Above: Shoe swaping at school. It is almost Golden Week (the one week where people are excused from work in Japan) and I am making plans to travel to Fukuoka, the biggest city in Kyushu. This time, there will be nobody involved but me and probably about 2 million other people on vacation. I am booking my hotel today (yes unbelievable but I am not staying at a hostel) and everything is nearly full. The reason behind this is not only Golden Week itself, but I have just learned today that there is also a huge festival in the city during this very weekend. Here is WikiTravel's description of it:

Hakata Dontaku (博多どんたく) is held in Fukuoka City on May 3 and 4. Boasting over 800 years of history, Dontaku is attended by more than 2 million people, making it the Japanese festival with the highest attendance during Japan's Golden Week holidays. During the festival, stages are erected throughout downtown for traditional performances and a parade of floats is held.

Festivals are always fun alcohol infused events for the locals (and me often enough) that make for an interesting weekend rather then my run of the mill routine of going to the 7-11, getting stared at, me waving, and then going home for three hours to think about it. I'm excited to see Fukuoka, I've heard nothing but good things about it and heard that there is a lot of good people watching to do. The excitement of people watching may seem unfathomable to those of you with busy productive lives, but I assure you that it us even more enjoyable when experienced in a country with different customs and human interactions. I'm not dead set on what else I will do in Fukuoka for five days but I have a Lonely Planet travelbook to help me navigate all the museums, parks, and undoubtedly vending machines. By the way I saw a gum vending machine in Miyakonojo yesterday and was impressed. This was of course a mere precursor to what I was to later on in the day see in the same downtown area. I will later post a picture of this rare find but I believe that I have stumbled upon the first vending machine ever invented right here in Miyakonojo. I was riding my bike by this filthy rust covered, prehistoric looking contraption that seemed to have some sort of old fashioned beverage in it and it all made sense that if the oldest man in the world lived here, the first vending machine was probably invented here too. Speaking of old things in the area, I may have mentioned before that Kyushu is interesting for a number of reasons, all of which I am sure I have only convinced myself are true because I am on contract to live here for a minimum of five more months, ANYHOW these reasons are: In Kagoshima, the prefecture directly adjacent to Miyazaki prefecture, only about a thirty minute drive away from where I live is home to a 10,000 year old site where the oldest human remains in Japan have been founding, suggesting that people initially immigrated from the south and first settled around here. This was discovered when a construction crew was digging up some dirt to create a hotel and undoubtedly a pachinko parlor or two. Reason number two, Kagoshima, is also, where Matthew Perry, first came to Japan when it was a closed society and said "Knock, knock", and Japan was like " Dare desu ka? ((who is there?))", and Matthew Perry was like "Its the rest of the world, now open up so we can trade with you". Ok ok, but Kyushu is also cool because it is infamous for beautiful landscape, forests, volcanoes, open space that is usually not associated with living in Japan, and its crazy out of control male chauvinism that according to my friend Kumiko can only be rivaled the the equally backwood mentality of Yokohama. Maybe that is not cool but it is funny in its own right at times, and Kyushu is also renowned for its heavy drinking of Shoujou which is making a big comeback and is preferred over sake to most in the reason. So to not go on and on, I am excited to see more of Kyushu. Fukuoka has a ferry that can take you to Korea or China in a few hours, and is the area of Japan that is closest to these now bustling markets. What does this mean? Cheap shopping. Something new. I will post some pictures when I get back from my trip. For now, here are a few random school pictures and a photo from last night when my friend Tomoko's German boyfriend came all the way to Japan to see her. We went out for sushi and a few drinks. Here are the results. Ohh yeah, and last weekend I biked out to Nagata Gorge. It was nice but I won't do it again because there was no real bike lane on the road. Also above a photo of the appropriately named graveyard park.