I was reading the news as I always do (and thus being very unproductive) and found this interesting article on the front page of Japan today.
It brings me back to when I was just about to depart for Fukuoka. I read an article in Newsweek about the new boom times. Fukuoka was one of them, it talked about how it was cosmopolitan and had the youngest metropolitan medium age in all of Japan. (Which is memory serves me right was 39 >.<) It assured me that though I did not really know where I was going, that it was sure to be a great place, and it has.
Attempting to look for this article again I came across another one from Asia week about Fukuoka being the best city in all of Asia.
It also won this award the next year. It swells me with a sense of pride to be living in such a nice place. Though hilariously, Honolulu the city I will be returning to actually ranks higher on the first list. Looking up most livable cities I find that Honolulu is actually the highest ranked city in the US on the reputable Mercer quality of living list, a full 5 ranks higher than the next highest city in Japan. Please note that Fukuoka is absent from this list.
However, seeing that failed to incense any sort of feelings, short of "I wonder why?". I say that but really I know it is a great place to live, but for someone my age living on a tiny island in the middle of the pacific has it distinct disadvantages. Living in Fukuoka, I had access to everything I could want, and for those times when I just got sick of the city or felt the need to see something else I could just jump in plane, or train, or even my car and it would be a very short ride to somewhere else. In Hawaii if you want to go ANYWHERE else, prepare for at least a 5 hour plane ride to next nearest land mass.
That is the serious disadvantage of Hawaii, knowing your stuck there. I'm not a big shopper so I was never that put off by the relative scarcity of shops that are considered ubiquitous in other US states, but that feeling of being stuck always bugged me. Also the lack of great public transportation is a bit of a natch. There was always the bus, but it was a fickle bitch that never ran on time and would not stop if the driver saw you chasing it down full speed.
Even with a car there were only so many places you could go and it puts people who live in Hawaii into this sense of futility. Why even bother going to the other side of the island, what is there that you can't find here. Generally it was true, to a point of course.
It is a great lifestyle, its laid back, it's low pressure, its in the sun, mild weather all the time, lots of green and blue, low crime, etc. If I was raising a family I could think of few places as nice as Hawaii, but as a 20 something year old who has lived her entire life thinking a 20 minute drive was out of the way, and my radius of living was stuck at an maximum hour out in any direction, god lord I was happy to be in Fukuoka.
But more than that, I don't think I could have enjoyed my time as much as I did if I lived in a truly big city. The fact, and the various articles point this out, that Fukuoka is this big metropolitan city yet feels like a small time burg, was amazing. I sometimes envy those who live right in the thick of it, within Fukuoka city. But, seeing the transpiration rolling off the green mountains that surround my city, and being able to hike up a mountain every month (note this is usually not by choice) really kept me grounded.
I hated New York, it was so much bustle, noise, and anger. I was on vacation but it seemed like there was always this tension in the air, it was palpable and for someone from Hawaii it tasted like a combination of rusting pennies soaked in bile. The short of it was I hated it.
The fact that I could choose to be in that bustle and yet with a short 10 minute train ride be out of it in the comfort of my town, my house was something I truly treasured. In a month half that will no longer be possible and I will be stuck back on my island.
Hawaii is truly a paradise and deserves it's high rank on all these various lists... but for me nothing beats Fukuoka, and to this day of all the places I have been able to travel I would always think "Oh, it's so much better in Fukuoka." I will truly miss this place when I am gone.
