounges because we were lucky enough to have access because of our credit card. It was a bit more chilled in there and we nearly fell asleep waiting for our flight. The food and drink options however….i shall refrain from ever speaking of again. ( we both enjoyed a delicious cup of soda water)

Finally time to board our next flight and by this time we were both exhausted. Steve basically fell asleep the minute he got on the plane. I, however, suddenly woke up as soon as I was on the plane, so didn’t really get the sleep I wanted. It was a pretty chill flight as everyone was sleeping, before we knew it, they were serving breakfast, and we were landing in Fukuoka.

From Fukuoka international airport we had to catch a shuttle to the domestic airport, which is where the subway to take us in to the city is. We hung around Fukuoka airport for a little while and had the traditional “onigiri and can of coffee”. It’s nice to back in Japan.

Then on to the subway and off to our accommodation- The Dormy Inn. Being so early, they wouldn’t let us check in, but they held our bags so we managed to stumble of in our sleep deprived state and do a bit of exploring.

We went and visited a temple we went to when we were last here that has a giant Buddha. It’s pretty awesome. No photos of the giant Buddha allowed, but these cute bunnies were on the ledge nearby.

We needed lunch, so ended up at Hoshino Coffee at Canal City – a strange ‘80’s esque mall. I had Katsu sandwiches and Steve had omurice, beef curry and a soufflé pancake!!!

Then we did a bit of shopping and wandering about until we were too exhausted to go on and headed back to the hotel to check in. We will sleep well tonight.

***Edit*** After we checked in to the hotel, we used the very excellent baths they have at the Dormy Inn which seemed to rejuvenate us enough so we could head out to get some dinner. We walked down to Hakata station (it was really quite cold and rainy) and after much choice anxiety, settled on Udon noodles for dinner. We had a bit of a look around the shops and I bought myself a Strawberry Shortcake from the Basement Food Level (my favourite of all places in Japan) of Hankyuu Department Store. And yes, the customer service is still amazing and the cake gets boxed up the same for one slice as it would if you bought a whole cake. Very thoughtful.