"Summer days driftin' away"

My first month in Kurume went by rediculously fast. All of a sudden, it was the last day of August, the last day I would have to sit in the Board of Education office for another month or so, and "Labor Day" weekend was upon us. Japan doesn't celebrate Labor Day, instead it was the first day of school, but I was determined to make the most of the weekend anyway, not knowing what the school year would bring (still trying to figure that all out).

Saturday:

I've been wanting to go to the beach for a while now. It's hot everywhere you go, so you might as well go to a body of water and submerge yourself. So I did. Dave mustered up the energy to leave for the station with me at 10 AM, and we were off. I planned to meet up with Brad, my friend from the plane ride from Tokyo to Fukuoka at the train station, and then we were all going to get on the bus and head to the beach for a day of nothing. It took a while to find Brad, but since we finally all had cell phones, it was actually not too hard. I had gotten used to not having one, and hadn't really needed one, except when I got lost at the train station. These train stations seem to cause all of the communication breakdowns...if I never took the train, maybe I wouldn't need a cellphone, but seeing as how the trains are rather vital to getting around, I am glad to have the phone. We got on the bus with a group of kids Dave and I had seen at the station. They looked like your typical Tenjin crowd, all trying hard in their silly baggy clothes, except that they were all communicating in sign language. It was straight out of the movie Babel.

We got off at the end of the bus route near Momochi Beach Park, which is right at the foot of Fukuoka Tower and near Yahoo Dome, where the Soft Bank Hawks play baseball. The Fukuoka Tower is a tower...that charges people to go up and look at the view. It's tall, but it was kind of overcast, so we decided the trip up was probably not really worth the $8 and, my lovely insider's guidebook I got at orientation said the nearby JAL Hotel has a similar view for free. But not wanting to rush things on the beach, we didn't go up there either. Next time.

Instead we laid on the sand under a big tent for many hours, enjoying the sparsely populated beach and listening to the sound of the "Japanese-sized" waves, which was occasionally interrupted by the PA system which played this weird Sesame Street song with lyrics no one could understand. We grabbed lunch from the vendors on the beach; I had takoyaki (fried octopus balls) and a sweet pineapple slush drink. The water, which was supposed to be inundated with jelly fish was devine. Very salty though...I felt really sticky for the rest of the day, and the sun definitely wore me out.

The view from my towel.

Saturday night was the annual yakitori festival in Kurume, so we wanted to get back in time for that. We left the park, but not before de-sanding our feet in the lovely fountains and buying some ice cream from one of the vending machines across the street. My mint chocolate chip gave me a whole new lease on life, and as we were waiting for the bus, Dave contemplated sprinting back for another one.

Brad came back on the train to get his fill at the yakitori (meat, well technically, a bird on a stick) festival. It took place in the square near the main post office, not too far from the station in downtown Kurume. From a block away we could smell the smoke, and the whole square was ringed with various carts/tents hawking grilled goodness on sticks, as well as what went well with said items...beer, edamame, rice etc.

We got a good selection, and then sat outside of the madness with other Kurume JETs, including my upstairs neighbors, Kendra and Johnathan.

After we'd had our fill, we listened to the bluegrass band for a little while before people had to move on to various other commitments. We made plans to reunite later in the evening for some karaoke, and the time in between nearly killed me. I could have sworn it was 10:30 at the earliest, when it was really only 8:15. I powered through, and made it almost to midnight, at which point I unceremoniously dropped Brad at the train station and biked home, took a shower and went straight to sleep before my big day on Sunday.

To be continued.....