UVic Fukuoka fun days

My old law school back in Canada - UVic - has a close relationship with Kyudai. One of the effects of this is that we are treated to the occasional visit by UVic law profs, giving me and the other UVic alumni here the chance to play host and show our distinguished visitors around Fukuoka.

In 2008 shortly after my own arrival Mark, a UVic prof specializing in a number of fields, arrived to teach a course in securities regulation. Unfortunately I was the only UVic grad present during his time here so our hospitality was limited to a lunch at Gusto, a "family restaurant" of (I'm shamed to admit) dubious quality. He displayed admirable graciousness throughout the meal in not pointing that fact out:In July of this year we were graced by a visit from Donna, the Dean of UVic law. With a whole team of UVic grads present at that time - Anita, Andy and I - we were able to show her a bit more Fukuoka hospitality. We took her around Dazaifu and had a really nice time there:
Last week we were visited by Martha, UVic's tax and EU law specialist, who had come to give a lecture on international taxation at Kyudai. The lineup of UVic alumni had changed somewhat with Andy having gone back to Canada and Brett having arrived shortly thereafter. After being treated to dinner on the first day of her visit, we took her to the Fukuoka Museum of Modern Asian art. Brett would probably like me to make it clear that he is pointing not to himself but to the "UVIC" on his shirt in this photo:
We had gone to this museum during Donna's visit as well and I think we are developing something of a tradition of taking UVic people there. Its a nice museum with some traditional "Modern" art:
And the more contemporary head-scratching entries:
After the museum we bade Martha farewell and Brett headed to a department store called "The Loft" where Ena and I later crossed paths with him. He was in the middle of some Halloween costume purchasing, so we followed him around a bit to see what he got. The racks of gag nose-hair caught my eye:
Ena and I did a bit of wandering around on our own, pausing to ponder the imaginative world of Japanese stuffed-animal design:
After that we headed off in search of dinner. The intimate lights of a hidden alleyway beckoned:
Lanterns nestled snugly beneath a canopy of lit offices in the towers beyond:
We settled into an Indian restaurant to dine on the "Suraj" set:
Served under the warm glow of ancient chandeliers:
A fitting end to yet another UVic Fukuoka fun day.

LLD Cruise 2010

Yesterday we had a sort of "fun day" (for lack of a better term) for the LLD students organized by my colleague Natsu. It seems LLD students are a particularly busy bunch because of all who were invited only 3 - me, Natsu and Simon - showed up for our afternoon of fun.

Nonetheless, we had a great time. We met at Ohori koen and after having coffee at Starbuck's decided to form an impromptu Kyushu University rowing team. By which I mean we paid 600 yen to rent a rowboat on the lake for 40 minutes.

Our heroic sea-journey got off to an inauspicious start as while we were pulling away from the dock a giant sea-bird being steered by a 4-year-old came bearing down on us:
"Jonathan Livingston Seagull!! We're on a collision course! Hard 'a Starboard" I cried.

"Uh....Port?" Simon replied in a confused voice.

"Aye, port." I replied sheepishly.

Well, OK it didn't actually go down like that (stole that dialogue from an episode of the Simpsons) but after some quick maneuvering we avoided the peril and were out on the open sea:
Our course for the day took us first on a circuit of the East side of the lake, after which we crossed under a bridge and Natsu took over on the oars:
During her tenure we thought about trying to leave the lake under another bridge that led to a small canal which (probably) led to the open sea. We got the sense that this flagrant violation of the rules would not go un-noticed by the guy we rented the boat from, who carried a rather menacing looking whistle. Fearing the wrath of the whistle and the shame that would come from its use against us, we decided to stay within the lake's clearly marked boundaries.

Next it was my turn at the helm:
We decided to attempt the most dangerous and daring feat of seamanship possible in all of Ohori Koen: navigating under the dreaded Litttle Bridge (of death)!!!!:
After surviving the Little bridge I was left exhausted and Simon bravely volunteered to share the oars:
We decided to attempt a new Ohori Koen speed record and were succesful - hitting a top speed of just under 0.000002 knots.
Unfortunately the official time-keeper had not been given proper notice in advance of our record attempt, so it only counts as an "unofficial" record.

After the lake Natsu took us over to Yuseiten, a really nice Japanese style garden with a beautiful tea house that I had never been to before.
We had some macha which was really nice:
There was a nice pond in the middle of the garden:
The pond featured one of my favorite photography subjects: Carp feeding frenzies!!!:
We risked our index fingers in order to scientifically test the hypothesis that carp don't have teeth:
We learned that while they don't have teeth, they are gross and slimy to touch. Our full paper on the subject will be published in the Fall 2010 issue of the Harvard Journal of Natural Science.

After that some of our busier colleagues joined us for dinner at a nice Asian fusion restaurant downtown:
And we called it a day!

The Last Party

After graduation we had a farewell party for everyone. Having moved around a lot in my life I've gotten used to saying goodbyes, but this time was the hardest as I've never felt this close to a group of people before. We lived together, studied together and socialized together everyday for a whole year. The closest parallel I can think of in my life were the friends I made during army basic training, the big difference being that this was actually a FUN experience :)

These are some of the people who made this such a great year for me. I will miss them all (well, the ones who are leaving of course).