Autumn

'Tis a pretty picture around uni, the leaves are turning bright red and a blazing yellow. Haven't been up to too much, but I went to a Japanese beach in the day finally! In Wakamatsu.
There aren't any natural beaches around here, the coast has been filled and developed to incorporate all the trade with Asia.

I must say it doesn't smell like the sea... the sand is darker and coarser here.


Hibiki Green Park is one of tourist spots in Kitakyushu. They change the flower displays according to season:



'Cosmos' - an autumn flower that blooms in autumn in this area:

A hall and an observatory ride that goes round and round

The Tanaka mother and daughter drove me around that day ^^ so nice... that's the daughter. We 'teach' english to them.

Another awesome event that happens in autumn at KIT is the school festival! Koudaisai! All the students into groups from their labs or clubs. It's a fully 100% student organised event, from the rent and setting up the stall to disposal of garbage... the Let's english speaking circle made mini burritos and mini kebabs.


setting up the tent stall

making tiny burritos/kebab
the structural engineering lab's shop - jagga potatoes
inside/sitting area of the let's shop

cooking area
miso flavoured onigiri on a bamboo stick
'nurse'
xjapan cover band????
horse wants fairy floss!
satoko...i mean... horse is thirsty!
the korean store!
the stage
bunny and chicken

Saga International Balloon Fiesta 2008

Saga Balloon Fiesta

(by Bex)

Saga prefecture is to the south west of Fukuoka prefecture, my interest in the 'fiesta' was peaked due to all the advertisements hanging around the main railway station Kokura.
Japan greatly encourages traveling within the country so these advertisements are not rare.

To cost cut I wake up at 4am to catch an all stops train to Fukuoka - from there I take a highway bus to Saga prefecture, followed by another local train to where the balloons were launched. It's Monday 3rd November - public holiday and the last day of the festival...I mean fiesta


I arrived in time to see the inflating of the 'balloon fantasia' event - these balloons didn't fly:
Doraemon!!! yay!!!

The fox's glasses never inflated properly lol
This balloon was from a german bank i believe...or was that the fox =S:
Yes that's a giant babybel cheese balloon...
Tako!!!! Octopus! yay!


After they'd inflated them all everyone was allowed to go into the grounds to get close to the balloons:
The fiesta also included tents where they sold local food and wares - typically, and a bike show and a tent where bands played - they weren't that good. And of course heaps and heaps of festival food and heaps and heaps of people to eat it!!


I was in danger of catching a cold at the time...I couldn't wait for the last day event - the key grab race - they have a race in their balloons obviously - then many many balloons inflate at night - it's supposed to be a very pretty sight and they have fireworks and everything...but i've got the postcard for that lol.

what's happening!?!?!?!? 7 month mark

There hasn't been an update for ages!!! what's going on? i've been hearing...

Well bottom line I'm lazy... second reason is this blog tool only lets us upload four photos at a time so it is terribly terribly tedious. I'll be making a greater effort to update from now on.

Remember they're not always in order so check the blog archive panel on the left to see where the new entries are!

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Well it's November... Our departure date is the 25th of February 2009, which means there's only four months to go!!! There's still a couple of things on my list I'd like to see/do but of course due to the absolute shocking state of the world financial system it means i've lost approximately 40% off the value of the currency...
When i arrived it was 100yen to the dollar - now it's 65yen to the dollar T_T

It's also time to start thinking/doing our final project as a massive slab of ICS2... I'm having a lot of trouble thinking up a decent topic to research - we have to pick something culturally relevant of course.

I'm disappointed with my level of Japanese... I should've made more of an effort with study and exposure to locals... but it was very discouraging for me to encounter 'shy' Japanese.


It's autumn!!! I finally understand why some people find Australian seasons so...boring. The trees around the uni are actually turning RED! Not the yellowing of the leaves and then dropping off the tree kind...RED!!! It's very pretty indeed! I'll put up pics in this entry next time i can be bothered XD.

As pretty as it may be the weather is also getting coooold! Highs of 21 degrees...need to do more shopping!! >=D