Category: Everyday Life

A most eventful Sunday

Last Sunday, we decided to go to the ‘Beautiful Ryukyu Kingdom’ exhibition, which we hadn’t had the chance to visit yet. We went to the Kyushu National Museum (in Dazaifu, Fukuoka prefecture) for the first time! (We were offered free tickets for the exhibition. Thank you so much!) If we can find the time, we would like to go there on a weekday so there might be fewer visitors. But we didn’t have any more time, because it will be over next Sunday, so we couldn’t be leisurely about it.

We thought our garden cat Kuro’s injury had become better, but he got new hole in his skin again. It wasn’t as big as the last one, and we guessed that his injury hadn’t been cleaned enough. We couldn’t leave him, so we took Kuro to the animal clinic before we went to the National Museum.

We thought the treatment could finish in an hour or two, but the vet said he would do more serious surgery, and he wanted us to pick Kuro up after 5:00 p.m. Even though we were worried about him, we took a train for Dazaifu. Nishitetsu Dazaifu station – Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine – Kyushu National Museum – there were many people, people, people. It seems many tourists from China came over. There was a pond with irises in bloom. We usually miss the peak time of flowers, but, unusually for us, we could eat noodles in soup while looking at the flowers. Some singers were singing songs on a stage at the centre of the pond, but I don’t know who they were.

Anyway, the ‘Beautiful Ryukyu Kingdom’ exhibition was held on the third floor of the new museum. We couldn’t say we saw every nook and cranny, and we didn’t read all the explanations because there were too many people there. (People were especially jammed up at exhibits that had recorded explanations on the headsets they were handing out.) The maps and many wooden printing blocks were detailed and very interesting. The clothing, decorations, and furniture gave the impression of being closer to China or Korea than Japan. They used to be in active contact with Asia, so it would be only natural.

Using the same ticket we could also see an exhibition on the fourth floor with a cultural interchange theme. It was really a good exhibition to see. However, we didn’t have enough time that day, and we got tired even if we had a mind to see it all. We decided we could go back again sometime later, although some exhibits will probably be different.
We felt the aerial photograph of Fukuoka city on the floor at the entrance hall was very fun. We felt a little sad (embarrassed) that everybody stepped all over Fukuoka city to find their own house (by the colour of the roof tiles). But we did it, too.

Then, on the way back home, we picked up Kuro at the animal clinic.
The vet told us that the previous injury had almost healed. However, the almost-healed part made him feel itchy, so he licked it a lot, and finally broke his own skin. Aa-ah. We bought two cone-collars last time, but they weren’t useful at all, and this time he put a stiff-necked collar on Kuro. The space from his hip to the bottom of his tail got shaved and sutured, and it looks so painful. The vet said Kuro must wear the collar for two weeks, and the stitches will disappear in five weeks. (We don’t know if Kuro will do the same thing again in the future. What should we do?) We thought we couldn’t leave Kuro outside, so we tried having him stay inside with Kyoku again. Somehow we could survive for two nights with two humans and two cats, and all of us couldn’t sleep enough. Well, what’s going to happen next?

In addition, we also watched the Japan vs. Croatia game on Sunday…

The previous Kuro event is here.

–YS, 20 June 2006

20 June 2006