We started the day early. Really early. We had a 6:45 train to catch, and since the Japanese are all about being early, my host dad said, "Well you'd better get up at 5:40. I'll drive you." So I woke up at 5:40, and again at 5:45, 5:50, 5:55 and finally, for the last time at 6:00.
The train we caught was the Kamome, which is the second fastest train service in Japan, after the Shinkansen (bullet train). It was really nice; plush leather seats and quiet cars with big windows to look out of. Well, at least they were quiet before we came in. LOL NOISY FOREIGNERS HOW RUDE.
On the way over, we caught the sunrise over the ocean. The pictures I took of it are a little weird; they kinda look more like a sunset, but believe me, it's a sunrise. The reason why I set it that way was because if I had taken the photo with a brighter sky, the sun's color would have been totally washed out. And really, the best part of the sunrise was the sun's brilliant orange. However, after the sunrise lost our attention, there was really only a bunch of hot air balloons over a factory (like eight of them, I could only get two in the photo) to distract us for the rest of the two-hour ride.
After getting into Fukuoka, the first thing we did was make our way to Ohashi Machi and find a tattoo parlor we saw online. I was going with four other people, and three of them were going to Fukuoka pretty much just to get a tat. I didn't get one for three reasons; 1) It was expensive 2) I'm pretty sure Rotary would not have appreciated it and 3) I wasn't sure of what I would get. Just getting a tattoo without knowing for sure you want it is pretty dumb. Some would say that it is a pretty taboo thing todoo (do you see what I did there).
Unfortunately, we got there early. Really early. We waited around for almost half an hour until ten, when the place should have opened, but nobody opened up shop. After a while we finally called the guys, and they said to come back at 11, so we went for some food and came back. They told us that they would be able to get all three tattoos done in a row if we returned at 4, but any earlier they would have problems with other appointments coming in. We agreed that this would be a good idea. I happened to see that they had a Futura Labs sticker up on their door, so I asked them where it was before we left, just to make sure I had the right place written on my map, but when they marked down where they thought it was, it was in a completely different town than I had marked. I figured that they would be right because, well, they live in the city, so I followed their directions.
Turns out they were completely wrong. I was right. However, even though we followed their instructions and walked quite a ways out of our way, it wasn't a complete loss because I found the only CitiBank branch in the city, and the only one I've managed to find anywhere. Oh, and uh we saw the Evisu store too, which is alright...I guess...sort of...Evisu sucks
I was really happy to find the CitiBank branch because pretty much it's the closest one to me, and I figured I could get my traveller's cheques changed there, and get some money out of my account. Well, as it turned out, the one day I chose to travel to Fukuoka also happened to be the day that all the banks decided to close their vaults, so no cheque changing. The ATM worked though, which was good...I guess...sort of...
The Evisu store was really just odd. Evisu itself is already just kind of meh (selvedge jeans with no selvedge edge? that pair with the tons of back pockets? the entire Evisu Genes line?) and this store really only had two things that truly interested me: a bunch of stuffed animals including a tiger (most likely fake), an armadillo, and some lizards and more, and a bunch of fishing equipment. There was a golf bag made out of denim there as well as other sports-related clothing, but I guess it didn't really seem all that weird in context with the tons of fishing rods and lures. Also, a fishing jacket made of denim. I would rant about how dumb some of these ideas are, but I'd just start talking a bunch of denim terms and all making me look like either a big douche or a big dumb with too much time to read about, uh, jeans.
After leaving the Evisu store and walking in the general direction of the supposed location of the stores I wanted to visit, we came across an area of town with quite a few stores. Most of them were stocked with American stuff, because the Japanese are in love with American clothes and pop culture, though you wouldn't know it by looking at your average Japanese hipster, because their clothes are absolutely ridiculous, or sometimes, just depressingly bad.
While walking around, we got distracted by a mannequin of Colonel Sanders off in an alleyway. Normally a mannequin of Colonel Sanders wouldn't be all too surprising because they have one in front of every KFC here, but this one was special; he was black. Some store owner must have acquired this guy somehow and decided to paint his skin brown, give him a pink suit and blue eyes. We went into the store that the mannequin was promoting, and inside I learned exactly how to run a successful thrift store in Japan; just buy stuff from H&M, cross out the price and charge three times as much. It seemed to be working out for those guys.
We also happened upon an XLarge store in the area, but that was actually kind of disappointing. There were some cool snakeskin Puma Clydes in there, but pretty much everything else was a button-down shirt. I'm not really a button-down shirt kind of guy, so that wasn't all too exciting for me. They did, however, have some rad plush spray-cans.
In some other store, I found an AMAZING belt. It was a pirate-themed belt complete with treasure chests and parrots, and I would be wearing it right now if it was anything bigger than a size 30. In the same store, I also found some great pins and buttons, which served as a good consolation prize. It was weird though; a bunch of the pins that the store had were centered around Vietnam. Like, every other pin I picked out of the dish was either VIET-VET or VIETNAM GREEN BERET or POW/MIA. No idea what the deal with that was. Maybe the Japanese government is subtly trying to introduce the idea of WE NEVER LOST THAT DANG WAR before they start the high school presentations stating that Vietnam was a "political defeat" not a "military defeat". Boots on the ground. Ah, Memories (horrible ones).
Finally, we got to the Stussy/Futura Labs store. Stussy was alright, but they didn't have any of the great colorways I had seen earlier in Nagasaki. I was there mostly for FL, and damn, did it deliver. First of all, Futura seems to have some sort of obsession going on with track bikes right now (sort of like all NYC/SF hipsters) so the whole store had a bunch of track bikes around the stairway, and tons of shirts with biking themes. All of those things rocked. Also, there was a TV playing some biking races. That was a little less rocking. Much more of a swaying motion from that one. The most rockingest thing in the store though, was a belt. It was blue beyond belief. I took a picture of it, but it doesn't do the color justice. Something about it was just so bold that it jumped out of itself and ate your face off (in a good way). However, it was about 100 USD so uh, yeah I didn't get it. As much as I wanted to get it, I don't think I could live with myself if I impulse-bought a belt if it didn't come with at least a half-way decent buckle, even if the color was amazing. That is too much. That is going too far.
After visiting all these stores, we were running short on time, so we made our way back to Ohashi Machi to get to the tattoo parlor on time. However, it's really not a good idea to go get a tattoo without having eaten (something about going into shock and blood sugar levels and all that) so we hurried to find a place to eat. We eventually found a yakiniku place (korean barbeque) with about half an hour left. We ordered quickly, and inhaled the food when it came to the table. We paid super fast and dashed out the door towards the tattoo parlor. We hurried as fast as we could because we only had about ten minutes to get there, and it was probably about fifteen minutes away by walking. Somehow, we managed to get to the place on time, and everyone got their tattoos. They all turned out well, and everyone was happy with what they got.
Afterwards, we went to look for one last store which was completely out of our way where we were walking before. Of course, finding it on our own was completely impossible because Japanese addresses are totally messed up (I'll explain them once I understand them which will be never). I even tried asking several store owners where I could find the place, but they couldn't figure out where it was, because really the only way you can find a Japanese address is with a huge map of the city, which nobody had. Finally, we found someone who was willing to call up the store (I had the number) and talk to the guy to find out where it was. He even walked us there. What a rad dude.
The store, SDI, was pretty cool. They had a couple of nice Nikes in there, including the Doom Dunks and woodgrain dunks. I was looking for one thing in particular (the Rocksmith Barack Obama shirt) but it turned out they didn't have it. Not too surprising because while searching for the store that would carry it on the internet, I just came across a ton of Japanese I didn't understand, so I just clicked whatever looked right. I guess I should try harder next time. However, the store seemed like a mini version of the type of stores I like back home; they even had copies of Frank 151 magazine. Unfortunately, seeing as it is Japan, they were charging for them so uh, no thanks.
After all this, we finally headed back to the train station to have dinner and get back on the last train to Isahaya. Got back at like 11:30 or so. Full day.
NOTE: That one guy from the previous post with all the weird clothes? Don't worry, he's totally fine; those shorts are Batman-themed. That makes everything okay.
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