Day 3 - Fukuoka, Japan

Fukuoka, Japan Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Thursday, we docked at Fukuoka, Japan.  Our primary objective was to go see the LDS temple that is there.  We had gotten the address and showed it to the man that was getting people in taxis.  With fourteen of us, we put four in each taxi, but one taxi had two, that was David and me.  Our taxi driver was the best, because we got there first even though we started last!  He seemed to know how to avoid the bad traffic.  We had them wait for us because we were going to go on to the zoo and botanical garden that were close by the area of the temple. 

We got our pictures of the temple, and then tried to decide what to do next.  The offices of the temple president and the mission president for the Fukuoka Mission are right below the temple.  One of our group went down there and found two of the missionaries!  They were able to help us out.  It turns out that the botanical gardens and the zoo were just steps away from the temple!  We paid our taxi drivers, and then the missionaries showed us where to get tickets, which was right around the corner from the mission office.

 

If they don't know what this is for, I don't either!  Made me laugh!

The Japanese River Rat made me think of the ROUS's from the movie, The Princess Bride.

This is a sun bear.  They have extremely long claws that you could hear clacking on the cement as it walked.

Most of the couples wandered off in different directions, but we mostly stayed with the Holt’s and the Thunnel’s.  They have as much interest in trees and flowers as we do!  We had to go through part of the zoo to get to the gardens, but that was okay.  We saw some animals we had never seen before. 

These little automated cars would carry either up to the botanical garden or down to the zoo area.  They only go up if they detect that someone is in them. 

That is how far it is to the bottom of the rail to the zoo from the top at the botanical garden.

Our group’s plan was to wander where we wanted and then meet up at a certain place at noon.  We had planned to take the missionaries to lunch, but they got busy and were too far away to meet up with us again.  We asked the Sister in the mission office about getting back down to Tenjin area of town (it was close to the ship dock) and she was able to tell us how to catch the bus, and it would be a lot cheaper to do that then get taxis up there for all of us.  

An interesting flower at the gardens.

A waterfall wall.

Conical shaped tree.

 

This is what was left of the rose garden.  It was still pretty and smelled wonderful!

In the distance is the green house.  We didn't have time to see all we wanted to see, and the rain didn't help.

Fortunately, the bus was at the beginning of its route, and we were all able to get seats to sit for the long trip back to Tenjin area.  The people on the bus were kind in showing us how their bus system worked.  When we got to the Tenjin area, we had to find where all the restaurants were that we were assured we would find there.  It was down in the area for the subway system and we found a lot of different varieties of food.  Some of us had Italian, some had Japanese Raman noodles, and others found hamburgers. 

We all agreed to meet at a certain place and time, so we could go in search for the Shinto shrines that were supposed to be in a close area.  Following the directions on Cindy’s phone, we walked about a half mile and found the first shrine.  We couldn’t go in to certain areas, but we did find one shrine hat seemed to be dedicated to noodles and the man who brought them to that area.  It seemed a little strange to have a shrine made to him, but I guess we have Colonel Sanders and the McDonald’s clown…

 

These are the shrines to the men that brought certain noodles to the area.

Gate to the shrine.

Zen garden.

Main gate of the temple.

The wall went a long way.

Some of us were tired, and we wanted to go back, but others wanted to look for some more.  After looking at that shrine, David and I walked to the next street, and just as we got to the street, a taxi drove up, and we were on our way back to the ship.  It was a long, partly rainy, but fun day.

This was the last temple we saw that day.  You had to take your shoes off to go in, and since I had shoes that I would have had to untie and retie, I just got a picture from the doorway.

We were greeted by this little guy when we got to our room that night.