January 14, 2004
The Stormtroopers of Fukuoka
Day 4 - Fukuoka
Where the Kawaguchi Ryoso was a tranquil oasis, Kashima Honkan in Fukuoka was, ahem, not. At least, not the first night.
Entrance to Kashima Honkan
The ryokan itself is gorgeous. It was once an old tea house - a rambling wooden labyrinth of tatami rooms and corridors, all opening onto the central Japanese rock garden. You could almost hear the echoes of giggling geikos long gone.
The hospitality was also obliging. We originally had a second floor room, but Dicky Knee protesteth so the staff were kind enough to set up and warm a ground floor room. Bad move.
It would have been fine had it not been for the Stormtroopers, 5 peroxided Japanese 20-something boys, who invaded the two rooms above us. Stomping. Drunken cackles. At one point it sounded like the tatami mats and shoji screens were being defiled. I don't begrudge anyone having a good time, but the ryokan was a creaky old structure and every sound of this boozy blitzkrieg took on a life of its very own. And it was 3 a.m.
It was all I could do to stop myself breaking down their door and yelling, "Urusai, yo!" ("You're being pretty fucking noisy, aren't you!"). Happily, The Mister, with his delightful command of diplomatic Japanese (and, you know, cos he's the man and all) came to the rescue, climbed the rickety old stairs and asked them "Would you mind awfully if you piped it down a little?"
Ah, peace! Shortlived peace! Just as they shut the fuck up, the heating units of their room kicked in, offering us a range of sounds from a quiet hum to a jackhammer to what sounded like a muted wailing banshee.
At 6 a.m the Stormtroopers decided to check out and we were woken from a fairly decent 2 hours sleep. Tails between our legs, we begged for our old room back and that night had the sleep of angels...
Detail of Kushida Jinja's portable shrine
There was nothing I particularly wanted to see in Fukuoka. Just meander. We ambled through Kushida Jinja where we ran into the Mother of all Mikoshi. "Mikoshi" are portable shrines - decorative shinto altars which men and women carry through the streets at festival time. Usually, they are impressive, but only about 5-10 feet high. This one was probably about 30 feet. How the hell they expect anyone to propel that Mama onto their shoulders I shudder to think.
We ended up at Canal City, touted as a "futuristic shopping and entertainment extravanganza". It was. OK. It was just a shopping centre, although it did have a lovely aspect over a man-made canal.
Dicky Knee liked Canal City, though, for its plethora of places to sit down, so we took in "The Last Samurai", which I thought was excellent. And lets face it, you could do worse than Ken Watanabe and Hiroyuki Sanada for eye candy.
I'll take their word for it
Fukuoka's piece de resistance was its funny signs/shop names. Among the many we spotted during the day, was "Excellent Room" in Fukuoka station (the facade was very anonymous so no way of telling how, exactly, it was excellent), the "Colon Booth" (a health and beauty store) and "Labia Cum MREV". Unfortunately, we only saw this on Canal City's directory - we never did get to find out what it sold... anyone care to enlighten us?
Tomorrow - Dicky Knee does Nagasaki
why the "continue reading..." thingy like they do irritatingly religiously with anything readable on the net ? kimbooo...not goood :( and i didnt get what you meant about "the last samurai". i thought it had tommy the cruiser. but you mentioned some japanese names...
I'll be honest with ya - I didn't want to do the extended entry thing. To be honest, it won't happen often as these "on the road" entries are really quite long. But I didn't want people with slow dial up connections to have to download heaps of photos, hence the extended entry thing. Worry not, it won't be a regular occurence.
And yeppers, Last Samurai does have Tom Cruise in it, but I thought the Japanese actors were much more scintillating.
hmm. okie :) i havent seen the last samurai myself...but your "the lost samurai" photo cracked me up :) he really does look like he doesnt know whats going on :)