Top Morning Market? What?

One place we sorta regret of making a detour for was the Yobuko Morning Market (呼子の朝市) at the northern tip of Saga Prefecture. According to the guidebook, it's one of the "Top 3 Morning Markets" in Japan with street vendors lining up the entire block selling seafood and other fresh or prepared food produce, with many literally just unloaded off the fishing boat onto the dork at the port every morning. So we decided to take a look before we head down to Arita in the south.

Ryokan by the Park

Accommodation in Miyajima was the part we confirmed last, done just a week before our departure. I scratched the original plan of staying in a larger hotel and instead make a last-minute reservation at Iwaso, a cozier ryokan a few steps up at the foot of the mountain not far away from the Itsukushima Shrine and the famous floating torii-gate, both of which part of the UNESCO world heritage site.

Hiroshima's Okonomiyaki

I guess not having Okonomiyaki while travelling in Hiroshima would be like going to Philadelphia without trying Phillies Cheese Steak. As soon as we hopped back to Hiroshima from the nearby Miyajima Island and checked in to our hotel there, first thing we did was to look for a place to try this symbolic street food famous in this town.

Seiromushi Pit Stop

With time to spare on our last day of the journey before catching the return flight home from Fukuoka early evening, we made a slight detour to visit the town of Kashima right near the boundary between Saga and Nagasaki prefectures for a morning stroll along the quiet path known as Sakagura Dori, or Sake Breweries Street, lined with sake breweries housed in old buildings dated back to the late Edo period.

Then we headed north and stopped by the town of Saga on our way for a quick lunch at Kira, a restaurant specializes in beef cuisine. The restaurant, with a few branches around Kyushu and in Tokyo in addition to its original Saga location, is owned by JA Saga, the regional farm cooperatives. They are the champions for fresh farm products from the region, especially Saga Beef, perhaps their best known export famous for the rich wagyu meat taste and marbled fat.

In Search of the Best Fried Chicken

Fried chicken was probably not what the doctor prescribed as I was still nursing a bit of a flu and recovering from a redeye flight home less than 24 hours ago, but I joined a few others at Jinjuu at Lan Kwai Fong earlier this week to judge at the "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner" and see who won the bragging right for having the "Best Fried Chicken in Hong Kong".