Fukuoka Now Party

This Tuesday was Adam's birthday, but he was busy preparing for an art display specifically exhibitiing foreigners' works.  Fukuoka Now is a great magazine that I enjoy that is completely free and geared towards foreigners and lists out all the events in Fukuoka for each month.  (It's how I found out about the Lantern Festival, etc)  So on Saturday night we went to see for ourselves as well as support Adam in his artistic endeavors.  The event was a little pricier than what we're used to, but the venue was also much classier than what we're used to so that was a nice change.  The hotel Palazzo II was a very strange building, the facade [upper left] is designed in a classical style but built like a modern building with fully exposed wide flanges as the belt courses with exposed fillet welds and rivets, marble columns dividing the bays and no windows.  So strange.  And there was one door, in the center of the facade, which led down a long narrow hallway which is the picture in the lower left hand corner.  The exterior was questionable but inside was much nicer.  The event was held in the basement level.  So first there was the lobby area with the ticket booth and the coat check.  Down another beautiful staircase [second picture from the lower right] lit up in lights and lined entirely with glass on 3 sides giving the illusion of infiinite lights, there was two lounge rooms where people could smoke (that was nice cause i'm sick of inhaling second hand smoke).  The main event room was just adjacent to the lounge rooms.  It was an expansive room [second pic from the lower left] filled with a much older, somewhat artsy fartsy crowd.  Most were well dressed and some were strangely dressed.  (I think it comes with the territory of being an artist).  The lights were really great because they would pulsate and change colors according to the music.  I did meet a lot of great people including the FIRST cantonese girl who came from hong kong.  I haven't been able to speak in canto with anyone here yet, so that was nice.


The Performances

All the performances were weird.  No exceptions.  Some weirder than others, but all pretty weird.  One duo featured an oil painter who painted while another shirtless guy danced wildly next to him with no discernable style or purpose.  The best performance however of the night hands down (and by best i mean, most entertaining on more than one level) was a Spanish guy who performed with his Japanese wife in Japanese to music from gameboys while dressed in an all bright neon green spandex bodysuit.  [i think you can spot him in the pictures]  The rest of the night was filled with good music and a slideshow of artwork from various foreigners.  Two of whom I actually know, Nikos from Greece whom I had just met that night but who is the boyfriend of my friend Brittany who came on the same study abroad trip last year and met him and Elena from Germany who lives in the same dorm as I do.  Great event in general though, i really enjoyed myself and i met a lot of wonderful people.

[i'm still trying to figure out how to post a video of the gameboy guy]


Yatai

I also ate my first Yatai stand which are small (night market style) stalls lining the riverside streets of Fukuoka at night.  It's a regional specialty specific only to Fukuoka and they have everything from yakitori (meat skewers) to ramen.  Of course I had to have my nightly bowl of Hakata ramen and it was of course delicious with my new friends Ai-chan from Tokyo, Alix from Paris and Jonny from Taipei.  Good times.