Fall in Fukuoka

Fall is here, and I've been busy busy busy but not that exciting lately. It's that time of year when I realize that it's been two months and I'm still in Unit 1 and I wonder why I haven't done some of the things I meant to do. I have been missing Portland quite a bit lately, as my social life here just can't compete with what I left behind. However, I'm still loving my job and getting to know my new city. I'm trying to decide where to go for a five day break a month from now. Tokyo? Kyoto? Shanghai? I might have to go to Osaka to get my visa for Vietnam. I hear they have good okonomiyaki there, and this guy I went to high school with is a big dj on the Osaka scene, or so he claims on facebook. Hmm.

Last weekend I went on the high school overnight trip to a camp in the hills. I didn't get much sleep and can't say I enjoyed the night part much, but the day was beautiful and the kids were having a great time! I did enjoy tossing a frisbee around in the field and eating hotdogs with my high school colleagues.

On Sunday I joined a group of total strangers (who I met through an ad with the local international magazine) and biked out of town into the hills for a hike. It was pretty cool to get to a view like the one above and know that I had walked and biked there from my apartment (in the distance). I am now a member of the "Fukuoka International Hiking Club" and hope to go on more hikes in the future. The hills of Fukuoka are covered in cedar trees and ferns so I almost felt like I was in Oregon. I avoided running into any wild boar which, unlike at home, is a possibility here.

If I make it through this week (quarter progress report grades are due tomorrow and I feel terribly behind in everything!) I hope to get out next weekend to the Saga Balloon Festival and the nighttime Lantern Festival in Yanagawa, the canal town I visited with Jinny. I also have to make sure my students are ready for the Model United Nations conference, which is in Seoul next week! And good news: Karinna will be there, too! I'm definitely looking forward to eating some bibimbap with Karinna in Korea!

Nagasaki, Unzen, Obama

We had a three-day weekend so Lori and I took a two-hour bus to Nagasaki. Since we'd both seen the Peace Park and Museum at Hiroshima we decided to forego the bomb epicenter in Nagasaki. The city is famous for other reasons, namely it's long history of being the gateway to Japan, which is reflected in the international influences in the food, religion, and architecture in the city.

This bridge is the oldest Chinese-style stone bridge in Japan and it was just down the river from our hostel.

We visited several Buddhist temples (with Shinto shrines nearby, of course) including a few that were built in the early 1600s by Chinese Buddhist missionaries. The temples were spared destruction in 1945 because Nagasaki's hills gave them protection from the bomb blast.

We splurged on a fancy shipoku lunch, a big spread of Japanese, Chinese, and Portueguese-influenced delicacies.

In Chinatown we snacked on steamed pork buns. Nagasaki is also famous for a Portuguese pound cake known as castella. The Portuguese were allowed to trade at the port of Nagasaki for only a few years before they were expelled for being too Catholic. The Japanese government did allow Dutch traders to take their place but only within the confines a small artificial island in the harbor.

These sage statues grace the courtyard of the Confucian Temple in Nagasaki. At the museum behind the shrine were several items on loan from the National Museum in Beijing, including a couple of the life-sized soldier statues from Xian.

After two nights in Nagasaki we headed east to the Shimabara Peninsula, dominated by the volcano of Mt. Unzen. Hot springs lovers have been travelling to the resort town of Unzen for centuries. Lori and I enjoyed hard-boiled eggs from the bubbling "hell pools" and relaxed in a public bath. After trying champon for lunch (Nagasaki's famous Chinese-style noodle soup) we took a bus down the mountain to the coastal hot springs resort town, Obama!
We were excited to pay homage to Obama in Obama. The town didn't seem to be cashing in on its name, except for one shop sign advertising Obama as the "champion we can believe in" (or was that "champon" soup?). Lori and I splurged and stayed in a hot springs ryokan (traditional inn) where we had a fantastic spread for dinner served in our room. After dinner we relaxed in the hot tub on the pool (overlooking the bay) then returned to our room to find our dinner cleared and our futons rolled out for bed!

We joined several naked Japanese ladies in the public bath on the bay. Actually, they joined us, after I took this photo of the empty pool!

I can't believe the election is less than a month away! I took my ballot to the consulate the other day where it was Fed-Exed for free to Oregon. If you want to know what I'm thinking and reading about regarding the election and the economy, check out my political blog, http://alispoliticalblog.blogspot.com/


View Larger Map
For more photos, check out:

Nagasaki, Unzen, and Obama 10/12/08