Day 78 - Monday April 1, 2024, Fukuoka, Japan

Arrival: 08:30 All Aboard: 18:00 Departure 18:30

Today we have a half day tour booked through get your guide, a company owned by Viator. It was quite interesting and definitely our worst tour ever. Our guide was learning on the job so to speak as we were her third clients and it showed. To meet up with her we needed to take the shuttle bus into town to City Hall where the bus dropped us off. That did not appear to be a problem until we realized that we also had to pay for her train and subway ticket as she did not have passes like all tour guides and locals.

Today Jean and Pete came with us. We decided on a visit to t the Nanzoin Temple to get a view Shakanehanzou. It is the world's largest bronze statue of the Shakyamuni in a reclining position. The statue is 41 meters long, 11 meter tall and weighs roughly 300 tons.

Our guide needed to ask for directions to find the proper train line as she was not familiar with either the subway or trains

Janice and Jean would ask her questions and she replied yes to all questions as she had difficulty with understanding English and had no knowledge of anything.

We were surprised with the lack of people at the temple. I guess the ship tour took longer to navigate through the city. The metropolitan area of Kitakyushu-Fukuoka is roughly 5.4 million people.

A few quick photos then it was back to the city where our guide was unable to provide much information about the temple.

Upon returning to Fukuoka, we took a subway to the Tochoji Temple. Behind the alter there are pictures which I believe represent heaven and hell. At the end you need to pass through a curtain into complete darkness, and you must feel your way towards the opening holding on to the rail. Maybe this walk is show you what happens if your soul does not go to heaven. Who knows but I became claustrophobic and needed to turn my iPhone light.

All of us thought maybe we should cut the tour short. She did take us back to the place where we could catch the bus back to the ship.

Because the guide was so nice we just went along with her and did not give her a hard time. This was her second job so that she could support her older mother. She also gave each couple a gift which I kept saying to Janice that it was bribery lol.

However, what Janice learned was to stick with Viator and not their affiliates as much as possible.

It is a fascinating country with lots of culture and history. I don't think either of us would take a land tour to the country but returning on a cruise may be a possibility. Goodbye to the egg salad sandwiches.

A little bit disappointing with the weather as it delayed the cherry blossom season by a few weeks.

A seaday tomorrow as we depart for Shanghai, China 445 nautical miles away.