The Kyushu Sumo Basho (Practice)

Date: November 13 (Sun) - November 27 (Sun) (15 days)

When flags line the entry to the Fukuoka Convention Center in November, you know it’s time to welcome the November Grand Sumo Tournament to town! This year all eyes are on yokozuna Hakuho, who recently achieved his 20th tournament victory, becoming one of only six wrestlers in history to do so. We’ll also be watching Kotoshogiku of Yanagawa City, who has defeated Hakuho in the past, and who will be formally promoted to ozeki rank for the tournament. Competitors come from a wide range of international backgrounds- Mongolia, Bulgaria, Russia, Czech Republic and Japan are just some of the nations represented in the tournament. Witness the dynamic, traditional sport of sumo with your own eyes!

UN DAY (United Nations)

One day that you should not miss at school is UN Day (United Nations.)  This all day event joins all of our nationalities in our school as one.  I guess I don't realize how many diversities we have until I see all of them in their cultural outfits.  This day we get to dress up and represent our Nations. Don't get me wrong, there's a whole lot of Asians, but different kinds of Asians.  Ahh.... ^^

Halloween in Fukuoka

The little one always asked the question, "Do the Japanese celebrate Halloween in Japan?"  It also made me wonder.  Well, before we moved here Kevin spent his first Halloween here in Japan without us.  He told us that there were some that do celebrate Halloween.  Of course, the little one was excited to know that.

However, their choices of Halloween costumes were very limited.  You can always go to Donqui, which sells all kinds of random things, but we are looking at the "sexy" costumes.  This is a no-go for us since we are looking for children's costumes.  Every year I would either buy a costume of KK's choice or make one.  It was quite difficult for me to make one since I have yet to find a really good craft store.  A couple of weeks before the big day, I go off wandering when I don't have work to search for fabrics and crafts.  What to do?  It was a bit frustrating.  This year, KK decides that she wants to be something scary for Halloween.  Hmm.. scary?  What is scary to KK?  A SPIDER.  Yes.  A spider.  But everywhere we went were selling "witch" costumes!

Hola Hong Kong!

Hong Kong Skyline

I wanted to put a quick update on Hong Kong.  To catch you up I have been back in Fukuoka for a little over a week and have begun settling back in after a 4 day professional development in Hong Kong.  Yep I get payed to travel for professional development.  You can all be jealous now.  Anyway onwards to HK(as the cool people call it)

To put it succinctly Hong Kong is a living contrast.  A former western colony now steeped in the east communist Chinese control and it shows.  Unlike Japan where conformity is the norm, Hong Kong is loud and in your face. 

Imported Goods Festival at Sumiyoshi Shrine

Sunday morning we had a bit of a late start to the day.  I think the little one is feeling a bit under the weather.  She's starting to get the sniffles, so the congestion has caused some sleepless nights.  It took her a while for her to finally fall asleep last night, hence the late start of the next morning.  However, I just found out that I bought scented toilet paper.  Ha-ha-ha!  Not only it's pretty with flowers, but it's lightly scented that smells like flowers the little one tells me.  It didn't cross my mind too much.  I bought it because one, it was soft two ply and two it was cheap.  I guess there was a bonus of it being scented and pretty looking?  Go figure.

I sat in front of the laptop (my pc is on its death bed waiting for surgery) searching for Halloween ideas.  Apparently,  KK wants to be a spider this year and I haven't found any great craft stores here.  No Michael's here.  Who better to ask for a craft store than our Art Teacher, Ms. Toyama.  She actually gave KK a list and even drew out a map for her.  She's so sweet.  As I search for Halloween ideas, I thought of things we haven't done yet that we wanted to do.  Ah ha! There is the Fukuoka Municipal Zoo & Botanical Garden~! I think we can go there!  I map out the place and looked up all the admission information and even calculated all costs for the trip to and from.  I turn to the little one and asked her if she wants to go.  I get a "Sure." I look at her and girl is still in her chones!

しゃぶしゃぶ with friends~!

Shabu-shabu (しゃぶしゃぶ , also spelled syabu-syabu?) is a Japanese variant of hot pot. The name Shabu Shabu is derived from the "swish swish" sound of cooking the meat in the pot. The dish is related to sukiyaki in style, in that both use thinly sliced meat and vegetables and are usually served with dipping sauces, but it is considered to be more savory and less sweet than sukiyaki. It is considered a winter dish but is eaten year-round. (--Wikipedia) 

Sayonara Social Networks?

I've made a decision to stop using social networks for the time being. This meant that I have deactivated my Facebook account and Google+ account. As you can see, I still have Twitter, but I don't tweet. I just like to read posting and keep up with my "current events" on twitter ha-ha!

With that said, please don't think I unfriended you or blocked you in any way. I actually unfriended EVERYONE, I didn't want to discriminate you know?

Decisions on why I decided you to say Sayonara? Well, one is that I don't feel bad about not responding to posts when I'm busy. Two, I don't have to deal with drama from other people who are 5000mi away. Three, I don't have to feel bad about wanting to unfriend people I don't want in my business (my personal business). But the main thing was to focus on myself and my family and not be on my iPhone all the time.

I want to make more effort to calling, skyping and FaceTime-ing my family.

If you want to keep up with my life, read my blogs and view my pictures. If you are really that concerned, email, Skype or FaceTime me. This day and age, there are plenty of ways to keep in touch.

So, sayonara social networks!!!

Nokonoshima

One of the places I opted out of trying last year was Nokonoshima, a small island about 10 minutes by ferry from Fukuoka. The major draw at Nokonoshima seems to be the park and flower gardens but it is a place with much more to offer.

We started out with a quick walk from our house near fujisaki station down the river and across the bridge to Atago beach where the ferry terminal dits at the end. A trip that is about 2.5 km from my jogging experience. Once there it is simply laid out in English how much to pay to get to Nokonoshima which is 220 yen for an adult and 110 for a child one way. Double that for round trip. No discounts here. Once you have your tickets in hand it's a simple matter of waiting for the ferry to arrive. We met an interesting guy from Madrid named Guillermo or william as he used for his English name. Apparently he and his buddy take trips every year and they separated so he could check out Fukuoka. His buddy Tokyo. Having not spoke Spanish for some time I attempted to speak in Spanish only for him to reply in English. I quickly got the hint that while I wanted to work on my Spanish he wanted to work on his English.

Nokonoshima Web Album

2011-10-08 Nokonoshima

Web album for Nokonoshima

A new set of goals

O.K. , so normally I've been a bit of a blogger but that hasn't really happened much in the last year or so.  For instance doing a quick lookup I've blogged about 8 times in about 64 weeks.  That makes me a once every 8 week blogger.  Not much for the folks at home to consume.  I heard when I was younger a saying something akin to "dreams are exactly that until you write them down then they become goals".  That said, I have a new goal(and no it isn't grammar):  To blog at least once a week.  It may not be fun, it may be crazy, but it's written down and we are now accountable for it.  Why "we" you ask?  Because Di is also an editor and will be holding down some blogging duties least of which is picture taker extraordinaire.   She will also handle ALL complaints.


Given the fact that she takes more self portraits in a month than I do pictures in a year lends to her being a good photo blogger.  I've also taken steps to make the blog a bit more child friendly in terms of the title.  While I thought my previous blog title to be perhaps the funniest most obvious joke about living in Fukuoka.  What the Fukuoka(abbreviated) is apparently not the most friendly of titles.  My Mom in particular was not the biggest fan of the title. Being the good son that I am I took only one year to change it to the more tame yet, in my opinion, less funny Tracy Travels until said time as I think of something a bit more funny.