True to my character of packing late I packed most stuff the very morning I left for Fukuoka. The flight wasn't worth mentioning but when I arrived at the Fukuoka Airport and saw Emma standing there waiting for me I was really happy. At last. When we got out of the airport I was met by a wall of hot moisture. Inside the airport it wasn't much hotter than in Sapporo, but this was the real Fukuoka heat. It really isn't so much the heat as the moisture. You start sweating instantly and even if you don't, you feel sticky all over your body. Anyhow, For me this is not so bad. I only come for a vacation so it doesn't really make a difference if I get hot and tired. But I guess it is rough on the people who have to work all day during this heat. Still, I'd rather put up with this heat during summer and enjoy a mild winter, rather than the mild summer and freezing winter in Sapporo. Sweden is just as cold as Sapporo so I guess I should be used to it but I really am more resistant to heat than cold for some reason. Anyway, before we went home to Emma's house we went for some chanpon - a kind of noodles that resembles ramen but the taste is a bit different. I haven't really eaten that much ramen (you can't count instant ramen - it's a completely different thing) so I'm not sure exactly what tastes differently, but it was delicious, and I haven't heard of it in Sapporo. We ate at a place called Ringer's Hut which could be seen at a lot of places we went to. (Later remark: Ooh! That reminds me! I forgot to eat tonkotsu ramen again!)

The day after I arrived Emma and I went to the city of Kokura, where Emma works, to see the taiko (Japanese drums) festival there. On the way we passed another festival with huge omikoshi (carriable/movable shrines) as tall as four men, with people in the top, and being pulled by dozens of people. When we came to Kokura we immediately encountered small omikoshis not taller than two men, with drums that were pounded in rythms. There were a lot of omikoshis and the people pulling them and pounding the taiko drums were all competing it seems. Especially impressing was an omikoshi with a huge tengu mask. Tengu is a Japanese mythical figure which is similar to humans, but have wings and grotesque faces with extremely long noses. The tengu are not friendly beings but play tricks on humans with their powerful magic. If you see a Japanese mask with an extremely long nose it is probably a tengu mask. There were also drummers on the streets, staying at on place but drumming much more frenetically than the others, drumming two and two, with another two standing by to take over as the drummers got tired. As we stood and watched one such group, one of them said hello to me and ran up to me and pulled me towards the drums and wanted me to play with them. As I didn't have any idea what rhythm to play I didn't really want to participate and it took quite a while to convince him that I only wanted to watch. Finally he let go because he had to take his turn drumming.

The next day we just took it easy, but on the 23rd we went by car to a ryokan (Japanese style inn) in the neighbouring Oita prefecture. The scenery on the way there was breathtaking and we stopped at several places to take photos and a brake. Near our destination we stopped at a place where you could paint your own motive on laquerware. Outside the house was an interesting table made of snowboards. I decided to paint on a teacup, and Emma went for a plate. After we finally were finished with our painting they were burned for us, but unfortunately Emma´s beautiful plate broke during burning so she had to hastily do another one. The ryokan was great with a beautiful view and a little stream nearby. The only bad things about the place was that there was a lot of really big bugs on the outside of the window-net all the time, and that there were big windows in the male baths facing the path to the outdoor bath so that anyone walking there could see everything inside the male bath. Fortunately nobody ever walked by when I was in there though. But as I said, everything else was great. Dinner was served in our room and there were so many dishes that I was like the donkey between two haystacks, really. I didn't know where to start. Fortunately, of course, Emma knew. Soon afterwards the ryokan staff came again, with beer and meat. The meat was grilled on a roof tile heated by fire. After getting stuffed like Kaonashi (if you have seen Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi you know what I mean, if you haven't - all I can tell you is that it's a guy that gets really stuffed...) I felt sorry for the food I hadn't yet tasted, but I couldn't fit another slice (have you seen the Monty Python sketch Mr Creosot?) so we just lay down and rested. In the evening we took the elevator down to the bottom floor where the baths are to visit the little bath hut. Did you know that the number 4 is considered to be bad luck in Japan (and some other Asian countries)? This is because the kanji for 4 and the kanji for death can be pronounced the same way. Often times there is no 4th floor. I knew about it from before, but this was the first time I actually saw it. There was a 4th floor but the room numbers started with 5.

The next morning we drove on a famous beautiful road among green mountains and gigantic open valleys. It was close to the volcano Aso that we went to in March, so I guess those mountains are green like these ones were at this time of the year. I have never seen so much impressive nature before as I have seen in Kyushu with Emma. I had no idea there was this kind of vast natural areas of this kind in Japan. After a long beautiful drive we arrived at the little town of Yufuin. It is a cozy little town with a beautiful lake and also a famous mountain in full view nearby. We strolled around and looked in shops and took pictures of the lake for a while, and then we rested at a pond stuffed with carps, and had some delicious strawberry soft ice cream while enjoying the view. Then we continued our journey. 

On the way we spotted a stand selling watermelons for 500 yen on the other side of the road. A watermelon usually costs between 1200 and 1500 yen so Emma wanted to go back and buy one, but she finally decided to let it go. After a while we arrived at the Usa Jingu shrine. It is a giant shrine, the largest shrine area I've seen so far, and amazingly beautiful. Unfortunately I had virtually no batteries left in my camera so I couldn't take more than a couple of photos, and the batteries ran out completely before I could shoot the things I really wanted to have pictures of. When we returned to the car we slipped into a little shop to look around and enjoy the aircon. To our surprise they sold watermelons - for 300 yen! We bought one, although we should have bought several ones, and went on our way home again. Talking of water melons, did you know that they sometimes salt the melon when eating it, to make it taste sweeter? I had no idea. I wonder if there are people who do it in Sweden too.

A couple of days later we went to see the animated film Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away in English, at least here in Japan). I have put up a special movie review page where you an read about it and other films I have seen in Japan. Spirited Away (I'll write the English name since it is shorter) is a huge success and broke the audience record of the former record-holder Titanic in a few days. In Sweden the seats in the movie theatre are numbered and your seat is decided when you buy your ticket. In Japan, however, there are no numbered seats so you have to hurry there to get a good seat. Emma and I waited in a cue in front of the salon where the film was to be shown for 40 minutes or something, to get good seats when we were let in. There were only a dozen of people in front of us so we got good seats but I really pity those who came late. It was a really long cue and people arriving late made really funny faces when they saw it. It was a great movie and afterwards I bought a pamphlet with a lot of information and beautiful pictures from the movie. There were also a lot of other merchandise like dolls, cd:s, folders, you name it. And there is more merchandise to buy at other places. The merchandise industry is huge here and you can't understand how huge it is unless you see it for yourself. For example, there are tons of boos about the films. Some of the Spirited Away books are The Spirited Away Guide Book (complete explanations of almost everything in the film with maps and other extra stuff, and interviews with staff and cast), The Art of Spirited Away (pictures from the movie on glossed paper with explanations about how the images were created, i.e. use of computer graphics), The Spirited Away Roman Album (explanations and interviews together with the whole story written under movie frames), The Spirited Away Film Comic (images from the film in a cartoon layout with all dialog written in speech balloons - I have the Film Comcs of some of the earlier films by the same creator), The Spirited Away Postcard Book (hundreds of postcards inserted like pages in a little book - I guess you're supposed to pull one out if you want to send it to someone) et cetera. All these books are available about the other films by the same creator (Hayao Miyazaki). There are also a bunch of unofficial books but none of them were as good as the official ones. 

Speaking of Hayao Miyazaki and his film studio, Studio Ghibli, I also saw one of his earliest works, the tv-series Mirai Shonen Conan (Future Boy Conan or Conan, The Boy in Future in English in Japan) together with Emma. There are 7 videotapes with 3 or 4 episodes on each tape. It is a great series and I recommend all animation fans to get hold of it if you can. Both Emma and I laughed like crazy at certain scenes. I think it might be the funniest animation Miyazaki has ever made.