Friendly Fukuoka – Kimono Parade, Lantern festival, Rice harvesting, and Picking Oranges.

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Hello everyone!

I finally started properly working on my bachelor paper and I attend seminars regularly for ISP, which means that I regularly move between two campuses of the uni. So I am flying around  Fukuoka just to be in the right campus on time for the different classes and seminars. But this also means that I am even more busy than before, so please excuse my late blog this time around! A lot has happened this past month, so I will sum up the most important moments. There are lots ad lots of photos so enjoy!

On saturday October 18th there was a parade of women dressed in kimono, which is of course something we all wanted to see! So I went with a group of friends to the place of the parade, and there I unexpectedly met a friend from my home university! She was there for the Octoberfest, so after talking for a while we said our goodbyes. After the kimono parade, accompanied by traditional music also played by kimono wearing women, we went to the lantern festival. The station and a lot of temples near the station were decorated with a sea of lanterns and it was so gorgeous. This is one of those situations were pictures speak more than words I think:

The next day we went rice harvesting in Arita. We all worked together to cut the rice and then we had to put all the rice in a sorting machine which takes the grains off the stems. The important thing to remember when you cut the rice is to keep your thumb up otherwise you can say bye-bye to your thumb. Since we were a big group so we were done quite soon with cutting the whole rice paddy. After our hard labour we were rewarded with the best barbecue possible. There were local grown vegetables and local meat of the highest quality. I am seriously not kidding when I say these meats are sold for a close to a hundred euro when you get it at the supermarket. And I have to say, it was the most delicious meat I ever ate. 
The farmers were also eating with us and were really nice. They also let us drink some sake made with the same kind of rice we just cut ourselves. It was definitely something! Afterwards we went to Kagamiyama (Mirror Mountain) in Karatsu where we had this wonderful view on the coast of Karatsu. The only downside of this place; SPIDERS! everywhere! And not those cute little ones, but huge ones with black and yellow dangerous looking colors. The fun part of this was that we had to hike all the way down the mountain through the forest, knowing these things were everywhere around us. I’ve had better times in Japan haha.
As if this day wasn’t tiring and impressive enough it was also the birthday of my dearest friend, so afterwards it was party time!

The next weekend we went plucking mikan, which is often translated as orange but the size and taste actually reminded me of mandarins, on saturday. It was not a JTW trip, but a private trip organized by a church group and I got invited by my friend. It was really nice because we went to the place by car and it was a while since I had a drive. I don’t know why, but sometimes there is something really relaxing about driving around with friends and just looking at the landscape. Anyway, the group was really mixed with very young children and elderly people and any age in-between, from all different countries.

At the place where we went plucking the mikan I was overwhelmed! The place was so big and it was beautifully situated in the mountains. The fact that it was a rainy day made the place even more beautiful. And mikan trees reached as far as the eye could see. We each got a plastic big which we could fill with as many mikan as we wanted. All the while tasting them of course! They were sweet and delicious. The trick is to find ones that are a little bit soft. Personally I preferred small sized ones with a dark orange color because they were nice and sweet. After we were done plucking them we all ate self made lunch together and moved on to the next place; a flower exposition at a temple.

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Published by bthangover

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One thought on “Friendly Fukuoka – Kimono Parade, Lantern festival, Rice harvesting, and Picking Oranges.”

  1. Ik voel me schuldig als ik 'ISP' en 'bachelor paper' lees, kuch xD maar leuke blog! Die oogst lijkt me zeer leuk om te doen, dan maak je dat ook eens helemaal zelf mee ^_^& die mikans en de bloemen zijn wauw! I want!

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