Woke up to this:
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| No comment. |
Japanese cats are
weird.
Anyways. After all the excitement of the last couple of days, I dearly needed some time alone. So I decided to finally locate the nearby park that my phone har been recomending to me rather insistently.
Ten-ish minutes of walking from
school through downtown Fukuoka. Atractive neighbourhood, bridge and river and all.
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| Bridge is also called "hashi" in Japanese. |
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| I like rivers! |
The park itself seemed nice enough, too.
And then I turned around.
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| BOOM! |
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| BOOM! |
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| BOOM! |
We're talking giant stepped garden-forest thing going up the side of a really tall and really modern building. Not too shabby, I must say.
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| This building has a waterfall. |
There are winding staircases all the way up to an observation deck on the roof.
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| The path. |
The top level was closed today, but I didn't mind. I bought some konbini-dinner/lunch and staired up.
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| English! Yay! :) |
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| First case of stair. |
It was quite surreal. As I climbed, I really did feel like I was in some quiet forest grove. Yet at the same time, at each level the view of both the city and the garden behind me got more spectacular. Once again, I was struck by the incredible contrasts that are such a big part of Japanese aesthetic.
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| I wonder where this path goes... |
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| Is this a forest or a city? |
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There was a river flowing down alongside the path,
ending in the waterfall I saw earlier. |
Benches were scattered all the way up,always isolated enough for privacy.
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None of the benches were occupied.
Maybe because it was between mealtimes,
maybe because the roof was closed.
I don't know.
I didn't mind. |
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This path didn't seem to lead anywhere.
In retrospect, it would probably have taken
me to Japanese Narnia. |
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| Foilage backdrop selfie. |
All the way up, I could always see the foilage of the lower level through the gaps between the stone steps.
And looking down, I could see some sort of stage previously hidden in the architecture.
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| View-from-high-place-selfie. |
Finally approaching the top, the city started really opening up behind me. And at the same time, I could see in at office workers through the windows of the building I was climbing.
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| There are people in there! |
Of course, as I mentioned, from here I could get no further.
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| I should not pass. |
But I really did not mind at all.
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| View-from-higher-place-selfie. |
I was completely alone on the broad top staircase. Just me and a couple of crows.
There were no benches here, but like the crazy foreigner I am I sat down anyways and had my little meal of onigiri, mini-sandwich-thing and hot bean soup from a vending machine.
I like onigiri (basically just rice balls, often filled with stuff), but buying them is always a bit of a gamble. You know, since I as of yet lack any really effective way of determining what's inside before I have it in my mouth. Today I got my favourite:
Umeboshi - the pickeled plum of death.
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| Still not grape. |
The sandwich-bites were a strange combination of curry-burger and eggs. Not bad, but a bit awkward.
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| Waddup? |
I'm rich in neither time nor money these days, so sometimes meals become simple and/or a bit ad-hoc. All other things aside though, I've had meals waaaay worse than this.
The weather was nice and warm, so I sat on the top of this building for a couple of hours, just studying and enjoying not being in a hurry for anything at all.
The two week mark has been reached and surpassed, and I kind of can't believe it. Time gets
really strange when you're experiencing pretty much everything for the first time. I've had a great time so far, and it's sucked like nothing ever. I've had a lot of fun and I've felt terrible a whole bunchload. But most importantly, I hope I'll end up having more moments like this; where I'm really and actually relaxed.
I wonder if I'll ever feel truly comfortable here. Until then, I'll hang on to days like today and try to remember what I re-learn every other week or so:
That life really is what you make of it.
