Saturday in the city

We wanted to go to Tenjin today to talk to a travel agent and we had to catch a bus near our apartment (even though we have a car, sometimes it's more of a hassle in a big city, with parking and all). Tenjin is a popular district in Fukuoka City (So many odd cities, I know! Just a refresher....the town we live in is Iizuka, which is about 1 hour away from the big city-- Fukuoka City--it has about 3 million people & it's the 3rd largest in Japan).

We got there, talked to a travel agent and the lady gave us estimates on the price of flights to Australia. It's not cheap, but it is a lot cheaper than trying to fly from the U.S. to Australia. We're strongly thinking about it!

We wandered around the city looking for a place to eat. JD had mentioned a place called 'Jet Diner.' It's a 50's style set-up with hamburgers, fries and onion rings! Yummm! It was delicious (we can't help but be drawn to American-themed establishments...especially when it comes to food).

While we were walking around, we spotted this Kodak moment: an ambulance! haha, the reason is...it creeps me out! They wear a mask (which is for a sanitary purpose, I know), but they kind of look like the bad guys from a scary movie or something. See for yourself....

One thing is for sure, we hear ambulance sirens ALL THE TIME! In fact, we heard there are posters that encourage people NOT to call (119) for an ambulance (unless it's a true emergency) because people abuse the system. It all goes back to the way their national healthcare system works (in other words...it's a lot cheaper for them to call an ambulance).

We got back to our apartment in the early evening and I started cooking spaghetti and meatballs. We had about 10 people over to our apartment for dinner and Taboo (our friend Darryl brought it over). Yay, Game Night!! I knew I would make those happen, regardless of where we would be! We even invited two of our students from our adult Japanese class (one of them brought her husband, as well) and they played! We were very impressed because they're still learning the language and they did pretty well.