Nokonoshima

One of the places I opted out of trying last year was Nokonoshima, a small island about 10 minutes by ferry from Fukuoka. The major draw at Nokonoshima seems to be the park and flower gardens but it is a place with much more to offer.

We started out with a quick walk from our house near fujisaki station down the river and across the bridge to Atago beach where the ferry terminal dits at the end. A trip that is about 2.5 km from my jogging experience. Once there it is simply laid out in English how much to pay to get to Nokonoshima which is 220 yen for an adult and 110 for a child one way. Double that for round trip. No discounts here. Once you have your tickets in hand it's a simple matter of waiting for the ferry to arrive. We met an interesting guy from Madrid named Guillermo or william as he used for his English name. Apparently he and his buddy take trips every year and they separated so he could check out Fukuoka. His buddy Tokyo. Having not spoke Spanish for some time I attempted to speak in Spanish only for him to reply in English. I quickly got the hint that while I wanted to work on my Spanish he wanted to work on his English.
Since I didn't care that much I relented. We had a good conversation about Japan, the US and Spain in general. Nice guy but we left him at the docks in Nokonoshima. While he went towards the bus route we took a left and headed towards the walking path of which we were the only ones.

After a whole 1 minute of walking we were immediately forced to stop so Di and KK could check out the popped rice making. They also had samples and sales. Upon noticing the foreigners he immediately walked up to Kaitlyn and placed what can best be describe as a wad of puffed rice in her hands which made all of us smile. We bought a bit of the rice snack that looked and tasted like cereal and proceeded. The walk was quite beautiful although uneventful for the bulk of four KM save the rare arm length earth worm and a wasp dragging a spider body 10 times it's size across the path. To make it clear Nokonoshima is actually only 12KM in circumference so it's not a big place but with the hills it did take us a while to get up the trail.

At the peak of the trail we met a nice Japanese man who appeared to be walking his dogs. We stopped to pet them and he began asking us questions in English about where we were from. After a quick chat he informs us he is going with his family to his fathers monument about 50 meters up a dirt trail. Turns out this nice man's father was a man named Dan Kazuo who was a very important Japanese author(there is even monuments to him in Santa Cruz California). We ask him what the inscriptions says which turns out to be a beautiful poem he wrote on his death bed. He talks in brief and we admire the monument which will be perhaps the bet view we encounter on Nokonoshima island. The man nicely let's KK walk the dog back to his car and we say our goodbyes as we head up towards the Noko park.

Inside the park is exactly what we expected and why we came for the trip beautiful views, intricately cut trees, wonderful flower paths and some rabbits and goats. At one point we take a quick break to get some udon(Which I can know read in hiragana) inside a restaurant that is ran by a bunch of old women. We order our food and sit to dine. Kk decides that the easiest way to eat her cold noodles is to pretend to be Italian an wrap them around her chopsticks apparently this alerts that she is not Japanese and they hurriedly bring her a fork which she declines puzzling the woman. The woman leaves bad brings her back tea and such. People in Japan are extremely kind. We finish up and the woman returns and we point out Kk's stomach which has now expanded and rounded. We all have a good laugh at this sight. The woman, still laughing walks over to me and rubs the roundness of my stomach and Di, Kk an the kitchen staff all about fall over in fits of laughter. Apparently i'm full too.
We end the day by touring the cosmos, feeding the rabbits and taking a bus back to the ferry. All in all a great way to spend the day and a location we look forward to going back to soon.

See below for a link to the pictures from Photo Guide Di.