My first views of Fukuoka, Japan.
See it snows here too!!
My first experience with real sushi. Not Bad!!
Yes Scott, I had the CoCo Curry. Very nice!!
These vending machines are everywhere. If you look closely you will see a Kit Kat soft drink??? Very interesting and no I was not brave enough to try it.
I had to take a picture of this Wendy’s sign and yes she is black or maybe they tried to give her an Asian complexion, I don’t know.
This is me about to be miraculously purified by walking through this gate. There were three gates to make sure you are purified enough just in case the first two did not work.
Finally, you had to rinse your hands, your mouth, spit the water out, and rinse your hands again to finish the purification process.
This is the Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine built in 903 A.D. “It is the first and most important of several hundreds of shrines built and dedicated to the spirits of Sugawara Michizane, an influential scholar and politician of the Heian Period, who has later been identified with Tenjin, the kami ("Shinto god") of education.” http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4851.html. By the way Japanese believe in Shintoism (meaning there are many gods and anything can be one ie. wind, sun, moon, mountains, etc.) and Buddhism is for the afterlife, this way they are covered both ways.
These school kids are brought here before taking important exams so the priest can pray for good scores.
This is me in front of a 1500 year old tree.
This is a shrine for knives because they feel bad for the knives after they kill people.
This is a shrine for old brushes. Notice the small brush in front of the shrine.
This is another shrine that I visited. The Kushida shrine was founded in 757 A.D.
“This is MIKOSHI, the festival carriage used in Yamakasa Festival, the most popular local festival in Hakata town. And KUSHIDA SHRINE works as the main place for the festival.” http://www.japan-hopper.com/2008/01/06_181296.php. Today, they still weigh a ton but, are much smaller so they do not run into power lines. They also wear sweet loin cloths like sumo wrestlers wear. This link shows a good picture. http://www.isic.org/sisp/?event_id=25413&fx=event
This an elderly merchant making a center cloth for tables.
Here is one last tidbit of interesting information. The Japanese boys can express their love for a girl any day of the year. Valentine’s Day is the only day of the year that a girl can express her secret crush and she does this with chocolate. The downside is that 30 days later (14 Mar) the boy has to give the girl a gift in return and it has to be better the gift the girl gave.
See it snows here too!!
My first experience with real sushi. Not Bad!!
Yes Scott, I had the CoCo Curry. Very nice!!
These vending machines are everywhere. If you look closely you will see a Kit Kat soft drink??? Very interesting and no I was not brave enough to try it.
I had to take a picture of this Wendy’s sign and yes she is black or maybe they tried to give her an Asian complexion, I don’t know.
This is me about to be miraculously purified by walking through this gate. There were three gates to make sure you are purified enough just in case the first two did not work.
Finally, you had to rinse your hands, your mouth, spit the water out, and rinse your hands again to finish the purification process.
This is the Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine built in 903 A.D. “It is the first and most important of several hundreds of shrines built and dedicated to the spirits of Sugawara Michizane, an influential scholar and politician of the Heian Period, who has later been identified with Tenjin, the kami ("Shinto god") of education.” http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4851.html. By the way Japanese believe in Shintoism (meaning there are many gods and anything can be one ie. wind, sun, moon, mountains, etc.) and Buddhism is for the afterlife, this way they are covered both ways.
These school kids are brought here before taking important exams so the priest can pray for good scores.
This is me in front of a 1500 year old tree.
This is a shrine for knives because they feel bad for the knives after they kill people.
This is a shrine for old brushes. Notice the small brush in front of the shrine.
This is another shrine that I visited. The Kushida shrine was founded in 757 A.D.
“This is MIKOSHI, the festival carriage used in Yamakasa Festival, the most popular local festival in Hakata town. And KUSHIDA SHRINE works as the main place for the festival.” http://www.japan-hopper.com/2008/01/06_181296.php. Today, they still weigh a ton but, are much smaller so they do not run into power lines. They also wear sweet loin cloths like sumo wrestlers wear. This link shows a good picture. http://www.isic.org/sisp/?event_id=25413&fx=event
This an elderly merchant making a center cloth for tables.
Here is one last tidbit of interesting information. The Japanese boys can express their love for a girl any day of the year. Valentine’s Day is the only day of the year that a girl can express her secret crush and she does this with chocolate. The downside is that 30 days later (14 Mar) the boy has to give the girl a gift in return and it has to be better the gift the girl gave.
