The Golden Week - Part 2

Previously on Jacks Japan Blog…

So Ive gone to Kyushu, had an awesome first day of seeing the sights of Fukuoka, tried some awesome ramen, and met some awesome people in the bars and clubs of Fukuoka. After an insanely busy first day, I finally got to sleep in my capsule hotel around 6 am…..

2 and a half hours later my alarm went off and I had to wake up for another day of sightseeing. I skipped taking a bath for the morning as there would be plenty of water at the place I was going to.

Beppu is a mid size town on the Eastern coast of Kyushu, and is famous in Japan for being home to a ridiculous amount of onsen (natural hot springs). Anyway, being a fan of onsen meant Beppu was a big draw for me.

The bus left around half 9 and we arrived about an hour late due to traffic (bloody golden week!). I was dropped at the bus station and figured out a way to get a bus to try and see one of the Jigoku`s. Jigokus, (which translate as “Hells”) are hot springs which are so hot that its impossible to bathe in them. Because of the extreme heat of the water however, there are sometimes strange effects (such as bubbling or belching jigoku). Anyway with the late arrival of the bus I decided it would be for the best to stick to just one jigoku and had decided which to prioritize far in advance.

The “Chi-no-ike Jigoku” (Blood pond hell) was famous for having red water, caused by the clay it bubbled on dissolving under the 78C heat. Anyway after a 20 minute bus ride, I got to an area far north of the town where the Jigoku was located. Upon entering I went straight to the hell to check it out.

It looked proper awesome, the red water had loads of steam coming off it and this coupled with the nature and stuff around made it look really cool. There was loads of people there unsurprisingly, and I managed to persuade someone to take a picture of me. After about 5 minutes I figured I had done the Jigoku justice and went off to find an onsen, having not had a bath yet despite being hungover and having had practically no sleep.

I had read in my book about an onsen nearby to the jigoku so headed straight there. It was about 5 or 10 minutes walk and was called Shibaseki Onsen. I had remembered to bring a towel but due to lack of time was unable to buy any soap in advance. Luckily the onsen counter sold some so I could buy some. At most posh onsen, towels and soap are provided, but in Beppu there are loads of small cheap ones which just offer showers and baths. Anyway this one was a bit more upmarket than some and luckily had some lockers I could put my stuff in. After changing into my birthday suit I headed into the onsen main building which featured 3 showers and 2 baths.

The onsen was fairly crowded, but not unpleasantly so. After a shower I finally got into the first bath and relaxed after an unbelievably hectic first day and a half. After chilling for a bit I got out and got into the adjacent bath. Unfortunately having not yet mastered Kanji, I was unable to read that this bath was a scoldingly hot bath. According to Japanese etiquette, you are meant to enter the bath slowly and gracefully, “like a cherry blossom petal slipping into a moonlit temple pond”. Unfortunately as soon as my foot hit the bottom of this lava like substance my immediate reaction was to run into it as fast as I could (I think inspired by those people who walk on hot coals). Eventually I hit the wall the other side and finally came to my senses that I should actually probably leave the bath before my legs boiled. I tried to gracefully walk back to where I came in and when that failed, ran like a headless chicken out of there. The hardcore bathers lying in the bath like they were in a luke warm swimming pool, were not impressed.

Anyway after that I went to the outside area where there was one more onsen and a sauna hut. I got into the outside onsen and was able to relax with the hot water combining with the not so hot air. After a few minutes I went into the sauna and lasted about 2 minutes before I had to come out (as you can probably tell Im a bit rubbish at the whole withstanding heat thing). I then got back in the bath and an Oji-san (the Japanese word for Grandpa or non descript old man), said in Japanese that my 3 minute sauna experience was not impressive.

He was a very chatty Oji san and I talked to him for a good half hour. The other bathers joined in the conversation as well and on the rare occasion I could understand something I managed to add my 2 cents. I asked Oji-san where he was from and he said he was from Beppu and that he visits this onsen everyday. He said something about the bath in his house and I think he said it was too small or something. Anyway having an onsen everyday seems like a pretty good way to spend your retirement to me.

After another half an hour or so of bathing I said my goodbyes, took a shower and left the onsen. One of the main areas for Onsen and Hells, Kannawa was just down the road according to my map so I set off towards them. After walking for a while on a ludicrously narrow non-pavemented busy road I realized it was a bit further than I realized, but soldiered on anyway. By the time I got there it was around 5 and I still hadn’t had any lunch. To my surprise, unlike the rest of Japan, restaurants seemed to be few and far between. Anyway I eventually found a fairly cheap place and had some “Katsu-don” which is kind of like a fried chicken steak with egg and stuff on a bowl of rice. This was pretty tasty although just as the food was given to me the owner of the restaurant gave me a load of maps and brochures and explained in Japanese where all the best onsen and stuff were. He also said I could get a hundred yen discount if I mentioned his name which was really nice but by this stage I just wanted to eat.

After a satisfying dinner I headed up toward the hells and discovered they had all closed by now which I expected. Not wanting to make the trip to Kannawa a total waste I decided to visit the “Beppu Sex Museum”. Beppu is often referred to as the Las Vegas of Japan with a penchant for the sleazy and the tacky. Anyway it looked quite funny from the outside so I decided to go in. The ticket lady was a 70 year old woman who had about 10 cats in her ticket booth. The cats were jumping up to the screen and the old woman had this big, slightly crazed smile on her face, making the situation all the more bizarre.

When I got in the entire museum was bathed in a red light. The exhibits started off as a variety of wooden phallouses and proceeded into models of couples in various sexual positions. There was one section which I think featured Buddha (well he was gold and a bit chubby) replicating some of the more bizarre positions from the Kama Sutra. In fact some of them looked more like wrestling submission moves than erotic poses.

Anyway after that there was a section of mannequins made up to look like famous Hollywood sex symbols, including Raquel Welch, and after that there was a movie theatre showing some 70s Japanese erotica (which was as funny as it sounds). The next section was about animals having sex and there was an awesome picture of 2 Giraffes doing it which proper cracked me up despite being on my own.

After having had my fill of Giraffe sex for the day I figured I should try and get another bath in. There was an onsen near Beppu station which I had read about so I decided to head there immediately. On the way there night crept in and suddenly there was loads of hostess bars, brothels and sex shops which made the likeness to Las Vegas suddenly all the more clearer.

I headed to Takegawara Onsen which I had decided upon because they do sand baths. Never having tried this before motivated me to go for it, and after a short walk I found the place. I tried to negotiate one sand bath and one regular onsen ticket which proved harder than expected. Anyway after a while I ended up in the changing room. The changing room had one other bather in it showering himself after his sand bath. I asked him if I should shower first and he said no but that I should wear the Yukata (gown thingy) provided. I put this on and headed into the sand area. This was like 2 huge sand pits, and there were 4 old women working there. Shocked at the way I had tied my Yukata, one of them untied it and put it back together on me. I was then told I was ready for my sand bath.

In the sand pit there were 2 people already in the sand, and empty “baths” for 4 more, although they looked less like baths and more like shallow graves. I was invited to lie down in one of the graves and did so. One of the old women then took a spade and shoveled hot sand on top of me. After a few minutes I was covered up to the neck and all of my bukkake fears suddenly surfaced.

The sand was hot, thick and dark and the idea was that you relaxed under the weight and the heat. The sand initially felt quite comfy, like a natural heated duvet, and I was able to sort of relax. After a while though I just felt a bit weird and wasn’t sure if I was relaxed or not. I stuck with it tho, until I had sweat dripping all over my face, and then requested to be let out. They told me I just had to stand up, which I made the most of doing in true zombie-rising-from-the-grave fashion.

After that I was covered in sand and so took a long shower. Afterwards I felt there was still some on me so I got into the bath as well. This onsen was a bit of a disappointment after the last one as it was a bit too hot, and the décor was nowhere near as nice. Anyway after about 10 minutes of chilling I left, satisfied in having achieved my goal of trying a sand bath. Whilst I would recommend it to those wanting to try something different, personally it wasn’t for me although maybe that’s just because I was doing it on my own and so had no one to chat to whilst lying there. I dunno, maybe then itd be more fun.

I still had half an hour or so before my bus so explored the streets of Beppu a bit. I bought some Onigiri from a stall which was pretty tasty and before long was back on the bus, and back in my capsule hotel.

I still felt a bit too sandy so decided to indulge in one final luxury hotel bath. As well as the baths, the hotel also had 2 saunas. One of them was called the Royal Sauna and featured a pool of warm water on the floor, and a TV on the wall. This felt proper cool and I enjoyed relaxing here. After this I headed to the rooftop bath outside which was made all the more awesome by the fact it was raining, giving a sensation of hot mixed with cool. After chilling a bit more I decided I should try and get a decent nights sleep for once (in the last 72 hours I had had a total of about 5 hours sleep, and had been ridiculously active during that time).

When I got into my capsule I suddenly didn’t feel that tired so watched a bit of TV (my capsule was complete with TV and a radio, how cool is that?). After seeing that there was some Dragons Gate wrestling on TV I watched an awesome match before deciding I really should get some sleep (I had to be up in another 5 hours).

At 7 the next morning I woke up and had yet another shower/bath/sauna to wake me up. I followed that with a decent enough breakfast from the hotel restaurant and then went to the bus station to get a bus to my next destination.

Hiroshima was a place that everyone had recommended as a place I just had to go, and all the guide books and websites rated it as an absolute must see. The bus took about 4 hours from Fukuoka and I was dropped in the city centre. Fortunately this was near the first sight on my list so I could walk to it.

“The A-Bomb Dome” is a building formerly known as the Industrial Promotional Hall, until the bomb dropped in 1945. Hiroshima was decimated but because the bomb exploded just above the dome, it was left in a ruined state but still standing. The city of Hiroshima decided to preserve it the way it was left as a reminder of the tragedy.

Anyway seeing it was pretty amazing, and gave a good indication of how the rest of the peace park would go. The Hiroshima Peace Park is also dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives to the bomb as well as having a really strong anti-nuke message. The “Flame of Peace” is a flame burning in the middle of a pond which will keep burning and will only be extinguished when every nuclear bomb in the world has been dismantled.

Anyway this was framed by an arch through which you could also see the A Bomb Dome in the background, and the cenotaph in which all the known victims of the bomb have their names written, in the foreground.

The Peace Park also had a childrens memorial dedicated to all the children who lost their lives to the bomb. The main draw of the park however is the Peace Memorial Museum. This is a museum all about the day the bomb dropped in Hiroshima and nuclear war in general. The museum left nothing to subtlety and was extremely moving, with accounts from survivors and pictures of the city before and after the bomb.

Its difficult to do the museum justice just by writing about it, but if you ever get the chance to go I strongly recommend it. The museum also strongly pushes for world nuclear disarmament and after seeing the effects through the exhibits, its difficult to disagree.

Thinking the museum would only take an hour, I had another excursion planned for the day, but even through skipping some of the parts of the museum it still took me 2 hours (partly due to the Golden Week factor). When I got outside the museum, the somber tone was disjointed slightly by the fact that there was a huge festival going on. There were about 4 stages around the peace park and each one had some dancers or musicians on, and the whole place was absolutely packed.

I was in a major rush now though so had to leg it to a tram stop, and on the way bought some Ikayaki (barbequed squid on a skewer). Luckily as I arrived at the stop a tram arrived. Hiroshima unlike most major cities in Japan has a tram network instead of a subway system which made it all the more quaint. I had bought a day pass for the trams as I figured Id be using them quite a lot.

My destination was Itsukushima-jinja which is a famous shrine on an island just off the coast of Hiroshima. To get there I had to take an hours tram followed by a ferry, followed by a bit of a walk. The shrine closed at 6 and not wanting to miss this famous sight meant that I needed all the luck I could get.

When the tram pulled up in the port for the ferry a ferry was just leaving, so I was actually able to get to the island by half 4. The islands name was Miyajima and the port town was pretty much dedicated to tourists with loads of Yatai with some really weird looking food. I had seen Hashimaki in Fukuoka but had not got round to trying it so I thought I`d give it a go.

Hashimaki is basically like a pancake thing filled with cheese that is wrapped round a pair of disposable chopsticks, then covered in sauce and ginger and stuff. This was well tasty and much needed after my pitiful lunch of just Ikayaki.

Throughout the port area and town there were loads of wild deer trying to hassle people for food. Unlike Nara these weren’t so immaculately groomed, but were still pretty cute. Having said that, on the ferry ride over there was a warning on the loud speaker that you shouldn’t feed them because they were dangerous. Anyway luckily they stayed away from me and my hashimaki.

After looking in a few shops I eventually found myself at the shrine. Itsukushima is one of the most photographed tourist attractions in Japan and is classified as one of Japans “three best views”. The shrine and Torii (gate) are built on the seabed of the island which, when the tide is high, gives the impression that they are floating.

Before going to a shrine you have to purify yourself by going through a gate, but in ancient times the island itself was considered a God so people were not allowed to set foot on it. This is why the Torii was built on the bay, so that people could approach by boat, and still purify themselves before they worshipped.

Because of my strict schedule I was unfortunately unable to see them “floating”, but it still looked awesome. Anyway the low tide meant I could go out and get a close up of the gate which was really cool as it was absolutely massive.

After taking a stupid amount of pictures I found that I had a bit of time left so went to explore the rest of the island. I saw another cool temple, and a 5 storied pagoda which also looked awesome and also managed to try some more Yatai food, this time an eel filled fried rice cake type thing (not a literal translation) . After that I decided I should head back to Hiroshima.

After a long journey I eventually found myself at Hiroshima station and finally had a chance to put my bag and all my stuff in a locker (I had been carrying it around all day). After that I took a tram back into the city centre to check out some shops. After some window shopping I decided it was about time I tried the food which Hiroshima is famous for.

Hiroshima-yaki is a version of the popular Osaka dish Okonomiyaki. I had heard that this was different to traditional Okonomiyaki and set out to check it out. Thinking in the same vein as in Hakata I decided to go to “Okonomi mura” which, like Ramen stadium was a theme park dedicated to the local cuisine. The building in was in central Hiroshima and was 3 floors comprising of 25 Okonomiyaki restaurants!

I walked through all the floors and checked them all out before eventually settling on one which was not too empty and not too full. The restaurants were all counter based with a huge hotplate stretching out on which the Okonomiyaki was cooked and served.

I took my seat and didn’t really know what or how to order so just said “Hiroshima- yaki” to the chef who laughed and said something I didn’t understand. The 4 people to the left of me didn’t have any Okonomi in front of them when I sat down, but shortly afterwards the chef came and put a flower and water based mixture in 5 pools in front of me and the rest of the diners.

With regular Okonomiyaki, the mixture features egg and cabbage already in it (well that’s how I make it), but this was Hiroshima-yaki so it was all a bit different. After the mixture had cooked for a bit the chef put some shredded cabbage onto the bases and then some green things which looked a bit like grass. After that he put some chopped leek on and this was followed with some squid on some and some shrimp on others. I realized the one on front of me had none, so I asked for some shrimp. The chef then put some bacon on and pushed the mixture down so that it became flatter, before flipping it over so the base was now on top. His assistant then put out some soba noodles in front of each mixture, and the chef fried these turning them into yakisoba.

After these were fried he then lifted the mixture and placed it on top of the yakisoba. While that was frying, he cracked an egg in front of each mixture, and spread it out to make it the same surface area as the mixtures. After a short moment he then picked the mixture and placed it on top of the fried egg before flipping the whole thing over and covering it in “Soosu” which is the traditional sauce for okonomiyaki, takoyaki and anything else yaki.

He then pushed the okonomis toward us and gave us instructions on how to eat them. We were given a minature shovel like implement and we were supposed to use that to cut them into small pieces and eat. Thankfully everyone else at the counter was having their first try (presumably they were all tourists like me), so I didn’t feel too nervous.

I wasn’t really sure if I was doing it the exact way I was meant to, but it seemed to be working, and unsurprisingly it was well lush. The addition of the yakisoba and fried egg was well good, and I was thoroughly impressed with this innovative way of cooking. After that it was about half 9 but I had to wait until 12 when I would take another nightbus, this time home to Nagoya.

Because I had a spare couple of hours I decided to explore the “entertainment” district, and found that there were absolutely loads of bars, pachinko parlors and video game arcades. Despite the melancholy tone of the Peace Park, Hiroshima still has an awesome party side, which I think is really cool. Anyway I decided to go to a bar that was recommended in my LP book and found a music bar called Mac which sounded right up my street.

It took me a while to find as it was on the side of a building where there wasn’t much else except for a car park, but when I got inside it was really cool. The bar was bigger than the average Japanese bar and had a ridiculous collection of CDs. They were playing Jazz when I went in and there were a few others who had come to the bar alone who were sitting at the bar smoking and drinking and generally looking very cool.

I sat down next to them, ordered a drink and after a while got chatting to the owner, and a couple of the customers who had gone there by themselves. The owner was a woman who was very passionate about music, and throughout the night put on some awesome tunes by Earth, Wind and Fire and also some Marvin Gaye. Everyone was really cool, and I got to speak some good Japanese which was different to the usual chit chat which I have pretty much memorized how to say by now.

After I had finished my drink and talked for a while I had to leave to get the last tram. I arrived back at Hiroshima station around half 11, and waited around for my nightbus to arrive which was about 10 minutes late. I got on the bus and tried to get some sleep for the journey back to Nagoya. On the way I reflected on all the things Id done and all the people Id met, and despite the shocking amount of money Id spent (lets just say I could have spent 3 days in Korea with the same amount), I felt very fulfilled although very much in need of a decent nights sleep.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully next weeks wont be so ludicrously long!

Peace out

Jack

The Golden Week - Part 1

Ok after writing a 16 page, 8000 word epic blog about my Golden week escapades I decided no one would want to read all that in one go and as a result have split this blog into 2 parts. Part 2 will be released a week from today so please check that out when its up. Ok, here we go…

This week was awesome as I set off on my first proper epic trip completely on my own. On Friday night I went to Nagoya station to begin my adventure, although I first stopped off at The Hub in Sakae to meet some friends for a quick drink.

When I got tho the station I looked around for the bus going to Fukuoka, Kyushu (my first destination) and eventually found a guy with a sign for the time my bus was leaving. After introducing myself I was instructed to wait a second. A few seconds later a Japanese couple introduced themselves to him, and he gave them instructions on how to find the bus, before asking them if they could guide me as well.

The bus was round the corner and on the way I made chitchat with the couple about their lives and why they were going to Kyushu etc. When we found the bus I got on and was seated next to another fellow gaijin named Thomas who was a German student studying Japanese language and regional science. The bus was going to be a 12 hour journey, travelling through the night to get to Fukuoka, so it was good to have someone to chat to, and Thomas was a pretty interesting guy.

The journey was ok although I found it impossible to sleep, and due to traffic we arrived an hour later than planned. When we got to Fukuoka it was about 9am on a beautiful sunny day, and I first found a restaurant to have some breakfast in. Before long I was chowing down on some lush Udon tempura and after that I went to find my hotel to check in.

Because Golden Week is a ridiculously busy time, finding accommodation in Fukuoka was next to impossible but eventually Ayae had found me a Capsule Hotel that had some availability. I had never stayed in a Capsule Hotel before so was looking forward to an original experience. The idea behind a Capsule Hotel is that each person sleeps in a space a bit bigger than a coffin, and because of this economic use of space you can sometimes get a hundred or so people in each room.

After checking in (which had to be done entirely in Japanese), I was given a key to a locker to put all my stuff in. After putting my stuff away, I headed upstairs to take a shower. The Capsule Hotel I had been booked into was somewhat of a luxury hotel (except for the fact that everyone sleeps in matchboxes) and had services like massages, restaurants and various health thingys. Anyway there was 11 floors, and the top one was for the showers and baths (completely public of course).

After a shower, I decided to have a relax in the baths to get myself ready for a hectic day of sightseeing. The baths were well lush with loads of varieties. There was one which had these balls in the ceiling that sprayed warm water on you while you soaked. Also there was one called “Blue Silk” and which had really cloudy blue water. Another one had underwater chairs which you could sit on while a fountain sprayed water up from underneath you, and as well as these there was a variety of baths at different temperatures, some of them ludicrously hot.

After getting suitably relaxed, I got dressed into some shorts and T shirt and set off to explore Fukuoka.

Fukuoka is the capital of Kyushu and actually used to be 2 cities, one called Hakata, and the other called Fukuoka. Anyway after deciding I wanted to visit Kyushu I decided to go to Fukuoka as had read that it was a cool cheap city with good nightlife.

Using the Lonely Planet Japan book as my guide, I started with Tocho-ji which boasted the largest wooden Buddha statue in Japan. This was a well lush temple and the statue was proper epic. I was told that I wasn’t allowed to take photos although luckily this was after I had already taken one.

I saw a tunnel under the statue which was marked entrance in Kanji, so decided to head towards it. Inside there was a dark gallery of paintings of Buddhist hell which were lit up. After seeing those I continued through the tunnel and the lighting suddenly finished. I wondered if I should turn back as I thought I might be going into the monks private quarters or something. Anyway I continued a bit into this pitch black, then turned around only to find that the route behind me was completely dark and I could literally not see anything.

I decided that I had to keep going although I was a bit scared that I would walk into a wall or something. I outstretched my hand and eventually found a wall. This curved round and round so I had no idea if I was going towards or away from the Hell gallery. Anyway after about 30 seconds of walking I got a bit nervous as it was still completely pitch black, I literally couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. I figured I had no choice and so continued. After a while I saw a faint light a few feet in front of me and so walked towards it. The tunnel curved round and there was a lit up painting of Buddha with loads of light around him.

I continued into the tunnel and eventually it curved round back into the temple area. This seemed well bright after the perpetual darkness I had just experienced, but was slightly relieving.

After seeing the rest of the temple I continued toward central Fukuoka and after walking for a few minutes came across Canal City. This is an epic shopping mall that was built next to one of the many canals of Fukuoka. The mall was basically about 5 shopping malls together that were joined by balconys. In fact the shop fronts were all on lush balconys that overlooked the canal. Anyway there was a good 5 floors to Canal City which meant it was like a city unto itself (thus the name presumably).

After doing a spot of clothes shopping, I continued round Canal city and found a Sega Land arcade on the top floor where I indulged in some video gaming action. After that I decided it was about time I found some lunch and had decided a long time ago where to have my lunch. Throughout Japan, Fukuoka/Hakata is famous for Ramen noodles and more specifically Tonkotsu Ramen which is where the soup is made from pork bones. Everyone I had told that I was going to Fukuoka had said that I had to try some Hakata ramen and I had found out about a place in Canal City called “Raumen Stadium” (they had spelt it wrong!) which sounded very appropriate.

Ramen Stadium was basically a floor of Canal city that had about 15 Ramen restaurants all next to each other, as well as Ramen based gift shops and displays. In the middle there were TV screens showing a documentary about Ramen. In this theme park like atmosphere, I decided I had made a wise decision on where to try Hakata ramen.

The “Stadium” was packed with people, presumably mainly tourists on their Golden Week vacation. After finding the restaurant with the smallest queue outside, I ordered some Tonkotsu ramen from the vending machine and collected my ticket. When I got inside I handed my ticket to a waitress and she asked me something in Japanese which I didn’t understand. After several attempts I eventually heard her say the word “Katai” meaning “hard”, and put 2 and 2 together. She was asking me how I wanted my noodles, hard or soft. I ordered them nice and al dente and sat down at the packed counter to wait.

After a few minutes my ramen came, and Im not sure if it was the Ramen infused atmosphere or just the intense build up of expectation, but this ramen was the nicest I had ever tasted. Its difficult to describe how nice, but basically it was delicious.

After leaving the restaurant I checked out the rest of Canal city and found some awesome escalators that had no stairs (instead they were like the walkway things in airports, but at an angle so that you got up to the next floor), as well as finding some really cool things going on on the ground floor. There were clowns, Shamisen (3 stringed Okinawa guitar thingys) players, as well as some awesome statues of animals made from like plants and stuff. In addition to this the Canal itself had loads of awesome fountains that performed at regular intervals.

When I left Canal City I headed to find central Fukuoka. On the way the streets were absolutely packed with people, some of them groups of dancers wearing matching costumes. I had actually arrived on the day of the Hakata Dontaku Matsuri (festival) which was a parade thing which traditionally featured dancers banging rice paddles together accompanied by some Shamisen players.

After walking for a while I took a right into “Tenjin chuo Koen”, a massive park featuring the ACROS Fukuoka building. This was some sort of international cultural centre, and looked awesome. There was this massive central dome within an artificial hill like structure. The sides featured a “Step Garden” which was flight after flight of steps to the top featuring a variety of different plants and trees.

To get to the ACROS building I had to walk across the central green of the park which was packed with people including loads of dance groups practicing, including some capoeira dancers and some absolutely awesome breakdancers. I also checked out some of the “Yatai” (food stalls) which is another thing Fukuoka is famous for. Following the Yatai, I ended up on one of the main high streets where the parade itself was going on.

The streets were packed with people watching the parade of various floats and dance troupes go by. At one point this huge lion thing came by with a guy standing on top of it screaming stuff in Japanese. The “lion” routinely breathed out steam as well which was awesome. There was also some rice paddle bangers doing their thing which was pretty cool.

After watching for a while I headed to find some more shops and found a good English language bookstore where I bought a book, and a sunglasses stall where I bought some new shades. After that I headed back to the ACROS building and decided to make an attempt at climbing this thing. After what seemed like forever I eventually made it to the top and got some awesome views of the city. I could see the dancers practicing in the park, the parade going by on the main road, and another stage where some other random thing was going on.

After taking a breather, I went back down the other side and admired some of the plants on the way. When I got to the bottom, I bought an ice cream and sat on the main green to relax for a bit. There was one more thing I wanted to see although it was already getting late and I had a strict timetable to stick to that evening.

Hawks Town was kind of like Canal City although it was on the sea instead. It got its name from the Fukuoka Sea Hawks baseball team, whose stadium was located there. There was also a resort called the Sea Hawk Hotel which was a really tall building that apparently gave awesome views of the city. I travelled there by subway and after about a 20 minute walk managed to locate the stadium and the hotel. I headed into the ridiculously posh hotel, and a smartly dressed doormen opened the door for me, not so smartly dressed in shorts and a T shirt and sweating profusely.

I took the glass lift up which was awesome although it did make me feel a bit sick. On the top floor all the windows looking out seemed to be in restaurants, and as I couldn’t possibly afford even a starter at these kinds of places, I turned down all the door people offering me a table. Eventually I found a restaurant with an unmanned door, and subtly crept in to take a few pictures before slipping out. The view was awesome and I got a great view of the baseball stadium where a Sea Hawks game had just finished, meaning there was also an awesome view of the crowds.

After I left it took me a while to get to the subway as there was huge crowds of people. Many of these were taking the subway which meant it was well cramped when I eventually got on a train. After a few stops I realized I was on the wrong line. Nagoyas subway system is something I deal with every day but even so I consider it the best I have ever used, better even than Tokyo. Fukuokas however is properly confusing with a really bizarre color coding system (not really a system, more like a random color for each station regardless of which line it is), and in addition to this the trains aren’t that regular. Anyway after a while I managed to get back to my capsule at about 730pm.

I had decided that I really wanted to experience the Fukuoka nightlife but first required some sleep having not had any on the way from Nagoya. I got inside my capsule and slept for a couple of hours before my alarm went off. I then had a shower, got dressed and went out.

The main nightlife district was called Tenjin, and there was a series of bars that I had read about in my LP book that sounded pretty good. Before that though I wanted to get some food and decided to go where there were supposed to be a load of food stalls. On the way I saw a man dressed like a frog surrounded by loads of guys dressed like tadpoles and one woman. Which was weird.

After getting lost a few times I eventually stumbled upon a few Yatai, and sat at one where there was a space. As I said before, Fukuoka is famous for Yatai, and a student of mine recommended it as a highlight of visiting as the owners were so friendly. Whilst most of the usual Takoyaki, Fried chicken and other fried foods stalls were there I decided to stick with the tradition and go to a ramen Yatai, where they had a proper counter and chairs.

I sat down and ordered some Kim Chi Ramen and relaxed. Whilst he was cooking, the owner was talking to all the diners and eventually I managed to engage in the conversation. There was a couple next to me named Nobu and Kumiko and when I asked where they were from, I was surprised to hear them say Nagoya. In fact they live in a suburb a few miles from Nisshin where I live. After talking for a few minutes my food arrived and it was pretty tasty although after I had finished I was still a little hungry. I had overhead some other customers order some Gyoza (Chinese dumplings) and so ordered some of those as well.

Whilst I waited Nobu and Kumiko asked me how you say certain Japanese words in English and I suddenly got a flashback to the first time I came to Japan, when me and some friends hassled a Japanese barman on how to say certain English words in Japanese. I felt a minor sense of accomplishment in how far my Japanese skills had come as I had crossed to the other side of the fence of being better at Japanese than the average Japanese is at English.

Whilst I was relishing my achievement my Gyoza arrived and I proceeded to cover them in a ridiculous amount of hot sauce which Nobu kindly suggested might make them taste horrible. After a load of soy sauce was added into the mix, I was good to go though and thoroughly enjoyed them.

After talking for a few minutes more I figured I should start drinking and after getting a picture with Nobu and Kumiko I got up to leave. I was about 20 metres down the road when I heard someone shouting. I turned round and walked back to the Yatai. The woman who also worked there alongside the male chef said something to me in Japanese which I didn’t understand. She bowed though, so I bowed back said thank you and left. She continued to talk though, and eventually someone walking by came up to me and said in English “You haven’t paid yet”. After all the ego building of the previous hour of Japanese conversation, and feeling like my skills were awesome, it all suddenly came crashing down as masses of embarrassment washed over me. I paid the bill and left, tail firmly between my legs.

After a few minutes of convincing myself to appreciate my successes rather than my failures, I found myself outside a bar that I had read about in my book. There were a few others that sounded cooler but upon visiting them found that they were either closed, had an entrance fee, or were impossible to find.

The bar I eventually settled on was a rock bar called The Dark Room and was on the 8th floor of a building on Oyafuko-dori which is the road with all the bars and clubs on it. When I got in I ordered a cocktail and sat down at the bar. The drink was considerably cheaper than drinks usually are in Japan , and in fact another thing Kyushu in general is popular for is being cheaper than the other islands.

I made chit chat with the bar staff for a while before striking up a conversation with a German guy who had only been in Fukuoka a week or so himself. When asked what he did I expected to hear either “English teacher” or “Student”, so I was a bit surprised when he said he worked for the Circus. He was a scenery director and had been working for Canadian company Cirque de Soleil for the past 2 years, which had taken him all round Japan. I met some of his friends who also worked for the circus and after talking for a while they left, and I started talking to another random. This guy was an American called Moses who it turned out, was the owner.

I talked to him about what its like to own a bar in Japan, and he was really safe although he was proper wasted, and went off on a tangent about a story about REM which I didn’t really understand. Anyway, what I didn’t know is that the Dark Room is often frequented by rockstars when they do tours of Japan. There was a few screens on the walls which Moses directed my attention to, and they had a slideshow of pictures playing. On occasion a picture would pop up of Moses with The Offspring, or Slash, or Sum 41, and even Keanu Reeves.

Anyway after a few minutes, Moses disappeared (probably to part the red sea or something; Sorry!, Couldn’t resist), and I started talking to an American called Tyler. Tyler had originally come to Fukuoka with the Navy a few years ago and was now studying Japanese here. Anyway he was a nice enough bloke until I asked him which clubs he recommended and he said this club called Infinity “used to be good but now its full of Blacks”. After that I made my excuses and left.
After walking down Oyafuko-dori for a while I came across a club called “Sam and Daves” which was a chain of nightclubs that ran all over Japan. I had visited 2 of these establishments in Osaka and had had maybe the best night out of my life in one of them, so I figured the Fukuoka branch would be a good bet. I was still on my own at this stage despite having set out at the start of the night to make some “friends for the night”. Anyway, undeterred I headed into Sam and Daves and started drinking. The club was absolutely packed with both Japanese and gaijin and the music was vaguely hip hoppy.

After chatting with a few gaijin, I eventually happened on a group featuring some English and Australian people, and found that they were actually really safe. I drunk, chatted and danced with these guys for a while and decided I had found my “friends for the night”. As the night wore on I spent a silly amount of money, but the night was proper awesome. We left the club around 5 and after saying my goodbyes I headed back to my Capsule Hotel. This was a fair distance, and the trains still hadn’t started, so I had to walk for about 30 minutes. Eventually I ended up in my capsule around 6, and tried to get some much needed sleep.

Ok thats the end of day one. Next week Ill go into what happened on days 2 and 3 of my Golden week excursion. Til then yo!!!

Peace out

Jack

P.S Heres a couple of videos, one of Ramen stadium, and one of the dancers and parade and general mayhem of Fukuoka from the top of the ACROS building.

The Shironowaru

Ok, sorry this blogs been a bit slow coming but o well, its here now.

So last Thursday me and Ayae went to the infamous Komeda Coffee. This is a chain of coffee shops around Aichi prefecture, which pretty much everyone (or everyone in Aichi prefecture) knows about.

One of my adult students had been repeatedly telling me that I had to go there to try the mighty Shironowaru, which was a dessert which they invented that they are famous for.

Anyway we have a Komeda about 20 metres down the road from us so I decided it was about time we checked it out. We ordered some tea and coffee and of course the shironowaru, and after a few minutes it arrived. The shironowaru is basically a huge Danish pastry (like, bigger than my face) with a mountain of soft cream (Ice cream from the whippy machine) on top, which is covered in maple syrup. O yeh and a cherry on top.

This was well sweet, but obviously well lush, and well worth the visit. In the size ranks it didn’t really rate next to “Gigantor”, but still, it was proper tasty.

On the Saturday, Me, Ayae, Callie and Naho went to my friend Stevens wedding reception. Steven is an American who had married a Japanese woman called Noriko in his hometown of Norwich, New York the week before, and the reception was to be held in Nagoya.

It was going to be held at a posh venue called “The Eat” in Sakae. There was an entrance fee, but that did include all u can eat and drink. When we got in there it was already pretty busy, with some Gaijin but mainly Japanese. There was some food out, but no one was helping themselves so I figured I should wait.

It was an awesome spread I have to say and was one of the things I had been looking forward to all day. They had these little creamy mash potato things, a big mixed salad, a burdock salad, loads of sausages and loads of chips, and also some things which I didn’t know.

We got a seat next to where the food was situated, and I noticed that I was not the only one eyeballing the chow. Loads of the other guests obviously were thinking the same as me, but showed respectable restraint. Anyway I figured it was safe to leave my seat for a few minutes.

After saying hello to a few people I knew, everyone took their seat and the happy couple made their entrance to the sound of the Sex Pistols version of “I Did It My Way”. After that the MC, a Japanese woman, made a toast in Japanese and then translated it into English which was followed with a free glass of champagne for everyone.

Steve and Noriko then cut the cake and said a few things themselves. We were then informed we could start on the food which prompted a mad dash for the buffet. There was about 70 odd people there, and a good 40 of them rushed to the table at the same time. Within about 2 minutes it was all gone although the waiters continually replaced the plates.

After I was about half way through my first plate, they brought out some new dishes starting with some deep fried octopus with some tartare sauce. I immediately left my seat, as did many others to get a big plate for myself and the others at my table. This too went well fast as did all the replacements. Throughout the night there was lots of different dishes, including rice dorias, fried chicken, and some other deep fried fish thing, For dessert there was some huge fruit salads with whipped cream, and also of course some wedding cake.

Needless to say everything was well tasty, and that coupled with all the wine I drank meant I got my moneys worth. During the party there was a Japanese DJ who was playing reggae all night. At one point he dropped Damian Marleys “Welcome to Jamrock” and said “Waa, big choon!!!” which was quite funny as no one was really paying attention. Still, he seemed to be enjoying himself, and the music was all well good to be fair.

Along with the party poppers we were provided with when we entered, we were also given bingo cards (a staple of most English teachers kids lessons!) for a bingo game later on. I did pretty hopeless at this, although various other people won some good cash prizes. At the end there was a big Janken (rock, scissors, paper contest – also a staple of any good kids class) competition between all of the guests with one number left on their cards. Koji, who was sitting at our table, managed to defeat all of them and won 150 quids worth of Visa vouchers which was well impressive.

After eating, drinking and chatting loads it was time to go home, although I made sure I got a picture with Steve and Noriko beforehand. They had spent almost the whole party having people get pictures with them and so were well tired of it, but I made sure I got one anyway.

We were awarded with loads of lollipops and candy when we left as well which was awesome.

The next day we went to a nearby organic restaurant for lunch which was surprisingly cheap. We then went into the city for a walk around Meijo park, and also did a spot of shopping. When we were running low on energy we popped into the Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers (the crazy twisty building near Nagoya station), which despite being a design school also had a couple of basement floors of restaurants (well it is a Japanese skyscraper so I guess this is to be expected).

We found a Hawain café which specialized in pancakes. We ordered one called “Berry and Berry” and when it arrived it was proper immense. It was 2 Hawaian style pancakes topped with some whipped cream which was then topped with another pancake, and more whipped cream, plus loads of different berrys including Blackberrys, Blueberrys, and even 1 big Strawberry.

This was a pretty big job even for 2 people, but I was more than up for it. After that intense sugar rush we did a bit more shopping, before returning home.

The following Wednesday Ayae had a job interview for ECC, one of the biggest chains of English schools, which was offering home teacher jobs, where you can teach from your own home, and they provide support with training, students, advertising, equipment etc. Anyway, after she had been to that we returned to the Hawaiian café at Nagoya station to try some of their savory dishes which looked quite tempting from the menu.

It was all pretty overpriced, but I ordered a Taco variation of a Loco Moco which was a traditional rice dish of Hawaii . This was a heated metal bowl, with a load of Taco meat, cheese, lettuce and of course rice. This was pretty tasty although it was well small considering the price. After the meal we decided that despite having awesome pancakes, they were not to be trusted with a good all round savory dish (this particular restaurant, not the Hawaiians in general).

The next few days were spent planning my Golden week trip. Golden week is a week in the Japanese calendar which features like 5 national holidays. My school had decided that this was reason enough to take the whole week off, which meant I was going to have 8 consecutive days off.

Because nearly all Japanese have these days off, the touristy locations are ridiculously busy during this period, and also have intense price hikes. Despite this, I decided I wanted to get away during this time as my timetable these days means I don’t really get the chance to go away anywhere for more than 2 days these days. There are still a few places I have never been to in Japan so I figured I`d tick a few of these off the list.

I wanted to go to Kyushu which is Japans 3rd largest island, and is south of Honshu (the island where Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and I live). While Im here I want to visit all of Japans 4 main islands, which left Shikoku, Kyushu and Hokkaido. Theres not much to see in Shikoku, and Hokkaido is in the North and ridiculously cold, so I want to go there in July.

So I settled on Kyushu, although I also wanted to tick off Hiroshima as well, as everybody recommends it. After 2 full days of checking websites for travel agents, bus companies, airlines, train companies, hostels, hotels, as well as the numerous guidebooks and guide websites I finally came up with a plan.

Because trains and planes are ludicrously expensive (not just during golden week, but generally), I decided I`d do the whole thing by bus. By the way Im using the subject “I” because Ayae cannot join me. As previously mentioned Golden week is ludicrously busy for touristy areas, which means she has to go home and help out at her parents minshuku while Im gallivanting round Japan on my own.

Anyway after checking, booking, cancelling, booking again, changing my booking and doing this with various different companies and spending a ridiculous amount of money Im now just about planned up for my trip. My money situation has been looking pretty dire recently although rereading this blog leaves no mystery as to why. For some reason I have been eating out a ridiculous amount the last couple of weeks. I guess because its cheaper in Japan, but still, Im guessing averaging 4 restaurants a week is not very good for my bank account no matter what the country. Anyway this did put me off going on this Kyushu trip, especially with my Thailand holiday in a couple of months coming up, but hey I need something to blog about so Kyushu it is!

But enough for now, more on that next week.

The rest of the week passed pretty much without incident, although I did go for a drink with my friend Kawai-san at a gaijin bar in Imaike after work on Monday. I was celebrating my last day of work before Golden week as it was to start the next day. The bar was called Misfits and was on the 3rd floor of a building, and a little out of the way to say the least.

The bar was owned by a sleazy but friendly American named Dave who was like a shorter, rounder version of Bill Bailey. Anyway as soon as I entered he introduced himself and gave me some tips for “Tapping that ass”, which whilst not shocking me, did leave me with some unneeded images in my mind. Despite this he was quite funny, and it was pretty interesting talking to someone who did something other than teach English (although that was his day job as well!).

He had no staff on Mondays which meant that he served all the drinks and cooked all the food people ordered himself. The bar was in the Japanese style of being one very small room, but still there was a good like, 10 people there. Anyway I met some pretty interesting people in the bar including people from Holland, Bangladesh, and even Okinawa (seriously everyone who`s from Okinawa seems to stay there forever, so its well rare to actually meet someone in Nagoya who`s from there, although it is well lush so I don’t blame them).

Mondays meant half price cocktails at Misfits which was a welcome change to the usual financial rinse out of other Japanese bars. Anyway after a few cocktails and a BLT courtesy of Dave, I made my way home in time for the last bus.

On Wednesday I went to Hekinan for my friend Pascale`s going away party. Shes returning to Canada on Friday and so decided to have a barbeque party to celebrate. This was to be in Suigen Park Hekinan, which is about an hour and 20 minutes from Nagoya (so it took me about 2 hours to get there!).

Most of the teachers from ACC turned up so it was really cool to see them. Being as I live well far from the schools outside Nagoya I don’t get to see those guys much, so it was a great opportunity to see everyone.

The barbeque was pretty awesome with pork, beef, sausage things, pumpkin, asparagus, shrimps and loads of other snacky food as well. After eating and drinking loads we went to a Hekinan bar called Five to eat and drink more. This was a pretty cool establishment, and was a nice place to hang out for a few hours.

Unfortunately, because I live so far away I had to leave at like 10 to be in Nagoya in time for the last train. Still, by that stage I had already drunk too much, so it was probably a blessing in disguise.

Ok that’s about it for this week, next week there`ll be a Golden Week/ Kyushu special which I cant wait for! See u then!!

Peace

Jack