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In an effort to actually use my super cheap train ticket without putting too much strain on my knee, I headed for Fukuoka (ie Hakata) today. This was my fourth time in the city so I was pretty comfortable with getting around, and I had a good time. My trip was plagued with mechanical failures from the battery on my camera failing (forcing me to buy a disposable camera - so awkward. I've completely forgotten how to use a non-digital display camera) to the headphone hole on my mp3 player developing a loose connection. I bought new headphones to see if that would help and it doesn't. There's a little metal strip that provides a connection deep within the headphone hole and it's not extending far enough any more. I'm not sure what to do about it.
Anyway, once I reached Hakata around 12:30, I picked up a new map (since they decided to change all the street names last year) and headed to Kinnokuniya which is right next door to the station in the bus terminal. They had a ridiculous number of crime novels and I went looking specifically for Victorian ones. I wasn't going to pin my hopes on finding a Sherlock Holmes one (ah, published fanfic) but oddly enough I did. It's called Night Watch and has Sherlock Holmes and a young Father Brown which may or may not be brilliant. I remember getting bored half way through my anthology of Father Brown mysteries but I remember that was due more to the language and a certain repetitiveness of situations, than the character. I figured I'd try it.
After that, I took the subway to around Ohtani park and Fukuoka castle. First though, I stumbled upon a display of the archaeological site of Korokan which was used in the Heian period as a centre of trade. It was free and had a nice brochure in English so it wins many points. The cherry blossoms are just beginning to bloom (a few trees are full, the rest are just buds) but people were out to enjoy some early hanamizu under the cherry blossoms. Consequently, the castle ruins were scattered with couples on dates and drunken people. The weather was gorgeous and the walls were surrounded by gnarly trees and cherry blossoms so it was relaxing.
I made my way towards Ohtani park which is basically a lake with arching bridges and swan boats. I paid a few dollars to get into the Japanese garden there and it was worth every penny. It was the cliche of the traditional Japanese garden in all it's glory. Small waterfalls with streams flowing under tiny arched bridges or stone steps. Multi-coloured carp, obviously chosen for their beauty, wandered around the main pond which was dotted by sculptured topiary and wonderfully shaped bonsai trees. The pond continued as a small stream with stepping stones criss crossing it at points. And when the stream died out, it became a zen garden of rippling stone.
I wandered around in the garden for awhile, then made my way to the nearby Fukuoka City Art Museum which boasts a strange range of artists from traditional Buddhist sculpture to Salvador Dali to Andy Warhol (only one each of the later two, of course). The older art was mostly pottery though I enjoyed the Buddhist sculpture. Of the modern art, it was a bit hit or miss methinks and it was strange to see a gallery where the modern and more traditional art are mingled. I don't have a high opinion of most modern art since it seems too easy *shrugs*
I had fun looking at the Salvador Dali painting. I wrote a report on him once in French class and ever since, I've been unable to see a Dali painting without searching for the hidden genitalia. It was "The Virgin of something something" so I suppose it's not too surprising that I didn't find any penises. I'm pretty sure I found a vagina though, besides the blatant pearl and oyster symbols. Ah, Dali.
I was starting to feel all the walking in my knees at that point, but it was time for the shopping part of my trip since what's the point of visiting a big city with an anime store, without visiting the anime store? Thus, I headed over to Animate where I almost pre-ordered a L plushie, and instead bought a very cute Tamaki dangle thing for my pencil case (I am so turning Japanese), and a doujinshi focusing on the Jounin (a casual scan of it reveals good art and somewhat scary plots including Iruka and Kakashi babysitting a baby, Shikamaru/Asuma (kinda disturbing but the part where Shikamaru's father asks how far they've gotten and Shikamaru casually answers 'C' (we use baseball metaphors, they use the ABC's. No one's ever been able to tell me why...). Or at least it would have been funny if Shikaku hadn't imagined 'C' in the next panel..., Gai in a speedo, Ibiki looking hot and surrounded by flowers, Jiraiya with his genin team including an adorable Yondaime, and kage bunshin sex). My final purchase was a one-shot doujinshi by a group called Honey Canon. Unfortunately, the art on their site doesn't do justice to how beautiful this book is. I bought it just on the cover alone but the inside art is the same quality and tells a sweet little story about Kakashi and Yondaime (and I made it three pages in before I needed a dictionary. yay!).
After Animate, I had to take the subway and walk a bit to get to Canal city, a huge shopping mall. There, I was disappointed to find the shop that sold Maltsers was gone, but I also discovered that in honour of their anniversary, Shonen Jump has opened a shop. This was predictably bad for my wallet seeing as they had a little bit of everything, including pins of every single character in all the popular series and many of the more obscure ones. I ended up with a young Kakashi pin (they had Obito, and Naruto's purse to give you an idea of the selection), a four star Dragonball, and Smoker from One Piece. I would have bought an adorable Urahara plushie but it was part of a prize draw and not for sale. About that time, I realized it was pushing 8 o'clock and if I wanted to get home before the trains shut down, I had to leave soon (it's at least a 2 hour train ride back though in practice it takes longer since they stop the train at places and wait ten minutes here, five minutes there etc.) I stopped by Wendys on the way (there are none where I live) to pick up a frosty and a really delicious ranch cheddar chicken sandwich which was made from a real chicken breast and tasted so good *sigh*
I grabbed the food, jumped on the subway again, ran into the train station and managed to catch a train heading to Moji with a minute to spare. It was a local train which meant it stopped a million times but I eventually got to Moji, where I had to change again, and yet again at Shimonoseki. Shimonoseki was interesting at least since there was a group of drunken college students (perhaps) and they were hilarious to watch. One guy was seriously dressed in pink with a wavy sort of pompadour Mohawk. They also tried to throw each other onto the tracks and the guy in pink actually climbed down onto the tracks as a dare. Needless to say, they had their own car of the train.
So now I'm home and tired and my legs hurt, but it was a good day, and I have the disposable camera pictures to prove it. Ja ne!
Anyway, once I reached Hakata around 12:30, I picked up a new map (since they decided to change all the street names last year) and headed to Kinnokuniya which is right next door to the station in the bus terminal. They had a ridiculous number of crime novels and I went looking specifically for Victorian ones. I wasn't going to pin my hopes on finding a Sherlock Holmes one (ah, published fanfic) but oddly enough I did. It's called Night Watch and has Sherlock Holmes and a young Father Brown which may or may not be brilliant. I remember getting bored half way through my anthology of Father Brown mysteries but I remember that was due more to the language and a certain repetitiveness of situations, than the character. I figured I'd try it.
After that, I took the subway to around Ohtani park and Fukuoka castle. First though, I stumbled upon a display of the archaeological site of Korokan which was used in the Heian period as a centre of trade. It was free and had a nice brochure in English so it wins many points. The cherry blossoms are just beginning to bloom (a few trees are full, the rest are just buds) but people were out to enjoy some early hanamizu under the cherry blossoms. Consequently, the castle ruins were scattered with couples on dates and drunken people. The weather was gorgeous and the walls were surrounded by gnarly trees and cherry blossoms so it was relaxing.
I made my way towards Ohtani park which is basically a lake with arching bridges and swan boats. I paid a few dollars to get into the Japanese garden there and it was worth every penny. It was the cliche of the traditional Japanese garden in all it's glory. Small waterfalls with streams flowing under tiny arched bridges or stone steps. Multi-coloured carp, obviously chosen for their beauty, wandered around the main pond which was dotted by sculptured topiary and wonderfully shaped bonsai trees. The pond continued as a small stream with stepping stones criss crossing it at points. And when the stream died out, it became a zen garden of rippling stone.
I wandered around in the garden for awhile, then made my way to the nearby Fukuoka City Art Museum which boasts a strange range of artists from traditional Buddhist sculpture to Salvador Dali to Andy Warhol (only one each of the later two, of course). The older art was mostly pottery though I enjoyed the Buddhist sculpture. Of the modern art, it was a bit hit or miss methinks and it was strange to see a gallery where the modern and more traditional art are mingled. I don't have a high opinion of most modern art since it seems too easy *shrugs*
I had fun looking at the Salvador Dali painting. I wrote a report on him once in French class and ever since, I've been unable to see a Dali painting without searching for the hidden genitalia. It was "The Virgin of something something" so I suppose it's not too surprising that I didn't find any penises. I'm pretty sure I found a vagina though, besides the blatant pearl and oyster symbols. Ah, Dali.
I was starting to feel all the walking in my knees at that point, but it was time for the shopping part of my trip since what's the point of visiting a big city with an anime store, without visiting the anime store? Thus, I headed over to Animate where I almost pre-ordered a L plushie, and instead bought a very cute Tamaki dangle thing for my pencil case (I am so turning Japanese), and a doujinshi focusing on the Jounin (a casual scan of it reveals good art and somewhat scary plots including Iruka and Kakashi babysitting a baby, Shikamaru/Asuma (kinda disturbing but the part where Shikamaru's father asks how far they've gotten and Shikamaru casually answers 'C' (we use baseball metaphors, they use the ABC's. No one's ever been able to tell me why...). Or at least it would have been funny if Shikaku hadn't imagined 'C' in the next panel..., Gai in a speedo, Ibiki looking hot and surrounded by flowers, Jiraiya with his genin team including an adorable Yondaime, and kage bunshin sex). My final purchase was a one-shot doujinshi by a group called Honey Canon. Unfortunately, the art on their site doesn't do justice to how beautiful this book is. I bought it just on the cover alone but the inside art is the same quality and tells a sweet little story about Kakashi and Yondaime (and I made it three pages in before I needed a dictionary. yay!).
After Animate, I had to take the subway and walk a bit to get to Canal city, a huge shopping mall. There, I was disappointed to find the shop that sold Maltsers was gone, but I also discovered that in honour of their anniversary, Shonen Jump has opened a shop. This was predictably bad for my wallet seeing as they had a little bit of everything, including pins of every single character in all the popular series and many of the more obscure ones. I ended up with a young Kakashi pin (they had Obito, and Naruto's purse to give you an idea of the selection), a four star Dragonball, and Smoker from One Piece. I would have bought an adorable Urahara plushie but it was part of a prize draw and not for sale. About that time, I realized it was pushing 8 o'clock and if I wanted to get home before the trains shut down, I had to leave soon (it's at least a 2 hour train ride back though in practice it takes longer since they stop the train at places and wait ten minutes here, five minutes there etc.) I stopped by Wendys on the way (there are none where I live) to pick up a frosty and a really delicious ranch cheddar chicken sandwich which was made from a real chicken breast and tasted so good *sigh*
I grabbed the food, jumped on the subway again, ran into the train station and managed to catch a train heading to Moji with a minute to spare. It was a local train which meant it stopped a million times but I eventually got to Moji, where I had to change again, and yet again at Shimonoseki. Shimonoseki was interesting at least since there was a group of drunken college students (perhaps) and they were hilarious to watch. One guy was seriously dressed in pink with a wavy sort of pompadour Mohawk. They also tried to throw each other onto the tracks and the guy in pink actually climbed down onto the tracks as a dare. Needless to say, they had their own car of the train.
So now I'm home and tired and my legs hurt, but it was a good day, and I have the disposable camera pictures to prove it. Ja ne!
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