The Riding Starts

Left at 7am today. Riding through Fukuoka City was relatively simple. Traffic was heavy though, so I kept mostly on the pavements while I followed National Highway #3 towards Kitakyushu City. Breakfast was on the go at a convenience store along the way.

Bike and me in front of Hakozaki Shrine in Fukuoka City.

As I entered Wajiro town along National Highway #495, I saw the sign for the road leading to Uminonakamachi. This place is supposed to be one of the attractions of Fukuoka Prefecture so I decided to take a short detour to check it out. Little did I know this detour would turn out to be 34km!

Uminonakamachi used to be quite a popular attraction. But as the novelty of the place wore out, less and less people visited it. While I was there, all I saw was the rare jogger in Uminonakamachi Park. Opposite the park, the amusement park was totally deserted and didn't even seem open!

Continuing along my way towards Fukutsu City, I took a few more breaks before reaching my destination without problems. However, when I reached Fukutsu, I realised that it wasn't really a city but more of a town only. There was no accommodation to be found!

The road to Munakata Shrine and Konominato Sky Hotel

Having no choice, and since it was still rather early, I decided to ride down to Munakata Shrine. This was the place where I was to meet my friend Shinji Abe the next day. According to him, Munakata Shrine was a very famous shrine in Japan, so I figured, if its famous as a tourist destination, there's sure to be hotels right?

Reaching the shrine, I asked around and one of the caretakers pointed me in the direction of Konominato (roughly translated as the Gods' Pier). So after an hour later, I finally checked into Konominato Sky Hotel.

My dinner for the night

After dinner, I went to the common bath area on the ground floor of the hotel. Apparently most Japanese hotels have these common baths even though every room has an attached shower room. It seems that communal baths are very much part of the culture here. My first time in a public bath - quite an interesting experience! No pictures though... hahaha...