Arita Porcelain Festival

At the end of April/beginning of May the town of Arita hosts the largest porcelain festival on Kyushu.  I visited three different areas of this festival over two days.  I have never seen so much china in my entire life!  The first day I visited China-in-the-Park which is where the factories for the Fukagawa brand are located.  There were large shops filled with dinner sets, rice bowls, vases, utensils, etc.  From there my friends and I went into Arita and the narrow streets were lined with porcelain shops. My eyes start to blur after awhile looking at all of the finely decorated china.  The good thing is that there is something for everyone's budget.  I walked away with 3 rice bowls and a mortar/pestle set.  We were also given free rice bowls from some people who were selling china near our parking place.  I suppose they were thank you gifts for parking in their front yard for 1,000 yen.

Lake Isanoura

I can't believe I haven't posted since March! Shame on me. Since then we have been camping several times in various places near Sasebo.  Our favorite place so far is Lake Isanoura.  It's about a 30-minute drive and tucked away in a higher elevation.  The site is immaculate, quiet, and scenic.  We haven't stayed in any of the cabins yet, but the 3 room tent we purchased at a recycle store has served us very well.  There is also a path you can hike that takes you up above the tree line.  Good workout, well worth the effort.

Our second visit to Isanoura was more eventful.  We were camped around our grill fire with some friends when an older Japanese man and his daughter (maybe in her 20's) came up to us to say 'hi' and practice the little English they knew.  They talked to us for a few minutes and left.  About five minutes later they returned with the rest of their family, Japanese beers in hand.  They offered us the bottles and started talking to us as best as they could.  One of the ladies could speak English pretty well, so she tried translating what the older man was saying.  They were so fascinated that we were from Florida and our friends were from Texas they would respond with these low, prolonged guttural noises that made me laugh.  Our friends offered them some Coronas, and again they responded with bows and noises that indicated their amazement over the fact they were about to drink a Mexican beer.  It was a great moment on our trip.

Later that night our enjoyable evening was ruined when a large group of Japanese people started singing and cheering into the wee hours of the night.  They sounded like a sports team partying except their cheers were always yelled/sung in unison.  What's worse is that they kept moving around the campsite, so once you were able to tune them out, they would move closer and wake us all over again.  They finally left around 7am.

Despite the disruption, I would still go back to Lake Isanoura.  It's close, affordable, and it makes you feel like you're "getting away from it all" without having to go far at all.