00:00:05 John Daub: Hello everybody from central Fukuoka. This is Maizuru Park. Before I start hitchhiking again, I thought I'd stop by this place to see how the cherry blossoms are going. On Google Maps, it says this is a cherry blossom spot and it's two stops away from where I was staying. So I thought, yeah, why not spend an hour and see how Fukuoka celebrates sakura, celebrates hanami.

00:00:36 John Daub: However, what I'm noticing is there's not that many people here yet. Or at least it's nothing like it is in Tokyo. Here's some of the trees by the entrance. Beautifully mowed around it. And you can see clearly these blossoms are just starting. Probably sometime around Wednesday, Maizuru Park is going to be absolutely beautiful.

00:01:25 John Daub: But there's other things to see and do here besides cherry blossoms. I don't know much of the history about this park, so you're going to have to Google that yourself. You can see they are totally ready for this trampoline bungee jump thing. Pretty cool. I totally would do this. I'm getting reports now that the cherry blossoms are already done in Izu. That's crazy because Kyushu is one of the first places—you'd think Kyushu, being more south, would be one of the first places. But it's not the case.

00:02:12 John Daub: You can see here in Maizuru Park lots and lots of food. Some takoyaki and some yakitori. Shate! Steaming hot. These are mochi fries. Mochi french fries. And karaage—this is one of my favorite foods in Japan.

00:03:12 John Daub: I'm going to try to translate all the signs. This is juicy karaage, which is deep-fried chicken. That's okonomiyaki. That's Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. 600 yen. Oh, there's butter potatoes. They seem to have all these different kinds of butter potatoes. This one has squid on it. That's pretty unique. These are like the typical chocolate bananas.

00:04:41 John Daub: I've never seen this before. This is tunnel potato. They take one whole potato and they just spiral it like a tunnel. And they have different flavors like cheese and seaweed, nori, barbecue and corn consomme, and shio aji. Yakisoba, of course. Oh, look at this. That's genius. This looks so good. Look at the skin coming out. This is miso aji. It seems like an American corn dog.

00:06:20 John Daub: What is this? It's rice and meat. It's from Miyazaki. 600 yen. Inside the stick is rice, and wrapped around the rice is meat. Then they barbecue that and dip it in sauce. I'm going to have to try that when I come back. There's too much food here. We got more yakitori, barbecued squid. The tunnel potato looked just absolutely awesome. There's crepes.

00:07:32 John Daub: What is this? This is okonomiyaki, Hakata style. It's an egg and cheese. 300 yen. They wrap it onto a stick. That's awesome. They have really taken ideas from Tokyo or from Honshu and they've sort of made it local here. And that's so cool.

00:08:09 John Daub: Even the beer here is cherry blossom influenced. This is the Sakura Super Dry. Sakura package. Sakura aji? So cherry blossom fever is here. Even the Coca-Cola has a cherry blossom—Sakura Coca-Cola, original taste, spring model. The only problem is that there's no cherry blossoms right now. Not one that I can see in this park.

00:09:09 John Daub: There's some craft beer. I'm kind of a sucker for craft beer—I'll pay a lot for that just to try different types of flavors from different areas. There is about 50 or 60 food stands here, all of them having something that's just a little bit different and original. That's super cool. And they have cherry blossom ice cream as well. Not only can you appreciate the cherry blossoms, but you can also eat the cherry blossoms. I guess they put essence of the cherry blossoms in there.

00:10:02 John Daub: In the middle of the park is a really wide open spot. They've brought ponies out here for the kids to ride. How cool is that? And look, you can wear samurai helmets and pretend it's the Edo period. Never mind the cherry blossoms. Just the food. The weather. It feels like 20 degrees Celsius, 65 degrees Fahrenheit with the sun out. It's absolutely beautiful.

00:11:18 John Daub: You can see in total the booth stands that I just walked past—that is a lot. And the people aren't even here yet. It's a Sunday morning. So in about an hour, this place is going to be absolutely insane. I'm liking this Maizuru Park. I'm glad I took an hour out of my day just to come here and enjoy the cherry blossoms in Fukuoka to see if it's any different. And already, I've seen that it is. The food is totally awesome.

00:12:08 John Daub: If you compare it with Tokyo, it's not the same. There's a few cherry blossoms that people have set up blue sheets already on the side. People usually make a circle around the blue sheet like this. They put the food in the middle. They drink a lot and have fun together. I love that sense of community. Everybody together underneath the cherry blossoms. Although, unfortunately, they have no cherry blossoms in this particular spot. But this little one does. And they came really early to claim that spot, I bet you.

00:12:47 John Daub: Now, this variety has already blossomed. And the blossoms are already falling off. It's beautiful. But this one looks like it's at the end. The leaves are busting through. But that's not going to stop these nice people from having fun. They did it proper. They brought a table and an actual picnic table. Probably have a truck to carry all this stuff. And they have like little lounge benches. Very, very serious about their hanami. Subarashii.

00:13:39 John Daub: That's Maizuru Park. For those of you tuning in, I'm live streaming from Maizuru Park in Fukuoka. It's two stops away from Nakasu, where the ramen area was, where I was staying for the last two nights. Before I get back on the road hitchhiking up to Honshu Island today, I wanted to stop by and take a look at what they're doing in Fukuoka for the cherry blossoms. They're not quite blossomed, most of them. Some varieties are almost finished though. But what I'm noticing is this place is awesome because of the food.

00:14:29 John Daub: Craft beer. Kotobuki. I never heard of that. My friend Andrew knows all the craft beers in Japan. This is a Japanese beer made by a Japanese sake brewer. Wow, so this beer has been made since 1928? 500 yen for a bottle of this craft beer at a festival is pretty darn good. And you can get nama beer for 500 yen as well. Everyone's shouting to try to get your attention to go to their stand. It's really a competition.

00:15:51 John Daub: There's cotton candy. And you can get a mask. All the kids come here and go, Mommy, buy me a mask. I want to be Ultraman. Or Anpanman. They've got Anpanman. That's so cool. They have everything here. Oh, so good. She's wearing a really beautiful kimono. That's a beautiful kimono.

00:16:42 John Daub: Miss Sake Fukuoka. Can I have a bottle of sake? Well, it's early. I'm now live streaming on YouTube. Oh, you're an American living in Tokyo? Can I take a picture? Take a picture with me. My girlfriend will be angry. Alright, Miss Fukuoka. Thank you! We'll come again! We only came here for a few days. We'll be right back!

00:17:58 John Daub: Wow! Sorry for the shaky video folks! I got a picture with Miss Sake Fukuoka. Boy she's hot in that kimono man! I'm having a lot of fun. We should just camp here. Look at all this green grass to camp. Why would I leave Fukuoka when I have this awesome park?

00:18:37 John Daub: That kid's having a blast! Look at that kid man! He could totally go higher! The goal would be to get over the two holes. That's what I'd try to do. Now that's a good adult! You gotta push him! Poor kid's gonna scream! He's so happy! There's a trampoline too! They've really done a good job with this for kids. I mean you got everything for adults—they got the booze and the picnicking. And then when the picnicking gets boring, you can bring your kids here.

00:20:20 John Daub: It's for kids. 500 yen! I don't think it could support my weight. To be honest, I've been eating a lot of ramen. Alright, so that's my hanami in Fukuoka.

00:20:27 John Daub: Now here's the cherry blossoms by the entrance. I'm going back to the station to hitch. You can see just about there the buds on the trees. It's really really close. Isn't it? Oh just so close. It's going to be here on Wednesday I bet you. They're going to be totally out on Wednesday. This tree is really nice. You can see the buds. Some of them are breaking through the bark, busting through.

00:21:40 John Daub: So I'm going to end it right here. Thank you everybody for supporting the Kickstarter page. I'm making a DVD about this trip. You can go to Kickstarter and reserve a copy of that. My goal is $5000 to try to raise for this trip and the cost of making the DVD. But it'd be awesome if we can share in this. I'm going to send postcards too from the road. I'll send you a postcard if you want one from the road.

00:22:11 John Daub: That's Fukuoka's Maizuru Park. Not bad. It's a pretty good day. I have a good feeling that I'm going to get a ride real quick and get to Honshu. I'm going to Shimonoseki—they got fugu there. And then after Shimonoseki, if the guy's going to Hiroshima I'm going to see the deer at Miyajima. But if the guy's not going that way, then I'm going to get off at Shimonoseki and try some fugu. That should be a fun experience.

00:22:46 John Daub: Alright everybody. Last 20 seconds. I'm going to take you down this memory lane. Hope you enjoyed the cherry blossom experience. See you on the road. Bye bye Fukuoka.