Day 1 - Fukuoka - 9 Dec 2016

With the Loh's family and my mum-in-law.

We arrived at Fukuoka after our flight of over 10 hours.

First thing was to hunt for our lunch venue. Thanks to the well-researched and the resourceful Loh's, we managed to eat one of the best awesome Ichiran Ramen. The service was so good that it gave us the option to indicate our Ramen's preference ie. the strength of its flavour, its richness, its noodle texture and whether we would like garlic, green onion and sliced pork to be included in our ramen. I was so famished that I finished the entire bowl within minutes but the feeling after that definitely lingered longer.

After lunch, we walked around one of its shopping mall. We went to check out some of its shoes but having tried out a few pairs, I decided not to buy lest the purchase might be out of impulse.

At 2pm, we checked into our rooms at the ANA Crowne Plaza Fukuoka hotel. The sleep deprivation the night before en route to Fukuoka had taken effect on our bodies and the kids and us knocked out almost immediately upon lying down our beds. It was a refreshing nap indeed.

At 530pm, we met the rest at the hotel lobby and made our way to one of its famous shopping complex - the Canal City. On our way, we chanced upon a Yakiniku place but unfortunately, the staff was adamant on the fact that we would all need to standardise our orders as a group but to which it seemed ridiculous. We left the place and settled our dinner at one of the restaurant within Canal City.

We watched a spectacular dancing fountain show. It was very impressive as it wasn't just about the fountain dancing with nice music and the effects of changing colours; the backdrop featured animated stories on its huge glass windows. The whole presentation was multi-dimensional. I believe if we had understood Japanese, we would have certainly appreciated the show even more.

At about 830pm, we were back at our hotel. As always, it took us almost an hour to get the kids ready for bed. After recounting and penning today's trip, I went to bed at about 11pm.