Our plan for Day 2 of our Kyushu trip was to spend the morning in Fukuoka and then take the iconic Yufuin-no-Mori 湯布院の森 train to Yufuin 湯布院 in the afternoon. We had already seen many of the popular attractions in the city, having been here twice before. And with only a few hours to spare, we opted to visit a Japanese garden because of our fondness of greenery. There were no shortage of choices for this, and out of the ones that we had not visited, we selected Yusentei Park 友泉亭.
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| Yusentei Park, Fukuoka |
To get to Yusentei Park, we took a bus from outside the Fukuoka train station. Though it was a fairly slow ride with many stops, the bus route going west from the station along a long stretch of the main road before turning south gave us a chance to see more of the city streets.
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| Fukuoka bus |
Yusentei Park was originally built in 1754 in the mid-Edo period. The Park contains many characteristic features of a Japanese garden --- besides trees and flowers, there were ponds and bridges, stream and waterfall, fences and stone lanterns, cobbled paths, as well as a pavilion where visitors can enjoy tea and sweets while overlooking the pond and the surrounding lush green landscape.
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| Yusentei Park |
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| Yusentei Park, Fukuoka |
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| Red azalea at Yusentei Park, Fukuoka |
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| A quintessential stone lantern atYusentei Park |
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| The beauty of moss, Yusentei Park |
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| Main pavilion in Yutensei Park |
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| Wedding photo taking at Yusentei Park |
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| "In quietness one perceives the intricacies of nature" |
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| Perfect setting for tea |
After picking up our luggage from the hotel, we had a quick ramen lunch at a yatai-style (台屋) food stall at the underground arcade below Fukuoka Station. The open-air yatai food stands are symbolic of Fukuoka. We had intended to have a yatai dinner on the previous night, but opted out because of rain. So this lunch was sort of a make up for it.
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| A quick ramen lunch at the underground arcade of Hakata Station |
After lunch, we proceeded to board the green-coloured Yufuin-no-Mori train for Yufuin.
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| TheYufuin-no-Mori train about to depart, Hakata Station |
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| The Yufuin-no-Mori in retro decor |
It was raining fairly heavily when we arrived at Yufuin. We settled for dinner and a dip in the onsen in the hotel.
Next: Kyushu Day 3 --- Yufuin
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