FUKUOKA TO OSAKA

I was most previously in Fukuoka in 2018 to attend a hydrogen conference, when Kyushu University paid expenses for me to give the invited lecture.  I also asked if they could take me to a fugu restaurant.  Here are two fugu testicles.  Note:  each is bigger than a lemon wedge.  And the fish is not much larger than a grapefruit.  I also took a tour of Fukuoka with colleagues from the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute.

So yesterday we first had an excellent breakfast in the Ritz Carlton Club Lounge.

Then, off to Ohori Park, which was only one subway stop away.

Met by my Blue-bar Pigeon.

Started kind of gloomy, for the weather was threatening and it was cold.

I was watching this black duck of some kind, who now and then dived underwater.  Finally, he caught a fish that was several inches long, and had difficulty swallowing it.

Other sights.

Two foxes and Fall Colors.

A nice outing and some good walking,  Back to our Club Lounge, where I am cranking out this blog.

Dinner was with a Hess Cabernet and some champagne.

I then followed mostly with Chivas Mizunara and Absolute Elyx.

Ended with a combo of Kahlua, Bailey's and Cognac, with something.

Walked 6574 steps today.

Next morning for breakfast, two courses, with  beer.

Then a Japanese breakfast.

Then a taxi to Hakata Station to catch the Sakura Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka Station.

Getting frugal, for my train meal came from the hotel.

The Fall Colors are slowly getting more intense.

The leaning castle of ?

They actually have graffiti in Japan.

I should also add that there is still a lot of industry in Japan, and here is a typical view.

Arrived in Shin-Osaka and caught s subway train to our hotel area.  The Marriott Miyako Hotel is conveniently at Tenjin Station.  Rimu, a Frenchie, and owner, shared an elevator ride with us.

I wondered why everyone on our train was female.  Then saw the sign across from me that this car was only for females.

I didn't get kicked out.  The Marriott Miyako Osaka is high up on a 54 story building next to the subway station.

Our corner room views are spectacular.

Went to the Executive Lounge and had a snack with beer.

I'll end here and spend some time tomorrow on Osaka.

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MIYAZAKI TO FUKUOKA

The Sheraton Grand Ocean Resort is not quite in Miyazaki, but the city does have a population of 400,000.  Fukuoka, has 1.54 million people, more than the whole state of Hawaii, which has around 1.44 million,

Having to wake up at 5AM, we had a quick breakfast, caught a taxi to Miyazaki Station, and boarded the train to Oita.

We took this longer route because we once came to Miyazaki from Fukuoka using this slower path and saw the most spectacular Fall Colors in our life.  Unfortunately, my camera was on the wrong setting, and we did not get much.  However, reminiscent of Hokkaido, there was not much to view this time.  A few mountain settings where the colors were just beginning to change, an occasional wow scene, but not that overwhelming display of nature we earlier experienced.  On this trip:

Train whizzing past a tree.

We had a scary transfer at Oita.  When our Miyazaki train arrived, there was our Sonic train waiting, with the exact car number on our ticket just across the way.  So we casually got on, thinking we had 38 minutes to get settled, trot out to buy bentos and such. However, as soon as we got on this second train, the doors closed and the train started to move.  Turned out that our train was the next one leaving in a little more than half an hour.  On the JR, they are not particularly helpful to idiots, and the conductor said we had to get off at the next stop at Beppu....PERIOD!  So how do we get back to the Oita Station to catch our Sonic?  Well, we were then told to get off and catch our train when it later arrives at Beppu Station.  The route of these two trains is the same.  The real danger is that, back at the Oita Station, one of us could have gotten off the train to buy the food and drinks, not realizing the other would be stuck with all the luggage.  If this first train had waited another few minutes, this would have happened.  There is a whole range of worst case endings, we later laughed about, but our fate today turned out okay, just stressful.

At Beppu, we had some time, so I bought a soba lunch, and the ride to Fukuoka was fine.

At the Hakata Station (there is no Fukuoka Sation) we were told to use a Suica card to catch the Airport subway going in the opposite direction and get off at at a certain station.  Wrong.  We had a long walk to the Ritz Carlton.  Next time, back to Hakata, we'll catch a cab.  Well after all that, here we were, in front of the Ritz Carlton Fukuoka.

Checking in was classy, by being shown to a table where they poured us a drink of something colorful.

But our reservation was askance, so after a lengthy hassle, we compromised, and got an excellent room and access to the Club Lounge, which might well be the best we ever experience.  First our room view, and here you actually can see some Fall Colors.

The Club Lounge has a full bar, and, get this, serves FREE breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and a dessert session.  Plus, you can drink anything beginning at breakfast.  We spent many hours here.

Our first night for dinner at the Club Lounge.  We also had around six drinks, each.

Walked 6932 steps today.  But I noticed that that the click-clack of the train also sometimes registers on my pedometer.

The Ritz Carlton Fukuoka only opened a few months ago.  It is a truly fine hotel.  My posting tomorrow will focus on our visit to Ohori Park in Fukuoka, and more in the Club Lounge, plus our Shinkansen trip from Hakata to Osaka, our next stop.

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MIYAZAKI

Tried to get a tour to visit the wagyu beef farm, sturgeon caviar facility and mango orchards, but they have no such thing.  So the next best thing is to send you to some of my earlier visits to Miyazaki.  As for example, this was in 2015:

     
GAWA Day #7:  Miyazaki Wagyu Beef--THE BEST STEAK IN THE WORLD

Miyazaki Wagyu has won various awards from the industry, including the most honoured "National Wagyu Award" by the Wagyu Registry Association in Japan. The award, also known as the "Wagyu's Academy Award", is given to the best cattle once every five years. Each time, more than 400 wagyu from some 30 places of origin would compete in the event which is attended by imperial family members. The beef are judged by their colour, fat distribution, meat fibres and taste. The National Wagyu Award has now gone to Miyazaki Wagyu two consecutive times meaning it has held the reigns for ten years! With its outstanding meat quality and breeding ability, the Miyazaki Wagyu won the "Prime Minister Award" in 2007. They also beat the beef from Kobe and Matsuzaka and became the overall winner - winning seven out of the nine contests - at the event. Miyazaki Wagyu has been called "Japan's Number One Beef" ever since. 

Also stopped by Miyazaki in 2016.  This was at Florante Miyazaki:

The beer and steak cost me $16.  This was an ideal late lunch, for I have a 9PM dinner at the Sheraton teppanyaki restaurant where Miyazaki Wagyu Beef is featured.

Also, I posted in 2016:     IS MIYAZAKI BECOMING THE EPICUREAN CAPITAL OF THE WORLD.

I wrote about how Miyazaki is now producing caviar, which sells for $225/12 gram.

A third of a century ago--this was in 1983, thus the brand name--the Soviet Union gifted the bester sturgeon to Miyazaki Prefecture as a symbol of friendship.  The Miyazaki Prefectural Fisheries Research Institute located in Kobayashi experimented with the production of caviar.  Eight years later, in 1991, they succeeded in crossbreeding beluga and Acipenser ruthenus. In 2004 they completed the life cycle of white sturgeon from North America, and this became the fish of choice:  Russia zero - America one.  In nature, they can get very large, the biggest ever caught, from Fraser River in British Columbia, weighed in at 1,100 pounds, measuring 12 feet 4 inches:

We all know that the egg is caviar, but most are not familiar with the flesh of the males or females after they are finished with egg-laying.  In Europe, it is known as Royal Fish, and in China, Emperor Fish.  As sturgeon can live for a hundred years, there is also the potential of immortality when you consume this delicacy.  This fish is high in carnosine, said to be effective for preventing dementia.

It takes eight years before a five-foot white sturgeon produces roe, with one laying worth $30,000.  The world caviar industry has mostly crumbled.  Miyazaki could well become the Iran and Russia of the world in the future of high quality caviar.  As recently as 2014 the total production was 132 pounds.  This will increase to 661 pounds this year.  Says Motoo Nakamoto of their caviar cooperative:

Our caviar tastes milder than imported eggs, and their texture is more smooth, like cream. If you have them with sake, it will be perfect.

I earlier mentioned that the Miyazaki mango has gained a special threshold in Japan;

• First grown in 1980, Miyazaki mangoes  are really Irwin mangoes from Florida.

• 
  However, grown in this area, and only in covered greenhouses, the fruit attains a distinctly different taste depending on how they were harvested.
• They purposely remove 80% of the budding fruits to encourage larger size growth.
• When still small, each fruit is wrapped carefully with a net and attached to an overhead wire suspended from the top of the greenhouse.

• 
  The fruit thus turns a deep red, which is consistent throughout the skin, for reflectors are placed to insure that the sunlight strikes the entire fruit.
• The mango is not picked.  They are ready when they fall off the tree, with the net cushioning the fall.
• Peak harvest is between April and August.
• They sell for $50/mango, but at some auctions, a single fruit has fetched $2000.

As far as I know, Miyazaki still has no goose farms for foie gras, nor is there any attempt being made to cultivate truffles.  They have ideal weather conditions to do both.  I should talk to their mayor, who is Tomonori Kiyoyama.

Back to the present, we walked all day, first inside the hotel.  Click on THIS to learn more about the Sheraton Grand Ocean Resort.

Outside the hotel was some kind of major festival of food and entertainment.

BBQing of wagyu,

Ume

Baked yam.

Baked yam line.

Okonomiyaki line.

Across the street was Florante Miyazaki, a spacious botanical park.

Fall colors?

Guess what plant this is?

Broccoli.

As you can see from the photos above, there are these tiny lights everywhere, which means the whole park gets lit up at night.  However, it closes at 5PM.  Huh?  I'm missing something here.

So of course we had to have Miyazaki caviar, wagyu and mango, so we went to Fukami.

Started with a beef broth.

Then 1983 premium Miyazaki caviar.

I ordered abalone.

She had lobster.

Garlic for the steak and end rice dish.

My wagyu meal.

Three endings.  First a cheese sandwich.  Yes, cheese sandwich.  Never saw this before in a teppanyaki.

Then the standard garlic rice with miso soup and tsukemono, with hot brown tea.

Dessert of chocolate cheesecake and Miyazaki mangoes plus musk melon,

Our chefs.

Certainly one of our three finest meals of this Japan adventure.  Fireworks over the Tom Watson golf course to end the night with cognac.  I walked 15,913 steps today, my most ever on this trip.

Tomorrow, off for the Ritz Carlton Fukuoka.  The hotel only opened six months ago, and is rumored to have had start-up problems.  Surely, those days must now be over.

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