Decided to forgo the complimentary Japanese breakfast of coffee, rice balls and miso soup at the hotel. Instead we went for a walk to Canal City. Stopped at a Cafe World Beans for the morning coffee, which had not much interesting to report except good coffee and a giant motorised rotating globe in the middle of the table we sat at. Kept the girls quiet and amused while we drank our coffee anyway, which was welcome. Canal city is referred to by the marketing hype spat out by the Fukuoka officials as a "City within a city". I'd say that is being generous, at best. At most it is a nice multi level shopping centre, with an interesting fountain display. Other than that there is not much about canal city to report. One thing worth mentioning though is they had the funkyest toilets of any shopping centre I've seen. So much so that I had to get a photo. The other exception was the fast food chain Wendy's. Far from the Australian Wendy's franchise, this one is like a hungry jacks, but the burgers were absolutely fantastic. Veronica described it as the best burger she has ever had, which I had to agree with. I tried Mos burger yesterday, and it was ok, but positively terrible in comparison. One thing I have found interesting in Japan is some of the relative pricing structures. For example, watermelon costs up to AU$15/kg I am told (although I'm yet to see it this bad), which can make a single whole watermelon rather pricy. My dunlop KT26 shoes are a little bit worse for wear, and are starting to get uncomfortable, so I decided to get a new pair of shoes. Looking through the Nike Air running shoes, which were the kind I was looking at before I left Australia at $200+ a pair, I bought a pair for the grand total of AU$60. Absolute bargain. I could have bought any of the mens shoes, be they basketball, running etc, in any brand, for under AU$110 a pair. It just makes me wonder who is actually getting the profits from the the insane markup which we are being slugged for the same shoes in Australia. I know which I'd choose between a watermelon or a pair of Nike Air running shoes. I'll be buying a few pairs before I leave and bringing them home for that price. Canal city soaked up a few hours, before we returned to the hotel for afternoon nap time. We then went across the road to the 7 story shopping centre next to the JR station for dinner. Floors 1 and 3 of this mall are bus stops (which were stupidly busy at that time in the afternoon), and the top floor was restaurants. We selected a typical japanese restaurant with the food models in the window, which was coincidentally the most crowded restaurant on the floor. We found out why when the meals came out, as they were excellent. We were seated at a Japanese style table, 1ft off the ground, on tatami mats with our shoes off. At that point I wished I had worn clean socks. It was a novelty to have to remove our shoes, and sit at a traditional style table on the floor, but give me a table and chairs any day. All in all Im underwhelmed by Fukuoka. It seems to be a city which is too Americanised. From what I have seen of the other larger cities Americanisation is creeping in, but in Fukuoka is is everywhere, from the fashions, to the foods to the shops. Basically, when I come back to Japan Fukuoka wont be on the itinary. Heading to Sasebo in the morning. Should hopefully be a little bit more laid back than Fukuoka. Might even be brave enough to try the rice balls for breakfast in the morning.