I was in charge of organizing a team (out of my own will and desire) to go and play in the coed beach tournament in Fukuoka. My goal, after going last year and seeing how it went, was to create a competitive team that was completely composed of gaijin, and have fun both during the day on Saturday, during Saturday night's fiestas, and play well/hard during the day on Sunday (it was a one day tournament, Sunday only).
Given the circumstances, I think I did pretty well. The biggest difficulty though was finding gals who wanted to play frisbee. Turns out there was a constant changing of the roster when it came to women up until the last minute, and even then, thanks to some friends that Rachel had in Fukuoka, we were able to fill out the team to a hearty 4 boys and 4 girls, perfect for a tournament where the requirement was 2 or 3 girls on the field (5 against 5) at all times.
Everything started with the overnight bus from Okayama. I booked all the reservations so that everyone travelling from Okayama-ken would be on the same bus. This was interesting since Rachel had bought her tickets before me! Using her reservation number, I was able to successfully on the phone get us all on the same bus, even Lee who wanted a round-trip from Kurashiki, and not Okayama. We were placing bets on whether or not he would actually be on the bus, and when he walked on, my abilities in Japanese to successfully organize were amply rewarded.
The main thing about this overnight bus ride, and the return on Sunday night, was that it was "manseki", or a full bus. There were no empty seats! I am actually pretty glad that we all got seats, but in retrospect, I realized afterwards that I should've looked into an overnight train instead, since rumor has it you actually sleep on a bed on an overnight train! Oops... next time I must remember.
I actually got about 6 hours of sleep on the bus (but woke up quite frequently), and arrived in Fukuoka to a bright and sunny day. Luckily, the news on the bus informed us all that the impending typhoon was blowing well west of Japan, so my fear of having invited everybody to Fukuoka for a typhoon was abated!
That day we set out for a famous temple in Fukuoka (don't remember the name, argh, near Gion Station) as our first goal. On the way we passed a classic sex shop, and went inside for a peek (sorry, didn't get a photo). I asked the guy behind the counter how it works, i.e. you give the number, pay here, then what do you do? His answer was pretty short: "Sorry, you can't. Gaijin are not allowed."
So yes, Mom and Dad, have no fear, I had no access to Fukuoka's red light district it seems... What a shame. Perhaps in Takamatsu?!
At the temple we took lots of pictures. Turns out there was a wedding going on, so we started taking pictures of that, but one of the gentlemen in a suit told me to stop. Would you want random foreigners taking pictures of your wedding? Regardless, the bride was beaming, and the groom looked like he was about to wet his kimono.
Here's the main front of the temple.
Here is a great action shot taken from Yarek's PhotoSite (link on the right if you want to check out all of his pictures from Fukuoka and more, some of these are taken from there...):
Here was my final shot of the entire group as they were all assembled for the wedding photo:
Some neat Tori Gates all in a row:
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