visual assault, llc

08:00

The plan for today was to visit a Shinto shrine named Dazaifu, famous in Fukuoka for proving good fortune for scholastics. We woke up early in order to catch the bus and train rather than taking the car, parking would be a problem. Breakfast was a delicious spanish mackerel with miso soup, tofu and rice. The rice and soy sauce is the Kameyo brand, made by Ayakas’ mothers family in southern Kyusyuu. Its got a unique sweet and deep flavor.

We met up with Ayas’ friend Maki at the train station on the way to the shrine, she hadn’t seen here in a couple of years, so it was a pleasant reunion. Train rides are usually very nice, as I get to observe my surroundings and it gives me a good feel for the area. This time in particular, as it allowed me to gauge the size of the city. Its much larger than I had previously thought.

09:00

The station drops us off right at the entrance street to Dazaifu, where we met up with Makis’ boyfriend, Masato. They’re both university students in Fukuoka, and today they didn’t have classes. The street up to the shrine was loaded on both sides with Omiyage (souvenir) shops selling typical items and some local food delicacies.

We tried the hot fresh-baked rice cakes filled with red beans, which were quite good, and chewy when warm.

The shrine itself was getting crowded around 10:00am, mostly because its still the beginning of the year, and people are loading up on good luck charms and fortunes for 2008, and venting themselves of problems. A tourist bus also showed up, with about 100 Korean oldfolks. They started pushing their way through crowds in order to get their pictures next to random statues and things.

10:30

We donated our coins at the shrine and made our wishes for the year, and went over to the gift shops, where I bought travel-safety amulets for myself and a few friends of mine who are into motorsports. These items will be both spiritually functional and mad-JDM-tyte as well.

We later did Omikuji (Paper fortune, kinda like the fortune you get in a fortune cookie, except bigger, pink and without the cookie), where you pay about $1, get a paper fortune, read it, think about it for a second, then tie it to stuff.

Noon

Afterwards, we had a slow walk back to the station, enjoying conversation and a few snacks at the different souvenir shops. I had some ice cream, and must again remark about how the Japanese love (soft cream) their soft ice cream over the hard kind. I discovered this first in 1999, and every time I return, i’m always disappointed. Hard ice cream is better, its as simple as that.

We said goodbye to Masato and Maki (MasaMaki from now on) and headed home. We all fell asleep on the train. We stopped by a little shop selling Taiyaki (Waffle-style outer shell with red bean paste inside, in the shape of a fish) and got a snack for later. Afterwards we had Yakisoba for lunch, and took a nap until dinner.

18:00

After the nap, myself, Ayaka and her mother we’re hungry in the least, but we had plans to meet a bunch of Ayakas’ junior high school friends for dinner at a Japanese restaurant down the street.

I had a wonderful time, and enjoyed tonkatsu (fried breaded pork cutlet) and miso soup, despite being very full.

Tags: boston, dazaifu, japan, japantrip, journal, shinto, travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 8:22 am and is filed under Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.