Month: May 2018

Views of Fukuoka / 福岡市の景色

On May 20, 2018

One of the things many locals of Fukuoka like about their city is that it has all of the city conveniences but also, not too far away, it has lots of nature and scenery. I haven’t had an opportunity yet to venture outside of the city properly (something I intend to remedy shortly) but I have found many lovely places while out running.

My favourite so far has to be Heiwaminami Ryokuchi Park (say that 3 times quickly) which is only a few kilometre jog from my apartment. Not only is it 100% trails with wonderful green foliage, but it is super-duper undulating. This means I can get all the hill training I could possibly want, all in one handy-dandy park!

Let’s take a quick photo tour…

Heiwaminami Ryokuchi Park

Photos never do justice to how steep a trail really is. But this was super steep, honest! That aside, I love how green and verdant everything looks. Cannot get enough of this sort of trail.

Peeking out through the trees

Most of the views are obstructed by all the beautiful green foliage I was just mentioning, but occasionally you can peek out and see the city below.

View from the observation tower

One unique aspect of the park is the tower you can walk up to get 360 degree views of Fukuoka.

Cemeteries get all the best views

Right next to the park is a large cemetery. Japanese culture includes a lot of respect for the dead, so you can just imagine how this is both immaculately maintained and presented.

I’m a sucker for attractive looking clouds…

On the way back from the park now, waiting at an intersection. Not too much exciting happening, but I do like how the building in front is telling me something is “Good” with a solid thumbs up included. Thank you random building, things are indeed “Good”.

Filled with fishies!

What you can’t see very well in this final photo is all the fishies in the canal. The water is very clear, so you can see all the big buggers and little guys all swimming around.

Beer Roundup / ビルラウンドアップ

By Matthew

On May 8, 2018

In Japan, Kirin, Reviews, Suntory, Yahho Brewing

I thought it about time to do a round-up of the various beers I’ve tried over the past few weeks. I must admit to quite enjoying this series, as I really don’t know what to expect with each drink I try.

To start things off, we have two beers which are from the same brewery. Yaho Brewing is proving to be an excellent source of tasty beers, I must say. The first one shares the same name with the very enjoyable “A beer for you and me” that I got not long after arriving. Whether it is actually the same beer is up for debate, but it shares the funky looking frog motif and is equally tasty. Really enjoyed this one, it is equal parts easy drinking, smoothness and tasty flavour.

If you see this frog on a beer, it is likely to be a tasty

The second from this brewery is the Yona Yona Ale. Not much to say apart from it being a very solid and enjoyable pale ale. They are nearly double the price of their cheapest rivals (£1.80 to 90p) but totally worth the extra spend in my books.

Another winner!

From Suntory we have 金麦 or “Gold Wheat” beer. Apart from really liking the design of the can itself, there isn’t a lot I can write about this middle-of-the-road beer. Nothing wrong with it, nothing all that right. In a word: Inoffensive.

Average

Speaking of refreshing looking can designs, next we have a Lemon Beer from Grand Kirin. The name is something like ひこうき雲と私 or literally “the aeroplane cloud and me”. I imagine it loses something in the translation.

On the beer itself, I found that the lemon flavour is there, but it is quite muted. Not a bad idea, I like the idea of a refreshing summer beer, but I don’t think this is it for me. Overall, it wasn’t too bad really, decently drinkable, but doesn’t really commit to the concept – it isn’t beery enough and not lemony enough either.

Was expecting something, but not quite this

The Suntory Beer Recipe (a blueberry flavoured beer) wasn’t ever going to be great, but I at least thought it would be interesting. It does have a bit of a fruity flavour, but it was underwhelming and left me wishing for something more exciting.

Similar to the lemon beer above, it just doesn’t commit to the concept to make it worth not having a less weird and better tasting normal beer.

I really need to stop experimenting…

Finally, I had much higher hopes for this Kirin “Prime Brew” beer, but sadly it left me thinking… “Meh, okay”. It was drinkable and if pushed I could have a few, but it really wasn’t a “prime” anything and left me wanting for something more flavoursome.

Prime Brew huh? Not that impressed

My adventure continues…

Hong Kong / 香港

By Matthew

On May 7, 2018

In Travel

I just got back from a short holiday in Hong Kong with Jules. Since I’m not really into cities these days, we thought that rather than focus on the city itself, we decided to spend our time seeing the natural/cultural attractions that surround the city proper.

The weather on each day was on the warm side (26-30 degrees) which I’m to understand isn’t too bad in Hong Kong terms. I found it really enjoyable and managed to avoid sunburn, heatstroke or other ailments for the duration.

Our first day was on Lantau and involved a very scenic cable car up to the Ngong Ping to see the Big Buddha there. The Buddha statue was indeed very big and quite impressive!

One very large Buddha

We also took an opportunity to walk along the Wisdom Path while there and see the prayer monuments set up there. The natural beauty of the area and the Buddhist religious aesthetic created a really relaxing and enjoyable vibe for the day.

Getting our wisdom upgraded

The next day we went over to Hong Kong island and took a tram up to Victoria Peak. It was a bit of a hazy day, so the view was only moderately amazing, but we made the most of it with a walk around various trails on the mountain. My Garmin reported over 100 floors worth of climbing that day, which ‘aint too shabby at all.

View from Victoria Peak

We also hit up the Botanical Gardens while we were on the island, which was a quiet respite from the cars and people. At one point we found some really neat looking critters in a greenhouse which I just had to snap a photo of!

Wascally Wabbit

The final full day was a 40 minute ferry ride out to Cheung Chau island. It had a very different vibe to the rest of Hong Kong, with a strong feeling of remoteness from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Colourful boats lined up at the port

We spent the day wandering about, seeing a Pirate Cave, the Mini-Great Wall, along with various beaches, lookouts and temples. All with the added bonus of me not getting violently ill from the ferry! Win!

The final day was spent recovering while wandering around a gigantic mega-shopping-complex, generally relaxing and counting how many shops had “London” in their name in relation to “Paris”, “Tokyo” and “New York” (spoiler alert: London won, who knew it was considered cool by people?).

I really enjoyed the trip and it was super awesome to spend the time with Jules as well!

Now I’m back in Fukuoka and need to get back into a studying mind set again…