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Miyakonojo Bonchi Matsuri
The Bonchi Matsuri is the largest festival in Miyakonojo, and a large section of the main road, Route 10, is closed to traffic to allow the large procession of dancers to march down, and also have sections for separate dance groups, and stages. It is held on the first weekend of August and the majority of performances consist of a large number of dances, both contemporary hip hop style, done by local groups (including many school groups), and also traditional style dances. I was fortunate to be invited to take part in the main local folk style dance, seen in the photo above, by the Miyakonojo International Association. For the…
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Greenery.
A very short post. I think a lot of people think of Japan and picture huge cities, buildings as far as the eye can see, full of concrete and neon lights, masses of people, rushing.Which is not inaccurate for say, the constant activity of central Shinjuku, or the vastness of metropolitan Tokyo.However, even in the residential neighbourhoods of Tokyo it is a different story, let alone in prefectural capitals or regional cities or towns. The first place I lived in and considered home in Japan was Miyakonojo city.The population these days is somewhere around 160,000, however this feels a little bit inflated due to some surrounding towns having been merged…
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Local Summer Festival
I suppose there would have been no bad season for me to arrive in Japan. Everything was new to me and I would have found interesting events, discovered seasonal dishes and explored, whatever the season was.Nevertheless, Summer is my favourite season, and I soon discovered Summer festivals. As it turned out the first festival I went to was in a tiny neighbouring town, not in the small regional city I lived in.In the photo above is a traditional folklore kind of performance, unfortunately I have no further information. In both the photo above, and the photo below, flags of various countries can be seen. The festivals (apart from the small…
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My first Japanese apartment.
At first I went with the easy option and stayed in a company apartment.Given that I was moving to a new country, couldn’t speak the language, and wasn’t aware of how the accomodation system worked, this was a prudent decision.I feel like in so many aspects I was extremely lucky and somehow found myself in places and around people that suited me.Perhaps part of that may be due to “things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out”, but only partly due to this. The apartment was of a nice size, in good condition, in a nice area, with nice views. It was furnished…
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Riding the local train from Miyazaki to Miyakonojo.
The sky had been clear and blue during my stopover in Miyazaki, however as the train departed Miyazaki City, the sky had begun to cloud over.I had walked back to the station after seeing City Hall, however the train took me back past there and then over a river, Oyodo River, which runs from just within the prefectural border of Kagoshima near Miyakonojo, and ultimately empties into the Pacific Ocean at Miyazaki City. It’s of a decent width and is the main water body in Miyakonojo. In no time at all the train was click clacking through deep countryside. On the left is a smaller waterway, and, yes, in the…
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A brief stop in Miyazaki City, on the way to my new home Miyakonojo.
My journey from Fukuoka to my new home of Miyakonojo had me transferring through Miyazaki city, where I needed to change trains. I had some time to fill in between trains, so I went for a bit of a wander. Immediately in front of the station was a lovely garden area with a fountain. Palm trees, colourful flowers, blue skies, I could get used to this.I’m already used to this. I was born for this.I continued on, passing by the fountain. Before long I found myself on a lovely green, leafy boulevard. I should mention that I arrived in Japan in June. This particular day was June 18. Summertime. Which…
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Brief life in Fukuoka, and a trip to Dazaifu.
Starting with the prosaic, I found Rainbow Plaza (in the IMS building in Tenjin) to be a useful place for general information and internet access. This was also where I got introduced to the website dpreview.com by a random guy, after I mentioned I wanted to buy a camera. I loved the fact that catching the train home from Tenjin station meant that I departed from a terminus, with a giant sign board overhead with lines, destinations and times, and trains waiting to depart. The visible possibilities of places to go to, places to explore. Hardly surprising then really, that I had studied Aviation Management (which had a fascinating mix…
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Arrival in Osaka, bullet train to Fukuoka, initial training.
I flew into Kansai/Osaka airport. I was too busy following the instructions I’d been given on how to get to and onto the bullet train, thinking three steps ahead, and double checking everything to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes to notice much around me. Even years later though, what remains vivid is that the thing that made the largest impression on me travelling on the bullet train from Osaka down to Fukuoka was the number of tunnels and the experience of going through them at such speed. Sunlight, green and blue, black—–. Sunlight, green and blue, black——–. Sunlight, green and blue, black——. Along with the distinctive sound changes…
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So it begins. An unlikely journey towards living in Japan.
Unlike, it seems, almost everyone else who moves to Japan I didn’t go because I was already interested in some aspect of Japan. I wasn’t interested in Japanese animation. I didn’t have an interest in Japanese music. I didn’t have an interest in Japanese food, history or martial arts. I hadn’t studied Japanese in school. In fact, I had no specific interest in Japan at all. I had a couple of friends who had watched some anime. I had even been with them one time when we were thirteen or fourteen as they watched some anime, but I had such a lack of interest I hadn’t even watched with them.…