Aquarium

High-flying dolphin

Today we decided we needed a Tom day as he has been very good the last two days battling with jet lag and being dragged round shops etc.  Plus he's had to contend with learning to be a good Japanese boy in the apartment - i.e. not jumping, shouting, stamping,  etc etc as we have neighbours both to the left and right and upstairs and downstairs.  It is very hard for a 7 year old who's always been able to be loud at home to understand - but he's getting there (slowly!).

We all had a better night's sleep last night - took a while to get off, but once I did, I didn't wake up until 5am - which has been normal for me this past month or so.  Matt managed about an hour longer.  We had a lie in until around 9am and then had breakfast before heading out to Hakata Station to get the local train to Uminonakamichi - where there is an aquarium.

The place was completely deserted, almost eerie in fact.  We got there just in time to see their dolphin and sea lion show, lots of splashes and oohs and ahhhhs, Tom enjoyed it.  We then went for a look around the aquarium, saw all the usual things, including some real live Fugu (the puffer fish which is a delicacy here, even though some of it is poisonous and about 30 people die from eating it each year!)  There were some enormous moray eels and of course the best tank was the big tank full of sharks, rays and 20,000 sardines all swimming round in a bait ball - looking like a silver chandelier.

Photobombed by a turtle

We found the restaurant and had a great lunch - katsu curry for Matt, a special children's meal for Tom with all his favourites: tomato pasta, ebi, hamburger, karaage etc. udon noodles in a soup for me I am making a concerted effort to remain as healthy as possible this holiday by eating as much fruit and veg as possible.  Shame as my favourite Japanese foods are the fried foods (tempera, ebi fry, karaage etc), but I figure health should come before enjoyment - boring though it may seem!  Anyway considering there were very few people at the aquarium, the menu on offer was amazing and the quality of the food very good.

We finished off at the aquarium and then headed to the ferry terminal to get a boat back across the bay to Fukuoka, only to find we had to wait an hour.  We went for a walk and found a beach, so hung out there.  Tom got into full digging mode - sand went flying everywhere and before we knew it the hour was up and we had to go and get the boat.

Playing on the beach

The boat took us to Momochi - which is home to the Fukuoka Dome which is the home ground for the Fukuoka Soft Bank Hawks -the local baseball team (did you know that baseball is really really big in Japan).  Matt went to the ticket office to get some tickets for a game on 5th April.  This will be Tom's first major sporting event.  Apparently baseball games in Japan are very family friendly so it should be a good introduction.  Tickets only cost £30 for the three of us - so slightly less than the equivalent in the UK - Premiership Football tickets.

Japanese footballer

We then headed back to Hakata Station on the bus - took ages, but it was nice to see the hustle and bustle of the city.  We went shopping for Tom and found a very reasonably priced Japan Football Kit - so snapped it up immediately.  Then a 3 o'clock tea and a bun (I had a very strange apple and sweet cream cheese bun thingy) before heading home for baths and to start the dreaded scrapbook.  It didn't start well - we had tears and frustration on both sides, but after a false start it was OK.  It is a pain to do - but sooooo good to look back on and is proof to the school that we aren't irresponsible parents taking Tom out of school with no educational recompense.

"Nanbantei" - an excellent local eatery

At 6pm we headed out for tea.  Now this is when having a very lovely fluent husband comes into its own.  We ended up in a local izakaya (a sort of restaurant/bar hybrid) where we had lots of bits and pieces: chicken wings, Japanese omelette, tofu, pork and bamboo shoots, stuffed peppers and others.  It would be impossible to eat in these places without a Japanese speaker as there is no English anywhere and no models to point at.  It means we get to know the locals, and pay a fraction of the price of anything from a 'tourist' restaurant.