NILS students attending the fall program enjoyed watching sumo wrestling in Fukuoka.  Sumo matches were held 6 times in a year, and one of them is held in Fukuoka in November every year.  It was a very good opportunity for our students to watch real sumo match.  Even we, the  Japanese don’t go out to watch sumo, but many watch sumo on TV.

At Kokusai Center we first noticed many vendors selling Omiyage, beer and snacks.  We soon learned it was a good idea to go near the entrance to watch the famous Rikishi enter the center.  We then began watching Sumo bouts from our seats inside the center.  If you are coming to watch Sumo you will have fun.  It is a great event.  Matches are quick and there’s lots of action.  Eat beforehand but I think to enjoy the experience more be ready to drink some beer while you watch.  —Marek-san, from Canada.

NILS students in Fall Program enjoyed making ramen and gyoza last week.  It was their first time to cook ramen from the beginning.

I thought this was a fun activity.  It is good for people staying in Fukuoka to experience as ramen culture is so prevalent here.  Making men with the pasta machine was particularly interesting for me and while I knew it would taste ok, I was surprised it was actually restaurant quality good!  I would recommend this activity!  —Marek

I am happy to say that I enjoyed taking part in this activity. It was a good learning experience. The ramen and gyoza came out to taste very good. Overall the activity was very good.  I am thinking of going to that place again.  —Maksym

NILS students learning Japanese language in summer program visited Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine, one of the famous shrines in Fukuoka, and Kyushu National Museum. Dazaifu is located close to both Ogori and Ohashi Campus. You can get there by easy access using Nishitetsu Railways.
Here are some comments from our students.
(さらに…)

NILS students had a great time at one of the most famous festivals in Fukuoka, Hojoya (放生会).

The Houjouya Festival activity with NILS class this week was very fantastic!

This “matsuri”is a celebration of food abundance and life. Add for free, “yukata”s, a shrine visit, and happy people. I mean a LOT of happy people walking around, eating, drinking, and taking pictures in a set of alleys where food and drink vendors have their stands.

The top point for me where the cute little kids that had never seen a “gaijin” before. Fearless of talking to strangers, they stare at me as if the time has just stopped. Hey, there you go a great opportunity to practice some Japanese; which of course I did use. Naturally, everybody around get out of their Japanese shell, while the joy spreads around the child and myself. Pictures taken of course!

After two weeks in Japan, if a place is near a subway, or a train, I can go there. If it does not work in the first try, even better, I can ask for directions in Japanese.  Great!  —Jorge

This was my first matsuri!!!!! It was absolutely fun. We got to eat so many different things like takoyaki, yakitori, and even horse meat (ahh!). Hirosei-sensei share some of her yakitori with me and it was so delicious I had to get one myself! I also ate dondurma ice cream! I’ve never had it before. It was very interesting. It tasted like ice cream but it was sticky like mochi. I did some research and found out that it is a Turkish dessert. That was probably one of the best foods that I had at the festival.

Laura and I went to see the Misemono goya! There was the woman who can breathe fire, the cavemen, the sick old man, the man with a sword though his face, and a woman that ate bugs! It was weird but fun to watch! I thought the woman who breathes fire was the coolest.

We also got to watch a play at the shrine! It was a bit hard to understand because they were using Hakozaki ben. I did get some jokes though so it was a good experience!

The festival also had lots of fishing. There was goldfish fishing, crab fishing turtle fishing, even eel fishing! We didn’t try any of it but the turtles were very cute. It was a kind of sad seeing them trapped in there.

I’m happy we got to go!! There was so much good food and fun things to see. I will probably never forget the amazing yakitori I ate and the Misemono goya! I would love to take my family to this some day.  —Stephanie

We visited Fukuoka Zoological Park for NILS activity in summer program.  Each student enjoyed a lot there watching various kinds of animals and plants!

It was very enjoyable and there were lots of opportunities to talk about the cute animals, or ask questions about them (in Japanese of course!). The botanical gardens were also very nice. There was enough to do in the three hours we had and it was a nice opportunity to visit a place I would not have otherwise done.
Also, as I was late, it was really appreciated that Hirose-sensei came to fetch me from the entrance gate.   —Laura

The Fukuoka Zoo activity this week was very interesting.

Beyond a Zoo visit that you can get in any modern country, it was important learning how to ride a bus, buy a train ticket, and ride a train in Japan. Reading posted signs featuring Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji while getting a confirmation from the teacher whether I read them right or wrong was also very unique.  —Jorge

We went to the zoo and botanical garden yesterday! There were so many animals there. What’s amazing is that we got to see most of them. The most interesting animal we got to see was probably the chimpanzees. We went while it was feeding time so it was really exciting. There was one chimp that seemed to monopolize all the food. It’s absolutely incredible how intelligent and humanlike they are.

The other animal that I was really excited to see were the Tanuki and foxes. They were sleeping when we got there but there was a funny but sad sign that describe why one of the foxes’ tail was missing. Apparently, when the Tanuki and the foxes shared a cage they got into fights. One of the Tanuki slashed off the poor fox’s tail! When we saw them, sure enough, the two animals were in different cages.

We also got to see lions and tigers!! They are absolutely beautiful animals. The tiger was a lot bigger than I thought and the lionss seemed not very happy we were watching her sleep but she had really beautiful big round eyes. I’m glad we got to see them.

The botanical garden!!!! Aahh, it was really gorgeous. I wish we could have stayed there a little longer but I think I would have spent the rest of my life there if I could! My favorite part of the garden was the potted plants! If I could in the future I’d love to have my own potted plant garden like the one we saw. I’m kind of afraid of bugs though so I don’t know how that will turn out. It was a really fun day! I’m grateful for all the cool activities we go to.  —Stephanie

Students in NILS short term programs had a great time at Marine World, aquarium in Fukuoka.

This week’s activity was to visit Fukuoka’s aquarium, called Marine world. It’s a big aquarium with many cook features. The sea otters were my favorite but they also have a huge tank three stories high with a big panoramic window you can observe the fish – including sharks from. They also have two performances with dolphins and sea lions doing lots of tricks in exchange for food. The show is open air with the sea in the background, an impressive sight. I got a bit carried away looking at all the animals that I forgot to take photos for next week’s presentation about one of the animals we were supposed to choose, oops!  —Adam-san

I absolutely love aquariums. Marine animals are definitely my passion outside of doing art! If I hadn’t decided to become a designer/artist, I would be a marine biologist! Or at least a marine life teacher of some sort.

I really wanted to see the sunfish or マンボウ at the aquarium but they didn’t have it. They did, however, sell a sunfish toy! Of course I had to get it. I also got a cute whale shark which is probably close to the sunfish in terms of how much I like them. I like the word for sunfish in Japanese! It sounds like mambo! It’s a very cute name for one of my favorite animals.

We got to see Marine World’s famous dolphin (or イルカ) show! I really wanted to be a dolphin trainer when I was little so I felt extremely touched at how amazing and smart these animals are. I wish they had talked a little more at the end of the show about how to protect these beautiful mammals since it would have given a lot of  kids that were watching the show an interest in helping make the planet and thus these animals live a little better lives. There was also a sea lion show! They were very cute! Sea lions are very smart as well but people in America often confuse them with seals. It seems that in Japan they are very well differentiated which makes me happy!

The panorama tank was amazing! I have never seen sharks with a small head and plump body like that except in cartoons! It was cool we got to see a diver go into the water and answer some questions. It was really hard understanding him though since he had to breathe through the snorkel while he talked. I wish I could have asked him a few questions myself!

I also had wanted to see sea angels (or クリオネ) but Marine World didn’t have them, however, they had jellyfish! I love jellyfish a lot as well! I’m happy I got to see them.

Marine World was very fun!! I’m very happy I got to go!  —Stephanie-san

Recently we went to Marine World: an aquarium. It is up a few steps and made for a very nice view. The marine life was also very interesting, with a few new additions which made it very interesting. We were also in time for a dolphin show which was interesting to see. There were many different forms of marine life, some of which I hadn’t seen yet. All in all it was an interesting experience.  —Alex-san

I am a really bad cook… almost always! We went to make ramen this Wednesday and it actually came out very delicious! I am really proud of my first successful hand-made meal.

We got to make the flour of the noodles and the Gyoza. I had some difficulty because I wasn’t quite sure how to make it nice but I did my best. The funniest part of making the ramen was when we had to roll the flour into the pasta machine. It’s amazing seeing a bunch of blobs turn into something delicious! Something I found kind a weird was when we stepped on the flour to make it flat. I was worried I made our noodles stinky haha!  But it worked out and tasted great in the end.

We got to take home a lot of the left overs and they gave us some cool Omiyage. My favorite was the rolling pin with the cute logo on it! I actually made pizza by myself using the leftovers the other day. It was fun and surprisingly delicious.

I went in wanting to learn how to make ramen and I came out learning how to make so much more! I’m very glad we did this activity!!

――――Stephanie

This week we went to a cookery class.

At the class we learned to make ramen noodles and Gyoza skins from flour. A lot of the ingredients had been pre-prepared: the flavoured water to mix with the flour (different for ramen and Gyoza), the type of flour, the soup stock, the Gyoza filling, the ramen toppings. But it makes it possible to fit everything into the time we had.

We started my making the Gyoza pastry balls and rolling them into flat disks, then we stuffed them with meat and folded them into Gyoza shape. They were cooked for us.

Then we made the ramen noodles by making dough and kneading it without feet!

We then rolled it out and used a pasta machine to cut it into ramen, and boiled it ourselves.

The ramen was added to the shop’s own soup and then we got to eat our own creations. This was my favorite event so far. 🙂

――――Adam