Goodbye Fukuoka

I'm moving to Tokyo tomorrow. So there's that.

Fukuoka is over. Done. I'm leaving (NOT on a jetplane, mind you) and starting something new.

On Friday, I said an almost-tearful goodbye to GenkiJACS by holding a speech in (very simple) Japanese together with Rakel (because if you work with someone, that's halves the ammount of work per person. Smart, eh?).

I got my "Certificate of Completeion" and that was that. Language course over, now let's move on.

Today, new people joined the school and that river will keep flowing without me. The world is really really really strange.

"Academic Koalafication"

I met a lot of very awsome people in this place. Some short, some tall. Sometimes amusingly so.

We are all standing in the same slippers on the same floor. Becky is English though. She has no real excuse to be this much shorter than me!

To everyone I had the pleasure of studying with, from, around, or in the general vicinity of; thank you! 

Of course the last activity I partook in at the school was Super Smash Brothers with beer. As is only proper.

And then I left. And that was that.

Goodbye people.

Goodbye school.

What followed was of course one of the more awsome parties I've ever had; ramen->bowling->hanami->karaoke->my vocal cords need to grow back because when I sing "Let it Go" I will not hold back  even if I feel the tendons of my throat flapping in the breeze.

What is Hanami you ask? Simply one of the more awsome festivals available anywhere in the world. It entails sitting under the flowering cherry blossom trees, looking at the flowers until you've had so much sake that you can't see them anymore. 

We went again on Sunday!

Selfie-in-progress.

Umeboshi.

I mean, the weather wasn't the best but this is so pretty it's STUPID!

Umeshu (plum wine) is not at all similar to umeboshi.

Yo there's a cherry blossom petal in your plum wine.

Look at this badass!

I also want to mention that as a farewell my host mother took me to her friends house in the countryside, where we had DIY sushi and cake.

Nature!

We visited a family of artists, and I got to play the piano in a room that was so beautiful I forgot to take pictures (don't blame me. I almost forgot to breathe!). I only mention it here for my own sake; when I look back at this I want to make sure I don't forget that place.

But anyway.

My ticket is ready, my luggage is sent. This is my last night in the homestay. I've said most of my goodbyes. I am as ready as I'll ever be, I suppose.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Tokyo, and my life will change again. In many ways, I'll have to start all over. Get to know new people, new places... Wish me good luck. I've been really happy here in Fukuoka and I really don't want to go, but my time here is as fleeting as those goddamn cherry blossoms, and it's time to move on.

Dramatically, as the petals fall from the trees I'm GTFO'ing. Catch you on the flip side.

Goodbye Fukuoka. Hello whatever comes next. That will probably be Tokyo. I think. That's what my ticket says, anyway.

Sports and entertainment

I more or less randomly recieved two free tickets to an off-season baseball game, so me and my Icelandic compatriot went to be some kind of Scandinavian invasion at the Soft-Bank Hawks (from Fukuoka) vs Nippon-Ham Fighters (Hokkaido) showdown. Last week. Then I totes forgot to blog about it, even though this post almost literally writes itself. Sorreyyyh.

The thing is, neither me nor Rakel care particularly much about sports. One could, in fact, boldly claim that we are less interested in these bafflingly popular human activities than the general population of an average anthill. One might even go so far as to point out that this was my first time going to a large sports event in the history of ever. 

Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome. A very impressive retractable-roof venue, sponsored by Google.

I generally believe there is a very good reason why the category tend to be labelled "sports and entertainment", is all*

*That is a matter of mutual exclusivity, in case you're the kind of person who needs to brush up on their Venn diagrams.

However, I gotta admit, the place was cool.

Oh man this is so exciting. These men are going to be throwing their balls around!

And watching them practise before the match started, it soon became clear that they were quite impressively good at throwing and catching balls. One might almost think they've done it before. 

All pumped up now (but not really), we got ourselves some very expensive (Norway priced!) beer, and were ready to watch some quality ballin'.

The one thing we had left out of our consideration was that none of us actually knew the rules to the game. 

We did see people throwing balls, hitting balls, and occationally running around after the ball. Sometimes some numbers changed on the big board. Mostly though, people were standing around a lot. I think Hokkaido might have been winning, but I really have no idea.

We had some more beer.

Eventually, in lieu of anything better to do, we decided to practice some explicit sexism. Hokkaido player number 52 was very fond of standing with his back to us and doing stretches (or something), and we were very fond of his bum.

Bum.

So in case you hadn't guessed yet, the title of this blogpost refers to baseball (sport) and this guy's perky bottom (entertainment).

Reaction shot.

And then the audience all simultaneously spouted yellow sperm-shaped balloons. 

PS. I kind of recommend watching this video all the way to the end.

The end.

Jeezy creezy, when did I get so responsible?

I got dressed in punky young-ass clothing and went out to get stupid at karaoke, and yet my drunk ass ended up taking care of paying and ordering for everyone all the goddamn night. At izakaya nomihoudai I took money and turned it in to drinks and food, and at karaoke I took the phone and ordered all your stuff in Japanese because I'm awsome. I also took everyones money and made sure everyone paid up at this place (except for one guy whom I've going to have a serious talking to tomorrow...). It's a pretty crazy situation when I'm, I mean me, am the person with the best Japanese language skillz in the group. That just scary man.

Also, I think I might be turning into a responsible adult. What is going on?!?

Another field trip!

Friday was another National Holiday, so we went on another field trip. This time, to Itoshima, a small (and I mean -small-. I didn't see a single vending machine!) hamlet about an hour from Fukuoka.

Naaaaaatuuuuuureeeeee!

Objective? Cooking of Japanese food. In groups, we went to someone's house to cook their recipies. After the bus ride, we still had to climb a short way to get to said house, and hot damn you guys I had no idea how much I missed nature!

Nah-tuh-reh!

The house we went to was an awsome place. A large, quite old, traditional style Japanese house shared by seven people from all over Japan, living here to live closer to nature than what city life would alow (from what I understood. There wasn't a lot of English going around, and you should all know by know that I don't actually speak Japanese).

Even the washbasin in the toilet was pretty!

Sitting in a tatami room looking out into a beautiful garden. But hey, city life has convenience stores and strip clubs, so who needs this shit.
(Imma move here instead, I think. Tokyo won't miss me.)

We had a vegan in our group, so the food was accordingly non-meaty. Our dishes? Miso soup and onigiri (rice balls filled with filling). All the ingredients were locally sourced and AWSOME DELICIOUS! YEAH!

Edible nature!

This was our recipie:

Yes, I can read that. No, I didn't know all the words.

And the hiragana-savvy among you might already be pointing and laughing in my direction. Because what would be the filling for the onigiri if not my old enemy,

Uuuuuuumebooooooshiiiiiiiiii

This is how you make umeboshi onigiri:

You make an onigiri.

You add the umeboshi.

Like so:

And then HIDE THE UMEBOSHI SO THAT THE POOR UNSUSPECTING SOUL BITING IN TO THE RICE BALL WILL GET A MOUTHFULL OF THE STUFF BEFORE THEY HAVE A CHANCE TO RUN!!!

Like so:

Look at the thing I made!
It's so cute! :D

We made lots of rice balls:

You can see the filling because we are
talentless louts.

Also, spoiler alert: Making miso soup is actually really, really simple.

You add all the things and then heat it up. No really, that's pretty much it. It's almost as simple as Fårikål.

There were two groups cooking in this house, the others made rice-stuffed tofu yum out in the back yard.

Got all the food out back there and ATE IT!

Yuh-yum.
Also, I don't think I've ever in my life had a meal this healthy. Nor ever will again. Greasy meat is almost as magnetic to me as my futon on a school morning.

Eventually, we walked back to the bus place along the idyllic country roads.

Tangerines were growing everywhere.

I had to try to immitate one.

All the groups presented their food, and then we went to the OCEAN!

And it was so BIG! Very un-fjord-like!

We, naturally, immediately threw our shoes off and ran into the waves like a bunch of five-year olds.

Obligatory beach show-off shots:

I couldn't quite get it up.

And of course we had to try to do a jumping shot. Didn't quite work though.

Went back after this, but didn't actually go home until around four. Because beer is good for you!

Also, this guy:

Anyways, did things had fun. See ya'guys later!