3-20-07

I caught a train to a city called Dazaifu on Dave`s recommendation. Dazaifu is known for it`s culturally significant sites, huge shrines, Zen gardens and little sweet cakes made of bean paste. Little did I know, however, that the day I arrived was also the Plum Blossom Festival Ceremony Day (not really sure what you call it) where large groups of kids danced together in groups. I guess nothing says "Plum Blossoms" like costumed dance numbers? The whole day people were walking around in full makeup, walking around waiting for their group to be called. The music the groups danced to was a mix of traditional Japanese music with hip hop thrown in. This made things very interesting and allowed the dancers to really have fun, I could tell that these kids were having a blast, as I know I would be if I were still doing choreographed dance numbers. Ah, competitive dance.


After watching some of the dances I decided to try some of the street food. But I soon became distracted by a monkey. Wait, a monkey? It`s in a kimono? And jumping through hoops? What the hell is this? Apparently the Plum Blossom festival also means monkey shows. The funniest thing about the whole show is that the monkey actually bowed on command to the adoring crowd.



Eventually I found my street food and had another food day. The bean paste cakes were hot and so good, Dazaifu is known for their cakes (called umegae-mochi) and there were long lines of people eager to get their hands on these hot little things. And look, is that a flower imprinted on it? Less well know but equally as good were these kinds of pancake s covered in condiments (ketchup, mayonnaise, fried onion?) and served on un-snapped chopsticks on a rice cracker. I have no idea what it was called but it tasted great. Right, after eating lots of food I went to the Kyushu National Museum which looks like a huge wave from the outside. It focuses on Japanese culture from the perspective of other Asian civilizations, dealing with trade, religion and technology. Going to this museum really brought all of Asia together in comparison and made me glad that I had been to all the countries in South East Asia that I had gone to as I recognized most of them in the exhibits. Unfortunately I couldn`t take any photos inside which sucked as the displays were amazing. I knew katanas were beautiful swords but had no idea just how beautiful.


Tired from walking around the museum I found a shrine with some Zen gardens at the Komyozenji temple which was very peaceful. There was almost no one there and I was free to wander around and hang out on the rice straw mats.








Then it was off to find my guesthouse but not before passing by an ox cart that was handing out free sake, which I mistook for water. Imagine my surprise when I swallowed a big mouthful of sweet rice wine when I expected water. But it was good sake, probably the best sake I`ve ever had which isn`t saying much because my sake consumption is about a thimble-full just to celebrate the New Year. I noticed a couple men in the crowd who had obviously been drinking from the dark shade of red covering their faces.

Luckily I was able to get a spot at a local bed and breakfast and met up with Alex, a teacher from New York. He`s been teaching overseas but English and not mathematics, as became painfully obvious when he asked me for 1000 yen since he was broke. Of course I gave it to him (because he caught me off guard) but I though man, you come to Japan and run out of money? Hello! It`s expensive here! He tried to get a work Visa here but for some reason it didn`t work out. He also applied for the Peace Corps but was rejected for some reason. After all the fun people I`ve met in the Peace Corps, I really have to wonder why he was rejected.

Anyway, after Dazaifu I went to Kumamoto via Fukuoka. I literally had zero information on Kumamoto other than my grandma`s family is from there as well as Toyoda-san. I also heard there was a castle. So I came in on the bus, got a nice room for a couple nights and started walking around. Well the castle is impossible to miss, it`s huge and majestic and considered one of the best castles in all of Japan. The following morning (today) I was able to go inside and see just how majestic it really is. Let me tell you something, whatever you are doing you need to drop it and come to Japan and see this thing. It is HUGE! Huge and beautiful and clean and tall and a stunning example of Japanese architecture and lots of other things as well. I can`t remember everything that I read about it so I`ll just put up some pictures.
Castle very big, me very small!

And this is on the inside, there are walls outside of this leading in. Man, I wish I could express the scale of this this. Sure it`s not as big as Angkor Wat but it`s still huge. And it was able to hold off an army during Japan`s last civil war, pretty impressive. There`s lot so turrets, loop holes for shooting enemy troops, storage facilities,




and flower gardens. Even during war they had to tend to their flowers. The flowers on the inside of the castle are pure strains and have never been cross-pollinated before. Unfortunately, this Higo Camelia was the only species in bloom. There are 4 different flowers on the castle grounds, each one with a different way of planting and cultivating it.






There were other flowers outside the castle, but I don`t know what they were called. Here`s one anyway, that`s the castle in the background.





After the castle I wasn`t finished with the area so I went to the art museum and the Traditional Craft Center which is so Awesome. They make bamboo baskets, traditional wood furniture, porcelain, hand-made paper, knives and all sorts of really cool things, some of which I tried to make in Vanuatu. I really wanted to buy everything they were selling (especially the gold inlaid iron work) but it was all way to expensive. In the end I bought some hand-made paper and little things to give out as gifts.



Afterwards I went to the local park and found some girls eating lunch under a tree.











Thanks for sticking with me so far (assuming you`ve read it all). Last (but funniest of all) I found a woman selling cabbage in broad daylight. Long wan klia ples ia! Ating ol man i wantem pem kagaj blong hem.

Right, I`m exhausted. Tomorrow it`s back to Fukuoka, then Nagasaki.