Fukuoka

Friday I took the bus up to Fukuoka to crash the prefectural meeting of the CIRs (Co-ordinators for Int'l Relations - my old position in Fuk). Arrived in town (Hakata) about 13.30. Weather was good: sunny and warm - just perfect, actually. Jumped in a cab to my hotel (impressively named the Purejidento Hoteru), checked in, ironed a shirt, shaved then made my way to the subway and over to the place where the meeting was already in progress.

I arrived just as the meeting was on a break, and Ken came out to greet me. Everyone kindly welcomed me to the last half of their proceedings, and after briefly introducing yours truly, got back to 'business'. I have to say, however, that things were a pale shadow of the kind of meetings we used to have in the bad old days. Numbers are down to at most half of what they were, and there seems to be a general disinterest in what's going on. Too bad, but little to do with the people taking part: largely the fault of the people running the programme.

After the meeting it was a bit of tradition: whenever we used to come up for these meetings, Ken, Daniel, myself, etc, would usually head over to a local arcade to kill an hour before dinner. This time was no exception, save that before doing so we climbed up half the Akurosu building outside, which is a local version of Babylon's hanging gardens: the south side of the building is terraced, with an appealing variety of plants growing on each terrace, with the overall affect that, when viewed from the south, the building looks like a leafy hill.

After about an hour capping zombies at the game centre, it was off to dinner at Tattoo. This was good fun, with drinks aplenty, and sufficient food. I was happy to get to know a number of the new CIRs whom I had yet to meet (as we traded stories of 'forbidden liasons' [get in there, Dan!]), and we all stumbled out about 21.00.

At that point out numbers thinned as the most-responsible folks headed for home and the rest of us went off to karaoke. This was good fun, as the last time I went to karaoke was probably last year when I was here in Japan, but this also thinned our numbers such that by the end of our two-hour singing bout, there were only three of us left: me, Ken and Emiko.
This was about 23.00, and I was raring to go clubbing in Fukuoka, which is a real blast at night. Unfortunately, in Japan's cash-based scene, I committed an ultimate sin - after dinner and karaoke I'd about run out of cash - only 1,000 yen left, which enough for two drinks somewhere at most, or a cab ride back to my hotel. In the end, I did neither, and walked back to my hotel via Nakasu (Fukouka's red-light district) with Ken - who, to his credit, stayed out to the bitter end, when he could have bailed earlier and caught the last train home. As it was, he stayed out and ended up having to shell out the cash to stay at a capsule hotel at the station (thanks, Ken).

So, boo-hoo, after coming all that way, I was in bed at my hotel by midnight. Very sad. But, having just about run out of cash, I had little choice...