May in Fukuoka

Now I am aware May way 5 months ago and I have been very slow in updating as usual, however, better late than never.
Now May had a lot of goings on but I'll try and put it all into this one post so that I get it out of the way.


May 3 - Hakata Dontaku Festival
This was one of the major festivals that Fukuoka is famous for (the other was in July that I missed). I'm not entirely sure what it originated for but the festival itself consisted of local companies, NGOs, groups and organisations getting together to show off a performance or a parade. There were dance groups of children and teenagers showing off hip-hop, or middle aged women doing traditional dance. There were bands and musicians playing on small stages dotted around the centre of town. And food and games stalls in parks and along the streets. The main parade was massive and when on for hours over the course of the weekend. More details here: http://fukuoka-now.com/2013/04/hakata-dontaku-2013-guide/

So Wes and I met up with Kate and Lizzie (our amazing American and Australian friends) and wandered around the festival taking in the sights and sounds and standing around for the parade until we got too hungry to wait any longer. Street food in Japan is what it always is, expensive, not entirely tasty, but just what you need. Out of the millions of people that attended the festival we ran into a few people we knew!

May 11 - Nakamura Strawberry Farm
My first trip to Japan 5 years ago was to Fukuoka and while there I did WWOOF staying at 2 farms. One of them was a farm that did a variety of fruit but mostly strawberries which people could do 'all you can eat' for a set price. They also have a small shop that sells their own and local produce. So being in the area I decided to see them again this time with Wes.

It was a baking hot day, which wasn't helped by the fact that Nakamura got the wrong train station and was a bit late. But that was ok. He treated us to lunch at their shop (using the tables Mog and I had made 5 years before!) and I got to see his wife and son again! And his son even has a wife and 2 children which was new. Wes and I ate a load of strawberries and went to see some flowers and some really old tombs (about 1000 years old!) We had dinner with them and got the train back.

May 12 - Birthday trip to Aquarium
Wes and I had made a number of friends in Japan, and for once Japanese friends, so I really wanted to do something with them all. We hadn't been to the aquarium in Fukuoka so I thought that would be a good place to go. Lizzie, Mami, Saeko, Eri, Mayuko came along (Kate was in Tokyo) and we had a great day. The aquarium in Fukuoka was pretty amazing, much better than the one at Osaka. AND because it was my brithday I got to touch a dolphin! We also fed seals! And saw a dolphin show which was pretty amazing.

May 17 - Nomihoudai Lizzie's Goodbye Party
Lizzie had to leave us to go back to Australis *sadface* so we and her house mates went out to nomihoudai (all you can drink). It was at an 80s music style club that had record covers and posters all over the wall along with 80s Japanese music in the background. We had an hour and a half to drink as much as we wanted which was great but I hadn't realised that Lizzie's Japanese friends were all under age (they don't really check in Japan), so they all got rather drunk and one was very sick. But it was great fun! Was sad to see Lizzie go, but I'll see her again in Japan I'm sure :)

May 23 - Uminonakamichi Park
This was a theme park and gardens next to the Aquarium which we went to with the school. Kate, Wes and I went around together, and for once we were with the larger campus' students. We didn't talk to any of them in the end, but it did mean there were a LOT of foreigners walking around. There was a rose garden, a really awesome zoo (with tons of bunnies and guinea pigs!!), and a park with games, slides and a ferris wheel. The ferries wheel was awesome, a tad scary cos I hate heights, but awesome none the less.

LLAMAS!!!!

Class Trips: Fukuoka Archaeology and Making Okonomiyaki

So because I've been incredibly slow updating the blog I'm cramming a load of events into a couple of entries! Yay! This ones about two of the trips and activities we've been doing with NILS.

Fukuoka Archaeology 13th Feb

The first we did recently was go to the ruins of Fukuoka castle coincidently the week after we went with Eiji and Erika! Within the grounds of the castle (which is now a huge park) is an archaeological dig and small museum of the Fukuoka Korokan which was a guest house for foreign emissaries and merchants from the 7th to 11th century. The remains were only found in 1987 and they're still digging them up. Apparently there were some in Kyoto and Osaka but only in Fukuoka has remains been found.

(The Korokan museum - the most of the dig site was outside)

After having a gander at that we wandered over to the castle ruins where all the plum blossoms were coming out. The area was once again filled with Japanese people with huge cameras. Funnily enough there was one Japanese guy who was taking pictures of the blossom with his phone who began talking to Hirose-sensei, and to me in broken English until he realised I could understand him better in Japanese. He then proceeded to take me around the area showing me and Hirose the different types of trees and what shots of the blossoms would make good pictures. Apparently there were 16-18 different kinds of plum tree in the park and they originally came from China.

(Awesome old Japanese guy shows us blossoms)

More wandering happened as we walked through the park to the other side where the Fukuoka NHK building was. For those who don't know NHK is like the BBC in Japan and they have a station in Fukuoka that airs to Fukuoka and the area and that's free and open to the public. Well the studio where they were filming's not open unless you get there before the show starts but there's a glass wall so you can see filming going on. We were going to sit in on a show but there was a horde of small children who were going to take up all the seats, so we just looked around at the displays (including their long list of morning and historic dramas) and then headed out to the shrine next door. (It's Japan, there are shrines everywhere)

This shrine was one that Hirose had been to a lot when she was young to feed the pigeons which is what we did too!!! While Wes and I were distracted taking pictures Hirose had wandered off and bought each of us pigeon food. We were immediately swarmed (in a non-terrifying way) and fed them and they ate out of our hands and it was awesome!!!

(Me being amused by pigeon on hand)

Okonomiyaki 20th Feb

The next activity a week later (20th Feb) was making Okonomiyaki in the class room!!! Beforehand though we had to go over a huge list of cooking vocab (that I still need to memorise). With Hirose and Gaku's guidance we then made okonomiyaki! Now Hirose had already admitted to us that she still lives with her family and cannot cook at all, so this was certainly an entertaining endeavour. Or at least I thought it would be when it came to her turn to cook. Turns out she made is better than me! >_< Mine was too big and needed 3 people to help flip. Wes made his perfect (of course) so from now on I'm getting him to make all the okonimiyaki for the two of us.

Oh, what is an okonomiyaki? Well it's one of these:

A lot of people say it's a pancake but it's really not. Here's a recipe that gives clear directions for anyone who lives near an asian market/Japanese supermarket and wants to make them at home.

How we made it was first shredding up a huge amount of cabbage. 

Then whisking the okonomiyaki flour with water. 

Then we chopped up some squid and fried it and stuck it on a plate. 

We each got our own bowl and put some of the mix in with a huge ton of cabbage and an egg and mixed it all together. 

Then we friend some bacon, added the squid, covered it in the okonomiyaki mix and 

Then cooked til golden brown and not soggy (or if you're me, really soggy and bairly cooked)

(This was Wes')

Then cover it in okonomiyaki sauce, Japanese mayo (cannot be western style), seaweed flakes, bonita and things that taste like deep fried rice krispies.

Meeting New People and the Cat Cafe

So Wes and I had been in Japan for a few weeks and we hadn't met anyone besides teachers and the other student (and a woman who's car I hit with my bike but I don't think that counts). So in order to get more Japanese practice in and just to meet people I set up an account with a site I found called My Language Exchange where you can type in what city you're in and find people who want to study in your language. So basically it puts you in contact with people that you can meet face to face and do a language exchange. A couple of people then e-mailed me and I was finally able to set up a meeting with a guy call Eiji and his friend. So on Sunday 10th Feb Wes and I headed into Tenjin and met Eiji and Erika for the first time.

They were really nice people who were very eager to first take us for lunch at a cat cafe! Now I'd mentioned before (on fb) that I had wanted to go to a cat cafe and had been looking up prospective ones in Fukuoka. Lo and behold the one they take us to is the one I'd wanted to go to! I'd never been to a cat cafe so this was a first and I was super excited to see all of the cats! The cafe we went to was a clean cool well lit place on the 5th floor of a building. There were cats everywhere sleeping, running around. Thinking about it it was pretty quiet too! It's as if cats in Japan just don't meow. When we sat down there was even a cat sitting on Wes' chair. The waitress comes over picks the little guy up and plonks him on Wes' lap. The cat bairly blinks before moving to Erika's chair and falling asleep again. He was asleep the whole time we were there, not bothered at all that we were taking up half of his seat. 

(The kitty that rejected Wes and went to sleep on Erika's lap)

So we order some stupidly expensive drinks and sweets (at this point I'm so hungry I don't care) and while waiting for our orders go and play with the cats. They aren't really interested in you most of the time and just ignore you while you pet them. At least they do until you have some kind of food. Once my sweet had arrived there was this one cat that kept batting at it trying to steal some >< The waitress had to take him away so I could eat in peace. 

(Kitty trying to steal my dessert)

So after the cat cafe we decided to wander over to a park in the middle of the City where the ruins of Fukuoka Castle were. I'd seen pictures of this place on maps cos it has a huge lake with an island in the middle. We didn't go onto the island but wandering around the castle grounds was fun. We saw lots of pretty trees and plum blossoms and got to get to know Erika and Eiji pretty well. 

 We were so knackard by the end of the day. We did think of having dinner out but I realised I had no money so we put that off.I pretty much slept the whole way back on the train and then we both died at about 9pm. It was a good day ^__^