Some Iizuka history and a note on cannibus air fresheners

Last weekend I visited the Iizuka Museum of Natural History. Asking the receptionist if any of the exhibits were in English (Eigo-de?) - and I was a bit let down to find out that everything was in Japanese. So, it being a small museum, and me not being able to read hardly any Japanese, I zipped through the museum in about half an hour. After returning to the entrance, the same lady introduced me to one of the curators, and she told me that he spoke some English. He then showed me a few things on the first floor of the museum, and, between his semi-decent English and my poor Japanese, I was able to understand a fair amount of what he showed me. He ended up taking me through the entire museum (not big, but really a lot to look at) - explaining quite a bit to me about what I had previously breezed by. I found out that where we are in Fukuoka is very near the port from which all of the culture that came from China and Korea entered Japan. That is, when metal-making, rice cultivation, Buddhism, porcelain, and many other things came to Japan, they came to Kyushu first, and then spread throughout the rest of Japan (with the exception of the northern island, Hokkaido).

This I find interesting I because at my first school I remember seeing clay dolls and dishes in a glass case outside the teachers room that looked a lot like some Japanese artifacts I had seen in slide form while I was taking a Japansese Art History class at Lane Community College. Come to find out, these dolls and earthenware were the exact things I had been studying in college, and just some of the many cultural remnants that first came to Japan through the area I'm now living in! The curator told me about a few excavations that had recently been done, uncovering artifacts like clay tombs that are about 2,000 years old - around a nearby Iizuka elementary school.

Another interesting note he told me was about this group of three, pointy-looking mountains that are clearly visible from where I live in Iizuka. He said that in the 19th century, coal mining techniques were adopted from Europe - and these mountains are part of the result. Basically, the mountains aren't really mountains at all - they are made of "slack," which is the excess material that is left over after the coal is separated from the earth. I find these to be a little bit funny because when I first moved in, I thought "Wow, these mountains look kind of pretty..." and had even thought of posting a picture of the "nice view" I had in Iizuka. Now, after I know they aren't natural mountains at all, they seem really ugly and very unnatural looking.



The faux-mountains in Iizuka - remnants of the days when when it was a coal-mining town.

On a bike-ride to my first school, I noticed a cannibus-leaf air freshener in what looked like a family car, and was really puzzled at the incongruity. But, after seeing that the only selection of air fresheners in what amounts to the "Iizuka Wal-Mart" are cannibus leaf-style, I am really not surprised at all, and won't be surprised to see plenty more in vehicles with non pot-smoking Japanese families. The last picture I'm posting is of the selection of air fresheners at the local "Trial Supercenter," a big superstore and 15 minute walk from my house where I do most of my shopping.


Trial, where I buy most of my household goods...


Trial's selection of car-air fresheners...