We visited one of the craft museums in Fukuoka.

You can experience making Japanese traditional paper called, ‘Wa-shi’. ‘Wa’ means Japanese and ‘shi’ is a sheet of paper. In this museum, you can choose different kinds of product with wa-shi. Our student chose a Japnese style fan. The instructor kindly taught how to make it and she achieved to make her own cute fun!

You can see some other Japanese traditional products such as a female cloths, a miniature of Samurai Armor (displayed a Boy’s day), and a display of a Girl’s day.

We have an annuary event on 3 February. It is called ‘Setsubun’ meaning the day of season change. It is traditionaly the day of the season changing from winter to spring although it is still cold in this time of the year. Japanese people join this event by throwing beans toward ‘Oni,’ which means devil, with saying, “Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi!!” The word ‘Fuku’ means the happiness. ‘Soto’ and ‘uchi’ are outside and insaide. So they say “Devil out, happiness in!!” The person with the devil mask has to get out of the house, classroom, or inside of a building.

One of our students gave us a comment of this event;

I found the trip to be very interesting and very insightful to Japanese culture. The throwing of the beans and festival brings back a child’s and parent tradition that has been celebrated every year. Watching the elder and younger generation forms a picture and scenery that brings everyone together because of past memories and new one being form at the festival. It brings a sense of family to the Japanese community and spiritual scene.

One of the students gave us the impression of our excursion. It shows that Yanagawa is a must-go place in Fukuoka!

We went to Yanagawa. It took us more than an hour to reach Yanagawa station. I was pretty excited about this trip, as I knew there will be a boat ride. And again, it is in the winter.

After we arrived at the Yanagawa station, we were ferried to the Shogetsu Punting Station via shuttle bus for the boat ride. Though it was not crowded, but I was surprised that there were people like us going for the boat ride in the winter.

The weather was good, sunny and bright at Yanagawa. I was lucky, as it was drizzling in the morning when I left home.

Upon arrival at the Punting Station, we waited for the boats to be ready, and we were required to remove our shoes before we board the boat. As it was winter, the boats were equipped with “kotatsu”, so that we were able to warm ourselves during the boat ride.

As the boat slowly went downstream, we could see the beautiful reflection of the willow trees along the river bank. There were cherry and peach blossom trees, but due to winter, we were not able to see the flowers blooming scenery.

The boatman operated the boat skillfully and explained the history of Yanagawa during the ride. He even sung us songs when passing through the low bridges.

When we were done with the boat ride, we went for our lunch, Seiro-steamed unagi. It was really tasty. I got some unagi ramen and motsugorou ramen as these flavours seemed interesting….

We ended our activity after touring around the area.

Beautiful scenery, delicious unagi, interesting experience on boat with “kotatsu”.
A good memorable and unique trip.

V.

We are planning this kind of exciting excursions in the future so that our students can have new experiences.

Here is a comment from one of our students who took part in Conpeto event.

I would like to express my impression about Conpeto. There was very interesting and useful experience which offered me to learn about Candy history and making process. On the other hand, the staff provided the exciting program throughout various interactive method. The most important thing is that positive environment gave me fabulous feeling and creation. I would say, this kind of activity will help students shaping their new life in Japan society and socialising easily.

We are keeping an activity day in a week so that our students can have experiences of not only Japanese language but also Japanese culture and customs throughtout the events.

Yame Traditional Craftwork Center

We went to the workshop where we could see how the handmade Yame Washi (Traditional Japanese Paper) was done. And we also had the opportunity to hands on ourselves on the paper making process. It was an unusual experience for us.

We were allowed to choose what kind of items to make into, such as a fan (うちわ), or post cards (はがき), or book marks (しおり), or message cards (めいし), or message slips (たんざく). I chose to make into book marks.

We were given a selection of dry flowers and dry leaves to design and decorate our book marks. After we were done, we handed over to the staff to assist in pressing and drying.

While waiting, we proceeded to take a look at the Buddhist alters (仏壇/ぶつだん), bamboo work (竹細工/たけざいく), traditional craftwork (民族工芸品/みんぞくこうげいひん), etc…

I saw the extremely huge lanterns (Yame Chochin八女提灯) and Buddhist alters…. Wow….
We also saw the stage of Yame Fukushima’s lantern puppets, and was told that 6 persons are required in order to operate a doll!!! No wonder the stage is so huge…. and the stage does not require any nails or bolts or nuts to assemble, basically they are making use of the slots to assemble the stage. Amazing.

As it was almost time, we went back to the workshop to collect our book marks, and headed to shop for some おみやげ，and not forgetting the soft cream to finish off the activity. Yummy….

Fukuoka Tower and Robo-Square

After our test on 16th Dec. 2015, we went to Fukuoka Tower. It was a freezing cold day and poor Sensei had to help us to take photos in the strong wind…  Thank you Sensei…

@Fukuoka City

After the photo taking, we entered the Japan’s tallest seaside tower, Fukuoka Tower.

Fukuoka Tower is 234 meters tall, it’s underground foundation weighs 25,000 tons but the portion of the tower above ground weighs only 3,500 tons. Fukuoka Tower is often referred to as “Mirror Sail” as it is made with 8,000 one-way mirrors, the triangle tower resembles a sail of glimmering mirrors.

Mr. Fuhta is Fukuoka Tower’s mascot. 可愛いね (Cute!).

While the elevator was moving up to the observation deck, I spotted some Christmas decoration on the structure of the tower. Before we realized, we had reached the observation deck, which is 123 meters above ground.

We walked around, enjoying the amazing panoramic view of Fukuoka’s cityscape, Hakata Bay, Muromi River, etc. 綺麗ですね (Beautiful).

I saw the “Omikuji”, and had a try on it, and to my surprise, I got a “Best Luck”, Wooohooo…..‼️

We also took some amusing 3D photos,  before we proceeded to the next destination, RoboSquare.

RoboSquare was established on 20th July 2002. RoboSquare focuses on increasing familiarity and awareness with robots, being an educational facility for learning robots and also production of robots. There were robots on display and we were able to touch and communicate with them.

We saw Kitty chan at the entrance, and we were able to communicate with her, it was amusing. We saw a cute baby harp seal, named Paro, it was designed to have a calming effect on and elicit emotional responses in patients of hospitals and nursing homes.

Paro responded when you touched its fur and whiskers, it was amazing and impressive.

Before we ended our activity, We took a few photos with Paro and reluctantly said goodbye to Paro.

A rare experience for me to view nice scenery high up in Fukuoka Tower and a warm and close contact with Paro on a cold day…. 寒かったね (It was cold…).

Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine is the most famous shrine around the area.  Many students visit here to pray for their success in entrance exams for schools.  Our students learned the traditional way to worship at a shrine.

Sensei gave an introduction of Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine, it’s history, legend of Sugawara Michizane, how to worship at a shrine, etc… before the trip.

We set off for Dazaifu after the briefing.
As it was raining, our hands were occupied with umbrellas…, hence, I am not able to take photos this round… however, Sensei managed to take a few for me…

It was interesting to go through the proper way to worship at a shrine. We washed our hands and rinsed our mouths at the washbasin, before proceeding to the hall of worship. I am lucky to have a 5 yen with me. I threw the coin into the offertory box, but not able to ring the bell as there was no bell, with 2 bows, 2 handclaps, pray, and another bow.

We walked around for a while, and proceeded to Kyushu National Museum as it was raining.

We spent some time at the Cultural Exchange Exhibition on the cultural history of Japan and Asian countries, then, we headed to Kasa-no-ya for the Dazaifu’s specialty – Umegae Rice Cake and Matcha green tea.
The Umegae Rice Cake was yummy, and it was served hot, the outer layer was baked until golden brown and the inner was filled with Azuki bean paste.

We strolled along the street which led us to the train station and ended our trip.

Although it was raining throughout the trip, but overall, it was still an enjoyable and pleasant trip.

NILS students enjoyed making their own Kompeito (金平糖), which is a mall colored sugar candy covered in bulges and it is said that it was  introduced by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century to Japan.  Here is the comment from one of our students.

We visited “Kompeito Kingdom” to understand the history and origins of the famous Japanese sugar candy – Kompeito introduced by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century.

We were welcomed by the staffs upon arrival and it started of with the introduction of Kompeito, types of sugar used, sizes of Kompeito, colours, the making processes….etc.

Then, we were leaded to the Kompeito Museum, where it showcased many portraits which were made of sugar, and different kinds and colours of Kompeito and the equipment used.

The staff verbally explained the processes, and asked us to choose 1 colour and 1 flavour for our Kompeito. We chose purple colour and melon flavour….shouldn’t the flavour be grapes…
Anyway, interesting!
We were given the opportunity to hands on the last few processes, such as colouring and adding flavour to our Kompeito.

While waiting for our Kompeito to be ready, the staff introduced another confectionery called Karume Yaki, foam candy from heated brown sugar mixed with baking soda. She demostrated the making of Karume Yaki, and we were astonished when we saw it raised and harden from the pot…
We cutted and tasted the Karume Yaki, sweet and crispy, and it just melted in your mouth…. Yummy, yummy….
We got to taste different flavours of Kompeito, such as, coffee, blueberry, banana, mushroom, salt, wine, etc… some flavours are really interesting and unique.
We were each given a pack of the Kompeito which we made, and we purchased some other flavours of Kompeito as well. I also bought a set of Karume Yaki kit so that I can try it when I returned home.

Students learning Japanese in the Short-Term Program enjoyed watching their first time Sumo Wrestling.  Here is the comment from one of the students.

Oooooo, Sumo Wrestling on 13th Nov. 2015!!!

I have never watched Sumo Wrestling LIVE before. This is the first time that I am watching it LIVE… すごいね。。。
In fact, I knew nothing much about Sumo Wrestling, I only knew they were supposed to push the opponent out of the ring or made them fell to the ground in order to win the game.

Prior to the Sumo Wrestling match, Sensei provided some information and briefed us about Sumo Wrestling such as the history, the rules, the levels of a wrestler can attained, the techniques used to overcome the opponent, the prize money, the rituals, the ceremonies, and the etiquette while watching the match, etc…

It is a pity to hear that there are only about 700 wrestlers now.
And, there will be no salary for those wrestlers who belong to the range of Makushita – Jonokuchi. How are they going to survive without a salary!!!!????

In order to have a salary, a wrestler must attain a level within the range of Yokozuna – Juryo.

We reached Fukuoka Kokusai Center around 3 p.m. While we were taking photos, some wrestlers passed by, and we managed to catch a glimpse of them. They are so huge…

We proceeded to our seats, watched the last few rounds of the Juryo grade’s matches, then followed by the Makuuchi grade. The duration of a match was very short and fast, there were a few times the matches ended before me knowing it…
Although I may not know the wrestlers, but it is really exciting to watch the match LIVE and cheering them. The matches ended at 6 p.m. with a ceremony called  Yomitori Shiki.

Although Sumo Wrestling is one the traditional sports of Japan, but to my surprise, I was told that most of the wrestlers are not Japanese, most of them are from Mogolia, hence,  hopefully Japan will look into ways to attract more Japanese to take up this sports and keep it going.

An enjoyable, interesting and exciting event.

One of the traditional hand crafts in Fukuoka is Hakata Doll made from clay and colored.  This tradition has a long history for more than 400 years.  Our students enjoyed painting dolls for NILS activity.

“The clay figure painting activity was rather enjoyable. We started off taking a train go Tenjin from Ohashi, then a bus then walled through the downtown for a bit. Upon reaching the store we were prompted to pick a model of clay sculptures to paint. These ranged from little girls to dragons to geishas to objects amongst other things. Once picking one just sat down and spent the rest of the day painting it. As simple as it sounds, the actual task was daunting, although the paint was quick drying, the small details of the clay would quickly get smoothed out if too many coats of incorrect paint filled the gap, and with the precision of how detailed these lines where made, messing up a few times was more the guaranteed. Regardless of the frustration of trying to make every detail as perfect as possible , the actual activity was very fun. I would never have though to try something like this if I was not brought here by the school. Thanks to them I got to try something I never would have done otherwise.”

“This trip was a lot of fun. It was amazing to see all of the beautiful hand crafted dolls.

They were all painted so beautifully!! I couldn’t wait to pick my own and get to work. There were quite a few dolls to choose from, I couldn’t decide if I wanted a dragon, a horse, a geisha, or a samurai. I decided to go with a woman wearing a kimono. I decided to base her off of the Shinsengumi. It was great to see every ones thoughts and ideas come to life in their dolls. We had one hour to paint, which wasn’t enough time for me, so I will go back soon and finish my HIJIKATA.”