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Published: November 13th 2007
The opportunity to stretch out my legs in a bed did not pass me by, and to the maid's frustration I didn't get out on town until in the afternoon. I didn't really plan much of a schedule today anyway. I resisted the urge to watch the opening of the Kyushu Basho on TV and instead opted to head out and have a walk around town, figuring there would be more than plenty of sumo to see later in the week. I went outside and started zig-zagging along the roads haphazardly to see where the wind would carry me. Quite a chilly afternoon, windy with scattered clouds on a blue sky but very nice golden sunshine. It didn't take long before I ended up near the two rivers that run north-south and cut out a small area in between them known as Canal City. It is regarded as an entertainment area where you should be a little careful in choosing which door to enter, as some places can be quite expensive. And although I didn't spot any love hotels among the bars and restaurants, there were a number of girlie bars, discrete doorways and houses with no windows. The area was
quite deserted this Sunday afternoon, probably dozing off the night's hangover. Strange odour hung around in the air near the waterline. An empty Asahi beer can floating down the river. A black cat lying on the opposite side of the water and glaring at me dismissively. A roar from the sky as another airliner reaches for the sky from the nearby airport. Suddenly, right in front of me a few meters away sits a Grey Heron doing nothing. A quick glance into the canal and the picture cleared. The water was shallow, no more than 20 centimeters deep, and lots of small fish were scurrying about underneath the surface.
there were more people present in the parks. A girl was offering free hugs on a walkway bridge, and kids were screaming out of joy of riding a hovercraft sitting on the pavement outside of a café. Two policemen passing by on their bicycles, skaters in funny hats trying to impress the chicque ladies walking by in miniskirts and fur coated jackets. Of course everyone carries a cellphone approximately ten generations more modern than my own little rubber toy. I suddenly remembered I had forgotten a thing I wanted to
do. It was time to head out to the airport and see if I could recover my confiscated scissors 24 hours after the flight had taken place. Would ANA really be up to the task, or would they finally just don't give a damn and throw everything away like is being done by the airport authority back home? I went back to the hotel to grab my receipt and took the subway train right out to the domestic terminal, less than fifteen minutes away.
Over at the airport I approached a girl working at the ANA counters and instead of just pointing randomly in another direction she grabbed my receipt and asked me to go with her. Halfway across the terminal she headed inside the security zone and an embarrassing ten minutes must have passed before she emerged together with another staffer and the little yellow envelope containing my scissors. Impressive (and embarrassing) and something for Scandinavian Airlines to ponder on. Really; last time I went through the security screening in Gothenburg the staff couldn't even be bothered to put the plastic buckets onto the conveyor belts. ANA; domo arigato gozaimasu!
Back downtown the sun had vanished and
it had gotten quite dark so I did another walk towards the canal area to see if there were any good night views. The traffic was more busy at this hour, but everything functions so smoothly that there is virtually no hassle to get around. The only obstacle is the multitude of people riding bicycles completely at random across the pavements and streets. When facing a bicyclist the situation plays like a reverse chicken race; both try to dodge the other and end up standing in each other's path. In the evenings the streets change appearance, as small mobile eateries are assembled and placed on the wide pavements. These little roofed soba places feature small benches around a table with fryng or cooking equipment, and have curtains to shield the occupants from the elements. I was also surprised to see homeless people having rolled out mattresses and coiling up outside closed shops. And there were more of them in the parks. Somehow I had not expected to see this in Japan.
Walking outside Tenjin station I heard the roar of a crowd and the pounding of music on much too high a volume. Some kind of concert was going
on a few blocks down the road so I figured I'd better check it out. At first I figured I'd walk right into some nefarious sales pitch with an annoying speaker representing some well known brand and generally wasting city space. Instead it turned out to be a nice surprise, I walked into a square where a big stage had been erected and a couple of dozen kids were performing to the music in colourful robes; cheered on by a larger figure standing at the back with a microphone and shouting some kinds of words of wisdom. At first I figured it was some kind of martial arts students performing as the sumo train was now in town, but a big sign in the background clearly tagged this happening as the
Fukuoka Asia Dance Carneval. I had arrived in the middle of a big dance competition, with a large number of big groups from what I gathered all across Kyushu Island. Most groups featured around 50-100 people and all of them were dressed in beautiful coloured robes and costumes, and they danced vigorously and symmetrically to various pumping soundtracks which to my big surprise actually sounded very good. I could
even stand that pumped up version of
Knocking on Heaven's Door (I guess it must have been the heat of the moment...). Huge flags were being waved, large drums pounded and each team had at least one colourful leader shouting and singing like crazy. In the middle of all the chaos the huge silhouette of a departing Boeing 747 covered the sky, roaring with fury as it passed close over our heads (close enough to make out the registration number... another one for the collection). You could see that everyone was having a good time, their faces shining and their movements full of energy. I was indeed lucky to have stumbled onto this occasion.
The last hour of the performance it had started to get quite windy and people tried to hide from the chill in their jackets and kimonos. When the event was over I headed for a hot meal to reinvigorate me; I had noticed there was an Indian place just across the street from my hotel - how could I not try this out? It was a fine choice too; the papadams in particular were really tasty. While I was there I had a chance encounter
Grey Heron, Canal City
Just your typical urban dweller...with Mr. Singh, who turned out to be the owner of the place. He told me that this was the first restaurant he opened in Japan, now there were thirteen of them. Let the good times roll! After dinner I went to buy some breakfast at a corner shop and for some reason decided it would be a good idea to buy some dried fish to chew on. The mind takes some strange turns sometimes...
When I finally was about to go to sleep it was close to three in the morning, and to my great disappointment I wasn't sleepy. Indeed I had again succumbed to jet lag, and this was just as bad as that horrible night in Hong Kong last June. Absolutely no chance of falling asleep. Not until six in the morning did I manage to burrow my head into that pillow.
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Moster Yster
non-member comment
Nice pictures !
Have you finally got yourself a digital camera ?