Category: My Photos

Here are some pictures to go with my last post about yesterday’s hiking experience on the southern flank of Mudeungsan.

The last time I talked with my mother, she shared an aphorism with me that’s been rolling around in my brain: “Before enlightenment, there are trees. After enlightenment, there are trees.” This is probably a paraphrase of something aptly Buddhistic, but I like the simplicity of it.

I was thinking of it, and looking at trees, yesterday, as I climbed up the path up the mountain behind my hotel here in Gwangju. There were many trees, in various stages of springing forth, from bare branches to luxuriant pale, glowing green, with lots of blossoms too. Some of the trees had little labels on them placed by the local park service that maintains the park, and so I set to trying to learn some of the Korean names of trees – assuming I could identify the tree in question based on my own somewhat stale knowledge from my classes in botany of 20 years ago.

It was a steep climb – good exercise to reach to top. The view out over Gwanju wasn’t spectacular: there were too many trees. But it was beautiful. And I had the space mostly to myself, since rain was threatening. It’s pretty rare to have park-trails to oneself, in Korea.

Here is a picture.

I feel like I got pretty lucky with my lodging in Kyushu, in the three places where I found good guesthouses: Kagoshima, Fukuoka, and Nagasaki.

The place to stay in Kagoshima is called Nakazono Ryokan. The place to stay in Nagasaki is called Fujiwara Ryokan – that place is awesome.

But the least expensive place I stayed was also the most convenient. In Fukuoka I stayed at Kaine Guesthouse. For 2500 yen a night (that’s 25~30 bucks, but that’s a steal by Japanese standards) I could sleep in a dorm with a futon fairly comfortably (except for the night there was the loud snoring guy). Very centrally located, I walked most anywhere I needed or wanted to go, but the subway can take you to the airport, trainstation, or Korean consulate easily.

The most important thing – the people are very friendly, and helpful. They were like a little support group as I agonized over not getting my visa number for so long.

Here’s a picture of me with staff member Mizue.

And here’s a picture out front, with two other guys who worked there.

I walked around a lot on Sunday, and took some pictures. Yesterday, it was raining pretty steadily, so I didn’t take as many pictures, and I didn’t walk around as much. Here are a few random pictures from Sunday; I found a temple called Sofukuji in the Northeastern part of the city, and some of the alleyways around it were very interesting too. The last picture is from west of downtown, near the old Fukuoka castle.

I spent at least an hour yesterday watching a backhoe operator on a barge in the river.  He was dredging sand off the bottom of the river, and putting into a floating receptacle of some kind.   The backhoe was sitting on a floating platform, a simple barge, that also had a little hut and some anchoring devices of some kind that would sink down into the bed of the river.

It was interesting to me because he was operating the backhoe so gracefully. He would use the shovel end of the backhoe to push his barge around in the water, pushing off of another barge, off the side embankment of the river, and mostly pushing around on the bottom of the river. It was like watching a child navigating an inflatable swimming-pool-toy in a shallow pool.  Or maybe like watching a guy operating one of those gondolas in Venice. But it was all scaled up to involve this large machinery.

I wish I had had my video camera with me, to capture the movements, but here’s a picture of the machine, as he uses the shovel to push his barge backwards.

I climbed up the ACROS building’s rooftop gardens, today. Here is a crow that lives near there.

Still, I’ve heard nothing from my new job (which is to say, I’m still waiting for my visa).  Sigh.  I’m so bad at waiting. I’m not even enjoying this vacation. Vacations are only fun, when you’re escaping from something, perhaps. I’ve nothing to escape from, only something to wait for. So… no fun.

Here are some pictures from yesterday’s long walk, in no particular order.

This is a long road, and the observation center that I was headed for.

This is some flowers along the road.

This is my shadow – a self-portrait.

This is a blossoming tree in an industrial lot.

This is a Mitsubishi van that had some plants growing inside of it.

This is some re-bar that I saw, looking very sculpturesque.

These are some boats at low tide.

This is a cat in an alleyway in Kagoshima.

I feel guilty not traveling around, not being a tourist.

But I have been telling myself, since I only have a few days left before my alleged visa appears and I become suddenly overwhelmingly employed in my new job in Korea, I should just relax. So today, I decided to just simply stop moving, and exist. I’ve found a ryokan that is relatively comfortable and convenient, and if not the cheapest it’s at least reasonable (well, by Japanese standards). And I like Kagoshima OK… it’s something different than Fukuoka.

I read for a while. I studied my Korean, and also put in about an hour trying re-memorize my forgotten kana. I experimented with copying the “Korean-written-in-kana” from my Korean-Japanese phrasebook. That was entertaining, and served two purposes. I drank coffee in a coffee joint in the Tenmonkan (Kagoshima`s downtown area). I ate cup ramen for dinner.

Here’s a picture of my the little alleyway where my ryokan is. And another picture I took during a long walk today (about 6 km?).

One final note, quoted verbatim from a sign I saw just now:

Keep out of new flu. Please, wipe your hands on an alcoholic towel.