Himeji - old sites

Ena and I spent 3 days back in our old city of Himeji last week. We hadn't been back in 4 years and really missed the place, it feels like our hometown. This is Ena on Miyuki Street, the main shopping arcade which we passed through pretty much every day. It hasn't changed much since we left:


This is my first apartment in Himeji, which I lived at from 2001 to 2003. I half expected it to have been torn down by now but it was still standing:
This is me in front of AEON, the school Ena and I worked at for 2 years together (and the place where we first met). We didn't go in to talk to anyone (probably nobody would remember us anyway as everyone we knew is long gone) but we took pictures in the hallway:
On these steps on a cool evening in November of 2002 I proposed to Ena. This is me standing in roughly the same spot as when I proposed (though I was kneeling then). The place hasn't changed much since then:
This is our first apartment that we lived in together for about 2 years. I have a lot of good memories of this place. I was happy to see that the Ivy (you can see a bit of it on the right) which I planted was still growing and surprised to see that an iron lantern which I had abandoned was still there:

Sasaguri

I had another sunny day off today so once again I got on my bike and went for a ride. Ena had a meeting, her last day of work so I was solo today. This time I headed south-east towards the mountains. Usually I stick to the coast but I thought I'd take a chance this time. It paid off pretty well. A couple kilometres outside of town I came across these fields of yellow flowers which were quite photogenic and smelled nice:
A few kilometres later I saw this big white thing on the top of a mountain in the distance and decided to head for that. Turned out to be Hisayama, with a big South-Asian style pagoda on top of it:
It was pretty exhausting getting to the top of that mountain but it was still only 3:30 in the afternoon so I plugged on a bit further. I passed through the town of Sasaguri and came to a little place called Chikuzenyamate, which is the site of an 88 temple pilgrimage route. It is without a doubt the most interesting place I've been to since we came to Kyushu and one of the most enjoyable in Japan. Frustratingly I got there pretty late so I could only spend half an hour exploring. Basically the temples are scattered along these back roads into the mountains that are surrounded by some fantastic scenery. It reminded me of Koya san (which isn't coincidental as the temples are from the same buddhist sect). I only got to see maybe a dozen of them and they were all quite cute. It was just an enjoyable walk in the mountains away from the crowds (hardly saw anybody the whole time I was there). These are a couple of pictures:

Probably the most interesting aspect of the route is the thousands of statues that are everywhere. I didn't realize it at the time but after looking it up on google I realized that the world's largest reclining buddha statue is actually at one of the temples I didn't have time to get to (more frustration!). This one though was by far my favorite:
One thing Japanese religion has going for it is that it is not shy about the subject matter of religious statuary.

Back to the dam

Ena and I and a bunch of friends went on a bike ride today. First we went to the Kashi shrine:
They have a chicken at the shrine. I don't know why. Ena got a little too close:

Then we went to the Nagahama dam, which has the reservoir that I had visited by myself in December when Ena was away. It was a nice day, warm and sunny:
Here is Ena at the dam not picking her nose:
On the way back three of our group got stuck between when the railway barriers came down too quickly. Instead of trying to get out they patiently waited for the train to come until several passing motorists, traumatized by the scene, got out of their vehicles and helped them get out. In the meantime they posed for a photo:

The Eastern most point of the Mongol Empire

I took a 7 hour bike ride today, which has left me exhausted. It was a lot of fun though, I went WAY out to the opposite end of Fukuoka, about 20km away. I didn't have any specific plan in mind but ended up taking a lot of sites related to the attempted invasions of Japan by the Mongols in 1274 and 1281 AD.

I first started at Higashi park, which is actually not far from our place. It has a large statue of Nichiren, a 13th century Buddhist monk somehow involved of all of this:
I then cycled all the way out to Iki no Matsubara, which is west of Fukuoka. This is where the Japanese defenders built a 20km wall along the coast to repel the Mongols. They actually built it between invasions, so it only played a part in repelling the 1281 attack. This is the wall:
The wall itself isn't much to look at, but the scenery around it is quite nice. This is what the samurai defending the wall would have looked out on, waiting for the Mongols:

The beach it is one is quite nice too, with lots of pine trees:

Meeting friends

Our former student Akiyo from Himeji was in Fukuoka with her friend Hoyo so we spent the day with them. Akiyo and her relatives were some of our closest friends in Himeji and we haven't seen them for a few years so it was cool to catch up. We met them at Canal City (seems we always end up there):


We stopped for coffee and cake in a cafe:
And posed behind a Ramen stand:
Finally we went and had Motsu nabe. "Motsu" means "cow's colon" so you can guess how much I enjoyed the meal, but we had a really good time:

Kyushu Conference

A conference on Special Economic Zones in Asian Market Economies was held at Kyushu University over the weekend. This was a collaboration between Kyushu and two Canadian universities; my alma mater the University of Victoria and Royal Roads University.

The conference went quite well, I was able to see a number of people from UVic who I hadn't see
in a while. This is me and my old boss:

And with another UVic/Kyudai alum:

These are some group shots with my classmates:

Shikanoshima Part 2

I ended up cycling all the way to Shikanoshima again today, only this time with 20 friends in tow! We all got together at the suggestion of my Ukrainian friend Oleg to go to Uminonakamichi and after we got there decided to go to the island that I had been telling everyone about. Unfortunately Ena was busy again today and couldn't make it (though she's joining us for dinner), otherwise it would have been a perfect day. This is the group photo (except for me because I took the picture) at Uminonakamichi (the amusement park):
This is a couple of smaller group photos from later at the beach near Shikanoshima. It was sunny and the temperature got up to about 20, which is crazy for February. We literally could have gone swimming if we had brought our swimsuits and towels (the water was warm too)!:

Then we went up to the temple on the island with the plum blossoms:
This is me getting robbed. I was just about to eat this shellfish when Tai Ching, my classmate, decided she wanted it and tried to steal it from right off my chopsticks. Fortunately I was able to defend myself and eat it: