Ohori Park and Japanese Garden (Wednesday, August 4)

Matt and I rode out to Ohori Park which is about 2ish miles from our apartment and there's a beautiful lake that has a footbridge crossing over the middle of it. It's a serine place where many locals come to run, bike, walk or just sit on the surrounding benches. There's also a Japanese Garden and the garden was designed in a way to buffer the noise of the city so it's very peaceful. You follow a footpath along waterfalls, small ponds, rock gardens and ornate trees - it truly was a work of art. I think I may come here often.... As we stood by one of the ponds I was approached by a worker who handed me a bucket and motioned for me to feed the fish. (luckily it was pellets and not living fishing food). :)

After the park we headed off the see the ruins of the Fukuoka Castle which they started building in 1601 and the construction took 7 years to complete. There actually was not much left of the castle but after hiking up all the stairs it did give a 360 panoramic of the city so I won't complain. There are parts of this city that remind us of Vermont and put an instant smile on our face. It's always great to look beyond the buildings and see giant green mountains surrounding us. Soon we'll head out there to do some hiking. There are several other new teachers that are anxious to hike as well so I'm sure we'll all explore and get lost together.




A side note - Celebrating the small stuff...

I will say that 1 thing I've learned so far is you tend to celebrate the small stuff while living abroad. Maybe not everywhere but living in a place where you can barely read, write or communicate, you tend to get excited when something goes well or works properly. I was pretty psyched when I managed to brew a nice strong pot of coffee this morning. It may not seem all that difficult to most but when you have to buy everything new and are unable to fully understand what you're purchasing, it makes it a little challenging to know if you're buying all the correct gadgets and if you bought good coffee beans. It was a similar experience to buying rice. The shelves are stuffed with coffee but which do you buy? Do I buy a dark bag because that may mean dark coffee? Or do I buy one that may be more local or one that has a cool design? And why do some say "red coffee" or "white coffee"? Is there such a thing? What if I happen to buy decaf? That would suck! This used to be so easy at the Co-op, walk in, pick up a 5 lb bag of Vermont Coffee Company - full city roast and walk out. But today I'm celebrating this delicious cup of coffee.

Kampai! (cheers!)

More pics...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52563577@N03/sets/72157624583805283/