有田陶器市 (Arita porcelain)

Last Saturday my Japanese volunteer class that gathers on Wednesdays had a bus tour to Arita. I left the dorm early in the morning with my Taiwanese and Vietnamese friends who also take part on the Japanese classes. We met others at Hakata station and got on a bus. With extra stops to pick up more people and to rest for a while, it took about three hours to reach our destination: The Arita Ceramics Fair. Arita is known for its porcelain and once a year, during the Golden Week (which starts tomorrow) they have a one-week festival when the town is filled up with thousands and thousands of cheap porcelain bowls, cups, chopstick holders, vases etc. The main area for shopping porcelains in a 3-kilometer-long street with hundreds of small stores. The whole big street was full of people trying to find either the finest or the cheapest porcelains. For me and my friends it was basically looking at the beautiful and cute designs because whatever we would buy, ends up to take space and weight in our bags after 3 months when it is our time to return back home.

Many ways to use to porcelain bowls

In addition to the porcelains and ceramics we could enjoy a street performance of a guy who mastered many utensils. He was also very helpful for the security officers because he could announce with a microphone he used that there was an ambulance coming and people should make space for it. One interesting here in Japan is the emergency vehicles. They always announce orally if they need space or if they are turning.

After walking back and forth on the 3-kilometer road and climbing to a hill on a sunny day everyone was rather exhausted. But we still had another destination before returning to Fukuoka. On the way there I just thought I would not have energy to enjoy the second place but had to change my mind when we got there. It was kind of nostalgic to see European style buildings. On the other side of a sake tasting building (which I gladly just walked through) there were German style houses and a castle that seemed to belong more to France than to Japan. My friends went crazy for seeing that place. Based on what I have heard during my stay in Japan, many Asian people fancy Europe and would like to go there.

Vappu (first of May) came and went. The first time I had to go to school on that day and didn't even have serpentine to wrap around me or my room. I still had made some sima (lemon drink) which I also took school instead of water. This week in Japan is the opposite to this week in Finland. As Finland had a day off on Monday and works normally from Tuesday on, I had school only on Monday and have the rest of the week off. I don't happen to have any lessons on Tuesdays and there is Golden Week from Wednesday till Friday. Happens to be nicely this year giving us super long weekend.

And to mention one "sign of the spring", in addition to the birds there are also some not-so-nice animals appearing. I was surprisingly fine with the bigger spiders when I saw them at school staying on one spot on their nets. But. I had always thought I might not be so calm if I saw one inside our dormitory. Well, yesterday I did. There was a 5-centimeter-long ugly spider in the dining room. I am not safe here anymore...