Fukuoka Fun

Japan had this great thing called the Birthday Deal. When it is your birthday you can fly anywhere you would like in Japan, accomanied by three friends, for the set price of about $200.

This weekend was Nina and Seans birthday so a group of us headed to the sunny island of Kyushu on the southern tip of mainland Japan. We flew into Fukuoka on Friday evening. Nina is uber orgranized and had printed out a list of restaurants and bars that were a must see, so we spent the first night scoping out the scene. We went to this great Mexican restaurant called Arena. The food was delicious and cheap and they hold latin dancing lessons on Friday so the place was packed with dancers. What a fun place! We even pulled out our own dance moves to entertain the bar. Our moves included the classics such as the lawn mower, shopping cart, sprinkler and window washer.

We followed up Arena with a place called FuBar. This place was cool and was owned/run by an ex teacher of english from England who loved Japan so much he opened a bar. The neat thing about this place was that before 11 you got to flip a coin to determine whether or not you paid for your drink- soo fun! I got my first 2 drinks free then got overconfident and flipped for two drinks at a time (one for me and one for nina) and lost - booo! But 4 for the price of 2 is still a good deal. We continued our steller dancing here and dominated the floor!

On Saturday a group of us took a train to Nagasaki for the day. We walked around and saw the A-Bomb museum, bomb hypcenter, one legged tori gate and a peace statue. Wow- I thought it was a peculiar statue, but whatever floats your boat! One of the neatest places we visited was a turtle temple. Oh yes-- it was a full size temple in the shape of a turtle...only in Japan I tell ya!

One of the most significant events of the weekend was Nina and Seans Engagement. yup...they are tying the knot! Apparently Iwaki is a magnet for married and attatched people! This important milestone added to the fun of the night! Congrats you two!!

The weekend was a sucess and Fukuoka is a neat city that I would love to visit again! Yeh for Birthday deals and friends that share!