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Friday, May 6, 2011

May 6th - heading to Japan!

Having the chance to visit such a beautiful country as Japan, three times in 2 years is a dream come true!  I am so blessed. To be able to go a 2nd time with Aaron is even better! :)  On Friday, after field Day, we jumped in a taxi and headed to Gimhae Airport. 

We flew from Busan to Fukuoka... It's only a 50 minute flight!  This was my first look at Fukuoka - from the sky!

We arrived at the airport in Fukuoka at 5:50pm.  We followed the directions from our hostel and headed down to the subway.  For whatever reason, Japan's subway ticket purchasing kiosks are the MOST confusing things I've ever seen!  We always try to do it on our own, but end up calling over one of the subway attendents - EVERY TIME!  This time was no exception!

We made it to Khaosan Fukuoka Hostel, dropped our bags in the room, and headed out on the town! In Fukuoka, you can purchase an all day couples bus pass for 1000 yen ($12.00). So, we got one of those and took full advantage of it! First, we headed towards a street along the river, lined with traditional food stalls.

We ducked into a local market and spotted this old man, who had dozed off on the job!

I loved all the hand written price signs at this corner stores.  It's so Trader Joes'!

As we walked further into the market, the alleys began to get darker, and the shops began to close... That was when I spotted these 2 girls, wearing black bunny ear headbands.  I asked if I could take their picture, and they happily obliged.  The first picture was out of focus, so I asked if I could take another one.  They smiled and began to unzip their jackets to show off their lingerie!  It was at that moment that I realized Fukuoka had a red light district and we were smack dab in the middle of it.

We stayed clear of the hooker streets and headed to the riverwalk instead.

While we would have loved to plop down and experience one of these food stalls, we were really looking for some Japanese ramen!

Traditional Japanese architecture and decor is one of my favorite styles! Not necessarily for my own home... but you know what I mean!  I loved the look of this restaurant along the water.


In Korea, shneesh are eaten all the time!  They're basically eel-fish.  This was the first time, however, that I had seen a place where you could go fishing for your shneesh?

Then when you finally caught one (Which was quite difficult actually) this old woman would grill it up for ya!

The streets of Fukuoka.

This restaurant was SUPER fancy and right, smack dab, in the middle of the red light district - hench the red lights!

We walked through a couple small alleyways and found this little bar with a REALLY little door.

Japanese love their ainme!

We had dinner at this place, because we thought it looked cool. 

There was no English listed on the menu and the one guy working there didn't speak a lick of it! So, we took the menu, pointed at something and this is what we got!  Luckily it was DELICIOUS!

This is definitely the freakiest looking street performer I've ever seen!


Fukuoka is filled with bikes!  This one caught my eye though!  What a beauty!

At this point, we were exhausted and the buses were about to stop running, so we decided to head back to the hostel.  As we were waiting for our transfer bus, I saw this costume girl!  She must have been on vacation from Tokyo!  I always thought these girls would be stuck up and prestigious, but she was the sweetest little thing!  She was so excited that I asked to pose in a picture with her!
We got back to the hostel and went up to the common room for some barley tea and a little e-mail checking on the comfy couch!  It was the perfect way to end a great first night in Japan!

Field Day Fun!

This year, my school put me in charge of taking photos of the field day event, which is exactly what I would have been doing anyways, so it was perfect!  All in all, I took 909 pictures!  Eeehhh... but narrowed it down to 404 in the editing process, and loaded them onto the school server today!  Now, I'm going to load some of my favorites onto my blog, for you to see!

Dae Gyo Elementary 
School Field Day 
May 6, 2011

These pictures are totally out of order.  It would have taken me an extra hour, or more, to put them all in order for this post... So, sorry! :)
This was the dad's relay race.  In Korea, Field Day isn't just about the kids.  The parents are just as involved as their own children on the big day!  It's basically a big community party!

The volunteer moms who helped set up all the events!

4th grade - simultaneous jump roping!   These two girls, Mikayla and Cherry, won!

The mom's relay race is always a big crowd pleaser!  Every year one of them gets hurt!  This year was no exception!  They're relentless!  One of the mom's accidentally tripped another mom, who fell face first into the dirt track!  Ouch!   

2nd grade relay race!

The 1st grade relay race included a part where the kids crawled through this tunnel.

1st grade - push the giant ball around the orange cone, with your mom relay!

These are the 6th grade school leaders and cheering section for Field Day!

The mom's played tug of war!  "WE WON!!!"


Getting ready for mom's tug of war - counting the rows to make sure the sides were even!

민기, one of my favorite 5th graders!  She was on the blue team!  
(There are 2 teams - blue and white)

One of the relays involved the 6th graders running around the track and then picking a piece of paper out of a basket, reading it, and finding the teacher listed on the paper to run with them to the finish line!  This paper says "Run with Chelsey Teacher!" 

Getting in position for the mother, daughter relay with a ball.

Father, daughter relay with a ball. Betty and her dad.

Danny is one of my favorite students!  
Every time I ask him "How are you?" He answers, "I'm hungry!" 

There was even something for the grandparents!  They would walk to the middle of the field and take a fishing hook looking thing and hook a black plastic bag filled with soap, detergent, and a towel, then walk back to their line!

 Melt my heart!  How adorable is she?!

4th grade hula hoop running relay!

The blue team's BIG cheerleader!

2nd graders getting ready for the baton hand off!

6th grade relay!  Drag your friend, in a polka-doted bucket, around the orange cone!

The races are started by either a track and field gun or the gong!  I personally prefer the gong!  It's so Asian!

3d graders waiting on the sidelines!

6th grade drummers... part of the cheering squad!

The 1st graders did a relay where they either wore silver-sequined-bow-headbands or blue-sequined-bow-headbands and rode a scooter across the field!  

Here's the white team, walking out to get into position for their scooter race!

헤란, one of my favorite teachers at the school!  She actually used to be an English teacher, so her English is almost perfect!

She's a 3rd place winner!  Instead of handing out ribbons, like in America, the kids are given hand stamps!

One of the 4th grade relay's included running around the track, jumping through hula hoops and then squatting down and jumping 10 times, like a frog. 

3rd graders had to do somersaults!   The two girls on the right collided!

6th grade - simultaneous jump roping relay!  They would throw a big dice and whatever number it landed on was how many times they had to jump rope before passing off to the next group!

Stretching time!

3rd graders, waiting on the sideline with their teacher!

At the end of the day, everyone got onto the field and did a traditional Korean dance!

4th grade running relay!

1st and 2nd graders threw handmade paper airplanes into upside down umbrellas!  The team with the most airplanes inside the umbrella won!  

Excited to throw their paper airplanes!

3rd graders, patiently waiting for their next relay.

All in all, it was a REALLY fun day with lots of excited kiddos and parents!  I'm not sure if I'll be working at an elementary school again next year, so I soaked it all in and made sure I relished in all the fun!