- [Micaela] Summer may be over, but that

doesn't mean we have to stop having fun.

With comfortably warm nights continuing in the fall,

there are still plenty of opportunities to go outside and

enjoy public festivals and events in Fukuoka city.

(Upbeat music)

Whether you are just passing through or you've lived here

for years, one of the events you can look forward to is

the yearly night market.

Lighting up the downtown Nakasu district with red

lanterns, starting in August and occurring every

weekend until the end of October.

- Hey guys, how is it going? It's Micaela.

I'm in front of Fukuoka's beautiful downtown shopping center

Canal City, here on the river, on the canal,

they might even say!

And I'm here at the evening Fukuoka Freedom Night Market.

It's a really cool setup and they've only started doing

this in the past few years.

But it has become something that I really look

forward to every summer here in the city.

And I'm really excited to finally have the chance to

show it to you guys today!

I'm meeting Rachel and our friend Sonnie, um, just at

the other side of the market, so let's go find them

and say hi. Let's go!

(Upbeat music)

- [Micaela] Night markets have always been one of

my favorite things about visiting other Asian countries.

And in Japan the night market culture doesn't really exist

but with the summer being as hot as they have been

the past couple of years, I'm really really glad that

there are events like this that happen during the

evening, where you can come out and be so chill after

the sun has gone down and a few degrees have dropped.

(Upbeat music)

- I found my friends!

- (All Together) Hi!

- I'm so excited you guys are here, 'cause then I can

finally get food, too.

- Yes!

- All right so all the friends have arrived and we've

all kind of gathered in this one spot and

we're hungry so we're gonna go check out the food stalls

and get something to eat.

I think Rachel, Rachel is already gone!

She's like I'm on my way!

- Hey!

- [Micaela] Let's go! Let's get some food!

(Upbeat music)

- One thing that I'm really excited about is

this organic vegan Gelato.

You wanna go and have a look at that?

So I had this one last year, the roast brown rice

milk gelato, it was really good!

And then I think the white chocolate and kinako

sounds really good too.

- Hmmm, oh It's like a pretty delicate flavor

that doesn't like hit you very hard.

- [Micaela] Yes!

- Oh I love the texture!

- [Micaela] Really?

- It's really creamy and smooth.

- [Micaela] Yeah.

- Oh I really like it!

- [Micaela] And you are lactose intolerant right?

So normally you can't have gelato.

- Unless I take a bunch of pills!

(Laughs)

- [Micaela] Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna try it.

- [Sonnie] I'll feed you.

(Laughs)

- Hmm, oh It's really good!

- Right?

- It has like that kind of bitter caramel taste,

I like that!

- [Sonnie] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- I'm gonna get one too, I want the brown rice milk one.

- I was thinking about that one, too, yeah.

- Yeah, good choice!

- Well I wanna try yours now!

- Yeah, when I get it, I'll share mine with you.

- Okay good!

(Laughs)

- [Micaela] So he's got a kebab sandwich. How is it, Joe?

- It's good, but I'm not used to using

chop-sticks to eat it.

- [Micaela] You should really just like

shove it all in your mouth!

I'm sure you could, It's the American way! (Chuckles)

- Yeah, probably! It's really good though, I like it.

- [Micaela] Jun's got hotate!

- Yeah with the Sea Urchin cream on it

- [Micaela] Ohh!

- [Jun] Really good!

- [Micaela] That looks really good!

- [Jun] Yeah it is really good.

- [Micaela] This is literally, I think the first

Japanese food I ate when I came to Japan.

- [Micaela] Look at these noods!

(Laughs)

- So as the night progressed, our lipstick

is getting smudged.

But we're still pressing on for more food!

I'm gonna go grab some gelato finally, I think

Rachel is looking for...

- Kakigori

- Ah, kakigori!

- [Rachel] I've decided on freezing myself from the inside.

- Oh! Wonderful!

(Upbeat music)

- [Micaela] (Speaks Japanese)

Whoa!

(Upbeat music)

- [Micaela] At a normal Japanese, like, summer festival

you might find soft drinks or Chūhai's or Shochu Highball's.

Um, but at the night market they've got like beer

from around the world.

They've got fancy cocktails, Sangría, Mojitos...

It's a little bit more fancy, there's a lot of options

and you get to try a lot of things that you

wouldn't normally see at a summer festival.

And it's a lot of fun.

(Upbeat music)

- So unfortunately, It started to rain so we're

packing it in, we're heading home.

- Heck yeah!

- But It is like 10:30 at night, so I guess It's like

bed time if we're seniors.

- If we're normal!

(Laughs)

- [Rachel] Normal adults!

- (Mocking voice) We're old people!

- [Rachel] With good life schedules!

- Yeah, so we're heading home but the

Fukuoka Freedom Night Market goes on every Friday,

Saturday, Sunday, providing that the weather is not shit.

Um, and It goes on until October I believe.

So if you're interested in checking it out, if

you're visiting Fukuoka for the Rugby World Cup

in September and you're looking for something to do.

Uh, maybe throw it on your itinerary as

something to check out!

(Laughs)

- [Micaela] Yeah, anything to add?

- Um, I know nothing about Fukuoka yet.

I trust Micaela completely, everything she says

is highly accurate.

She's very knowledgeable about this city.

- I'm Rachel and I endorse this method!

(Laughs)

It's basically what you're saying.

Where's Sonnie?

Did you have fun?

- I've been making faces behind you guys, yes!

- [Micaela] Oh good!

(Laughs)

- Yes, I enjoyed it.

- [Micaela] Good!

- [Sonnie] It's chill, you know?

- [Micaela] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- That's nice.

- There isn't much of like a night market culture

in Japan yet.

- No...

- So I think It's really interesting that

they're trying to do something.

- Yeah.

- And then there's like something like this, when

the sun goes down and like the weather is a bit cooler

that like you can look forward to and go out and do.

- I like that there's so much going on the city and

It's not super over-crowded, you can actually do something.

Like, we were able to get seats for way people, basically.

- [Micaela] Yeah, and like sit down and eat our food, right.

- Right.

- [Micaela] Like eight people and a dog.

- And a child!

- [Rachel] And a child!

(Laughs)

- [Micaela] Yeah. Yeah, no, it's good. I like that

there's so many event happening in

Fukuoka lately, and it keeps things like lively

and interesting.

- Yeah, Fukuoka is a great city.

- [Rachel] And It's not overcrowded, and

the canals everywhere are so pretty!

- [Micaela] Hmm, indeed.

(Upbeat music)

- [Micaela] Hey guys, thanks so much for watching.

Don't forget to click subscribe if you want to see more

videos about life in Japan and

specially, life in Fukuoka City.

Have you ever been to a Japanese festival?

What was the most impressionable experience you had?

Let me know in the comments, and I'll see you again soon!

Bye!

(Upbeat music)