shrines and temples

(or fukuoka, japan part four)

there are tons of temples and shrines dotting the map of fukuoka. i made it to three. oh well, better luck next time, but with only two days, i had to choose wisely. it would be nice if there were some kind of ultimate guide to shrines and temples in fukuoka (or even japan for that matter) but if there is, i didn't have it. so i just had to go with my gut. the ones i visted were based on proximity to where i was and where i needed to be.

on friday, shortly after leaving the hostel (headed for the festival) i came upon ryuguji temple. it is tiny and hidden between two large office buildings, but being the first one i saw in japan, i had to stop in.

ryuguji temple

it's just a tiny little place and sorry the picture isn't that good... but (again) the weather was horrendous the whole time i was there. the story (according to the little plaque outside the temple) goes:

In 1222, a mermaid was cought, a sign which was taken to mean the eternity of our nation and thus was buried in the compound of ukinido temple. it was thought that the mermaid came from ryugu (sea god's palace) and hence the temple was renamed ryugu temple. in 1480, priest sogi who was a noted verse linking poet stayed here and held a hakata verse linking meeting where they linked verses composed of 100 phrases. he is also the author of the "chikushi travel sketch" describing his tour of kyushu.

sunday was my day of temple and shrine visiting, since i made it to two of the bigger ones in fukuoka. the first was kushida shrine.

kushida shrine (photo courtesy of may's there was all kinds of scaffolding up the right side when i was there...)

kushida was founded in 757 AD (now that's old!). it is in the heart of the old city of hakata and has many special items: the Eto arrow plate with carved chinese zodiac (see below), the brace of anchor stones recovered from the bay from mongolian invasions, the yamakasa portable shrine (see below), a ginko tree that is puportedly more than a thousand years old, and the grand deity Ohata Nushina-mikoto in enshrined there.

the Eto Arrow plate

the yamakasa portable shrine

a close(r) up shot of the yamakasa

in july the oiyama event of the Yamakasa-gion festival is held at kushida shrine. men wearing loincloths race carrying heavy wooden shrines (above) through the streets in a set route.

the front entrance to kushida

inside the main shrine

an artsy shot

another artsy shot

the old part of kushida shrine.

these are called torii gates. they mark the entrance to a shrine but since these were in the back of the main building i'm assuming they're the old ones. click for more detailed info on shinto shrines.

the last temple i visited (briefly) was tochoji temple. it really started pouring when i got there and my second memory card was full so i only got a few shots. again, i wish i had known more about the place before i wandered in, because now, having looked it up on the web it's a lot cooler than i thought and would have warranted deleting other pictures. Tochoji was founded in 806 by saint kobo after his return from china. it is the oldest temple in fukuoka.

tochoji temple - really doesn't do it justice... it was pouring and if you enlarge the picture you can see the rain.

all the statues were wearing aprons... not sure why...

buddha - 11 meters high and weighing 30 tons (photo courtesy of yahoo)

wish i'd gotten a picture of it myself... but i didn't even know that it was there. there are a bunch of other objects at this shrine i would have liked to see: the tombstones of the lords of the Kuroda clan, examples of calligraphy by the artist-priest Sendai, a thousand-handed statue of the goddess of mercy (designated an important cultural asset), and the calligraphy of the temple's founder, Taishi Kobo. next time?

well, i hope that's enough to satisfy your curiosity about temples and shrines... probably not, but you'll have to deal! coming up random bits of fukuoka (or the last post on this subject!)... so stay tuned!

real japanese food...

(or fukuoka, japan part three)

Saturday after my day of walking around the sights, i headed back to the hostel... thinking only of resting my poor feet. i was actually planning on chilling for a while and then going out to do some night photography of the city, but as they say, the best laid plans...

i met a canuck named andrew almost as soon as i got back to the hostel. he's been travelling around asia for the last three months and had just arrived in fukuoka. he wasa going out with a friend that he'd met in cambodia last month and asked me if i'd like to come along.

we met up with his friend midori and her friend mihwa at tenjin subway station. this is one of the main areas for going out so we thought it would be a good place to meet. i'd been there the evening before (that's where the dance took place) and so kind of knew my way around... it was nice to be with some locals though. we decided to go eat some real japanese food. we ended up on the sixth floor of a random building at futoppara.

miwha and midori

they ordered and wouldn't tell us what they got, so it was all a big surprise. the dishes came one by one served by a guy with the biggest bouffant hair i've seen on a man in a long time... sorry no pic...

our first course, salad... such smart girls!

our second course - mentaiko - an egg omelet with fish roe and sauce that tasted oddly similar to ketchup, but not quite.

a close up of the mentaiko... appetizing?

the third course - yaki ramen

this was fried noodles with fish flakes and sauce that was kind of like gravy - it wasn't that good... think ramen noodles with gravy... and fish flakes... i'd rather eat sushi!!! (for those who don't know, i'm not a huge fan of the delicasy...)

the fourth course - kooki horeu.

the girls had to look this up in their electronic dictionary. it's pig intestines with garlic stalk and a sweetish sauce. i only had one bite since it took me five minutes to chew and then i just couldn't swallow. the girls said that about half of japanese people love this dish and hald despise it... at our table three out of four enjoyed it. i was not one of them! the meat was just really chewy and after chewing for so long the flavour changed and it was unbearable.

after eating we ordered a pitcher of sake...when in rome... or, rather, japan... i'd never had sake before and had to try it. it came in this cute little pot and it was hot - which i was not expecting. i loved it. it was definitely better than it's korean counterpart! it was kind of sweet but with a slight aftertaste of rice. it went straight to my head too! definitely something i would have again.

pouring the sake.

finally when it was all done, a crowd of japanese people sitting behind us started talking to us - can't quite remember how... they said something in english and i turned around, i think. anyway, they were really nice but could only say hello in english. nonetheless one of the guys insisted on getting a photo with me - more movie star syndrome - and then he reciprocated for me.

me, the random japanese guy and andrew.

it was a really great meal and it was made better by having it with some really cool women... and a canuck. we parted ways with the girls and headed back to the hostel, exhausted after a day of (for me) sightseeing and travel (for andrew).

coming up shrines and temples in fukuoka... so stay tuned!

sightseeing

(or fukuoka, japan part two)

i visited the canal city complex on friday early evening. it's basically a giant mall but is often referred to as a city within the city. it is apparently one of the "largest composite complexes in all of Asia". it boasts hundreds of stores (including the gap, which i was exstatic about), tons of restaurants, two hotels, a theater, entertainment complex and on and on... it is huge. i went there twice actually and didn't see the whole thing... definitely worth checking out. oh! and the best part was Wendy's!! that's right i had a REAL bacon cheeseburger - it was to die for!!!

canal city (or a part of it anyway)

it's called canal city because of the canal that runs through it... here children are playing in the water - totally permitted and even encouraged!

a nicer shot of the canal with the fountain that was exploding to songs by ABBA... promo for "mamma mia" which was playing at the theater.

wendy's in japan - looks like every other wendy's i've ever been to!

on saturday i got up and out of the hostel by 9 AM. i had a lot to see and do and couldn't waste any time lying about! i headed for the "downtown" area to the ruins of fukuoka castle. it was built by Lord Nagamasa Kuroda in the early 17th century. it's more or less a giant park now... with tennis courts, a baseball diamond, and a lot of trees. it was really nice to walk around... sadly my camera batteries died as i got to the castle, so i don't have many (good) pictures. (i had just bought the batteries too... argh!!!)

a walkway up into the castle.

one of the walls... just gives you an idea of how massive it was! it took me about an hour to walk around the whole thing.

next to the castle ruins is ohori park. a huge man made lake (which was origianlly part of the castles' moat) sits in the middle with lots of trees and generally pretty views. of course, having finally gotten some batteries, mother nature decided it was time to let go and it started pouring rain on me right when i entered the park. i had my umbrella so i managed to walk through the center of the lake using a series of bridges and islands.

a map of the park - the path around the lake is two km's. i just walked around the right side and through the middle.

a view across the lake

gazebo (are they called that if they're japanese?) in the middle of the lake.

one of the bridges across.

when i emerged from the park i found a coffee shop to relax in for a bit - mr. donut - and wait for the rain to die down. at this time, my camera informed me that my memory card was full so i had to find somewhere to buy another one... argh!!! stupid camera! (the annoyance was only heightened by the fact that i had thought that i'd have a new camera by that time... i was going to buy one in japan, but as it turns out they're cheaper in korea... so it'll have to wait until i get to seoul again.) after the rain slowed a bit i made my way on the subway toward fukuoka tower. i was going to walk, but didn't because of the rain.

i found the fukuoka city museum before the tower so i stopped in to get out of the rain again. what better place to spend a rainy afternoon than in a museum? as you can tell by the name the museum is all about the history of fukuoka... it was an interesting if not short exhibit with lots of pottery, knives, clothes... etc... from the area. the oldest bits being from around the stone age... it was a nice way to get out of the rain.

fukuoka city museum - yes that's the tower in the background...

i finally got to the tower at around 2:30 PM (remember i've been walking almost non-stop since 9 in the morning) - i was exhausted... but the sightseeing must go on.

fukuoka tower

the tower was built in 1989. it is 234 meters high but the observation deck is at 123 meters. it is covered with 8000 half mirrors giving it the nickname of "the mirror sail". it is designed to withstand magnitude seven earthquakes and winds of up to 63 miles per second. it weighs over 28,000 tons, with 25,000 of that underground. it cost six billion ¥ (in 1989) to build and is the highest seaside tower in all of japan!

towards korea.

towards canada.

up the coast (nice looking beach)

into the city...

after taking in the view - albeit not a very good one with the rain... i had a too-expensive glass of beer at the top and left it behind to walk to hawk's town. i also passed by the fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome - home to the fukuoka Seahawks baseball team. it was the first dome in japan to havea retractable roof. there was a game going on, but i didn't know until it was over, or maybe i could have gone... oh well, next time.

the dome.

hawks town mall.

after wandering around the mall for ages - bought a hoodie, and a couple of other small things i went to the hard rock cafe. there is a first for everything! i don't think i've ever been to one before... and they had club sandwiches on the menu and i just couldn't resist! it was good, but nothing like a club back home... at least the bacon was real!!! it was tasty.

i finally headed back to the hostel at around 6:30 exhausted from my day... thinking about how nice it would be to curl up on the couch and rest my poor feet... but alas... that is never what happens when you really want it...(and a good thing too!) so stay tuned for my adventures in japanese food with real japanese people and a canuck i met along the way...

Hakata Dontaku Port Festival

(or Fukuoka, Japan - part one)

i arrived in fukuoka in the early afternoon on May 4th - the second, and last, day of the Hakata Dontaku Festival. i knew that there was some kind of festival going on before i went, but coming from a city whose prime activity is festivals, i didn't really think much of it. turns out that this is one of the biggest festivals in all of japan! over two million people turn out every year for the two day celebration that dates back over 820 years.

ladies in kimono and flower hats - hanakasa - unofficial symbols of the festival.

in 1179 the merchants of Hakata (fukuoka) organized a parade for their feudal lord. the parade, named Matsubayashi after the lord it originally honoured has remained unchanged since the middle ages. on may 3rd of every year a parade of over 12,000 locals in all kinds of traditional dress follow a procession of three gods of fortune on horse back - Fukurokuju (god of long life), Ebisu (god of business), and Daikoku (god of wealth). in the Edo period (1603-1868) floats and showcases of dolls were added to the parade. on the second day of the festival another parade showcasing groups and individuals from all over the island of Kyushu takes place. stalls of food and goods for sale are set up along the parade route. over 30 stages are set up around the city to highlight traditional dancing and music.

a baton twirler in the parade... so cute!

one of many marching bands

one of the many stages erected around the city - this one at Hakata Station.

a food stall - some kind of fried squid balls... i wasn't adventurous enough to try them... :(

banana + chocolate on a stick?!?!?! what more could you ask for?!?!

a hashimaki stall - a sort of savoury pancake is rolled up with all kinds of things inside, then covered in mayonnaise, seaweed flakes, and fish flakes - hmmm... not my kind of thing either...

roasted corn
- i was wary, having tried this in korea, but they did it much better in japan! it was worth the 5$ !!!

crepe with chocolate, strawberry, and whipped cream... mmmm... there goes my diet!!!

so many people, stalls and goodies to take in!

i found some higher ground to get this shot of a tiny area of the festival.

parents pay for their kids to dip a cup in the water and try to catch a ball! looked like fun and would have tried myself if it weren't for the funny looks i was getting from the kids!

the closing of the festival includes renditions of the Dontaku dance that spectators are invited to join. the dance involves a pair of wooden spoons being clapped together and waved in the air while a traditional band of musicians plays along. i was lucky enough to happen upon a dontaku dance area and was given my own set of spoons and shown the dance. this was the most memorable part of the whole trip! a couple of hundred strangers dancing and cheering in the street, it was truly amazing!

the band playing music for the dontaku dance.

a shot of the dontaku dancing crowd!

a leader of the dance showing everyone how it's done!

my set of "shamoji" - dontaku dance spoons!

the festival was suspended for a time during the 1800's because the government thought it to be too extravagant. the locals continued the tradition and in 1880 it was reinstated. the celebration was also put on hold during world war II but was quickly brought back to help rejuvinate the area. in 1949 the date was changed from january to may to coincide with constitution day (may 3rd). it is also at the same time as golden week - a week with four national holidays and which is one of the three busiest holiday seasons in japan.

so the first day of my trip to fukuoka was exploring the festival and the many stalls, different foods, people and parade watching, and generally wandering happily. it was a great introduction to the happy-fun place that japan is...

coming up - my addiction to the "amusement centers" and more happy wandering... stay tuned!

back from fukuoka

just a super quick note to say i am back from fukuoka, japan. here are a couple of pictures taken from the fukuoka tower to get you revved up for the posts to come... i promise details soon!

up the coast

towards the city

sorry, i just don't have time for more at the moment... taking the rest of the night off to relax before i'm back to the monsters tomorrow morning! the next few days will be full of so many posts you'll be sick of reading!

ready, set...

GO!

i'm all set for japan tomorrow. i went and got some ¥en today at the KEB (korea exchange bank) and the rate was better than i thought it would be. it's really strange to be buying yet another currency. i don't know if i should think about it in terms of the won or the dollar... then i get confused. foreign exchange has never been my forte...even when i was working at the bank. i always hated questions about exchange and rates, i just can't wrap my head around it.

i'm just going to keep thinking that 100¥ is like 1$...and 1$ is like 1000W... hopefully i won't end up spending my grandchildrens' inheritance! i've heard of people getting really confused in japan and thinking in terms of won when they see a price that says 40,000 which in korea is pretty cheap (around 40$), but in japan it's actually like 400$! i'll just have to steer clear of anything with more than three zeroes! of course, i am looking (thinking, debating...) to buy a digital SLR while i'm there, so that'll probably get into the hundreds of thousands... anyway... just a quickie to say see you all when i get back - hopefully with some great stories to tell - and i'm sorry i haven't been posting much of late... but that's bound to change soon. have a great weekend!

happy may day

four months to go! i know that sounds pessimistic, but i know it's going to fly by just as quickly as the last eight have. today was labour day in korea, as it was in many countries around the world. being canadian, i have always celebrated labour day on the first monday in september and until today didn't know that it's may 1st in almost every other country in the world (barring the US). however, since i am not a "labourer" i didn't get the day off. that was the weird part for me, since in canada it's a day for everyone, not just "labourers". oh well... it was a pretty chill day anyway...

the students are all taking their mid-term exams so there isn't anything for me to do. which is nice because it meant that i spent the morning sleeping in the "rest room" at school and then was allowed to leave at lunch time. so i guess i got my labour day after all! it's just so weird that i still have to go in, even if i spend the whole time sleeping. why not just let me do that at home? anyway, tomorrow will be the same as today (and yesterday) except that i have to teach one class in the afternoon - at work from 8:30 to 4:30 and my only class is from 2:35 to 3:20! ridiculous. anway, like i said only four months and of those, i only have 12 weeks of actual teaching left... it'll fly by.

i went back to the doctor today since i haven't really been getting any better. he gave me 5 days of antibiotics. this is probably why i keep getting more sick, he only wanted to give three days and i told him it wsan't enough - i've pobably developed some kind of antibiotic resistance... who knows if i even need the stupid pills. i think it's all just allergies gone crazy and now that i've gotten some flonase and an inhaler that i'll be better in no time. i hope so anyway, i'm really sick of being sick!

that's my update. there hasn't been anything particularly interesting to write about of late, so sorry if this is kind of boring... promise loads of good reading after my trip to japan this week! so stay tuned!!!