Fukuoka Trip: Day 2 - Castles & Onsens

...the next day we woke up early in the morning, determined to stay on Masa's well planned schedule. After about an hour of driving on some wide open roads, we reached a ferry port that took us across the water back to the center of Kyushu (Hiroshima is isolated on a peninsula). Both of us were a little tired from lack of sleep and we ended up taking a small nap inside the comfy cabin area above the car hold.

view from the outside deck of the ferry

We both woke up with about 10 minutes until reaching the destination and they were running a news special on a top story in Japan surrounding the murder of 2 civil servants. I'll never forget it because it was such an odd case. The killer was a man in his mid 40s and he had already admitted to killing the government officials. His motive for doing so was bizarre, claiming that when he was a boy, his pet dog was accidentally killed by a government program which rounded up and put down stray dogs and cats. Apparently the experience haunted him and he eventually snapped.

Anyway, back to my trip, after landing we drove a little bit longer until we reached Kumamoto Castle. Considered one of the most beautiful castles of Japan (Osaka Castle is another), the place was full of tour groups dominated mostly by Koreans. Kyushu is the closest to Korea out of all of Japan's major islands and there was a noticeable influence of their immigrants and tourists.

outside the Keep

Ninja posing for me
View from the top

The interior of the castle was turned into a museum full of artifacts of the inhabitants and history of what took place there. We looked around for about an hour and then eventually jumped back in the car to drive to our next destination.

Next, we set our sights on Mt. Aso - the largest active volcano in Japan. Its different from the more traditional volcanoes because Mt. Aso is a caldera volcano which are marked by large cauldron like craters in the center. The amazing thing was that the lava was a light green color and there was a strong sulfur smell in the air.

Mt. Aso

After that we drove into the Oita prefecture to visit the traditional onsens in the area. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures at the place, but we went to a beautiful traditional little village which was bordered by farmland and full of hot spring inns (there were over 10 hot springs!). We decided to buy a 3-inn pass which allowed us access to pick 3 hot springs of our choice and enjoy them as long as desired. Although the little town was crowded with tourists for the long weekend, we had the hot springs all to ourselves during our time there. It felt really great at the time and I remember in the following week I had so much energy (which I attribute to the hot spring minerals).

Finally, we ended our second day together by traveling a little further north to reach our ryokan (traditional Japanese inn).

nearby ryokan signs

Masa had made a reservation which included a full dinner and breakfast the next morning, as well as access to the tiny hot spring establishments nearby. The inn was run by a local Japanese family and they were really excited to have a foreigner staying there. They really treated me well and I was able to use some of my Japanese to speak with them.

dinner is served

For dinner we got a sampler of many different traditional Japanese foods along with some local favorites. There was fish variations, tofu, miso soup, flan custard and much more, and most of it was delicious. One of the local specialties served was some raw horse meat! At first glance it looked like raw beef but I could tell it was slightly different. Masa assured me that it was tasty, so I hesitantly decided to try some.

raw horse meat
ready to try it!

tasty!

He ended up being right and I enjoyed eating it. After dinner we went outside to inn to try the nearby hot springs. Once again it felt awesome and they had a really interesting steam room/hot spring hybrid which was my favorite.

on our way outside to the onsens

We ended the night by watching the movie Predator. It was funny to hear it dubbed in Japanese and the deep voice of the actor speaking for Arnold Schwarzenegger. I had never seen it before so Masa did some translating for me, luckily for us most of the movie is action scenes and fighting. And with that, we called it a day....

our bedroom

Fukuoka Trip: Day 1 - Nagasaki

Back in November, we had two 3 day weekends off from school due to a national holiday and a school holiday. This proved to be the perfect time to plan another trip out of Tokyo for a few days. I had originally planned to visit Seoul, Korea with Nick from TUJ, but after hearing a lot of good things about Hong Kong, I was interested in going there instead. In the end, I decided to keep things domestic and visit my Japanese friend from Georgetown who had shown me around Osaka during my first visit over New Years.
Masahiro Katsuragi

It wasn't easy tracking him down at first; he got a new cell phone number and I couldn't reach him by email so I called his home phone. I managed to communicate to his mother (who doesn't speak English), that I was calling for Masa and she gave me his new number and also told me that he moved to Fukuoka for his new job. After graduating from Georgetown after the Fall 07 semester, Masa got a job with the Bank of Japan (Japan's central bank, like the US Federal Reserve). As a researcher, Masa's primary task is to report on consumer behavior and trends - to do so he mentioned that he would go to different department stores to observe and interview people. Anyway, after speaking with him on the phone he said he would be happy to show me around for the weekend and visit some new places.

Flying out of Tokyo's Haneda Airport, it took about 2 hours to land in Fukuoka (the largest city in Japan's southern island - Kyushu). I met Masa quickly after arriving and we rented a car right away to begin the adventure. Not wasting any time or leaving anything to chance, Masa had planned out a 3 day itinerary of places to go and things to do - while also booking hotels for us both nights. I was really impressed and I appreciated the work he put into making the most out of our time together.

Tokyo's Haneda Airport

To start things off, we drove out to Nagasaki, the infamous city where the second atomic bomb was dropped. Our first stop was the atomic bomb memorial museum which had some really horrific photos of the aftermath. I had never really seen much of the effects before and it was hard to imagine that most of the city was completely wiped out in a matter of seconds.

atomic bomb museum

Right next to the museum, there is a small park area surrounding the hypocenter of the exact place the bomb exploded. At the entrance of the park stood a small sculpture depicting the many people who suffered from the bombing as well as the following radiation.
The closest building to the explosion was actually a Christian Church and the only thing that remains is a lone wall column still standing today.

At the hypocenter itself, there stands a giant copper sculpture pointing up to the sky where the bomb came from, while also pointing forward - warning future generations to remember what happened.

The city of Nagasaki itself has been completely rebuilt and has resumed its past role as a center for shipping as well as ship-building. Looking at downtown, if you didn't know any better you would have no idea that an atomic bomb exploded there around 70 years ago.

On the path up to Glover Garden

Staying in Nagasaki for the entire day, we then moved to visit the picturesque Glover Garden. A small community of western houses and inhabitants, Glover Garden was started by a Scottish entrepreneur in the 1860s when Thomas Glover came to Nagasaki. Glover established a successful coal and shipbuilding operation and made Nagasaki his permanent residence, eventually starting a family there. Due to his financial success, his home and the area has some of the best views of Nagasaki harbor and is a favorite tourist destination.

halfway to the top

Some other famous foreign inhabitants of the Glover community would establish Japan's first beer manufacturing company - Kirin, as well as a popular fast food noodle shop - Ringer Hut. Here are some photos at the top right next to Glover's house itself.



We finished the day at one of Nagasaki's brand new onsens (hot springs bathhouse). Once again it was really relaxing and both of us felt so refreshed afterwards. I'll never say no to an onsen but I think Masa especially enjoyed it after being stuck in the office from 8 am until 8 pm during most of the week. We got dinner afterwards ironically at Ringer Hut which is known for having dishes influenced by Nagasaki's local cuisine.

Finally we checked into our hotel and walked around downtown and near Chinatown for 40 minutes before getting some sleep after a very busy day.

Oboe Renaissance

Yet another idea inspired by Metropolis Magazine, after reading a small listing for an oboe soloist performing near the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, I decided to get some tickets for the show. Kazuhiro Miyamura was the oboist playing and although he is not well known yet, he has a growing reputation as an artist. He began playing in his early teens and now does solo shows with piano and guitar accompaniment, while also offering private lessons.

The performance was held at the Tokyo Opera City, completed in 97, and was a very clean and pretty building inside as well as out. Although it was mid-November, they already had many Christmas decorations up.

Opera City was running a theme of "Bach -> Contemporary" where they had different soloists come in and play a few J. S. Bach as well as a little contemporary music (as the name suggests). Other artists we saw coming after Miyamura were flute and french horn soloists.

As for Miyamura himself, he had a 5 piece set list of the following songs:

• Concerto for oboe and piano, in D minor
• 3 movements (including andante and presto)
• composed by Marcello and edited by Bach & Miyamura
• This song group really was beautiful and it meant a lot to me since I had played both the andante and presto movements for my state music test back in high school, having practiced both more than anything else I knew each part of the song and Miyamura's changes to it sounded great and made them extra lively.
  
• Variations on "Brindisi"
  
• by S. Yamazato
• Italian sounding waltz which both of us really enjoyed
• Aulodia per Lothar
• by B. Maderna
• Contemporary piece, very dissonant and neither of us liked it
• Tenshi-no-nioi: Inspired by M. Passion
• by Kusakabe
• Again a contemporary piece I didn't really care for
• Sonata in G Minor
• by J. S. Bach
• Sounded great!

In the middle of his performance Miyamura went on to explain how he was excited to be playing both classical and contemporary music which are both passions of his. He also made a point of explaining how difficult the oboe is and how there aren't many players because of it. Throughout the show he had piano and/or guitar accompaniment.

blurry (pictures weren't allowed but I snuck one)

After receiving applause and a bouquet of roses, Miyamura returned for 2 encores. I can't quite remember the titles for them but I really liked them both, they were familiar so I'm going to try and figure out what they were sooner or later.

On the way out I asked if it was possible to buy a recording of the performance, which is when the staff answered "no, but would you like to meet Mr. Miyamura". So I went backstage to say hello and I told him in Japanese that I had come from New York and also play the oboe.

Overall it was clear by the end of the night, that I don't really like hearing contemporary music but the classical pieces by Bach were really a treat to listen to.

With all of this in mind and hearing the oboe for the first time in awhile, I have decided that I will return to playing & practicing once I get home for Christmas!

Tokyo by Sea: Sumida River Boat Tour

After reading about them in the weekly Metropolis magazine's special feature, the time had come to take a ride on one of the old-fashioned Sumida river boats. Advertised as a 3 hour boat ride with all you and eat & all you can drink that takes you around Tokyo's harbor near Odaiba. As expected, a lot of people were attracted by the tempting offer and we made a reservation for 10 people on a Thursday holiday which we had off from school. The boat ride was from 5 to 8 pm so you could see the sunset, it was even better for us since there weren't any people on the boat besides one other small family.

It was a close call at first getting everyone there on time but we all managed to make it to the dock before the boat shipped out.

Sean and Yoon make their debut in the blog during in this entry but during the semester they've been right next door to me in the Akasaka dorm. Both Korean and students at Temple University back in Philly, Sean & Yoon were already friends back home before coming over to Japan. Sean is a finance major like myself and he's got a really great sense of humor. I don't think I've ever seen him in a bad mood or depressed about something. Famous for his nocturnal sleep schedule, Yoon has played the part of everything from party animal to a serious & reliable friend. They got along great throughout the semester and both will be staying for the Spring semester while further improving their Japanese language skills.

Yoon and Sean

Back to the boat ride, it really was everything they promised. Limitless cans of popular Japanese beer brands, chu-hi's, juices, and water you name it they had it.

Eddie, Yoon, & Kevin opening up their first cans of the evening

Food was another story... While it was all you can eat, it was also cook it yourself! The ingredients you could order were primarily different types of "okonomiyaki" and "monjayaki" both variations of a pancake/fritter which is usually filled with cabbage, ginger, and seafood. Our party of 10 was squished into 3 tables each with one small flat iron grill in the center where you are supposed to cook the food.

it begins

uncooked, half-cooked
finished! (with a little mayo and soy sauce on top)

After an hour and a half of eating the staff turned off the grill and we all relaxed a bit to enjoy the view and conversation.

enjoying the ride.

By the time our three hours were up everyone left with a full stomach and some nice memories. It was a great time and I'm glad that we were able to get such a big group together to enjoy it!