Fukuoka Memories: Day 2

Natural alarms don't come easy. I didn't get woken up by some irritating alarm clock, neither was the sun so bright shining deep into my closed eyes. Instead, it was the crows that quacked non-stop, with a tune so melodious that it kept ringing in my ears. So I got up, took a quick morning brush and headed downstairs for another home-cooked meal, this time breakfast.

The food wasn't entirely special, just a slice of thick bread and some warm milk. I shan't elaborate further. So afterwards we took a family photo and took the car to school. I met up with the other Hwachongians and we started sharing our experiences. Some families even took their Hwachong buddies to communal baths, which was a excruciatingly fun experience for them, since everyone there had to strip naked.

The background behind me was the Kendo venue

After that came the more exciting stuff. We were taught Kendo and Judo, which we saw quite a few somersaults and flips here and there. I also had a touch on the real Katana sword. Then we took unbrellas that looked like swords and started slicing/ hitting each other, and then we were one vs one with the teacher, which obviously you'll know who will be the winner.

Then we went to another high school, which wasn't all boys, so there were girls. As we took the stairs to every new floor, classrooms of girls waved at us with smiles on their faces, and we waved back, looking rather embarrassed. So finally, we entered a art class that taught us how to paint a kind of powder-form water colour on white cemented canvases.

Here's a photo of my finished product

The lesson soon ended, and we already missed the company of the hilarious teacher and some really nice pretty Japanese school girls.

Kyushu High's baseball field

So we toured around the school a little and then boarded a bus to a shrine. Amazing enough, people boarding had to enter by the backdoor while those exiting the bus went through the front door, so it was kinda awkward.

Then it was time to get off the bus, but the ride was rather expensive. About $6 SGD maybe..
So we all kinda stalled the bus for about 6 minutes, the people got really angry so we hurried up our pace to prevent some madman from bursting off his anger.

Afterwards, we went to the Kushida Jinja Shrine and finally there wasn't any smell of incense or sights of ashes flying around. It was clean and people would perform 2 claps then pray, standing at the foot of the tall shrine.

It took roughly 10 minutes for us to enjoy the sights of ancient buildings, with tiled roofs and stone walls. So then, we headed off to a food street, which I myself went to eat some yummy curry rice with a beef patty. It was free and easy then, so I bought some items from the 100yen shop. Other than that, I decided to save up for spending in the next few days at Mt. Aso and other tourist attractions.

Night came faster than expected. By 5.30, the sky turned really dark, and street lights already had to be turned on. But other than that, the atmosphere was still the same. In fact, I think it was hotter at night than day. So we went back to the dormitory, and discovered a table tennis table and some bats in the fun room. Some Japanese students entered as well, so we kinda had a mini match of Singapore against Japan. Obviously, Japan had the upper hand due to home ground, but we had quite a few table tennis talents on our side, so the scores were even.

Then I went to deposit my laundry and headed to sleep after a tiring day. The rest stayed up past midnight to play endless rounds of card games. I guess they must have made much better friends after the 8 days of intense card games. INTENSE.

This rounds up the second day of my Fukuoka Trip, stay tuned for the next few days. Also, please anticipate my video blogs on youtube, which I will say the same things mentioned in these blog posts plus some unrevealed video footages of Fukuoka