Student Festivals and Stalling Tactics.

Hello all, as I write this I am finishing preparations for WR and I's trip to Seoul.  While we'll have a smorgasbord of exciting pictures and stories for you in a week, I didn't want any of our three loyal readers to go into Japanese picture withdrawal in the meantime.  And so you have a mini post to tide you over.

Yesterday was the annual student run festival at WR's school.  It's an opportunity for each of the student groups to show off their interests and what they are working on, as well as provide a performance venue for both student and teacher talent.  Due to understandable privacy concerns pictures are scarce, but I managed to take a couple.

The English club WR works with chose to put up a Harry Potter themed cafe, apropos for Halloween, and they really did a fantastic job.  

While WR and the other teachers offered support when asked, the students do almost all the work.  Scheduling the events, creating all the promotional materials, and even making the food. Considering it is a massive 7 story structure with three performance areas and dozens of clubs it was no small undertaking.

A view of some of the food stalls in the 3rd floor courtyard.

I also got to see some areas of the school I hadn't before like the Kendo and Judo room.

Kendo padding looks pretty badass ne?

We have crates full of basketballs in our gyms, they have crates
of wooden swords . . . point goes to Japan.

Lastly for the second year in a row, WR got to team up with one of her fellow teachers to do a two person comedy routine.  It is a format called Manzai, and it is remeniscent of an old-style two man stand-up routine. The hard part?  It was entirely in Japanese.  

We had been drilling it for the past few weeks, and all the practice definitely paid off.    The gods of technology have all thwarted my attempts to upload the video, but needless to say WR did great and the crowd really ate it up.

We'll be back with stories from Korea next week! Thanks as always for reading, and don't forget to feed the fish.

DW

Food.

Some of these aren't from this week, but they are notable all the same :).

French rolls stuffed with tastiness

Rustic Italian boule with oregano

A tasty Kebab place in Tenjin

Study.

The emptiness in this section is equivilent to my complete lack of knowledge in the Korean language.

Explore.

A really strange building I passed while walking to Dazaifu.

Sunset in Tenjin

Fukuoka Tower

Germany in Japan.

Yesterday, DW and I got a little taste of German cultural flair at Fukuoka's annual Oktoberfest!  

The festival was held in Reisen Park, in downtown Fukuoka City, just off the hoppin' nightlife area of Nakasu-Kawabata.  We took a train into Tenjin, walked through the adjacent neighborhood until we reached the small park, and then, with a roaring gaijin battlecry of, "Hooray, sausages!" we entered the smoke-filled fray.

It was just like being back in Frankfurt, only with a bit more kanji.

We went with a few friends and neighbors from the jutaku (teachers' housing), who were almost as excited about the impending non-Japanese tastiness as we were.  Okay, no.  Hey.  Don't get me wrong, we love Japanese food, really... but we were pretty damned thrilled to see five kinds of near-black beer on tap and smoked sausages sizzling over a fire.  Like, I think I started drooling on sight.  Or crying.  I'm not sure.  But it was AWESOME.

So, yes.  Oktoberfest was full of delicious, delicious things.  There were 17 different brands of German beer available, which is pretty impressive in a country where ordering a beer at a restaurant usually means you get the choice of "beer in a bottle" or "beer in a glass," as well as a smorgasbord of sausages, pretzels, pastries, tasty-potato-things, and fried-cheesy-things.  There were even cheesy-fried-potato-things, which took me to a plane of food-induced-happiness I haven't experienced since my last visit to Wisconsin.

But I digress.  Here are some photos of our Oktoberfesting!

DW and his sausage. 
(aka, WR and her blackmail material.)

Friends, enjoying their Currywurst.

GERMAN STUFF!  (Except for the pizza.)

BEER!  Look!  It has COLOR!

Oh, delicious fried Ka-ma-n-be-ru.

One of the highlights of the evening was when the German band took the stage.  The singer really knew how to work the crowd, leading the audience in a variety of German drinking tunes and bantering between sets with enthusiastic chants of, "Nomimashitaka?  Nomimashitaka?  NOMIMASHOU!"  ("Did you drink?  Did you drink?  LET'S DRINK!")  To which, naturally, the Japanese crowd raised their glasses and chugged.

The band and the crowd.

Gloriously drunken dancing.

While we didn't get a video of their spirited rendition of the ever-traditional German song, "The Chicken Dance" (we were too busy twirling with the other drunken revelers), we did get a clip of one of  band's lively performances.  Enjoy!

That's the big focus for this week!  (I mean, how can you top such convivial footage, right?)  Keep scrolling to see more photos tidbits from our last two weeks in Japan.

Thanks, as always, for reading!  And don't forget to feed the fish!
WR

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FOOD.

 

DW made meatloaf!
YUMMM!

DW made Mexi-Chicken-Stuff!
YUMMM!

DW made fresh bread!  (Are you seeing a pattern?)
YUMMM!

(DW didn't make this one.)  We had incredible sashimi at
a very close and very delicious restaurant on Friday.

The kind waitress pouring more Nihon-shu.

STUDY.

While DW has been studying classes,
WR has been memorizing Manzai.

This is a magnet WR used in class for map directions.
It's supposed to look like DW.  Tee hee.

EXPLORATION.

A new neighborhood we found on the west
side of town.  "Look, Ichiran!"

Momochi beach on a lovely day.

Tinges of fall in the Dazaifu trees.

Just plain beautiful.

Ferries and Flowers

You may not realize it looking at the pictures featured on the blog, and truthfully I forget it myself at times, but Fukuoka is a coastal city.  It isn't helped by the fact that our actual hometown, Chikushino, is quite a bit further inland, but in the nearly three months I've been in the area I had yet to reach the shoreline.  Last weekend, the fates conspired to give me that opportunity, as Eleanor, one of our good friends here, got a group together to go to Nokonoshima Island for her birthday.

Nokonoshima island is small island in the middle of Hakata bay.  In spite of it's relatively close proximity we really ran the gamut on our transportation to the park, traveling by train, subway, then taxi to the ferry landing; by ferry to the island itself; then bus to the park.  While the town where the ferry dock's is lovely, the island is primarily known for, well . . . this:

The flower gardens at Nokonoshima Island Park, situated at the islands summit.  Cosmos were the current flower and the main park area was COVERED in them.  While there were other things to do, basking in the pretty was the primary goal.  With that in mind, I'll allow for some vicarious baskage on your part.

It's WR's expression that completes this photo

The famous Nokonoshima bunnypile

Before I depart I want to apologize for the delay getting up this post.  To make up for it I'm offering this: a video of our turtle eating an apple . . . enjoy

Ta ta for now, and don't forget to feed the turtl . . . err . . . fish.

DW

FOOD.

Dan made Okonomiyaki!

Eleanor birthday lunch at Cafe Kurata

Italian inspired Onigiri, which I pan fried . . . cause why not?

STUDY.

I've been pushing my Japanese study as of late, and have given myself the
challenge of learning 25 new Japanese words a day for the month.

WR meanwhile has been doing research on a really amazing
Japanese play for her own nefarious purposes.

EXPLORATION.

It's finally fall! That means I can wear jeans without sweating my literal ass off.

A display of one of the floats from a famous local festival.

Tochoji Temple.  Right in the heart of Hakata ward.

Overdone shot?  Perhaps, but I still like it :).

Another shot of Tochoji.

The canal near Nakasu.