Third week of school at Fukuoka

 The third week in Fukuoka was May 19 to 25. As usual there is a 3 hour class every morning, Monday to Friday, and 3 days a week I have private lesson for 2 hours in the afternoon. The private lesson is mainly conversation practice.

Monday afternoon, the school booked a space for a barbecue party. It was at an interesting location: part of a rooftop parking lot that has been blocked off and filled with tables and bbq's. 

It seems popular, and our group from the school was over 15 people that took a couple of tables.

On Tuesday and Thursday after the private lesson I went for a run around Ohori Park.

Wednesday afternoon, in addition to the private lesson, the school organized a 'Kanji Marathon', in which each of the students chose a level (I chose N3). The marathon consisted of rounds of study followed by a quiz.

On Friday the school organized a trip for tea ceremony, or 'Chado'. It was about 20 minutes walk from the station. The building was part temple, part tea ceremony school, and part residence for the 3 generations of family that taught and performed tea ceremony.

First we saw the ceremony and we're served sweets and matcha tea.

Next we were each given a whisk and a bowl of tea and taught how to whip the tea into a froth.

The family seemed very happy to have us there and they showed us around the place and their beautiful little garden.

Friday evening I went for dinner with several other students.

Also on Friday, I moved to the next hotel, a couple of more subway stops from the school. It's actually interesting to stay in different neighborhoods of the city.

Saturday it poured rain. It was especially heavy in the morning and a bit lighter in the afternoon. In the morning I went to the Fukuoka Art Museum. Very interest works of Japanese artists in a kind post-impressionist or modern style. There were also several works of famous European and American artists. 

An interesting part of the gallery was called Shigenkai, which promoted local artists. Fukuoka has a program to promote the arts, called Fukuoka Next. I've also noticed several buildings of art studios around town, so it seems Fukuoka is an artist-friendly place.

Next to the art museum, in Ohori park, was an installation called Artist Cafe that was held in what looked like an old school. One of the exhibitions used strings of LEDs in a dark room to simulate falling rain, which was very cool.

Next to Ohori Park, in Maizuru Park, there was a curry festival going on that weekend. Despite the rain there was a fair number of people. I had a couple of dishes.

From there I took the subway a few more stops away from the center. I walked to Momiji Hachimangu Shrine.

From there, despite the weather, I walked to Momochi Seaside Park, which has a fairly large beach, beach house with showers etc., and large building on the water with restaurants, etc. It is also near the Fukuoka Tower. There were some young people playing volleyball. I can imagine how busy it must get on a hot day in summer.

I walked back to the nearest subway station and took the subway back to the Ohori Park area, and found a craft beer place nearby called B.R.E.W. where I had beer and dinner.

On Sunday it was cloudy but not raining, and after sleeping in a bit I took the train to a city about an hour away called Yanagawa. It is has canals all through the city and so is called the 'Venice of Japan'.

I had just arrived at the station in Yanagawa when I bumped into Samuel, another student at JaLs. He is from Hong Kong, and he was with a friend visiting from Germany. The three of us spent the day together in Yanagawa. We took the gondola boat ride along some of the canals, on a boat with about a dozen people. Beautiful views of the canals and the city, and under some very low bridges.

There were walking paths and little parks along the canals. Yanagawa struck me as a beautiful, very livable little city.

After the boat ride we walked around the town, mostly along canals, and stopped at the Mihashira Shrine.

Then we went to a restaurant for eel, for which Yanagawa is supposed to be famous.

Then the train back to Fukuoka. After we arrived I went my own way, and found a craft beer place near the station called Beerkichi, where I had beer and dinner.

Afterwards while walking to the subway station I passed a street musician - a young girl from Hokkaido who performed her own songs. Her name was Jun and she was so good I had to record some of it.