Tardis

 First inkling was this.

Lucy and I came across it on our walk. Finally they were going to start on a satellite tower. It was nearly two years ago that signs went up explaining about it and giving people two months notice to voice their opinions.

The next day.

Three big poles.

They have since been put up making one large tower, from the top of our road,can just see the very top of the tower. There is a fence around it now and they have been doing some ground work with a small escator not sure when we will get better reception.

Breakfasts in Japan.

 For our first week in Tokyo, breakfast was available at the hotel for 1500 yen about $18. Bought a ticket at reception and handed it in to a worker at breakfast who would then give over a tray to collect your meal. It was a buffet with hot and cold dishes plus cereal and toast or pastries. Tea, coffee and fruit juices.

We would mainly meet up for breakfast and discuss our plans for the day. Breakfast was available between 7am and 10am. 

At Kanazawa, there had been a cafe operating next door but it was closed. We bought stuff from the family mart a few metres from the hotel. One other place had breakfast for 2400 about $27 but they were fully booked. A small western style cafe was just next door that served coffee and cheese on toast among other things.

Hiroshima's hotel included breakfast, very nice hot meal but as Warren discovered no cereal, he made up for it with eggs bacon and toast.

Fukuoka had the nicest breakfast in a side street about 500 metres away.

Smashed avo on sour dough bread with a small glass of something almost like a sherry and a large coffee was 1100 yen, about $12. Not sure what else they served, it was very good.

This was our actual meal, very filling

The second morning we were there and it was wet, all the umbrellas were the workers who were coming to work and leaving their umbrellas in the hallway. Lots of well dressed young women, some young men but we couldn't work out what type of place it was, no signage although behind the cafe were displays of wedding dresses. They disappeared in lifts. Retail stores did not open until 10am, this was just before 9am.

 

Hexagon cardigan.

 Last week at crocheting, one of the ladies makes these and another member wanted to make one. First member doesn't have an actual pattern but told us what she does.

Starts with a six sided granny square and continues until large enough, does a second, adds a couple of rows to one side of each and pulls another side in for the sleeve cuff.

Pam who is on a par with me, we do basic stuff and don't or can't read patterns, made one in two days. I thought if Pam can do that I should be able to as well.

I started a new one on Sunday while watching footy, it's pretty mindless once the six sides are established. Dah dah, finished last night, just luck as the wool ran out. Need to attach buttons.

 

Used a whole skein of the blue, 200gms. 

The caramel was left over from another project and I bought two small balls of wool in Japan and the colour matched. 

Cabbage pancakes

 This had some other name that started with an O but I couldn't say it. We saw it advertised on a restaurant that we drove past, did a U ie and went back. 

Very traditional building and once they established that there were four of us, we were taken to the back of the restaurant and shown a low table with cushions about two inches off the ground, we all shook our heads, no way could we get down or up again. It did seem that there were only two such tables in the whole place.

Thankfully we were led back to a normal table with bench seats, the table had a large hot plate in the middle. Menu had pictures and then there was an instruction sheet, one side Japanese, the other English on how to cook. 

Our meal arrived in like a ceramic bowl, it looked like shredded cabbage two or three eggs and flour, possibly other stuff. Point one said to mix together for a couple of minutes. When the waitress took our order, she turned on the hot plate. Point two was put oil on plate when it was 180 degrees, there was a small bowl with a couple of blocks of I thought coconut oil. Point three tip mixture on to plate and mould into a round, turn after three minutes then three minutes on the other side.

We did peek at the other patrons to check that we were doing it right or at least not too wrong.

This was the bowl that was brought to the table.

Hot plate

Finished result, there were three different sauces to put on top, one was like mayonnaise one soy sauce and the other a hot sauce. Luckily we had only ordered one between us and it was quite big and filling.

Whoops bit out of sequence, during cooking.

I did say that it was filling but the boys decided that they needed dessert.

Think the cost was about 3800 yen or $41 for four, not bad.

Road trip.

 Headed out of Fukuoka for a couple of days driving in the country. So beautiful and green, we stayed off the main highways, most of those are tollways. The roads we were on were good with few trucks and buses on them. 

One place we visited was the kamakarski training school. That was rather sad and had photos of all the young pilots they were aged between 19 and 24.

A very long tunnel that we drove through.

Countryside

Public toilets with a chair for a toddler to sit in while mum is using the toilet, Warren told that they were in the men's as well, not all but there would be one or two in a block.

Streets of Japan.

 Just fun to wander along and see some familiar things and signs and also some weird (to us) things as well.

Not sure if I took a photo but it was very common to see drink vending machines on the streets. I guess they were powered by the nearest store but they were left on the streets 24/7. Great if it was hot, just a couple of coins and a cold drink would roll out. 

Always something to see and marvel at.

No smoking signs were out and it was rare to see anyone smoking on the streets, if they were, it was tourists smoking.

Often a shrine would on on the side of the road/footpath.

This was a cafe just down from our hotel called Fuk coffee. I am assuming it was because we were in Fukuoka, pronounced Foo koo ka, not how I managed it once. One of our party suggested that they only served tea.

Then there was this sign, under the triangle it states it's a Crack House. No idea what it was about but the mind boggles.

 

Fruit and veg market

 This was nearly twokilometre walk from our hotel but I had heard about the mosaic tiles that were on the floor of the market. At least all the walking was reasonably flat and it was almost like walking Lucy except where she stops to sniff, we had to stop to cross roads.

We have to locate these and then put them in order to get the coordinates. Took photos, had lunch and made our way back to hotel.

Tried to find cache a few days later to no avail. I was interested in the process, bonus would have been a cache.