The 11th we went to Kitakyushu EXPO 2001. Kitakyushu-city is the second largest city in Fukuoka prefecture (Fukuoka-city being the largest) and it is the northernmost large city in Kyushu. Kokura, where we went for the Taiko-festival earlier, is a part of Kitakyushu, and that was where the EXPO was located. We went there together with Mayuko and Mouri who were in the group which I helped guide and had dinner with in Sweden last autumn. That was the same group that Emma was in and where I met her the first time. Anyway, it was interesting with showrooms from Korea, China, Mongolia and several other countries. There were also showrooms about energy and such, and the funniest one was formed like a giant toilet with seats and a screen inside, showing a short film about the history of toilets. After strolling around for a couple or hours or so, popping into different showrooms, we went to the food square, where there were you eat food from a lot of different Asian countries. However, since there are a lot of things I am allergic to and since it is a bit bothersome to ask about all the ingredients in every dish, I settled with some Chinese fried rice that I knew I could eat, and just tasted Emma's Indian curry. They were, of course, both delicious. One of the most interesting things on the Expo was a circus-acrobatics performance by a Chinese troupe. Truly amazing. One of their acts was 14 people riding on one bike. (Later remark: I saw them performing that one on a tv-show a couple of months later.) You got to wonder what kind of training they have to go through to become able to do such things. Another interesting thing was a short anime movie made exclusively for the Expo by the famed manga and anime creator Leiji Matsumoto. It was a short story with the characters from Ginga Tetsudou 999 (Galactic Express 999) about how they came to a gigantic library with all the books in the universe. When opening one special book the main character was sucked into it, and it was about the history of Kitakyushu. Among the historic events presented in the short film, there was one I had heard about before. It was about the famous samurai Musashi Miyamoto. He was an incredibly skilled swordfighter, and once an enemy challenged him to come to Ganryu Island for a duel. The tiny Ganryu Island is located between Honshu and Kyushu (in Kitakyushu). Musashi went there in a rowboat, but when he got there he refused to draw his sword. The enemy wanted to fight, however, and as he attacked, Musashi attacked him back with one of the oars from the boat, and killed him with it. This is just one of the many stories of the legendary Musashi. He is an actual historical figure, but he is even more famous through the many books and dramatizations of his life. Anyway, in the same building was a relaxing room with very comfy chairs, and also a car made entirely of Japanese paper. In the evening we sat in an open area at the centre of the EXPO. On a stage nearby a group of steel drum players played different tunes, and in front of the stage two little girls ran around and danced. I got a flashback from when I was a little kid myself. I remember how fun it used to be just running around. I wonder when it stopped being fun. Maybe it hasn't. Maybe I should try running around a bit. Hmm.

The next evening Emma and me went to a jazz-club together with Emma's friend Chie. It was fun. The best part was the singer. He was a Japanese man in his fifties who seemed to have had at least one drink too much. But maybe he just really got into the music when they were playing. He made funny moves when he sang, and he even made some obscene hip jerking, which surprised me because his kid obviously sat and watched. The music was good though, and they played several classic jazz- and soul tunes.

The following day was the last day before returning to Sapporo, and in the evening we went to a firework display again. This time, however, it was a gigantic display with over 15,000 pieces (the previous one had around 3,000 pieces if I remember correctly). It would take place between Kyushu and Honshu, so the best place to view it from (on Kyushu) was Monjiko, where Emma and I went together with Mari in March. Since it was such a huge event it would be very difficult to find somewhere to park the car, so we went there by train instead. I wore my jinbei again, and Emma wore a beautiful yukata. When we got there the fireworks had just started, and there were loads of people. It might be difficult to imagine how packed the streets get at Japanese festivals for Swedish people, and probably people from a lot of other countries too. The best likeness I can think of in Sweden is the most crowded places during the Stockholm Water Festival, or in front of the stage at a concert, but at Japanese festivals it is that crowded almost everywhere. Actually, there was an accident at a recent festival when people where going back to the train station. In a tunnel near the station someone fell and since everyone stood so tightly (about 10 people/m² at the most crowded place near the station entrance) people fell like domino pieces. Several young children and elderly people where suffocated to death because of this. Really tragic. Anway, that might give you an idea of how crowded it is. When you walk around it is like waiting in line for something. You take one step, wait a second, then take another step, wait a second, then take another step, and so on. But there are of course some places off track where you can rest and breath out. When we got to a place where we had a good view of the fireworks I took out my camera and so the photographing began, just like the fireworks we went to earlier.

I didn't put my camera down once, and kept taking pictures, deleting less good ones to be able to take a few more photos, and then some more, and then some more, just as usual. As the final fireworks approached we started heading back to the station to avoid the rush. Of course there were already a lot of people heading there, probably thinking the same thing, so it was the usual waiting-in-line-walk to the station. At the station there were security men who controlled the flow of people into the station and through the gates. This was without a doubt caused by the recent accident I wrote about above. After some waiting we got through the gates, on the train, and was finally on our way back for one last nights sleep.