I arrived in Fukuoka via shinkansen last Saturday afternoon. I decided to stay in a capsule hotel for the first time. In fact I don’t think that I had any other alternative, because all of the hotels seemed fully booked. It was like staying at a nice hotel, with lots of facilities and a restaurant, but your room is only about 2 cubic metres in size. Capsule hotels would be a pretty good option for men wanting to stay out drinking until after the last train, becaues it’s cheaper than a long taxi ride home (it was only about 3000 yen). However, it would not be a good option for singles on the prowl because of the men only policy and lack of privacy.
I went out to explore the town, and thought that it might be a good idea to find the school in preparation for Monday (I had nothing else to do). Whilst walking around Tenjin (the downtown area) with a map in hand a Japanese man about the same age as me offered to help me find the school. After we found the school he invited me to an izakaya to meet some of his friends. His friends (3 guys and 3 girls) were having a {goukon{, which is an opportunity for singles to meet people of the opposite sex outside of their normal friendship group (a {dating party{ just doesn’t sound right to me). After the goukon I went with the Japanese man I had met on the street to some kind a Cuban dancing bar/club. We met up with a girl, who I think was his girlfriend, which allayed some of the fears that I had about my new Japanese friend’s intentions.
So a good start so far. Fukuoka seems to be a nice city with a good night life and friendly people.
