Fukuoka, the Land of Cats
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
As the weather forecast for Hiroshima promised a grim and rainy day, we run away from the bad weather some 300 kilometres south-east, to Fukuoka, the largest city of Kyushu Island. In fact, we wanted to visit Ainoshima island next to Fukuoka, a small, walkable place inhabited by several hundreds of cats. Ainoshima is one of two famous “cat islands” in Japan, so we were determined to pay it a visit.
We came to Hiroshima Station just a few minutes before Shinkansen departure, grabbing a few breakfast buns in one of the indispensable bakeries, generously spread around large train stations. Soon, the Shinkansen started cutting its was through the rain, and we had an opportunity for a breakfast.
Less than an hour an a half later we arrived at Hakata Station in Fukuoka, just in time to catch the last drops of the rain. Modern Fukuoka was formed about 130 ago after a port city of Hakata merged with the castle town of Fukuoka. The central district of the modern city, along with the station, are named after the old port city.
Strong winds from Thushima straight chased away the rain and we enjoyed the first rays of sunshine while exploring the shrines and temples in Hakata. Tochoji temple draws a lot of tourists with its prominent pagoda.
However, a more exciting place hides right behind Tochoji: Shofukuji Temple is known as the first Zen temple in Japan. Founded in 1195 by the priest Eisai, who brought Zen buddhism from China to Japan, it remains an excellent example of early Zen architecture thanks to regular rebuilds of the wooden structure.
It wasn’t the early Zen architecture that drew our attention, though. The temple grounds are inhabited by dozens, if not hundreds feral cats. The cats were everywhere and they seemed to barely notice us, paying no attention to the intruders. Looking at these skinny and ragged cats, we decided to get some cat food and return back to Shofukuji later in the day.
Wandering without a good idea where to get some cat food in Japan, we walked into Sumiyoshi Shrine. This shrine is quite unique, as it’s dedicated to the Diety of Sumo. Apparently, sumo, the national sport of Japan, was originally performed as a Shinto ritual.
Every November, before the annual Kyushu Basho, the annual Sumo tournament in Fukuoka, a Sumo Ceremony is held at the Sumiyoshi Shrine whereby all the wrestlers pray for healthy and prosperity for the last tournament of the year.
We strolled through Canal City Hakata, a rather American-looking shopping mall, where we found a pet shop which sold only pet toys and accessories. The cat food was nowhere to be found, and we even couldn’t pick a decent place for lunch in the mall.
As a result, we stopped by 7-eleven next to the Hakata station and picked a large bag of dry cat food, hoping to feed as many Ainoshima cats as we can. It was the time to go to Fukko-Damaie, a station 20 minutes away from downtown Fukuoka, where we planned to get on a bus to Shingu port and catch a ferry to Ainoshima. On the station we picked some ekiben, a simple and decent lunch option when the time is of essence.
Alas, when the bus arrived, we learned from the driver that all the sailings are cancelled due to strong winds. We did escape the rain that day, but we couldn’t escape the wind. We had to postpone our plans to visit Ainoshima to another time.
However, we still had some cat food in the backpack, so we returned back to Shofukuji shrine and fed all the cats we could find on the shrine grounds. Thanks to Shofukuji, we remember Fukuoka as the land of cats.
We had no idea what to do next in Fukuoka so we strolled to the Hakata Hankyu Deparment store that had an observation deck on the roof, hoping to look at Fukuoka from above. The city is radically different from Tokyo and Osaka that are filled with skyscrapers — it’s almost flat, so finding a vista was a challenge. On our way up we came by a movie theatre and noticed that it was playing Kimi no Namae / Your Name, an anime by Makoto Shinkai. So we watched it, in Japanese. Perhaps, this anime remains the most vivid memory of Fukuoka that I hold today.
No visit to Fukuoka is complete without stopping by famous yatai, the food stalls drawing tourist crowds. Opening in the evening, the food stalls are scattered around Fukuoka, but you can find dozens of them in Seiryu park. We were interested in Hakata Ramen that features ultra-thin straight wheat noodles in creamy tonkotsu / pork broth. The ramen was rather satisfying, especially when enjoyed in the lively atmosphere of yatai district.
We returned to Hiroshima to get some rest, as we planned a trip to Miyajima the next day to witness one the three best views in Japan.
