Oceanshaft

It's Monday, so what did I do over the weekend? Sports with the people from church on Saturday. 3 hours of assorted games: basketball, table-tennis, badminton, volleyball. Couldn't play at full strength all the way though. Good to get some exercise. Now that the weather's cold, not doing any jogging or outdoor sports at all (not that I did a lot previously).

Sunday after church I dropped by my old lab in the evening and met up with some of the staff there as they had had some seminar or event in the afternoon. Good to catch up with the lab tech. Chatting in the experiment room, it was just like old times.

As for today, went for dinner with the guys from my present lab. Drove round and round and all over the area around school before finally settling on a place to eat at. For all that distance we drove, we ate at somewhere rather near school. Ah well, it was an interesting trip.

Drove up to Dazaifu to see the autumn leaves at Koumyouzenji (a Zen temple) with two others from my laboratory. But first, a detour for lunch at a ramen place, which turned out to be much further than expected. The ramen was quite unusual, the noodles thicker than you normally get here and the soup not your ordinary tonkotsu soup. Lighter, with a clearer taste. Maybe there's chicken broth or something inside alongsides the normal pork stock.

Anyway, since yesterday was a public holiday, there were tons of people at Tenmangu shrine and also at Koumyouzenji. However, the autumn foliage was nice.

On a weather-related note, have finally got round to packing up my fan and stowing it away. Also dug out the electric heater from storage, although it's not in use yet. Started wearing gloves while cycling too.

Ugh. I have been reading blogs of old friends, acquaintances and assorted famous people from my schooling life back home, and I cannot help but be painfully aware of how the standard of my English writing has dropped. Someone free me from the tyranny of this book-poor existence! (Actually there are books, but really, the inconvenience of getting them. And the environment I am in just is not conducive.) I have finished my spiel, and it's back to Basic Reader grammer. (Someday I shall detail why I haunt the National Library branches upon arriving back in Singapore.)

It is getting colder. Lowest temperatures have started to drop below 10 degrees Celsius. Winter approaches. Fukuoka is not that cold temperature-wise, but the northern wind from the continent blows straight into Hakata bay. Chilling. "Cold winter's fingers ache my bones" and all that. Coming soon, too.

Incidentally, the startup page on my browser is set to the weather forecast. To think I could recite the daily weather forecast when back home. "There will be scattered showers in several parts of the island today."

Went for mikan-gari (picking mandarin oranges) yesterday. 200 yen for a small plastic bag that you fill with as many mikan as you can, and bring home to eat. Meanwhile, while you are in the orchard, you can eat as many as you want. It was fun to pick the mikan, this has been a yearly activity for my church for some years now. This year it was not as cold as previous years (people were in short sleeves), probably this year will be a relatively warmer winter.

By the way, the mandarin orange trees are more like shrubs, not the trees that one thinks of in relation to californian Sunkist oranges.

As is the case every year, we went to the chrysantheum exhibition at Munakata shrine after the mikan-gari. Chrysantheum blooms of various types and cultivars were on display. Bonsai were present too. Unfortunately, while stunningly beautiful, the display does not change much from year to year. Had a good time with everyone.

Drove down to Yabakei in Oita prefecture yesterday.青の同門→「天雲龍」（耶馬溪）→一目八景（深耶馬溪）→福貴野の滝（途中通行止めで断念）→西椎屋の滝→慈恩の滝→「筏場の湯」（慈恩の滝の近く）→日田にJoyfullで晩ご飯→帰宅。Left at 9 in the morning and came back just before 10 at night.

Got to meet my homestay family from 5 years ago, was nice to see everyone. There was great scenery driving through the hills, with reds and oranges splashed here and there against green, grey rocks suddenly rising out of the midst of all of them. The waterfalls were great fun too.