Just like in America, my birthday falls during "summer vacation," but at least last year it was over a weekend so going off-island was easy. I made arrangements with Jess, one of my off-island friends, to get together.
On my way south to Tsushima's airport, I saw a bunch of these flowering trees. They're called 'nemu no ki,' or 'sleepy trees,' possibly because the tree's fronds hang down sleepily, the flowers droop when they get old, or maybe because it blooms in the sleepy dog-days of summer: it's very hot and definetely siesta-in-the-afternoon kind of weather.
Nemu no ki flower, close-up to zoomed out:
...I rather like nemu no ki :)Anyway, I got off-island and met Jess in Fukuoka for some soul-loving Hard Rock, then crashed at her place. The next morning, we got dressed in style-- ninja style! Yes, my birthday plan focused on going to a Ninja Park about an hour away in Ureshino. I want to call it a theme park, but it didn't have any rides. It was more like a historical park with recreated ninja-esque buildings, carnival-style shuriken game, AND a ninja show. It was, in short, amazing.
Ureshino is a bit famous in the area but sadly not for its ninja park, which was pretty deserted. Ureshino is a lot more famous for its tea and onsen. Of course we sampled both of those, too.
Sign on the way in for the onsen--
After paying our entrance fee, we were told that there was an intro-to-the-park thing happening in a few minutes. We decided to stick around. It turned out to be a semi-faux-magic show done by this samurai. I don't know what balancing and throwing a stick has to do with being a samurai. I don't think he knew, either. (But it was kind of fun to watch :)
As we walked around the ninja park, we could look down at the town and some of the tea farms. Here's what rows of green tea look like:
Winding our way uphill through the park (to the ninja show and good games which are far from the entrance), we got to see a ninja-ish old house complete with a thatched roof. I really can't resist thatched roofs....
...they're so intricate and home-y inside! ^^
We finally made it to the shuriken game that Jess had raved about. And I've got to say it was pretty awesome. Here we are ready to do battle with our respective paper ninja targets positioned about 20 feet away:
Possibly because the park was so deserted on the Saturday we went, the lady who was running the shuriken-throwing stall let us throw as many shuriken as we wanted (generally you only get, like, 10). I was pretty warmed up after about 30 and managed to hit my target between the eyes AND on the little yellow "bull's eye" that we were supposed to be aiming for.
Jess had a more difficult time.
Here's her target:
...but the nice lady kept bringing us stacks of shuriken, finally telling us to just grab as many as we wanted off of her table. And, eventually, Jess got her victory.
We also went to the ninja show. It was epic, 30 minutes of awesomeness with the requisite secret scroll and long-standing rivalry and trapdoors and many fight-scenes with crashing music and flashing lights. Actually, we went to see it twice. And then we got one of the leads to pose with us outside ^^
...I was trying to copy his secret ninja hand-signal but it came out more Charlie's Angels.Jess and I then made our own ninja show on an empty outdoor stage. She's got the tape of it somewhere.
Afterwards, it was off to the onsen to wash off the sweat (being a ninja is hard work, especially in late July) and then onto my birthday dinner at my fave restaurant in all of Nagasaki prefecture: Mike's, in Sasebo! I mentioned this Tex-Mex quasi-chain many blogs ago as somewhere I went during my mainland Okinawa trip; it can be found around some US naval bases in Japan. Mike's gets top prize in my book because it's got real sour cream and margaritas.
Last July, Mike's had a special Kiwi margarita special too ^^
Here is Kiwi with her Kiwi special:
Although we debated hitting up a slightly risque karaoke bar afterwards, by the time we dragged ourselves back to her place, we were both ready to crash.I was leaving in the afternoon the next day, but we managed to play a bit in Fukuoka first. We went to Ohara Park because I really wanted to ride in a swan boat. I'd seen them the last time I went to Ohara Park, but then they were all rented out for hours. No problems in late July, though! It was very fun foot-paddling out to the furthest point in the pond and letting the current take us. Really nice weather.
Ready to embark (in our swan with a red bow-tie):
Chillin' in the middle of the pond--
--feet propped up!
On our way to ramen, one of the subway ticket-taking machines had broken and this guy was operating on its innards. I'd never seen one opened up before; it's a lot more complicated than I thought!
For lunch, Jess introduced me to Fukuoka/Hakata ramen. We went to Hakata Ippudo. It wasn't ramen meditation but, rather, a communal ramen experience. At this particular ramen joint, you sit at a big table with other parties (unless you come in with, like, 10 friends). It's loud with people chatting, waiters calling out orders to cooks, and lively music playing. There's always a long line, but, like most famous ramen places, it moves fairly quickly and is worth the wait.
Here's my rather spicy Hakata ramen:
And thus ends last year's birthday-weekend adventure ^^
1 comment:
Glad that we closed with food--wouldn't want to break that streak!
Who'd think that ninjas would be the basis of an amusement park? Then again, in the U.S., we reenact the Civil War.
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