12-30-10

I woke up at about 7am to get ready to get off the ferry. Poor Kyunghye only got about three hours of sleep because of a screaming toddler. We had some ramen that Omma Byeon packed for us. We got off the ferry around 9am. Our next mission was to find the bus to take us from Shimonazaki to Fukuoka, where our hotel was. We couldn't find the bus terminal, so we went into a nearby Starbucks to ask directions. We met a nice couple from America that live in Japan. Not only did they help us find the bus terminal, but they reserved our tickets and got us a student discount. Their Japanese was excellent, me and Kyunghye were shocked! After a huge thank you, we got on our bus for Fukuoka.

We couldn't check into our hotel until later in the afternoon, so we took the subway to see a local Shinto temple outside of the city. I think we picked a good time to go to Japan. We learned that during the New Year, most Japanese people go to a Shinto temple to pray for a good new year. When we got to the temple, we saw a lot of people writing wishes for the new year on paper, and then tying them to a rope. They would then go to the main temple building, throw coins into a box, and bow saying a short prayer for their wish. In Japan, many people practice multiple religions. They will celebrate Christmas in a Christian church, Buddha's birthday at a Buddhist temple, and various times of the year at a Shinto shrine. It is very different from Korea, where people practice either Christianity, Buddhism, or nothing.

The temple was very beautiful. It was mostly red, which is a sacred color for Japanese. In contrast, most Korean temples are green, which signifies peace. Red is signifies bad fortune in Korea. I think this is because red is a special color for both China and Japan, the two countries that over history have attacked Korea. There were a lot of animal statues and vendors selling incense sticks and paper to write new years wishes. From what I understand about Shintoism, it is the ancient Japanese religion that was formed and only practiced in Japan. There is a lot of ancestor worship and praying to local gods.

After visiting the temple, we went to our hotel(getting lost on the way). After dropping our stuff off, we went to get our JR tickets. Japan has an amazing rail system, the trains are very convenient and prompt. If you are a foreigner, you can buy a rail pass that allows you to travel on all rail lines for a certain amount of days.

Once we got our rail passes, we took the city bus to Canal City. Canal City is one of the largest malls in Japan. There is a canal in the middle of the shopping center, hence the name "Canal City." We went to Ramen Palace (an area of the mall with over 20 different ramen restaurants) for dinner. We ate pork ramen, a famous dish from Fukuoka. It was delicious, one of our favorite dishes while we were in Japan. After eating in Ramen Palace, we explored some of the stores in Canal City. We found a Pokemon Center! It was a store that sold all things Pokemon. I felt like I was eight again: looking at all the Pokemon stuff, comparing different Pokemon, and trying to explain to Kyunghye the difference between Charmander and Charmeleon. We also went to a store that sold Kimonos. They were so exquisite. When we were ready to leave, we were deep into the mall. This mall was really hard to find your way around, and the size didn't help either. We would walk around for ten minutes, thinking we were close to the exit only to see the indicator that we were back to where we started: an ad selling boots that had these Nazi looking girls on it. Half an hour later and after walking past it five times, we were desperate to find any door out of Canal City. We found an exit, but we then had to walk to the opposite side of the mall to our bus stop.