Category: Urban Essays

Our walking trip

Well, we walked a lot.

Yesterday was Vernal Equinox Day (which is a national holiday in Japan). It was also the day we had to return a book to the city library, so we had to go to a city library branch. We usually go to the Chuo Library, but for the first time we decided to try to go to the Jonan Library. It’s by the Jonan Civic Centre, which is probably about three kilometres from our house. (The Civic Centre is where they hold the Jonan Ward summer festival, and we go to see fireworks there.) It’s a nice distance for holiday walking.

However, Chris suddenly said ‘There’s a shrine near Nanakuma Station. And I want to go to the Umebayashi tumulus, too!’ I agreed to go, we returned the book, and went to Kikuchi Shrine, near Nanakuma Station. We heard loud Indian music across from the Shrine. We hoped it was not so loud inside, and we (who love curry) decided to go to that Indian restaurant after visiting the Shrine.

At Kikuchi Shrine, we were amazed to see that the koma-inu there looked exactly like male and female lions. We usually see koma-inu that look like dogs, or godzilla, or dragons, or who-knows-what, so these are probably unusual looking koma-inu. Although I hear that the original koma-inu were lions…

After lunch, for some kind of reason (i.e., nature called), we went to Fukuoka University Station, Fukuoka University Hospital, and Umebayashi Station, and finally reached a supermarket (Gourmet City) by Noke Station. Thanks, Gourmet City Noke! Your facilities were much appreciated.

Then, we went to our next destination: Umebayashi tumulus. We wondered if there could really be a tomb in the middle of a residential area. And there it was: a small hill between buildings in an apartment complex. There were pictures of ancient tomb-objects on the buildings. Their cherry trees will blossom soon. And rain started to fall. And so, on to our next stops: Umebayashi Hachiman Shrine and Umabayashi ‘green road’! (These places were introduced in a guide book that came with our newspaper when the Fukuoka Subway Nanakuma Line opened last February. Yes, we still have it.)

Umebayashi Hachiman Shrine has a cozy neighbourhood shrine atmosphere. Besides the shrine building, there is a stone with a sacred straw rope, dedicated to a deity we don’t know. And there are three small temples dedicated to Yakushi-nyorai (the Buddha who cures all ills). The koma-inu here are the common type we usually see.

Umebayashi ‘green road’ is made of stairs on a small mountain (we learned from the guidebook that it’s about 420 metres from bottom to top). From the view point, Fukuoka Tower and the dome stadium felt unexpectedly close. Anyway, we saw a large number of one room apartments for single people nearby. It was a place very close to Fukuoka University.

On the way home, we passed around Fukuoka University and the Jonan Ward Civic Centre. When we reached there, we felt like we were almost home. (Although actually there were more than three kilometres to go.) ‘Fukuoka is a very good city for walking. I found a great variety of one room apartment buildings.’ Chris enjoyed it very much. It rained, which was a disappointment, but we could go to new places in not-hot and not-cold weather, so we thought it was a meaningful holiday. We’ve really become bad at being in a crowd these days. Anyway, how many kilometres did we walk?

–YS, 22 March 2006

22 March 2006