52 Fujis #23 - Fujisakigumae

From my house to the most southern of the 52 Fujis - Fujisakgumae - it’s a good 1150km. Although the number gets less when you convert it into miles - 715 - the fact that I can comprehend the latter with more ease just means that I was even more astounded by the possible difficulties involved. There was some comfort to be had from the fact that four of the 52 are in Kyushu, within comfortable distance of each other - so, if I did Fujisakigumae, I could do the other three as well. Perhaps over the course of a long weekend… Yeah. Right. I decided I’d put it off.

Until an old school friend of my wife’s decides to get married. In Kumamoto. Right in time for a summer holiday.

Fantastic. The old two birds with one stone thingamajig.

There’s a hairy moment at Haneda airport when we find out that Kyushu is being battered by a particularly savage rainy season, and the plane might not land at Kumamoto airport. It might land at Fukuoka instead. Or just turn around and come right back; the airline hasn’t made up its mind. When it does, the luck that has seen me through up until now doesn’t desert and we touch down in a very wet Kumamoto right on schedule.

The hotel we end up staying in is, by yet more spooky, other worldly guided luck, pretty close to Fujisakigumae. We find this out the night before the wedding, which doesn’t start until 4 in the afternoon; so after breakfast, we set out to walk it - that way we get to explore the city as it comes to. The rain is continuing in a relentless assault, but the path to Fujisakigumae is a Sunny Road - one of those covered shopping arcades boasted by the bulk of Japanese cities. I note as I watch a girl in hotpants and high heels nearly fall on her tiny ass that these arcades also seem to have been built of materials that get very slippery when wet. Which strikes me as rather cruel.

Fujisakigumae station is tiny, and hidden away off the main street. There’s a single train on the platform and I note there’s nothing really to note except that.

We don’t hang around, and decide to pop round the corner to see the Fujisaki shrine. Mrs. Boyle is off in the little girl’s room, while I’m taking pictures of pigeons hiding from the rain. It looks like they’re pretty much the only living things around, then I hear a voice behind me saying “Hi!” in a tone that I would usually consider fighting talk. As ornithology isn’t a crime even in Japan, I turn around and give my happiest “Konnichiwa!” to the big sweaty guy in the pink shirt standing there. He’s taken aback and asks me if I speak Japanese. I tell him a little, hoping that if I have broken any sacred rule that bans pigeon photography within this particular shrine’s confines, he won’t be able to tell me off properly if he thinks I don’t understand. Inexplicably, he then asks me if I speak English. I say yes, wondering where this is going. He thrusts out his hand with two English leaflets about Kumamoto at the end of it.
“Kore wa - This is … pamphletto?” I nod, yeah, we use that word too. “About Kumamoto. A present for you.”
I accept, offer thanks and bow. He gives me a nod then stalks off in silence.

Fujis remaining : 29
More pics at Flickr: Fujisakigumae.

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Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 52 Fujis, Japan Trackback URL for this entry