- Tatsu!

- And today we are at Tenjin Station

in downtown Fukuoka City.

We are getting ready to go on a little trip

to Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine.

- [Tatsu] Yay! - [Micaela] Yay!

It's a really cool area and every year over like

8.5 million people come to visit this shrine.

A lot of students come when they're

taking their final exams or when

they're trying to get into university.

They come to the shrine to pray for good grades.

And one of my favorite things about

Dazaifu Shrine is the Umegae-Mochi,

which is this mochi that you can only get

at Dazaifu.

Well you're supposed to only get it at Dazaifu,

but you can kinda find it around Fukuoka City as well.

But if you want to eat like the good stuff,

you gotta go to Dazaifu.

So if you're visiting Fukuoka

and you're looking for a half-day excursion

or something to do during your trip

that's a little more traditional,

a little more religious,

a little more like historical,

then Dazaifu is a really great choice.

Now the good thing about this machine

is that there is a language button.

You can do English, Chinese or Korean.

So let's do English.

And we see that there are train stops listed.

What did you find?

- It says 400 yen to Dazaifu.

- [Micaela] Right.

(mellow upbeat music)

The signs at the train station,

sometimes they're in Japanese,

but if you wait a minute the English should show up.

It cycles through different languages.

So we found that the Dazaifu express train

leaves in about five minutes,

and it's gonna take us right there.

So that's very convenient.

(mellow upbeat music)

So we're here,

and we're just gonna go up the main road,

and I really like this area, because it reminds me of like.

(speaking foreign language)

(laughs)

So just beyond the station is the main road here

leading up to the shrine and this is

a really interesting, traditional road.

You don't get to see this kind of atmosphere

in Fukuoka City, and I think this is probably

the closest place in proximity to Fukuoka City

where you can get this kind of shriney,

traditional, religious vibe.

- [Tatsu] (mumbles)

(speaks foreign language)

(laughing)

(speaking foreign language)

- [Tatsu] Oh, wow.

Damn!

Oh, that looks good.

- [Micaela] Yeah, these are actually really good.

Alright, so this is a Ichigo Daifuku Monaka.

So it's a strawberry mochi sandwich, pretty much.

There's white bean paste on the outside,

there's mochi in the middle,

and a big, giant Fukuoka Amaou strawberry.

(speaking foreign language)

- [Micaela] Yeah, it's huge.

And then this is like a, what's the word?

It's like a puffed, sort of wafer pastry.

And it's very crunchy.

And I guess you're just supposed

to sandwich all of this in between

the two puffy pastries and eat it.

Mmm!

So juicy.

It seems like a strange flavor combination

for people who have never had Japanese sweets before,

but bean paste and strawberries go together really well.

This is really good.

You should try it.

(upbeat music)

So one thing that tourists go wild for

here in Dazaifu Tenmangu, is this designer Starbucks.

(laughs)

Right here.

It was designed by a famous architect named Kuma Kengo.

And it has this really, really cool intriguing

wood design on the outside and if you go inside,

the wood design continues throughout the building as well.

(upbeat music)

So as you can see,

as we're making our way up towards the shrine,

it's actually getting insanely crowded behind us.

Around the afternoon,

it starts to get really, really busy.

There's lots of tour groups, there's lots of tourists.

If you want to avoid the crowds,

it's better to come early.

The shops don't open 'til nine,

but if you get here around eight,

you can beat the crowds, see the shrine first,

and catch the shops on your way back down.

So if you're not a people-person,

that strategy might work better for you.

I dunno, it's just a suggestion.

Oh look, this is it! This is Kasanoya.

This is the one that was like supposed to be

one of the most popular places to get Umegae-Mochi

along this road - Oh.

- [Micaela] Alright, let's break it open.

Ooh!

That's the good stuff.

It definitely looks like the filling

is a little bit thicker too.

And you can tell that the outside is crunchy

and the inside is still kind of mochi-mochi,

like raw, chewy mochi.

So it should be a good balance.

Alright, Kasanoya, let's give it a try.

This one is packed full, and it's quite sweet

and it's really, really good,

but I think that I could only eat one.

If I was gonna have one mochi, I might choose this place.

(speaking foreign language)

(upbeat music)

So before you enter the main shrine,

you will often find a water basin like this one

and the purpose is to purify yourself,

purify your hands, purify your mouth,

before going into the shrine.

And once you've done that you can enter the shrine.

Technically, you can enter the shrine

without doing all of this,

but if you're wondering what it is,

and you wanna try it, that's how it's done.

(soft upbeat music)

Yes, there it is.

There's the fortune booth.

You can usually find one of these booths.

Sometimes it's a tiny little like stand

with only one tray of fortunes,

but this one seems to have fortunes all around.

Hey, you wanna go for pink?

- Yeah.

- [Micaela] Alright.

- So like cha-pin-it

here. - [Micaela] Yup.

- [Tatsu] Okay, then I open the box.

- [Micaela] Which one's

it going to be? - Okay

What'd you think?

- [Micaela] I dunno.

- Alright.

- [Micaela] You feelin' lucky?

- Yeah, lately, yeah. I feel lucky

to be alive. - [Micaela] Alright.

(laughs)

What is it?

(speaking foreign language)

Whoa!

You're lucky.

- [Tatsu] Okay, so.

(speaking foreign language)

- Honesty and like

- [Micaela] Modesty? - Modesty.

Okay

Yeah, so basically this is normal.

- [Micaela] Yeah.

- Good, good, good, good. - [Micaela] Good.

So if you've noticed,

these ones are only in Japanese

so they can be a bit difficult to understand

if you don't speak Japanese.

But over here, they do have paper fortunes

in English and Chinese.

So.

- [Tatsu] You wanna go for the Chinese one? (laughs)

- [Micaela] I can't read the Chinese one,

but I will do the English one.

- Okay.

- We're gonna do, put the money in

These ones are gold though,

they look nice. - [Tatsu] Wow.

Nicer.

- [Micaela] Nice and fancy. Alright.

(speaking foreign language)

I dunno.

I'm gonna go for this one, right at the very bottom.

- [Tatsu] Okay.

(gasp)

What is it? Oh?

(speaking foreign language)

Oh nice.

- So I got.

(speaking foreign language)

Nice, nice, nice, nice.

I can't focus it. Yeah, I focus, yeah, focus.

Okay.

- No problem, but be attentive.

So I should be okay but I should be careful.

- [Tatsu] Okay.

- Very vague.

Business. You will earn yourself a good reputation,

after you earn other's trust.

- [Tatsu] That's, okay, okay, okay, okay.

- [Micaela] Learning.

You can get a chance when you can get over it.

I don't know how.

Is this really the best luck

Love.

Your passion can surely be reached, be confident.

Marriage.

Marriage.

When you stop looking, you will find it.

(gasp)

Disputes.

Don't let your guard down, even after a victory.

Money. Do not become attached to money.

That's kind of weird advice for someone

who's supposed to be very lucky.

It sounds like these are all very kind of negative.

Basically, it's like you're very lucky,

but watch yourself.

Maybe it can only get worse from here.

(gasp)

- [Tatsu] Doo doo doo!

- That's probably what that means.

My life is about to get a whole lot worse.

Alright, should we tie this up?

- [Tatsu] Mhm.

- Okay, let's go.

(upbeat music)

So we've come around to the back of the shrine.

There's a little exit here

and Tatsu wants to go up here.

He says it's a secret spot.

Huh. - You don't see anyone here.

- [Micaela] Yeah, there's nobody up here.

(water trickling)

- So this is what I call forest.

- [Micaeala] Mhm.

I think everyone calls this a forest.

(laughs)

- No it's a forest, but

in Dazaifu.

Dazaifu, the area of Dazaifu

is actually like there's small mountains,

there's many small mountains.

- [Micaela] Yeah.

- And this is one of them.

(chuckles)

- Thank you.

Even in summer,

this place is really chill.

- [Micaela] Ah.

- [Tatsu] You know, like main area they're full of people,

but then here, it's like almost nobody.

- [Micaela] Yeah.

- [Tastu] But us right?

- [Micaela] That's true.

- Yeah, so like, I love the contrast.

Like busy, busy main area and quiet, like secret area.

- [Micaela] This is very beautiful.

- Thank you.

(laughs)

That's what I wanted to show.

- [Micaela] So if you go behind the shrine,

you go up the stairs, through the dirt path

and you come this way,

there's another shrine.