This week we went on an open top bus tour of Fukuoka. It was a great opportunity to get familiar with the different areas and places in Fukuoka City.

We started at Fukuoka City Hall near the Tenjin station. We visited spots such as Yafuoka! Dome where the SoftBank Hawks baseball team plays, Fukuoka Tower, Ohori Koen, and the busy streets of Tenjin just to name a few. We also saw views of the ocean and crossed on a tall beautiful bridge. The baseball stadium was framed by very interesting buildings that were supposed to look like ships.

We enjoyed the view of the different neighborhoods decorated with the young greenery of spring. The azaleas were in full bloom and the wisteria garden had also started to drop their grape-like flowers. One of the best viewing spots of the spring season was the large park surrounding the Fukuoka Castle Ruins. We will explore these different areas further in the weeks to come.

今週のクラスの活動はオープントップバスでした。一時間のツアーで福岡市の色々な観光地を見に行って、有名な場所に紹介されました。例えば、SoftbankHawksという野球チームのヤフオカ！Domeや福岡タワーや大濠公園を過ぎました。海と林がある小さな島も見えました。さらに、今は春の季節なので、福岡市にたくさんの花が咲いています。ピンクと白い躑躅とぶどうみたいな藤があります。私達は福岡市の様々な場所に行くのが楽しみにしています。

Hinamatsuri, Dolls’ Festival, or specially Girls’ Festival is a festival quite special to the Japanese culture.  Families celebrate the day with the display of dolls signifying the Emperor and Empress, along with dolls of different levels in the traditional hierarchy, with the aims to offer blessings for their daughter.  This is one of the most heartwarming and colorful festivals in Japan.  This week, not only was I able to witness how Japanese people celebrate Hinamatsuri, I was able to experience this in Yanagawa, a town known for its many bridges and canels, which can be navigated by boats.

Tsuboi-san accompanied me in this trip. Thanks to him, I was able to understand more about the culture and tradition of Yanagawa and Japan as a whole.  We started our day trip with a boat ride. Our punter was an Ojiisan, an elderly man. He showed us his wonderful punting skills by going through amazingly narrow bridges with ease. He not only introduced the places as we punted along, but also entertained us with singing Japanese folk songs.  His voice was really awesome.  The whole journey was 4 km long which took about 40 mins.  The ride was really entertaining and comfortable.  Unlike Venice which seems to be overcrowded with tourists and has constant congestions  in the canels, Yanagawa was relatively relaxing and serene.

During the boat ride, we saw a stage where Hinamatsuri ceremony was performed, and children gathered on different boats, getting ready to send paper dolls to the canels, with the hope to pray for good fortune and health.

After the boat trip, we went to the the Tachibana Museum. Besides housing lots of important cultural properties, the museum also displayed an awesome collection of traditional dolls specifically in celebration of Hinamatsuri. The dolls together with the unique hanging ornaments were gorgeous. The Museum has an attached Japanese garden which was an absolute beauty. The best viewing point was from the second floor.

We had  lunch in this old building overlooking the beautiful garden. Lunch was unagi, Sea eel, which was also famous in Yanagawa and a must-try.  The day was wrapped up with a short walk around Yanagawa town, where we could see a lot of fully bloomed sakura trees, a Shrine with caged chickens, goats, a monkey and some other animals.  It was a very enjoyable and memorable day trip !

今週は坪井さんと柳川へ行きました。柳川は有名な水郷です、それで、私たちは船で観光しました。後で、ひな祭りのお飾りを見に行きました。すごいきれいでした。ランチなら有名なうなぎ丼を食べました。柳川は食べ物もおいしいし、景色も綺麗だし、そしてうれしかったです。

今回は日本の春の定番行事、「お花見」に行ってきました♪

お城の石垣と相まって桜がとてもきれいでした。

Spring is a lovely season to visit Japan and hanami (cherry blossoms viewing) is a much anticipated festivity in the year. Having the privilege to come to Fukuoka in March, I have been looking forward to the hanami this week. Although it was not my first time viewing sakura, it was my first time going with a group of Japanese teachers and classmates.

I have always been fascinated by Japanese people’s hanami culture; it is not just a mere action of appreciating sakura blossoming; its a celebration of the beauty in life, the approach of spring, and camaraderie of friends and families.  We went in a group of 10 teachers and classmates to the Maizuru Park, where we had bento under the cherry blossom trees.

Afterwards i went with teachers to visit the ruins of the Fukuoka castle and Korokan Historical Museum, a guesthouse for diplomats in ancient times.  I found it particularly interesting that researchers of the museum could actually infer what food the people had eaten, and even reconstructed the whole feast in the old days just by examining the elements found in the toilet remains. It was a really funfilled day.

今日は先生達と一緒に花見に行きました。舞鶴公園にたくさん桜がありました。とてもきれいでした。桜の下に座ってお弁当を食べました。後で、福岡城と鴻臚館で見学に行きました。面白いでした。

今回は日本人形の絵付け体験に行ってきました。すてきな猫神様ができました！

This week I was accompanied by Yoko sensei to make the traditional doll of Fukuoka.

When we arrived at the shop, we couldn’t help but marveled at the display of hundreds of beautifully handcrafted dolls. After a little tour around the shop, we started to work on our own dolls.

Of course with the limited time we had, we could only do coloring for our chosen doll mold. There were plenty of molds to choose from and I chose a little cat mold.  I had a lot of fun mixing different color paints to make my cat look more interesting.  I got inspiration from Yayoi Kusama’s polkadot pumkin and decorated the back of my cat with black polkadots.

After an hour of hard work, my cat doll had eventually come to life.  Sensei and I posed for some pictures with our own works.  I named mine “God of Cats”.  I think it looks adorable and majestic!

今日は緒方先生と一緒に福岡人形を作リました。私の人形は「猫神」と言いました。一番可愛いかったです。猫神ちゃんの後ろは水玉模様がありました、草間彌生のパンプキンを写しました！人形の作るは面白かったです！

Dazaifu-shrine

We visited one of the well-known shrines in Japan. A god of study is there. Many Japanese students come to this place and pray for their exam success.

Here is a comment from our student:

After two days in the School, I have been looking forward to the outing to Dazaifu today. I was blessed to have sunny weather though it was a bit chilly in the morning.  It was a great pleasure to have Tsuboi-san from NILS accompanied me in the trip. He has been most friendly and caring.

During the trip, he explained in detail a lot of interesting things about Daizaifu, its vicinities and Fukuoka. We communicated mainly in Japanese and it was an excellent opportunity for me to brush up the language.

We also visited Kyushu National Museum where national treasures of Kyoto’s Daigoji were currently exhibited. Having visited Daigoji before, I was particularly delighted to look at the amazing exhibits outside of its Kyoto premise.

Before we left, we had coffee at the famous Starbucks designed by Kengo Kuma-san, and savoured the yummy plum biscuits.  I went home with a full stomach and many happy memories.

She writes down her impression in Japanese.  ありがとうございました！

今日の見学はとても楽しかったです。太宰府天滿宮と九州国立博物館へ行きました。すばらしい展覧を見ました。太宰府は、にぎやかだし、きれいだし、面白いです。坪井さん、どうもありがとうございました。

この日は、今のグループの最後（2018年11月）のアクティビティでした。　大分県の耶馬渓という自然が豊かで、紅葉がきれいなところへ行きました。

This was the final day (November 2018) for our current group.  We visited a bit further place called, “Yabakei” where has a lot of nature with the colourful leaves in Oita.

「私たちは、いいちこ焼酎蒸留所を訪問しました。　そこでバイキング形式のおいしい昼食をとりました。」

“The tour visited the Ichiigo Shochu Distillery, then we stopped for a very good lunch at the Viking Restaurant.”

「昼食後、秋の紅葉を観に耶馬渓へ行きました。　ここは、山間に谷があり、様々な彩の木々があり、特徴のある岩の山肌があるところです。」

“After lunch we visited Yabakei to view autumn leaves. Yabakei is located in a very scenic valley with a lot of autumn colour and interesting rock formations.”

「そして滝が見え、深い谷にかかる九重夢大橋を渡りました。　ここから阿蘇山を見ることができます。」

”After that we visited the Kokonoe Yume Grand Suspension bridge which crosses a steep valley with waterfalls at one end. From this area Mt. Aso can be seen.”

「長い旅行でしたが、一番楽しかったです。」

“This was a long but most enjoyable trip.”

今回は、日本の代表的食べ物、ラーメンと餃子作りに挑戦です!　どちらとも中国から伝わったものですが、日本独特のものにアレンジして、全国各地で異なる作り方、味が楽しめます。

Our students tried to make “Rahmen” and “Gyohza”. Both came from China and we arranged the ways of making in different places in Japan. So you can enjoy various tastes of these food in all over Japan.

「私たちは、小麦粉と塩水を混ぜてラーメン生地を作りました。　そして、しばらく置いておき、パスタマシンで麺を作りました。」

“We made ramen noodles by mixing flour and salty water, then resting the mixture and passing it through a pasta-making machine.”

「麺を寝かせている間、私たちは生地を小さい円形にし、豚肉の入った具を入れて餃子を作りました。」

“While the noodle dough was resting we made gyoza by rolling the dough into discs and 

filling with a pork mixture.”

「ラーメンの麺は、熱湯に入れて作り、餃子は、焼いたり蒸したりしました。　麺は予め作られたスープに入れました。　私たちは、作ったラーメンと餃子を食べました。」　楽しいアクティビティでした。」

“The ramen noodles were cooked in boiling water and the gyoza were fried and steamed.　The noodles were added to a prepared soup. The ramen and gyoza were then eaten by the students. This was an interesting activity.”