Well THAT Was Different

So, here in Japan there is this thing called "Golden Week" which is a great week in which a thousand holidays fall within a few minutes of each other and everyone has nearly the whole week off.  Originally, when I got my work calendar for the year, I was working at my company and so I thought my holiday week was split into two long weekends.  But then I started training at our sister company, and they had the WHOLE WEEK off!  So I started thinking about making bigger  plans.  Then the day before vacation, the president called and said that during the 3 days when our sister company was off, I should go back to our company and work.

At any rate, what ended up happening during my holiday was some of the most fun I've had since I got here.  I met up with my long-lost friend from Ball State, Keiko.  She lives in Fukuoka.  Here we are at the top of Fukuoka Tower.  Well really this is just her.  I'm the one taking the picture, so you can't see me.

Luckily, Keiko works with groups of college exchange students and organizes sightseeing trips for them while they're going to the school she works for.  So she knew all the best places to take me.  See photos below for said "best places."

Sushi served on big ol' leaves!

Big Tall Light-Up Parade-Thingy.  People carry it by hand during the parade.

Only put toilet paper in the toilet, not people.

Fancy after-church lunch with Dad (who also went to Ball State in 1976) and Mom

Canal City

One night while I was in Fukuoka, I spent the night in a Capsule Hotel.  If you're picturing rows and rows of small sleeping chambers or "capsules," one after another all up and down the hall, you're probably picturing the 2nd and 3rd floors of the hotel:

I, however, got a deluxe room on the 4th floor.  My room has a tiny desk and an accordion-style sliding cloth door.  And my sleeping capsule glows with the eerie light of the afterlife.

Also I ate blowfish.  The raw blowfish is the almost completely clear mass on the upper half of the blue fish plate on the upper right corner.

Now I don't want to kill anyone with sensory overload, so I'm going to end here.  But as a sneak preview of tomorrow's post, AFTER I went back to work for 3 days, I had a 4-day weekend during which I got to go to one of the public baths you hear so much about.  Actually, I had to get a private room at the public bath, because I have tattoos.  But here's a sneak preview of me in the bathtub: