Our future home

Ena and I went with the agent today to meet the landlord of the apartment we want to rent. A formal meeting is part of the process of getting an apartment here. They were quite nice and we were very surprised to learn that his wife (who was also at the meeting) had lived in Victoria for two years. Even more of a coincidence was that she had worked in the same shop in the Empress Hotel that Ena did (a few years earlier) and they even knew some of the same people. Quite a small world.

While we were there (they live next door to the apartment) I took a few pictures of the place. This is the building, ours is the second from the left (with the white sign posted on the door):
Unfortunately the pictures of the interior don't really give it justice but this is the kitchen/dining room:
And the loft in the second floor:
This is the view from the second floor balcony (the building backs onto a forested slope):
In front of the building is a really quiet neighborhood with some gardens, this is next door (its hard to believe that I took this picture in the middle of the city, it feels like we are in the countryside but within about 50 metres of this picture is the usual urban landscape):
We are looking forward to moving in at the end of next month!

Yama kasa festival

Ena and I got up at 3AM this morning to watch the Yamakasa festival downtown with a bunch of friends. It was a lot of fun despite the early start! Above is a video I took of the biggest mikoshi being wheeled around by the participants, it was quite a nice site. This is the biggest festival in Fukuoka.

It was still dark out when we got to the festival, which started at 4:59AM:
There were 7 giant mikoshi that got carried around downtown, they were quite brilliantly colorful:
We staked out a spot in front of a temple where the priests blessed the participants as they came by:
By 6AM the festival was over and the street was opened to traffic again:
Half my classmates had to go to school for class today but fortunately I had a day off!

Kittens on a moped, Ena's haircut, fixing a Famicom and other news

This was another nice week in which we didn't go anywhere particularly photogenic due to the rain but nonetheless took a few pictures.

My 1250 yen Famicom called it quits during the week. Determined not to let it die, I pulled it apart with my new tools:
This is what the insides look like:
Much to my delight I was able to get it up and working again. The problem: 26 years worth of accumulated dust.

On Thursday I came home and found that the kittens had made a new home on my Icelandic classmate Gunnar's moped:
I'm not sure if he's noticed this or not.

Ena got a haircut on Friday and looks even more beautiful than ever (if that was possible):
Friday night we had a party for our friend Oleg and Tijo's birthdays:
It was a lot of fun.

The sandy cliffs of Fukuoka

The forecast was calling for rain all day today but in fact it was sunny and hot with hardly a cloud in the sky so the meteorologists got it wrong again.

Ena and I decided to take the opportunity to go for another little bike ride. This time we set off towards the seaside just east of town. There was a little bike trail that I had been wanting to try for a while so we had a go at that.

The trail led us to this little shrine in the woods which we spent a few minutes exploring:
It had a nice dog and horse out front:
This is what the shrine's inner sanctum looks like:
Behind the shrine was a little path through the woods so we left our bikes at the shrine and set off on foot:
The path eventually took us to the beach:
We had never been to this part of the beach before (it runs for dozens of kilometres and we've been to other parts of it before) and we were quite surprised to find these huge sand cliffs that ran along a fair portion of the beach:
They were quite picturesque and we spent a couple of hours walking along them:

A lot of people had carved stuff into the cliff faces, like this (I think its the Loch Ness monster but I'm not sure):
I gave a try at it myself:
Beaches in Japan are invariably covered with fishing equipment that has broken loose and gotten washed ashore:
On the way home from the beach we passed by a cute little temple:
And then home!

Shofuku ji temple and downtown

Ena and I went to Shofukuji temple in town today. Its my favorite temple in Fukuoka, with lots of trees, not many people and some really nice buildings.

We parked our bikes next to this kind of dilapidated old house that I thought was kind of photogenic:

The temple itself is about 800 years old and has quite a bit of green space, this is the main building:
There are two golden Buddha statues inside, this is one I took a picture of while nobody was looking (check out the purple hair):
Here are some more pictures of the temple:


We also went downtown and walked around a bit. We climbed up the Across building, which is a huge modern building that houses a symphony hall. Its about 9 or 10 stories high and on the outside it is covered by a huge garden that goes all the way to the top (it is terraced). There is a path and staircases you can follow through to the top:

Kittens! And another bike trip!

One of the stray cats that lives around the kaikan had a litter of kittens the other day. This is one of them peering curiously out from behind a bush:
There are five of them total, all cute:
In other news, Ena and I went out to Ikinomatsubara on Sunday, where the Mongol invasion wall ruins are. It was quite a long bike ride. We stopped at a huge outlet mall along the way and Ena got me a nice shirt. The weather was great, really sunny:

Ena in front of the wall:
The two of us: