On our second last day of the trip, it began to drizzle a little. In fact, this is the rainy season. It rains quite a bit. But it was just a tiny downpour. One first stop was Sengan-en gardens and museum shoko shuseikan.
Sengan-en was a villa of the Shimadzu family that was built in 1658. This garden itself was huge and there were several souvenir shops selling cut-glass, local product, wood-made products and many more. There are also a couple of restaurants too.
The next stop was Kagoshima Ikeda school, an elementary school in Kagoshima.
We received a warm welcome from their principals, teachers and students as we entered the school compound.
The teachers wear suits on formal occasions like this! Japanese people are very serious when it comes to work!
We enjoyed a spectacular performance from their children’s choir.
KAWAII NE!
Talking about neat freak…
The neatest and cleanest classroom ever.
Their class size is about 22 pupils unlike in Singapore, we’ve got about 35 to 40 pupils per class.
There are using smartboard too.
Here, they used socks as a chair stopper to reduce the noise produce when pupils push their chairs out.
Their books and tables are super tidy.
Here’s a mini recycling bin for collecting bottle caps!
They wear clean slippers into the toilet to prevent the floor from being dirtied.
Oh, they learnt the recorder too!
School was about to end and they were getting ready to leave.
These young children are so full of energy and vive. It such a pleasant experience to be visiting a primary school in Japan.
Next, we rushed off to Kagoshima Chuo Station where we took the Shinkansen to Hakata Station by Sakura 566 in Fukuoka. And Fukuoka is our last destination of this trip!
Our last hotel at Kyushu – Sutton Hotel Hakata City
The location was perfect as it is located within the shopping arcade and there were many bars, restaurants and shops opened in the evening.
Our last shopping destination was Canal City, Hakata at Fukuoka. Man, this mall was HUGE!
For dinner, we ate at Yutorino Kukan restaurant which serves healthy home-cooked Japanese meals in buffet style. It was my favourite eatery in this trip! Every food here was made with healthier alternatives and they even had vegetarian options such as vegetarian Japanese curry. The food was truly impressive.
Not to mention that the desserts were marvelous.
The food choices at the buffet were limited but all the dishes tasted really good. The buffet price for an adult it quite affordable too. It’s like 21 SGD per pax.
Back at Sutton Hotel Hakata City.
On our last day (8th day) of the trip, we each received a little farewell gift from our tourguide. Her name is Fumiko and she was fantastic! She really exudes the Japanese courtesy and respect. At the same time, she’s rather humourous and entertaining too. I remembered her helping me to get an extra packet of matcha powder from the shop and she even waited for me so that I could purchase it. This is a true blue attitude of an excellent tour guide. I was so glad to have her, really!
Off we go to Fukuda International Airport, taking our SIA plane back to Singapore.
Watch my travel vlog on Kyushu, Japan right here!
