Tokuyama/Fukuoka

After teaching eight classes on Saturday night, I grabbed some dinner with Brenna before my train to visit my friend from training, Susan. Unfortunately I had to leave Brenna alone in the restaurant to ensure I didn't get stranded. Since she's convinced that her life will be spent as a spinster, she got some valuable experience. I decided to take the Shinkansen to Tokuyama because it's the easiest option..even if that means it's the most expensive. Everything about the Shink is amazing - it's remarkably smooth and goes faster than anything aside from an airplane I've ever been on. The one drawback is that the cheapest seats are in specific cars and they allow smoking in the non-reserved seats. One thing I wish for Japan is that they'd take dental care a little more seriously. Beautiful women everywhere and some of the most rancid mouths I've ever seen. Can they supplant the English for that stereotype?

For the most part, the train ride was comfortable and relaxing except that I am still too frightened that I'll fall asleep and end up in North Korea or something. I changed trains in Hiroshima and ended up in Tokuyama around 9:50...total of one hour and fifty minutes to travel 338 km (202 miles / 110 minutes - 18 minutes transfer = 92 minutes = 137 mph with stops factored in). Once in Tokuyama, I took a cab from the station to a cafe to meet Susan and some of her co-workers. In my haste and hurry to exit the cab, I grabbed all of my stuff - except for my phone. Two minutes later, I noticed. Normally I would've panicked but I have insurance and the phone is more luxury than necessity here. But I did try calling my phone and having the cafe waitress speak to the man who answered but it ended unsuccessfully. After witnessing my friend lose his wallet at a giant beach party only to have it returned to his office about 40 miles away, I won't lose hope that the phone shows up at some point. Nonetheless I have an errand to run.

Saturday night was a night filled with, what else - karaoke. This was a little different because it was just Susan and me and after eventually surviving the communication battle, we got our room, free ice cream bar and five hours of unadulterated singing fun! I firmly believe this about my singing - generally, not as horrible as most people (still really bad but not the worst) and I have a very very small range where I sound almost decent. After getting home around sunlight, we caught a few hours of sleep before slowly making our way to the train station for the three hour Shink to Fukuoka. Fukuoka is the 7th largest city in Japan...and, like me, you've probably never heard of it. I have been trying to think of a way to describe why it was so captivating and interesting...but I can't, so take my word for it. We spent about two hours wandering around with a crude map of landmarks attempting to find the hostel. A map of landmarks could be very useful but when the landmarks include convenience stores (of which there are 2093893048029384 in this country), not much assistance. Eventually we arrived at the hostel only to learn there weren't enough beds. We consulted a guidebook and found the most reasonably priced hotel option. Thankfully Susan had had enough of walking and sweat soaking everything so we cabbed it over there and got a room.

Our primary destination for the trip was mercifully near the hotel; an outdoor mall type deal called Canal City - which, semi-predictably, had a canal running through the middle. Just by itself, the place was beautiful but it came with a certain, indescribable Japanese flair. The next hour or so we wandered around what I guess was the red light district of the city looking for a place to eat. We settled on what we'd been searching for - a ramen shop that was just a stove, counter, and stools on the sidewalk. Each area of Japan claims special ramen types - I am not sure what the specific regional difference Fukuoka offered but it was great either way. The night ended fairly early and we embarked on a cheaper but doubly long train trip home the next morning.

All in all, it was an awesome trip - I say that more because we didn't *see* all that much but enough to say that we loved the city and it's definitely a place I'll be going back to.