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GOLDEN WEEK ADVENTURES.
Fukuoka Zoo & Akizuki: Plants, Animals, Pottery, and Inaka.
Mid-Golden Week, on a gorgeous Thursday, I joined the second year students and teachers for my school's annual field trip. Our destination? The Fukuoka City Zoo and Botanical Gardens. I spent the morning and early afternoon wandering the park, strolling from exhibit to exhibit with fellow teachers and students.
In truth, it wasn't the most amazing of parks (I mean, zoos can sometimes be a little depressing, right?), but it was a lovely day and a great bonding experience with my coworkers.
Photo highlights!
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| The front gate. You're adorable, Japan. |
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| A tanooki! Kawaiiiiiii! |
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| Beautiful birds. |
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| The katakana is the same as my last name! Tee hee hee! |
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| Cute children watching the cute monkeys. |
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| The botanical garden. |
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| One of the indoor gardens. |
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| Wow. Uhhh. Wow. |
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| Oh, Engrish.... (sigh) .... |
After the field trip concluded, many of the 2nd-year teachers (and I, of course) went to the Akasaka neighborhood for a super-awesome, always-convivial enkai. I can't post any pictures, naturally. I mean, an enkai is like Vegas. What happens there, stays there. But I CAN tell you that I had an amazing time. And I got drunk. Really, really drunk.
But, I somehow... miraculously... managed to avoid a hangover (or, in Japanese, 二日酔い, "second-day buzz"). This was great news, as the very next day I took a day trip to the Japanese countryside with a few friends. Akizuki (our destination) is a small, historic town a few mountains over from where I live in Chikushino. It's sometimes called "Little Kyoto," by locals. And it was a beautiful, serene taste of pure inaka charm.
To get there, I met up with my friends on the JR Kagoshima line. They rode down from farther north, in Fukuoka City, and I joined them in their train car when the express stopped at my local station. They'd even saved a seat for me. Convenient, no? Then, together, we continued on for a few more stops until we reached Kiyama station. There, we switched to the Amagi Rail Way.
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| In all its glory. |
Yep. It's one car. A single train car. And you can't even use the electronic train passes that are basically ubiquitous in the area. It's yenjamins only, yo. That's how you know it's an adventure!
But it was comfortable and cute (and picture-worthy), and we rode it all the way to it's terminal station: Amagi. While we waited for the last few of our group to join us, my friends and I browsed in a nearby local-arts-and-crafts-and-tourism-type store, where they were incredibly kind and gave us English maps of the area.
Once we'd all gathered, we took a bus from Amagi to Akizuki. Again, it was cash only. No fancy e-card bullshit in the inaka.
On the bus, we passed mountains and farms and hills and streams and little obaachans toting things around in patterned furoshiki, until at last we arrived at our bus stop. I don't remember what it was called. (I wasn't leading the party.) But it was a quaint little intersection, one branch of which looked like this.
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| Small town Japan. |
So, finally on the ground in Akizuki, our fearless leader lead this troupe of Gaijin (or gaggle of Gaijin, or scourge of Gaijin) up this very hill, onward and upward, toward our ultimate goal: delicious coffee and tea, homemade treats, and an afternoon of making Japanese pottery.
Only... this hill was the wrong way.
But, it was basically fate that we should walk all the way up this hill. Because, firstly, we saw this, which caused us break out into song (frightening the elderly people nearby).
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| Top Gun, anyone? |
And secondly, we saw this sign, a mere 30 seconds after we had a discussion about how we should bring the expression "Hot dog!" back into favor.
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| "Hot dog! It's a hot dog!" |
So, fate. Yes. And who cares if we get lost and turned around and have no idea where we're going and the locals are staring suspiciously at us?
ADVENTURE, MOTHERFUCKERS.
We turned, found the right road, and continued on our journey. (I mean, the city's not all that big, so it's not like we were really lost.) Here are a few pictures from our walk.
And then, we arrived! The cafe, set up inside a refurbished old house, was absolutely lovely. It had the feeling of a modern, casual coffee shop, yet still rich with a traditional Japanese sophistication. (The pictures I took of the inside don't do it any justice, so I'll not post them.) The owners, a husband and wife, were very welcoming and let us camp out on their gorgeous patio for a few refreshments pre-pottery-making. Here are a few photos!
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| Tasty cookies! |
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| Natalie, looking positively radiant. |
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| More friends! |
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| My adorable coffee cup (made by the owner). |
After much chatting and relaxing, we made our way to the pottery studio (a converted barn to one side of the house). The ever-so-patient pottery-sensei helped us to make whatever we felt like. Bowls, cups, spoons, chopstick rests, and candle-decor-things were among our creations. Mine was the latter. I... don't know what to call it. A sconce? A votive? Anyway, you put it over a candle and, hypothetically, it'll look pretty when lit up.
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| My candle thing! |
It's meant to look like fuji, or wisteria, which is in season right now. It'll be glazed a deep green. The holes in the sides are the tiny blossoms, and I'm hoping it'll look nice with a candle inside. We'll see when I get it back in a few weeks. But, I'll admit. I'm damn proud of the thing.
Here's a shot of my friends, hard at work.
After we finished making pottery, we said goodbye to the cafe owners and wandered back into town in search of food and our bus / train / trains home. On the way, we came across some particularly beautiful views, including my first real-life encounter with wisteria!
Back on "main street," as it were, we found a cute little okonomiyaki joint, which advertized "Okonomiyaki Burgers" as a special. I mean, come on. How could we NOT go in?
Eleanor ordered one. It consisted of two small, crispy-fried okonomiyaki acting as buns, a beef burger patty, a fried egg, shredded cabbage, the standard sauce, and powdered nori. It looked and smelled DELICIOUS.
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| Eleanor approves. |
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| Yummmmmmmmmmmm. |
Stomachs full of tastiness, we caught the last bus out of Akizuki and boarded the Amagi Rail (now available in RED!) and headed back toward our respective homes.
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| Gaijinin' it up! |
All in all, an amazing little day trip. And yet, we're STILL not done with Golden Week! Stay tuned for the last installment of "Golden Week Adventures," in which my favorite neighborhood is taken over by a giant-freaking-festival, I see a ridiculous parade, and I take pictures with some seriously bizarre Japanese mascots.
Thanks for reading! And don't forget to feed the fish!
WR
Yay!
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