The Odyssey pt.1: 柳川 Yanagawa...

This was the first stop outside fukuoka with ma mere; we decided to stay in kyushu a little longer than expected, but it enables us to visit neighboring places, like yanagawa...the little 'venice' of japan, all the way in the south part of fukuoka prefecture near the sea. It's known for its canals and it's unagi-don...which is eel over rice.


too bad it was 'off and on' raining that day...


However indoors, something was going on. It was the season of Hina Matsuri, where you set up hand made dolls at the beginning of march for 'girl's day'...


traditional dolls are also set up on stairs...each stair representing different important figures of japanese folklore or everyday life...




a glimpse of the unagi-don...a local specialty that is very hard to find cheap...notice the brown rice. wow. delicious.


and these are unagi bones...so good, ma mere had to bring some back home.


...then we were off to saga ken, trough the woods, trying to find a nice onsen...yea, can't leave without skinny dippin'.


on our way: a little water fall in the distance under yanagawa's megane-boshi (spectacles bridge).


ma mere, maman, moms, deb...i think you get the point.


ai-chan...


on our way back we stopped for floating fish flying over the river...this was actually an early setup for children's day...called kodomo no hi.


each fish differs in size, representing either the father, the mother or the child.