19 April 2025
Leaving the bear until last
Kumamoto to Fukuoka on a short bullet train ride
Hotel photo lovers rejoice, for today you are in for a treat with three (3)! photos of my hotel room!
The journey from Kumamoto to Fukuoka takes about 40 minutes on the bullet train, so feel free to purchase a 3 course meal with enough packaging to wrap an elephant. It seems most people cannot face sitting on a train for 40 minutes without choking down 2 days worth of food.
Once I arrived in Fukuoka, I had to kill 3 hours before I could check in, so I walked laps of the station, judging people with 4 wheel spinner cases with missing wheels, of which there were many.
Now for my hotel. It is the Hotel Wing International, which again is a chain brand with hotels in most cities, it is about $100 a night and 2 streets away from the Hakata station. On my previous visits to Fukuoka I stayed in Tenjin, which is the other city centre, walking distance from here. Anyway, it is the weirdest hotel of this trip, and my floor is the 'Roma' themed floor, stay tuned to find out what that even means....
This is Kumamon, the mascot for Kumamato, where bears are extinct. He will appear for free at any event if you pay for his transport and accommodation. His likeness is also free to use for any product advertised in Japan, but costs money to use internationally. He is by far the most successful of all the yuru-hara (marketing mascots). Without Kumamon, Kumamoto would no longer exist. Fact.
Here comes a bullet train, yeah, you have seen them by now.
Now for the first of 3 hotel pics. My room is Roma themed, I expected a Colosseum. What I got was walls coloured like someone has vomited wine onto them, and a sink next to the bed / desk.
Nice head rest and wallpaper, just like Caligula had in his room.
The bathroom looks suitably dire. I now do not need to go to Italy.