My Last Night in Fukuoka ― 2026/01/17
After the messy and stressful process of moving out of our old flat and cleaning up 19 years’ worth of dust and clutter (I regret not having a photo to show you how terrible the mess was), we spent a night at a local hotel—and it turned out to be an unexpected and delightful surprise.
Opened in the early 1990s, this hotel feels a bit old-fashioned, but it’s brimming with bubble-era glamour. All the rooms are suites, all the furniture is made of solid wood rather than printed veneers, and the bathrooms have separate shower areas. No wonder this place used to function as a serviced apartment. I’ve even heard a rumor that Mr. Oh stayed here when he was managing the local professional baseball team.
The best part was the incredibly spacious room and the atmosphere. As a bonus, probably because there was no event at the nearby baseball dome and it was off-season, the hotel felt almost empty, as if everything had been prepared just for us. Even at the restaurant in the morning, only a few guests were quietly enjoying their breakfasts—no boisterous groups, no rolling suitcases bumping into your feet, and the buffet remained spotless.
If you’re looking for state-of-the-art facilities, this might not be the hotel for you—but if you want to experience a slice of Japan’s bubble era, I highly recommend staying here!
(Helped by Chat GPT)
(Helped by Chat GPT)
A Moving Company and I ― 2026/01/18
Our move from Fukuoka to Sapporo cost a fortune. I never imagined how much it would cost to move some furniture, chipped tableware, old comics and old clothes.
As you can see in my previous post, we hired a major Japanese transport company, because their quote was the lowest among the three companies we asked for estimates: Art, Sakai, and one of the biggest players in the industry.
The result: you get what you paid for. There were so many troubles that I ended up cursing Japan’s most prestigious (-looking) transport company, the one that transports cultural properties from museums to museums. The following is my experience with them.
First of all, the packing boxes they provided were irritatingly small. I mean, it was irritating because the boxes were very slightly smaller than the size I needed for bigger plates and albums. Also, the cushioning materials quickly ran out. I had to run to a local DIY store to get some more. Meanwhile, there were too many packing tapes.
On the day of the actual move, the team of young workers quickly packed bigger items such as the TV set, air conditioners, and so on. So quickly that their work sometimes got rough. As a result, our shredder’s leg was broken (but it was quickly compensated, no questions asked).
In Sapporo, things got worse. The older moving workers came earlier, in the snow. They were all temporary staff (or so they said). They were apparently unprofessional. My layout plan, which I spent quite a long time making, was completely ignored, and they asked everything verbally.
The worst thing was that the documents to prove the number of boxes moved were lost. The leader of the Sapporo team finally started counting the boxes after they brought them all in at random, and the number he counted was one more than what the Fukuoka team had told us. He casually said, “Oh, I seem to have miscounted,” and started blaming the Fukuoka team for not passing the document to his team. That’s it. After the gentlemen left, we were left with cardboard boxes all over the place, and I had to rearrange them myself.
To cap it all, a guy from a sub-subcontractor of the moving company came the next day to our already chaotic flat to install the air conditioner and washing machine, which were supposed to be included in the quote.
But he suddenly insisted that installing the air conditioner would cost extra. He also said it would be better to install it later, in April.
So, at the end of the day, both the air conditioner and the outdoor unit were left untouched, and we were handed a new quote of 11,000 yen, which we don’t think we ought to pay.
Totally tired of dealing with this company, we are half-decided to just leave it for now. Maybe we will contact them (or complain) after we get settled and recover some energy.
Would I recommend them to a friend (if I had some)? I definitely wouldn’t . I regret having chosen this particular company only for the lowest quote, not having chosen Sakai with the lovely salesgirl.
(Helped by Chat GPT)
Welcome to Snow Hell ― 2026/01/25
In our first week in Sapporo, we were met with extremely heavy snowfall. Even locals were struggling to drive, or even to walk. In this extreme situation, I realized that money really talks: residents of luxury condominiums with heated ground surfaces enjoy dry, snow-free walkways
—though they still face slippery, snow-choked roads where their cars easily get stuck once they leave their sanctuary.
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