Here's another photo from the after party I went to with Jared and Colin last week. Apparently Colin is involved with this boxing gym, and they had a party for members after the Kawamatsuri. I think it's really cute how sometimes I'm really welcomed into some places, and I'm immediately given some random gift. This time it was a huge selection of fire crackers/sparklers (they're propped up against the fridge in the back on the left there). It felt really good to be so welcomed into a group :) And thank goodness they weren't drunk enough to put my boxing moves to the test...
Have you ever been to a fair and seen people walking around with a bag of lively little goldfish? I'm not sure how you catch them in the States, but in Japan they have an interesting system. At the kawamatsuri they had several "kingyo-sukui" booths where children armed with thin paper ladles tried to scoop up the fish to put them in a bowl. One must work quickly, because the game ends when your paper ladle breaks. In this photo you see the (now broken) ladle in the girl's right hand, and her bowl in the left as she gives the man her fish to bag. 
I stayed for a while watching these tiny little girls in candy bright yukatta, hair all pinned up (I know it's cliche, but they really DO look like dolls!) darting here and there, squealing with excitement, coaching each other on how to best net the next slippery fish.
This festival includes lighting candles all along the river, and ends with a big fireworks show. Here's a photo of some of the food vendors' stalls along the river. Japanese "fair fare" is becoming too familiar to me; I forget it's really different from that in the US. I'll take better pictures of them at the next matsuri. I just liked seeing the moon above, the stalls and the girls in their festive yukatta. 
...can you find me in this picture below? Just look for the really crazy hair...
I know most of the posts make it seem like I'm always genki and have one adventure after another (fairly true, but a conscious, continuous effort on my part, to be sure), but please know that sometimes I'm quite solitary in my little apartment. This opportunity to be quiet and away from distractions is one of the reasons I came to Japan, and I do cherish the fact that most of the time the only sounds I hear are those of crickets and semi (cicadas). However, the losses this past year (and now again, with several friends - including my American neighbor - leaving Japan) sometimes make just getting through the day really, really difficult. I endeavor to seek out The Lesson and The Beauty in my life in so much around me, but at times I just sit at my window and let the sadness rain down and wash over me. I know the storms and the drizzles don't come to stay, I know that they're washing away what's necessary and helping that inner garden to flourish, but sometimes I just wish I had someone to hold an umbrella for me. 
I just want to let you know that I survived all the disasters we've apparently been having! Fortunately, the typhoon wasn't very bad near me (in fact, the weather was much better than it has been! Just a bit windy, but no dramas), and the earthquakes are way up around Tokyo. So Sunday I met the girls for lunch in Nagasaki at a lovely little international restaurant that serves a different nation's food each day. You can see our cook there in the middle; I think she might be studying at Nagasaki University. I tried to show off the delicious stew on the plate there, but it got cut off. 
Here's a shot of the view off my back porch looking off towards the mountains where I went firefly hunting. (hey, you CO peeps, pipe down there - they're mountains to ME, anyway - just let me live with that fantasy :) ). I can't believe I actually took pictures of the blue sky, but, I kinda forgot what it looks like! You can also make out the clay "path" that runs along the green hill there - I usually take that shortcut to the konbini or bus stop. Gets to be exciting in some parts since it's only about as wide as one of my feet! 
As I said in the other post about the Kyushu National Musuem, I have a hard time keeping my hands off of all the exhibits. But how great is this?! On the ground floor of the museum, there was a whole room devoted to giving the museum visitors a hands-on experience with a variety of artifacts. It DID make me miss being an art teacher, though! Unfortunately, I didn't find this room until almost closing time, so I didn't get to see/understand everything, but I still enjoyed the visit. In fact, in my "search" for figuring out exactly what I want to do with the rest of my life, I find places like this particularly inspiring. I just keep praying for guidance...anybody out there have any ideas? Preferably in a locale in the mountains near the sea? (^,^)
In this picture, you see a Japanese painting on a screen on the right, and a several plaques hanging on a tree on the left. Each plaque had a section of the painting on one side, and the other had information about that particular part of the painting. For this activity, you take one of the plaques hanging on the tree there and find the matching section on the screen to learn about it. 
This Totoro character is still a bit of a mystery to me, but he still cracks me up. I watched the beginning of the movie, "Tonari no Totoro" when I was in the Japanese class in Fukuoka. The Japanese isn't too difficult, but it's a little fast. I saw this furry guy on my way to the National Museum in Dazaifu, and he just looked so hungry...so I offered him some of my umegaemochi...
The last time I was in Fukuoka, I visited the new Kyushu National Museum (click on the title of this post to get more info). The Aussie gave it big thumbs up, and he never thinks ANYthing is cool, so I figured I'd go see for myself. I had been to Dazaifu before, but hadn't seen this supposedly massive building (and the town's not that big!). Well, I finally found the escalator that went up the mountain to get to it - wow! I felt like I was queing up for a ride at Disney. The museum is such an odd, enormous shape, that it first seemed like a mirage in the sky (?). But I really like how it was tucked into the landscape and reflected the trees all around - it was as if it very politely said (just like the Japanese people) - "Sumimasen, ah - excuse me - can I just sort of settle myself down in here? Do you mind?" instead of being like the kind of building that has the audacity to wipe everything out first, then looking like a pile of discarded boxes stacked up here and there in a parking lot. 
And all that was just the outside! It proved to be cavernous, yet alive on the inside; I walked in as a concert in the main floor was just starting. I headed up to the historical exhibits upstairs, the music accompanying me as a went. I got a free English headset to understand some of the highlighted exhibits, and, though I'm not a huge fan of history, I must admit, I thought it was really neat. Afterwards, I went into a fantastic hands-on exhibit downstairs. I'm forever in trouble at the museums because I want to touch everything - and in this room, you could! More photos of it later, but here's a funny one with some borrowed locals :)
