Almost exactly a year ago, I was heading to Hong Kong for the 2018 iteration of the conference. On that occasion, Super Typhoon Mangkhut had just hit the city, and I witnessed its aftermath as the city’s services were in the middle of clearing up the damage caused. It seems September is typhoon season for this North-East Asia:
A colleague who was still in Fukuoka yesterday evening reported that there was indeed rain and very strong winds in the city. I was planning to head back to Fukuoka on this 23 Sep morning today, but was also ready to delay my return from Hiroshima by a few hours if need be in case Typhoon Tapah lingered near Fukuoka. As luck would have it, the weather cleared up considerably at Fukuoka by mid-morning, which meant that it was safe to catch the 9:34AM Shinkansen back to the city. According to train displays, selected services in the Yamaguchi were disrupted though, and I’m guessing this would be cities further north in the prefecture.
Still, Fukuoka city was experiencing rain when I arrived at 10:37AM. The itinerary I’d planned would see visits to Marine World and Uminonakamichi Seaside Park today, locations that are just over an hour away by train. But I gave up on that after taking one look at the rain and overall cloudy weather – and ended up staying in Fukuoka city itself to window-shop in the several large malls clustered around Hakata Station. To clarify: I was looking to buy presents for the kids, and also checking out the numerous book stores to see if I could find Yukie Nishimura’s piano song books. No such luck on the latter though – all the stores I’ve visited this trip have plenty of her audio CDs in stock, but none of her song books.
I came across a demonstration of nano-coating protection layers for mobile devices while exploring the multi-level Tokyo Hands store inside JR Hakata City, and decided to get these specialists to apply a coating to my Oppo Reno 10x Zoom. These are fairly pricey protection layers whether done in Japan or Singapore, but they reportedly offer some of the hardiest protections you can get for smartphones, and with little of the drawbacks you suffer when applying normal tempered glass protectors you buy off the shelf.
That was a wrap for Day 09 – a relatively sedate day, in part also to give my legs a bit more time to recover before Day 10’s itinerary in Yanazawa and Dazaifu. To be continued!
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