Kyushu

The Cape Toi Fire Festival

September 8, 2016

“I don’t see anything.”
“Just wait for the next wave. Ok, now go! Move your hand around!”
A tiny spec of blue suddenly appeared under the water.
“Woah! I see one! There’s another one!”
Mermaid fireflies, dancing around our hands and legs.
“Holey shit, that’s cool!”
It had been a really long day, but I immediately forgot I was tired. It was going to be a great night; I could just feel it.

…

On the last Saturday of August, Danielle and I packed up my old but trusted Kei, Anene, and headed out for the long drive to the southernmost tip of Miyazaki prefecture, picking up Austin and Alicia on the way. Cape Toi is one of my favourite places in Kyushu, but I had yet to experience its single most popular event – the annual Toimisaki Fire Festival. Continue Reading

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Festivals Flowers and Gardens Japan Kyushu Miyazaki

Takanabe Sunflower Festival

August 31, 2016

At different times in my life, August has either represented the approaching autumn, or the coming spring. And as if to echo those transitions, it has marked my most exciting beginnings and most painful endings. Consistently, it has been a month of change.

Now, as a JET, August is the time of year when I have to bid farewell to old friends who have made the decision to return home, and welcome new ones who have just arrived to start their Japan adventure. Anyone who has lived abroad for a length of time will understand just how hard those hellos and goodbyes can be.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learnt on this very crazy journey of my own it’s that change can bring about the most beautiful of things.

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Flowers and Gardens Japan Kyushu Miyazaki

In Pictures: Miyazaki Cherry Blossoms

April 13, 2016

“Cherry blossoms in spring, they mean everything…” coos the Night Beds’ Winston Yellen on the sixth track of Country Sleep. A truer line could never be sung for Japan. Here, cherry blossoms are spring.

From the first bloom in Okinawa in February, the forecast is predicted and tracked as it heads to the mainland and then spreads north. The arrival of the pink and white popcorn balls are eagerly awaited; sakura is the unofficial national flower of Japan and has been revered in art, culture and poetry for centuries.

But spring came late to Miyazaki this year; the weather is not nearly as warm as it should be and the blossoms were slow to open, with a bout of rain causing them to fall before they reached their full potential. Streets and parks are still covered with a dusting of pink snow, reminding, perhaps more than usual, of the beauty of transience.

I spent three different days tracking their progress in Saito City, along with the rapeseed that is in full bloom.

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Flowers and Gardens Japan Kyushu Miyazaki

The Garden of Love

April 6, 2016

In Shintomi Town, on the road from Takanabe to Saito, is a garden carpeted in bright, pink flowers. During spring, when the shibazakura (moss phlox) is in full bloom, the private residence attracts up to 3,000 visitors a day. People come to admire the beautiful flowers, of course, but the garden is attractive for another reason; the story of how it came to be.

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Japan Kagoshima Kyushu

Kagoshima’s Art Forest

March 14, 2016

Charcoal skies and lime lawns – that’s how I remember my first visit to the Kirishima Open-Air Museum last June. Now, eight months later and in the last months of winter, the landscape surrounding the outdoor art gallery looked somewhat different. As Ian and I chugged up the road that winds around the side of Mount Kurinodake, I kept my eyes peeled for the two, giant polka dot flowers, one yellow and one red, which mark the rabbit hole into the sculpture Wonderland.

Upon first glance, the museum looks like any other modern art gallery: a tree-lined walkway leads to the entrance of a giant 3D rounded rectangle decorated with tall, glass windows tinted a shade of turquoise. Inside, a larger-than-life high heeled shoe, matching in pattern to the flowers at the gates, sits adjacent to a small cafe-come-gift shop. And off to the left, installations are scattered around a small, white hall.

The real attraction, of course, is outside.

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Festivals Japan Kyushu Nagasaki

Nagasaki Lantern Festival

February 25, 2016

WELCOME TO NAGASAKI! I fist-bumped the air as we drove across the border into Kyushu’s westernmost prefecture – the only one I had yet to conquer on Japan’s third largest island.

Ian, Vidy and I were making our way down for Nagasaki Lantern Festival. The event, now in its 22^nd year, draws crowds that make it nearly impossible to find accommodation anywhere near the city center. So we had driven to Saga the night before (Friday), slept over in a hotel, and were now completing the final leg of our 5-hour journey.

When we finally pulled into the park where Ian and I planned to car-camp for the night (Vidy had managed to hustle some floor space in a local B&B), the light drizzle that had followed us all the way from Kumamoto had finally stopped. It might not be the fanciest of accommodations, I thought to myself, but boy do we have a view.

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Japan Kyushu Miyazaki

Inside One of Japan’s Abandoned Hotels

February 17, 2016

In Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis wrote, “The love of knowledge is a kind of madness.” I must be kind of mad, then, because everyone who knows me knows that I suffer from incessant curiosity. And if you read my blog, you know that that curiosity regularly centres on the morbid. A forest of suicide victims ? A prison of torture? There like a fucking bear.

It sometimes disturbs me – perhaps ironically – how much I am drawn to this darkness. Especially so when I think back to how young I was when I began poring over news articles and books and documentaries on the most gruesome of cases, the most terrifying of things.

But then I remind myself that everyone loves a good train wreck; our propensity for the macabre just manifests in different ways…gory reality TV, courtroom dramas, disaster footage, celebrity scandals, reddit AMAs…

I indulged myself most recently by exploring an abandoned hotel on Miyazaki’s most southern tip.

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Fukuoka Japan Kyushu

To Give, or Not to Give a Hoot: Japan’s Owl Cafes

December 21, 2015

What if you could offer the comfort and companionship of pets to millions of people who don’t have the space, or are forbidden by landlords, to keep their own? It was this idea that led to the opening of Japan’s first cat cafe in Tokyo in 2005.

Although not a unique concept – Taiwan opened the world’s first in 1998 – it was one that gained popularity fast. The cafes became a hit with locals and tourists alike, with many of the former visiting for stress relief while the latter were drawn to the unconventionality of it all. In just five years, the ‘pet-rental’ business in Japan had grown to include 79 cat cafes alone.

Today, stores offer more than just cats. Customers can spend time with rabbits, dogs, snakes, goats, or – the latest trend – owls.

Almost everyone I know who has been to Fukuoka has visited the Hakata branch of Owl Family, which opened in January 2014 . Intrigued by the idea of getting to see the magnificent birds of prey up close, I begged Mark – who’d already been once before – to take Ken and I for a look after our trip to Nanzoin Temple. But during our visit, the novelty wore off fast.

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Fukuoka Japan Kyushu

The World’s Biggest Bronze Statue (Probably)

December 10, 2015

Having your own little Kei in the inaka of Japan is gold – they’re cheap, easy on petrol and, like all cars, you can jump in on a whim and go wherever the road takes you. The downside? They aren’t really built for frequent, long road trips. This, I was reminded of as I opened my eyes and let them slowly adjust through the polka-dotted window onto a grey, misty parking lot. “Where are we? What’s wrong?” I asked, looking around trying to get my bearings. Mark laughed nervously, “The engine’s overheated.”

I had been taking my role of backseat passenger (read: napper) very seriously, while Mark drove and Ken navigated us to Fukuoka. Our first stop was supposed to be Nanzoin Temple in Sasaguri Town, just outside of Hakata. But now it looked like we might not make it. When we stopped again at a petrol station further up the road, the attendants agreed that something was very wrong. “There’s a car shop off the next exit.”

The Honda service station was in a place called Asakura, 50 min from the temple. The mechanic confirmed our worst fears: the engine was, essentially, fucked.

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Festivals Japan Kyushu Saga

The Saga International Balloon Festival Fail

November 16, 2015

“We’re going to miss the balloons.”
“Stop being a Negative Nancy.”
“I didn’t drive 4+ hours to miss the balloons. If we miss the balloons, I’m going to be pissed.”
“It’ll be fine.”
“I see a balloon.”
“No you don’t. Where?”
“Behind that house. You can’t see it from where you’re sitting but I see a balloon.”
“Where? Oh… there. I see another one!”
“There’s four now.”
“At least six!”
“We’re missing the fucking balloons.”
“Fuck.”

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Japan Kyushu Oita

Ontayaki Pottery Village

November 11, 2015

In the final months of my last year at university, I took a trip to Hogsback, a small village in the Eastern Cape, to meet a potter named Anton. He agreed to be the subject of a soundslide I was producing for my portfolio and was kind enough to let me shadow him for a day. Tucked away in the forests of the Amatole Mountains, his studio overlooked a carpet of tree tops and was filled with the chirping of the forest’s louder residents.

There must be something about potters and the woods, I thought to myself as I watched the road disappear from the back of Conor’s car. He, Mark and I had spent the morning exploring Hita’s historic merchant district and were on our way to a nearby village in the Kyushu Mountains dedicated entirely to the pottery craft.

Much like Hogsback, Onta is surrounded be dense woodland and far removed from the bustle of the modern world. The soundtrack is different, though. Churns and splashes and thumps echo throughout the small settlement – the distinct song of the karausu that line the river and powder the clay.

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