Japan Short Break in Fukuoka & Hiroshima

This was our short time highlights in Fukuoka and Hiroshima. Food and artistry in abundance as we visited the sites.

Japan ended up being a three week trip for us. We had half the time on Silversea, and half the time on Celebrity with one day in Yokohama while we transferred ports (Tokyo to Yokohama). The cities and towns we visited were: Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Mt Fuji, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, and Nagasaki.

Japan Short Break in Fukuoka & Hiroshima

Some stops overlapped on each cruise. Some places we went for days, other places were a one day stop.

Because we did so much, I have to divide this write-up. I am going to do it by city(ies), not by chronological order.

Why did we end up on two cruises and such a long time in Japan?

Well, that’s a story…

Hubby had long wanted to go to Japan. I had no desire to go to Japan, ever. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Less than any type of desire. It simply was not a destination I wanted to visit.

With that in mind, when we booked this long journey with Silversea, I mentioned to Hubby about staying an extra week in Japan. He had wanted to go for so long; I wanted him to get his fill. It is a long plane ride, and I did not think we would ever go back.

He thought a land tour would be too difficult for us, and did not want to do anything on land. He wanted the ship as our floating hotel.

So, I saw the Silversea cruise we were taking from New Zealand also went around Japan for another 12 days or so. I also found a Celebrity cruise that did another 12 days or so. I showed both itineraries to Hubby. He decided the Silversea overlapped our initial time in Japan a little too much, and chose the Celebrity cruise.

Now, after spending our time in Japan, I want to say how wrong we were about a few things:

1. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Japan. We already are booked to go back.
2. A land tour would be simple. We will be doing at least a week on land before our next Japanese cruise. Probably in Tokyo since that is the only city we really did not spend any time in and explore.
3. The Celebrity cruise sucked, and sucked so badly, that we will not be booking Celebrity again without an outstanding itinerary (Celebrity has long been our favorite cruise line, but we’ve had “issues” with them the last two years – higher prices and value-for-dollar related). In the end, we would have probably been better off staying on Silversea as the cities and transportation in Japan is so good, we could have easily branched out (as we did to Kyoto).
4. We talked up Japan so much to Sonny-boy and his wife that they went last fall! They loved it, too.

So, let me pick up on our journey…

Our first stop in Japan was the island of Fukuoka. It was very cold that day, so we made certain to bundle up. Fortunately, the wind was negligible and as anyone who has ever dealt with the cold knows, it is the wind that gets you.

Our booked tour with the ship was with some temple. Hubby and I had decided to bail after getting a last minute email that it was “physically intensive” with lots of stairs.

We took a taxi to a local fish market instead.

Hubby has a thing about taxis: he hates them. He feels all taxi cab drivers are out to get him (this man lived in Manhattan for over 10 years) and when they can tell you are a tourist, they take you for a tourist ride. He worries about being cheated.

Uber was unavailable in Japan, so he’d have to suck it up, and taxis it would have to be.

So, we get into this taxi in Japan and you could eat off the taxi cab floor. It was that clean. There are little doilies draped over the seat backs.

Hubby gets out his phone because he is going to watch and make sure this guy isn’t taking us the long way for extra cash.

When the guy took a short cut that resulted in a 5 minute shorter trip and $3 cheaper ride, Hubby finally started to relax.

The taxis in Japan were fantastic. Not once was anyone less than polite, honest, and kind. All were squeaky clean, all had the doilies. (I wish I had a photo to share.)

He has since admitted that he would never hesitate to take a taxi anywhere in Japan, and would recommend it to anyone as a mode of transportation.

Back to the fish market…

It was awesome!!

It was quiet, clean, not crowded, and full of interesting fish and live seafood. There were several restaurants inside as well as around the corner from the fish market. We had one scoped out for lunch, Hubby google-translated the menu, but they never opened!

We decided to start walking to the shuttle bus to take us back to the ship (Silversea offered a free shuttle too and from the ship that went to the CBD) which was about a mile away. We figured we would find a restaurant along the way.

We went to a local kushiage – which loosely translates to deep fried items on a stick.

We walked in and sat down at the bar (the restaurant has seating like we would think of for a soda bar) seat which was preset with salad, team and pickled vegetables. There was a preset menu where you picked your protein. The prawns I ordered had the heads still attached, so I had to pluck them off. Hubby got an assorted stick – shrimp, eggplant, onion, and fish. The meal came with a good salad, glass noodle salad, soba noodle salad, miso soup, rice, and tea. We also ordered local beer on draft.

The seats were padded and wooden, with no backs. There was a foot rest. We hung our jackets on the hangers on the wall.

While the day started very cold, it had warmed up to the 40s… and rain.

After lunch, we walked the main street back to the shuttle bus.

Hubby was able to stop at a local grocery store. It was small by American standards, but had excellent produce. He also found his way into a local drug store. To say the man was happy with a fish market, lunch, and local stores would be an understatement.

For our first stop in Japan, it was a nice entry!

At Japanese customs we had to fill out a custom form plus in transit cards for our time in Japan. There was facial recognition (again) and two fingerprints. I DID get a passport stamp which is a sticker that lists your date of entry as well as the date you are set to leave the country.

Our next stop was Hiroshima.

We had several days here across two cruises.

Our first tour was a private tour booked via viator.

Things were looking grim as customs pulled Hubby aside to search him and his bag (backpack). Hubby seemed grumpy when they asked for his passport and so we became the lucky winners of extra time from a bored custom agent (the majority had already disembarked for the sites, we were among the last to leave the ship).

Great. Was this the prelude to a terrible day? Spoiler alert: no.

This was a very long stop, 8am – 11pm, so we booked two tours.

Our first tour was with the lacquer art studio of Naoya Takayama – a well known lacquerware artist. He had won a lot of awards for his work. He made the gifts that Mrs. Yuko, spouse of the Prime Minister of Japan presented for the G7 conference that was held in Japan in 2023.

He showed us how he made VERY lightweight lacquer products in his studio.

The presentation was made through an interpreter as he spoke no English and we spoke no Japanese.

After the presentation, he took us to his studio where we mixed the dry lacquer and then saw him paint with lacquer on a finished product.

The dry lacquer was fascinating. It starts with a mold. They apply the dry lacquer (which has a mud-like consistence). He must work quickly as the lacquer is only good for about 20 minutes (although it can be kept longer with plastic wrap!) a cloth is then added, and more lacquer applied. He finishes with a wet lacquer. The process to make each piece is about 30 weeks. This includes dry time.

When someone in the US says “lacquer” we think polyurethane. This was nothing like that. Think mud-mixture.

After the tour I really wanted to buy one of his pieces. They were simply wonderful. Unfortunately for me, the big stuff I had my eye on had won awards and was not for sale. I did end up with a small bowl (plus the two pieces we were gifted).

It was a fantastic experience and if you are anywhere near Hiroshima, I encourage you to check out his studio.

Our next tour was 45 minutes later, so we took a taxi over to the meeting point. Taxis are plentiful and inexpensive in Hiroshima.

This food tour also ended up being private as we were the only ones to book it that day.

Our first stop was a food vending machine! They are all over Japan. It was interesting to see on a busy street corner.

After that, we went on to sake and beer bar. My beer was “smoked oyster” and it tasted like a smoked oyster! Wings (they butterflied them! And used a terrible sauce), and an oyster.

Our tour guide then took us to a store where all the goods were produced in Hiroshima. We also went to a local snack store, and then to a neighborhood sake bar.

At the sake bar we had a sake flight. Sake is not my favorite liquor, but I did have a sip of all three presented to me. Served with the flight was a deep fried canola stem, Brussels sprout, and a piece of fish.

After that, it was on to dinner for a pancake.

Hubby and I had had a pancake for lunch before our art tour, so we knew what to expect and decided to split a green onion and cheese pancake for dinner. Since the tour “paid” for two pancakes, we asked our tour guide to have the second one.

At dinner, the pancake was cooked at a grill in front of us, and then served by plopping it on the end of the grill where it continued to cook and stay warm. We cut the pancake with a sharp spatula, and then we served ourselves onto a small plate.

The counter space where we sat was about 6″ deep, so we had to be very careful not to burn ourselves. The seats were very low stools, and let’s just say balancing was a wobbly adventure.

These pancakes are huge, and as I said Hubby and I split one. I didn’t finish my half, but the skinny little tour guide that probably weighed 100 pounds soaking wet finished a whole one before Hubby finished his half!!

After that, she took us for dessert!

I just groaned, but Hubby was game.

A big kiosk was selling fish custards. It was a waffle shaped like a good luck seabream and filled with hot custard. Since the dessert was scalding hot, Hubby took it back to the ship to eat later. I did have a bite while it was still warm, and it was surprisingly good!

When the tour ended Hubby called a taxi using the Uber app. While there aren’t Ubers in Japan, the Uber app can be used to call a taxi as the Go app used heavily within Japan requires a Japanese phone number. If you don’t have an app, hailing a taxi is fairly easy – think old school NYC hand wave. That is what we did after the art studio, but going back to the ship Hubby preferred inputting an address into the Uber app and paying that way. He felt there was no confusion doing that and no possible language barrier.

All-in-all it was a great day and we had a fabulous experience.

Our second day in Hiroshima came two weeks later while on the Celebrity ship.

Hubby booked a food tour with Get Locals. We were to meet in Alice Park. Little did we realize at the time of booking that that was where our last Hiroshima food tour ended!!

This was basically the same food tour we took last time we were in Hiroshima minus all alcohol, and it was not as well executed, with a “local” who didn’t live in the area (she lived an hour away). We were her first tour. She was sweet girl from Pakistan who really didn’t know the ins-and-outs of the area.

Chatting with her was interesting, however. We got the perspective of someone who had lived in Japan for three years – with her husband who was on a student visa (and she had had a baby while in Japan), and what it was like for them living in Japan but not being Japanese.

She agreed with Hubby that the Japanese flavor palate was “interesting.”

She wasn’t willing to push us to try anything crazy, but we did have tempura udon, gyoza that was light and delicious, and mochi (blech) as well as a good coffee. We passed on rice concoctive and eel.

When we arrived, she had gifted us a box of mochi. When we left, she gave us each a cookie. I neglected to take a photo of the cookie wrapper which was a very good thing. That was one of the best cookie treats I have ever had. If I knew what they were, I’d have purchased more. And I do not need cookie calories. As it was, I ate them both and Hubby (the original cookie monster) never got one.

This post is getting rather long, so I will break my Japan write-up for now and continue on in a different city next write-up.

Our other stops on this long vacation:

● South Korea 4 Days: Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Jeju Island
● Our One-Day Taiwan Itinerary
● Hong Kong, China | Our Day Trip
● One Week in Vietnam: Our 7-Day Adventure
● Short Stay in Thailand: Elephants, Food & Cultural Gems
● Our Two Days in Singapore: Itinerary & AttractionsBali, Indonesia | Two Days on the Island
● Adelaide to Perth: Our Australia Travel Stops
● Two Days in Melbourne, Australia: Our Itinerary
● Two Days in Tasmania: Short Stay Itinerary
● Exploring New Zealand North Island
● Auckland, New Zealand – Sightseeing and Our Itinerary

● For more travel posts on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

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