The Search for Indoor Skiing
We heard there was an indoor ski center in Fukuoka, so we went looking for it.
Along the way, we found... a boat race gambling facility! It seems that the races were out of town that day, but there were a few hundred people there watching the races on the facility's big screens anyhow. We stayed to watch for a little while.
And then we discovered... a building and some trucks that someone apparently mistook for the city of Chicago. Too bad they bought the signs before anyone was able to correct them.
Then we found... Hakata Pier. Although there were some people fishing here and it has a bunch of palm trees on it, the pier is not what I'd call glamorous. But! It does have a cool little 1-room museum that explains the basics of international trade by sea, and Hakata Port's role in the system.
Next, we discovered... a neighborhood in the Hakata-side of Fukuoka that where several shrines, lots of beautiful traditional-style homes, and even a Buddhist Temple stand. This first picture is a shrine: make sure to zoom in and see the raked gravel "lawn!" The second picture is the Temple, and the third is an ordinary road in this area.
Unfortunately though, when we finally found the indoor skiing facility, we discovered that it seems to have gone out of business.
Oh, well. We had a great day exploring anyhow. Isn't Japan lucky to have us here to discover all these interesting places? Otherwise they'd probably go undiscovered for years, or centuries maybe. Clearly they need us.
