Hey Hive/Steemit!
So if you didn't catch the last couple of posts, we're currently on a journey in Fukuoka that we went on back in May 2017! Neither of us had ever been to that part of Japan before and since there were some cheap flights we decided to go explore a new region together! Here we go!
Last week, we continued our day-long journey in Huis Ten Bosch - the Dutch town-inspired theme park and ended up in a chocolate factory!
And outside the chocolate factory was this beautiful alley covered with colourful umbrellas!
So we go onwards past the chocolate factory and find ourselves in another interesting place! Let's go!
27 May 2017. Saturday.
Just down the umbrella alley we found this Flower Ice Cafe that I think was supposed to mimic the ice hotels in Sweden or something, where everything is made of ice! We were definitely not dressed for it but we wanted to check it out anyway since we're here.
So we went in thinking they would give us coats and stuff since we were wearing short sleeved shirts, but NOPE! We had to go in just as we were and dayum it was literally freezing! But there were ice sculptures inside and they looked so cool (no pun intended)!
Everything was literally made of ice in this entire cafe! But we were literally freezing the moment we entered.
It wasn't a very big cafe; I guess they figured it would be too expensive to maintain it since they have to keep it at freezing temperatures the whole day so the ice stays frozen. And that people won't be sticking around for so long anyway.
This was the counter of the cafe! And we actually had to buy something, so they gave us a menu.
Most of the drinks they offered were cold drinks though, which I guess was the only thing they could serve here but we definitely were not in the mood for something cold in this freezing cafe!
But unfortunately we didn't have a choice so we just got a chocolate drink which actually came in a cup made out of an ice block!
I'm not sure if it's clear but the cup is indeed a block of ice, and I think even the server couldn't stand to be in here for too long because after he served us our drink he promptly left the room.
We couldn't really take it for very long either, so after taking a couple more pictures we had to leave.
The chocolate drink was actually super thick and pretty sweet so I couldn't drink much and we had to leave but we took the chocolate drink with us because we couldn't stand another minute freezing in there anymore!
And when we left, my glasses instantly fogged up and I was literally blind!
We felt so relieved after leaving the ice cafe! For once I was thankful for heat after being in that literal meat locker.
We ended up back at the entrance again after walking for a bit.
And I managed to get a good angle on the fountain! I couldn't wait to see what this place looked like at night because of all the lights!
Evening was quickly approaching so we went back to our bike and rode around to take another look around the park.
We finally found ourselves back at the tower again and man what a sight it was in the evening!
We rode on and arrived at this harbour-like place with a cool pirate ship!
It was getting kinda late though and we still wanted to go up the tower later to see all the lights from up top so we just parked our bike at this spot and went for a quick look around the harbour.
And man, there was an actual Game Museum with Pacman as the greeter it looked so cool!
We walked on from the harbour and got to this path with a grand-looking building at the end! It reminded me of a castle!
We managed to get the gate opened and stepped over the threshold and man, what a sight!
I looked it up and this building is a replica of the actual Huis Ten Bosch royal palace in The Hague, Netherlands!
It is one of three official residences of the Dutch monarch; the two others being the Noordeinde Palace in The Hague and the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. Huis ten Bosch was the former home of Queen Beatrix from 1981 to 2014, until her abdication; King Willem-Alexander and his family moved in on 13 January 2019.
But man, the view here was amazing especially in the evening, as the lights just turned on. The old-fashioned cars looked so cool though!
So we couldn't actually go inside the main entrance but there is a secret side entrance into this palace! And surprise, surprise - it's a gift shop!
But I guess it's also a wedding venue, apparently?
It was very nicely decorated though, with so many colourful flowers everywhere!
It was also kind of a museum of sorts? I think there was information on the actual Huis Ten Bosch castle but it was probably in Japanese so I couldn't read it anyways.
They did have this really pretty exhibition of Queen Titania's dress from A Midsummer Night's Dream! I think there was an exhibition going on at the time and it was so cool! I studied AMND for my literature class in high school so this brought back some memories of me reenacting some scenes with friends after school.
There was also a projector with an interactive screen here too! I guess everything was AMND-themed so there was a lot of forest fairies and stuff.
Everything just looked so grand! There was even a mini concert hall here with a harp and grand piano! I'm not sure if there are actual concerts held here but it would be so cool to watch a live concert here!
Here's another angle on this whole chamber which was huge!
This was the area behind the grand entrance that was blocked! I'm not sure why they didn't just make this the actual entrance, but oh well. Still cool though!
Then we found this cool room with such an awesome mural on all the walls!
There was also some music here playing the background! I took a video to better capture the whole room. Unfortunately I had to take it in portrait mode because the walls were too tall!
Here's the story behind this mural which I thought was pretty cool!
Even the ceiling looked so cool and inception!
It was so cool to see a whole story in a room like this! I guess it must be pretty important historically but unfortunately I'm not really that familiar. The art was still really cool though!
And I think that's gonna be all for now! There's actually a lot more to this palace but that'll have to wait for next week!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #105 (Japan 4.0: Fukuoka): Adventuring in the Chocolate Factory!
