Fukuoka

My trip to Fukuoka was quite unexciting which I was grateful for. I was having visions of being stuck in Japan as visa runs are technically illegal even though people do them all the time. I had a nervous moment when the immigration officer looked through my passport several times unable to find what she was looking for but after that everything went smoothly.

Unfortunately I didn't take in as much of the Cultural experience as I should have. Across the road from the Korean Consulate is a Hard Rock Cafe. I had never been to one before so I went there for lunch which was great although not very Japanese. When I was at the Korean Consulate, I saw an advertisement for a hotel that sounded reasonable so after a bit of shopping I hopped on the subway and found the hotel. Unfortunately the hotel was undergoing major renovations so I had to find somewhere else to stay. I walked around the Tenjin district of Fukuoka for 2 hours and checked 7 hotels (all full) before finally getting a room at the 8th hotel. At first the front desk agent told me that they were full, but after I inquired about where to find a hotel that wasn't full, she told me that they did have a double if I was willing to pay more money. For 9450 Yen (around $100 CDN) I took the double room although I was disappointed to find out the room was the same size as most Korean Yeogwans (which can usually be rented for about 1/3 the price). Fortunately my employer gave me money for the trip so it didn't cost me anything but after paying for the room I only had 2000 Yen left (about $20). This little bit of money had to get me to the consulate, some food and to the airport.

When I came to Japan I was looking forward to eating some Japanese food but after the expensive hotel I was looking forward to the cheapest meal possible. I walked by MacDonald's even though I saw they had a meal deal for 397 Yen. Now this was a good deal, but who wants to eat a burger at 10:30 AM? The policy (in at least some MacDonald's) of not serving breakfast after 10AM is something that I hate about MacDonald's and I have walked out of MacDonald's twice before because of this policy. With only $20 in my pocket however, my highest priority was cheap food so I squelched my scruples and ordered the burger.

I spent the most of the rest of the second day walking around Fukuoka taking pictures of shrines and walking through a park with a huge pond/small lake in the middle. It was very interesting to see all the wildlife that was in this green space in the middle of the city of Fukuoka. There were seagulls, cormorants, kingfishers, ducks, hawks (also the name of the city's baseball team) and lots of large colorful fish.

On my way around the lake I came across a man who was feeding the pigeons and gulls. He had pigeons on his arms, shoulders and head as well as on the ground and flying around him. A few even found the bag of food in the basket on the front of his bicycle and hopped inside. In the middle of this fury of birds the man spoke softly to them and occasionally shooed the pigeons out of his basket to reach for another handful of food. One of the pigeons in the basket felt quite territorial about the bounty of food at its feet and it took the man several gentle shoos to get it to leave.

Another man across the lake was throwing food up to a dozen hawks that were circling above him. The hawks rarely missed the flying food and occasionally chased away the curious gull that came too close.

There was a building called The Budokan at the edge of the lake. I remember playing a computer game called Budokan many years ago. In this game there were many different fighters, each with their own style of martial arts and weapons who would fight each other. With this in my mind I walked to The Budokan and peeked in the courtyard. Unfortunately it didn’t seem very inviting for tourists as there was no writing of any kind on the gate. I walked inside, unsure if I was allowed in. I found a gated courtyard to my left where a man was practicing archery. He was very slow and deliberate with every action, slowly drawing the bow back, waiting for several seconds before releasing the arrow. I watched him shoot several arrows. I was mesmerized by the sheer focus of his whole being, his actions slow and reverent as if it were a spiritual act. Behind this man there were women who appeared to be practicing synchronized bowing although they didn’t seem to be very good at it.

After a few more hours of wandering around Fukuoka I took the subway to the airport and flew back to Korea. By the time I got back to Korea I had 25 Yen left which is worth about one shiny quarter.