Travel Letter: Japanese village life

The koi were elegant ballet dancers.

Janice and Aine at the fire festival.

Fire Festival Foreigners.

The winning shot. Look at the warrior face on this guy. So great!

This month's we explore Japan.

I visited the lovely Aine in the tiny mountain village Morotsuka in Miyazaki Ken on Kyushu Island. Try to say THAT five times fast. It took me some doing. But once you get it, you feel like you’re reciting a poem.

This tiny village is a dream.

We're talking waterfalls, shrines and shiny happy people. We're talking traditional Japanese life. We're talking kids taking karate in school. We're talking rice fields and tea farms. We're talking the Japan you imagine when you imagine a traditional Japanese town.

I totally scored.

I was the newbie in town and was therefore given gifts and the super VIP treatment. I ate a lot of the hometown sushi. Did you know each village has it's own sushi roll? This town had a roll filled with fried chicken, mayonnaise and lettuce. Sort of the KFC of sushi. Glad it wasn't a strange sea creature.

Fried chicken may have been the only not-so-traditional Japanese aspect to the trip.

We hopped in a little car and zigzagged around the island. At some point we arrived at a fire festival. Strangers arrived with costumes and we suited up.

Soon we were leading thousands of people through the streets. All of us also carried a flame. All in the parade were equally-costumed. At the end, we sat around a bonfire and watched traditional dancing. And a fire show!