The sandy cliffs of Fukuoka

The forecast was calling for rain all day today but in fact it was sunny and hot with hardly a cloud in the sky so the meteorologists got it wrong again.

Ena and I decided to take the opportunity to go for another little bike ride. This time we set off towards the seaside just east of town. There was a little bike trail that I had been wanting to try for a while so we had a go at that.

The trail led us to this little shrine in the woods which we spent a few minutes exploring:
It had a nice dog and horse out front:
This is what the shrine's inner sanctum looks like:
Behind the shrine was a little path through the woods so we left our bikes at the shrine and set off on foot:
The path eventually took us to the beach:
We had never been to this part of the beach before (it runs for dozens of kilometres and we've been to other parts of it before) and we were quite surprised to find these huge sand cliffs that ran along a fair portion of the beach:
They were quite picturesque and we spent a couple of hours walking along them:

A lot of people had carved stuff into the cliff faces, like this (I think its the Loch Ness monster but I'm not sure):
I gave a try at it myself:
Beaches in Japan are invariably covered with fishing equipment that has broken loose and gotten washed ashore:
On the way home from the beach we passed by a cute little temple:
And then home!

Shofuku ji temple and downtown

Ena and I went to Shofukuji temple in town today. Its my favorite temple in Fukuoka, with lots of trees, not many people and some really nice buildings.

We parked our bikes next to this kind of dilapidated old house that I thought was kind of photogenic:

The temple itself is about 800 years old and has quite a bit of green space, this is the main building:
There are two golden Buddha statues inside, this is one I took a picture of while nobody was looking (check out the purple hair):
Here are some more pictures of the temple:


We also went downtown and walked around a bit. We climbed up the Across building, which is a huge modern building that houses a symphony hall. Its about 9 or 10 stories high and on the outside it is covered by a huge garden that goes all the way to the top (it is terraced). There is a path and staircases you can follow through to the top:

Kittens! And another bike trip!

One of the stray cats that lives around the kaikan had a litter of kittens the other day. This is one of them peering curiously out from behind a bush:
There are five of them total, all cute:
In other news, Ena and I went out to Ikinomatsubara on Sunday, where the Mongol invasion wall ruins are. It was quite a long bike ride. We stopped at a huge outlet mall along the way and Ena got me a nice shirt. The weather was great, really sunny:

Ena in front of the wall:
The two of us: