Fukuoka

Greetings from Fukuoka!
It`s been a long day and it`s bound to get longer because the Japanese keyboard is strange and it`s going to take some getting used to.
I arrived in Fukuoka late yesterday evening. Getting to the airport in Seoul is always a hassle and to make matters worse my flight was delayed. I was really excited because I was flying Korea Air, which is the best airline in Korea. Hmmm, could be the only one. The flight attendants wear snazzy outfits and we were fed dinner even though it was only an hour flight.
Getting to my hostel was a snap although trying to get out and see some of the city before bed was not. The bus I wanted to take stopped running so I walked around for an hour or so. At 11 I finally realized I wasn`t going to get anywhere anytime soon so I headed back.
I`m beginning to realize that my hostel days may be over soon. There is no way to afford Japan without staying in a hostel, but I found it annoying that one of the women in my room kept coming in and leaving and the other woman answered her cell phone two times and spoke in a regular volume telephone voice. Also, the woman in the room next to me had a very loud voice and a very long conversation that lasted until about 2 in the morning.
So, it`s been a bit of a rough start and to make matters worse it rained most of the day today. I managed to get most of the business part of the trip done this morning: train ticket, Fukuoka maps, accommodations for the rest of my trip. By about noon I took a long soggy walk to the Fukuoka Art Museum to view mainly Japanese contemporary art and some early Japanese art including ink drawings, pottery and ceramics, and screens. They also had a nice collection of contemporary art from arts around the world including Lichtenstein, Warhol and Dali.
The rain had stopped by the afternoon, so I took another long walk to Tenjin, one of the main shopping areas. I searched and searched for a ramen restaurant I wanted to eat at, but never found it. I`m always amazed at my poor map reading skills and my terrible sense of direction. My book is three years old, so maybe the restaurant has disappeared.
After having a wonderful lunch of soba noodles and donkas (fried cutlet) I rested my feet at a coffee shop and enjoyed my first cup of coffee for the day. Fortunately I was sitting outside, so I got to people watch. Japanese fashion is certainly something that fascinates me. I`ve noticed that women in Kyoto seem more fashionable than women in Fukuoka, but maybe I`ve been in all the wrong places. Here are a few things that are in: really nice brown leather knee-high boots, dresses worn over pants, big purses, long sweaters and big sunglasses. I feel like I`m not giving the fashion justice here, but I`ll have to write again when I`ve had a night of uninterrupted sleep. A very strange trend that I`ve noticed is how girls with longish bangs wear their hair. They use a clip or bobby pin to pin back their bangs, but they don`t pull the hair back all the way. Basically, although the have a clip in their bangs, the hair still hangs on their foreheads. I`ll have to try to get a picture of it.
I`m going to have to leave details about the guys until later, but I was surprised to see some guys wearing really baggy sweatshirts and pants.
Ohh, one more thing...most women in Korea don`t dye their hair. In Japan, most women have dyed their hair some shade of red.
I rounded out the evening with some shopping. It was still raining, so I had no choice. I was surprised to find some somewhat reasonably priced shops in the department stores in Tenjin. I eventually made my way to Canal City which is a very new shopping center in the city. It has a nice courtyard with fountains. Many of the shops face out into the courtyard. It`s mainly a high-end shopping mall. I was delighted to find The Gap. I think I`ll visit the shopping center when I`m back in Fukuoka next weekend.
Tomorrow I`m off to Nagasaki. I`m ready to get out of the city and see some sites. I hope it`s not raining tomorrow.