nice!

It is indeed a groovy time of year, ain't it? Nothing like kurosaki in my immediate neighorhood (oh, so boring Kantou), but the second someone says I can wear a red fundoshi (and it's gotta be red), I'm in.

/NihonFilter

≡ Click to see image ≡

Ugh!!! You live in Kitakyushu? You have my condolences. My deep, deep condolences.

Yeah, I don't see the fundoshi so much here, but I never saw "fighting" floats in Tokyo. I have a little video clip from my cell phone, but no way to share it. (obviously not great quality, but better sense than text-only)

Sorry, that sounds terribly snarky. I should explain: I lived in Kitakyushu (closest to Kurosaki) for three years. I enjoyed myself immensely due to good friends, but I really couldn't stand the town (fine when I first moved there, but quickly moved to dislike). Leaving it was one of the best things I've done. If you love it there, I take back my snark.

And, speaking of which, are Howdy or King Kong in Kurosaki still in business? How about Fujiyama Mamas in Kokura?

Huh? There was a post by someone else after my last one...where did it go? Nothing offensive or deleteworthy that I could see.

Never mind

Nice photos, MightyNez!

Is this your river? From this shot it looks like some fantastic, sprawling beast, perfect for a fighting float itself.

a kind of a strange airplane photo, from here, but interesting to see the shape of the river.

Lucky I saved it:

I have pictures from the Hokkaido Shrine festival, Sapporo, 1993: wizened old priests sitting alone, dwarfed by the backseats of red convertible Lincolns driven by gangsters.

I saw a shrine race at the Asakusa shrine festival in Tokyo, too. Amazing how so many drunk people can take a competition so seriously without sparking a serious donnybrook.

This is a great post, MightyNez.

Ever read Botchan, by Soseki?

Taz: That isn't a river, that's the channel separating the main island of Japan (Honshu) from the island that Kitakyushu is on (Kyushu).

For reference, "Kitakyushu" means "North Kyushu". It was originally 5 cities, but they realized that for tax breaks they could join together and form one big city. As such, Kitakyushu has a large population, but few of the conveniences of a large city (1 million people, and when I lived there, there were exactly two clubs, usually mostly empty).

Kokura, the main part of Kitakyushu city, used to have some of the worst pollution in Japan, as it was a steel manufacturing center. In fact, it was targetted for the atom bomb during WWII, but because it was cloudy that day, the bombers decided to move on to their secondary target, Nagasaki, instead.

I actually like Kyushu. It's easier to see beautiful beaches, the mountains are gentler, the people are vibrant and friendly. There are a lot of interesting historical sites, too. I often visit Yamaguchi, which reminds me more of home in the people's character.

So, living close to Kurosaki...was it downwind from Mitsubishi Chemical? That would suck. Of course I'd rather live in Kumamoto or some natural area, but it's not to be at this point in time. The food here is plentiful, cheap, and delicious, too.

I don't know Howdy or King Kong, but Fujiyama Mama's is gone (or name change?).

Taz, that's the Kanmon Strait--the water between the islands of Kyushu and Honshu. I often take the train under it.

No, I wasn't close enough to Kurosaki to smell the factories - I was off in the sticks there (15 minute tram ride from Kurosaki station).

Kyushu's not bad, but Kitakyushu itself...then again, I left in 1999, so who knows what the last few years have brought.

Spent 24 hours in Kokura once, long ago, with my roommate whose hometown it was. His dad had a serious punch-perm, spoke excellent English, and used it to insist that I eat lots of abalone.

I asked rooms what the deal was with the hair, but got no answer. Now I know better.

(Why do I think we're getting into a kinda Jersey-NYC thing here, BB?)

(Not a snark, BB, just banter.)

Hugh: "My only alternatives are either religion or madness" [Paraphrase]

Natsume Soseki and Oe Kenzaburo are primary reasons I came here. If I ever meet the one who's still alive, I'll be confounded over whether to shake his hand or kick his butt.

On preview: People write lots of stuff while I'm trying to write stuff.

Kurosaki's pretty dead. Most activity is in Kokura. Do you know Riverwalk? It's new (I guess designed by the same guy who did Canal City in Hakata?) and at first I thought it was garish, but it's grown on me. There are a lot of neat little places around here, but everyone has a different personality. I do sometimes miss the foreign community in Tokyo—lot's of activities that don't require Japanese skill. (^_^) Noone in Tokyo ever pulled me into their festival and handed me drumsticks, though.

Wow, no, that's new to me. Impressive.

Kurosaki used to be the second social hub of Kitakyushu (Kokura had all the snacks/pubs/other 水商売, but Kurosaki had all the regular bars and lots of young folks). Besides that, though, it was going spiralling down the drain (stores closing left and right), so I'm not too surprised it's dead now.