Fukuoka

After the short night we packed our stuff and met with Peter in the lobby of our hotel. He’s an informatics Master who also studied in Jena where René met him with something related to Japan^^ Unfortunately Claudi couldn‘t join us in the morning beause the she had to go to some instiuion to unregister from the city of Fukuoka. So us three first went to the Tochoji temple again but this time we could go inside. But to do so we had to pay 50 Yen each burn some incence smoke sticks and light a candle to calm the buddhist gods. Beeing inside we saw a huge, well at this point I though huge^^, wooden sitting buddha statue. And underneath it was a small path symbolising the way from hell and paradise with some crude relief pictures and a wound pitch black path symbolising hell. Well it was dark until some korean women lit there mobile phones and we had to tell them to turn them off! Anyway a very interesting experience :-)
Even thought yesterday we were anxious of the weather because it was supposed to rain all day we seemed to have calmed the buddhist gods and were even grantd with some sunshine :-)
The next stop was the Kushida Shrine another beautfiul building (ADD SOME INFO ABOUT IT) and we did another prayer there. After pleasing the god with some money we all rang bell to get his attention, inclined our heads twice, clapped twice and make long inclination again asking some wish of the god.
Then we went to a small museum showing a tradional loom with LOCHKARTEN including a person using it and could admire the beautiful fabrics it can produce. Soon after I bought a small cute wallet out of silk for my coins made with exactly this techniqute. Right next to this museaum was another one showing the traditions in the the very old distict where we were:Hakata. Even though many things were only in Japanese they also had many descriptions in English and I could follow most of things. They have some very cool festival where every sub district (nagata) build a huge palanquin with decorated puppets and run with theis huge heaving thing 5 km through the city carrying it on their shoulders using tree trunks... Very impressive and we could even watch it with some virtual reality glasses!
When we left the museum it was already lunchtime and we reunited with Claudi to eat some Ramen from Fukuoka (tukotsa? ADD INFO) in the Hakata main station. I had already tried a Ramen dish in Zurich but here with extra garlic and eggs it was especially delicious!

After lunch and going to the observation desk above the 10th floor of the station we took a train to the biggest bronze Buddha in the world which is 30 min outside of Fukuoka in the mountains. For the way we bought some croissant where a huge queue indicated something special. But tasting them they were quite not even good for Swiss standards. Only the fish egg topping or the sweet potato filling made them interesting. When we arrived in the small sleepy village we first went over a very cute bridge whose rails were turned into a xylophone like instrument which plays a pleasant Japanese tune when played in the right speed. After playing with the toy we took the small hike up to the statue. On the way we found a small shrine in a pond where many people tried to throw coins on. Selling of indulgences is still a very big thing in Japan. Basically on all holy objects you see tons of coins lying around. So we also had to throw some coins there :D. From this shrine there were three paths: one leading to a temple one up the mountain through a row of Toriis and the last one to the Buddha statue.
We went to the statue first which also was a small path along the mountain with many many small Buddha statues in all kind of shapes. Many of them wearing cute knitted heads. Going up there we could already see the big Buddhas head which already seemed quite big but when we reached the statues the sight was sheer amazing! A 42 m long bronze Buddha lying on the side in a relaxed pose is really something different. It was written that it's the biggest bronze Buddha statues in the world. In front of it were 366 urns for evere day of the year and many more small Buddha statues with somewhat mean faces! When came to the feet which were maybe 4m long and had many golden buddhist signs including swastikas on them. People go there lean with their forheads against them and pray.
On the way back we found a way underneath the Buddha in a room which appeared like a temple. Since noone was there we took of our shoes - one has to take the shoes in basically every residential house or room or holy building - and went inside where we found a big maze of of small cabinets with family emblems on top. At some point we found an open one and found out that it were small family shrines of dead people with items they liked. When finally someone spotted and of course asked us to leave they lady told us that she always opens the shrines of the people who died on the current day and people can go there to pray for them. But as usual the people are icredibly friendly and even if the lady was pissed she didn't show it to us.
Afterwards we went to the temple which is nicely carved into the mountain and found a big statue of a war god. In front of it was a small device with 100 meteal rings which can be pushed from one side to the other and also some instruction how to use it. One should go around a tree which is 10m away and for every circle one can put one ring on the other side. And of course someone of us had to start it... So working together we walked around the tree until we moved all rings from one side to the other and are incredible blessed now by the war god :D
Still having lots of time we tried ourselfes hiking up the mountains on a very cool path through a bamboo forest - the first real bamboo forest I've even seen! Going there we had to climb through a small cave and inside the forest we even found some clay pots. We expected some other shrine or temple on the top of the mountain but the only thing we saw was a appalled tanuki which was running away from me. But anyway hiking up throuh this bamboo forest was very cool. On top op the mountain were just a few houses so we turned around and took the next train back.

Back in Fukuoka we went to the Canal City a very big shopping mall with water ponds and fountains in the middle. There we ate lunch at a kaiten sushi and had many very interesting types of sushi! Ika (squid), tamago (egg), different types of clams, ume (pickles plums) with spices a small patty and many more - very delicious! :D The reason we came to the shopping mall was a light and music show with the fountains. But before it started we went to a typical game station and played Taiko where you have a big drum and have to play the rythm of the song hitting the drum with different patterns and on the top and side of it. A very fun game a little similar to guitar hero which we played and pairs and had lots of fun! Unfortunately you can only play japanese songs there which is why played some cool anime themes with increasing difficulty which was including the many other loud noises inside the game station a little too hard for us in the end :D
With the money we payed we could exactly play three songs which was perfect to go the the water show on time. And this show was also very cool! In yard of the 5-story shopping mall with many long balconies on one side and a glass fassade on the other they were closing the shutters on the glass windows and used it as a projection area. The theme of tonight was One Piece, an anime which I also like. And together with the music the pictures they were elaborately projecting and the fountains it was absolutely beautiful and the 8 minutes were over much too fast...

This night we decided to spend in a night bus carrying us to Hiroshima. So we went to the bus terminal and were a little confused that the long distance buses were supposed to leave from the third floor. But actually when we went there there were actually buses standing outside^^ When we were leaving it felt like driving on the roof :D Even though the bus was quite old it was very comfy and I could also more or less sleep. But it was stopping quite often and cold air flowing at the windows so the sleep was not the very best...Okumaya devam et