Tag: Beer

Fukuoka & Beppu ー Great Food, Relaxing Onsen

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Today, we’re going to introduce Fukuoka and Beppu, which are both on the island of Kyushu.

Fukuoka

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Getting there:

Fukuoka is a prefecture in Kyushu, and Fukuoka City is the largest city in Kyushu and has a good mixture of both traditional and modern culture.

To travel from Hawaii to Fukuoka, Hawaiian Airlines cancelled their non-stop flight from Honolulu to Fukuoka, so we recommend flying into Kansai International Airport (Osaka), and then taking a shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Hakata Station, which is about a 3-hour train ride. If you are landing in Tokyo and then going to Fukuoka or plan to go to Tokyo from Fukuoka, taking a shinkansen will take about 6 hours from Shinagawa Station and Tokyo Station. Flights from Haneda to Fukuoka take a little less than 2 hours. If you want to fully utilize your JR Pass to save money, taking a shinkansen is the way to go. Also, because of travel time, combining Fukuoka and Osaka into the same trip will maximize your travel experience.

Important Note: The main station in Fukuoka is NOT Fukuoka Station; the main station is Hakata Station.

Ramen

Hakata Ramen is the local-style of ramen in Fukuoka. The soup broth is made from pork bones which gives it a brown-yellow coloration. The broth is rich and will cling on to noodles well.

When ordering Hakata Ramen, you can choose the firmness of your noodles. Generally, there’s 5 levels: extra soft, soft, regular, firm, extra firm. Extra soft noodles will break easily, so we don’t recommend getting extra soft noodles. Soft noodles don’t break as easily, blend with the broth, and will kind of dissolve in your mouth. Regular noddles are good for those who haven’t eaten too much authentic ramen before. So, start at regular, and then test out other types of noodles to find your zone. Firm noodles tend not to blend  too much with the broth, but you can enjoy both the flavor of the broth and the flavor of the noodles. Extra firm noodles are for those who know how to slurp up noodles and like to taste the rich broth “crisply”.

If you are a foodie, you have to check out the yatai (street vendors) of Hakata!

Our personal to-do list:

Places we haven’t been to but want to go to include: Futamigaura and Kawachi Wisteria Garden. Also, because Fukuoka is located on the Sea of Japan side of Kyushu, sunsets are amazing along the coastline.

Beppu

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Beppu is located in Oita Prefecture and is one of the best areas for onsen (hot springs). Each onsen has different medicinal benefits from nicer skin to a recuperating from fatigue. Not to mention, each ryokan (Japanese-style inn) will include a Japanese-style meal.

Beppu stretches from the sea to the mountains, like an ahupua’a here in Hawaii, so there are a lot of different kinds of delicious food to eat: from different types of meat dishes to seafood.

If you’re traveling to the Kansai Area and have more than 7 days, checking out Fukuoka for a few days and Beppu for a night can fit into your schedule. If you just want to travel around Kyushu, at least a week (preferably 10 days) would be needed to visit all of the prefectures there: Fukuoka, Oita, Miyazaki, Kumamoto, Kagoshima, Shiga, Nagasaki.

Kanpai!!! Drinking Culture in Japan

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It’s Chad again!

Kanpai is usually translated as “cheers” or “bottoms up” but literally means “dry glass”. Every culture has its own drinking culture, so in this post, we are going introduce a few aspects of the drinking culture in Japan.

Pau Hana Drinks

Japanese society is not only infamous for its work-work-work culture, but also its drink-a-ton-of-alcohol-after-work culture. When I was working in Tokyo, I used to work 12-hour days, drink until the early morning hours, take a short nap, and then do it all over again. The picture on the left is of a drinking area (street) called Omoide-yokocho (思い出横丁, Memory Lane), and I used to come here for my second or third round of drinks with colleagues. There are yokochos all over Japan, and these streets are full of bars and restaurants to drink at. The picture on the right is of a standing wine bar, which serves beer, cocktails, and pupus. Standing bars are good when you want to have a few drinks before going to your next place.

Beer Tasting & Pupus

Japanese people love their beer! You can go to beer museums for short tours and beer tasting after the tours, like Brandon did (picture on the left). The merit of going to a beer museum is that you can try beers which aren’t sold in stores, and the price to sample is reasonable! However, unlike the Sapporo Beer Museum (picture on the left) where you can get three beers at once, other beer museums require you to finish one drink before you order your next one.

The picture on the right is of pan-fried gyoza with beer (of course!). Japanese food/drinking culture is similar to Hawaii because people in Japan like to pupu while having a cold beer, or whatever drink they like. This picture was taken by Brandon at a festival in Sapporo. For those who don’t know, festivals in Japan have many vendors which sell drinks and food. The best thing to do at festivals when you want food or a drink is to take a quick lap around the area, and then decide where to buy your food (not all at once though!).

Drinking in Public

 

Drinking in public is not illegal, unless certain areas (usually parks) have signs which prohibit drinking alcohol or you are belligerent and making trouble. During the summer, people like to drink at the beach (picture on the left), and during spring, people love drinking under the sakura (picture on the right).