Missing Kitakyushu or Itsuka kaette kuru

Itsuka kaite kuru (Someday I will return) — I must have said that at least fifty times during the last two weeks before we left Japan in July 1995. After three years of living in Kitakyushu, it was time to move on. Back then my husband was in the Japanese Exchange Teaching programme (JET) which was limited to a maximum stay of three years. During that time we had our first child as well and could not imagine making ends meet on a long-term basis with just free-lancing jobs.

Well, now the time has come for me to return to this important place in my stage of personal growth. On April 6th, I will take our born-in-Japan son for a 10-day trip to the island of Kyushu, where we still have many dear friends. I will show him the hospital he was born in and the small eatery where the proprietor would hold him, so I could eat. I will take him to the green grocer’s down the street where the grandmother, running her fingers over the abacus, would total up my purchase in such a shrill and unforgettable voice.

Japan, to me, had been the land of a thousand opportunities. It’s a challenging place to live and with the Japanese people’s help, I got to explore myself a bit more. I had the chance to take photos for the Asahi newspaper, I was on the cover of the local newspaper and got interviewed on TV, I held a lecture about Germany in the local library, and much more. It had been a very exciting time — not to mention giving birth in Japan as well!!

Wakamatsu-ku in Kitakyushu-shi, where we lived, is a very rural place inhabited by lots of senior citizens made up of fishermen and vegetable farmers. Living there, halfway up Takato mountain, we got a true sense of Japan. We looked at bamboo forests from our back window. When we walked to the other side of the apartment – done fairly quickly! – we overlooked Dokai Bay (industrial port) with its Wakato Hashi bridge, and many high-rise buildings made up the rest of the landscape.

Japan is a land of opposites, which makes for its charm and provides endless topics to talk about.

While checking on-line bookstores, I came to realize not much has been written about Kyushu. It is hardly ever on a tour agenda and might be viewed by some as the “armpit of Japan”.

The only book I have come across which mentions Kyushu – at least in its final chapters – is Alan Booth’s travel log about his hike from Hokkaido to Kyushu. I loved this book. He captured it all: foibles and quirks of the Japanese, encountering annoying moments and extreme kindness at the same time, and the highs and lows of any kind of undertaken journey.

To learn more about this book The Roads to Sata click here

If you have ever been to Kyushu, share your experience!