The Least Useful Guide to Fukuoka

After seeing the calm and quiet Toyama last month, I came to realize how bustling and chaotic Fukuoka is.   

As long as I have noticed, we have gone through the following events, incidents and accidents in July this year alone:

先月行った富山が静かで落ち着いた街だったので、それと比べて、福岡って色々大変だなあと実感しました。これまでに気がついたことだけでも、7月にはこれだけのことが起きました。

 (In roughly chronological order): 

1. Heavy rains in the beginning of the month, which caused mudslides and destroyed houses, farmlands and railways. The damage due to the rain is estimated to be at least 49.1 billion yen. 

月初めの大雨。土砂崩れが起きたり、家屋や田畑、線路がダメになったりしました。被害額は少なくとも491億円になるそうです。

2. Yamagasa Festival in which a man in his fifties were run over by a float and lost his live. Horrifyingly, the float race was continued even after the accident.　No concrete prevention measures or analysis of the accident to prevent it in the future has been announced, at least not having been widely or publicly announced by the measures that would reach me.

山笠で、参加者が山車に轢き殺されました。この惨事の後も、祭りは続けられたというのが怖い。しかも、今後の防止策や事故の分析はまだ発表されていません。私が聞いてないだけなのかもしれませんが。

3. A spate of water accidents in which, so far, 5 (and probably more) people have been killed. 

相次ぐ水の事故。私が認識しているだけでも5人が亡くなりました。報道されていない死者はもっといるんだろうなあ。

4. Soar of heatstroke cases. As of 30, July, over 400 people have been sent to hospitals. 

熱中症の発症数が急増。7月30日現在で400人以上が病院に搬送されたそうです。

5. (Despite these harsh conditions and backgrounds) a world-class swimming competition, inviting a great number of top swimmers and related people.  I have seen people with peculiar body shapes; wide shoulder, relatively thin torso and long legs and arms wandering around in very relaxed, or near naked (to my eyes) outfits (typically, wearing paper-thin tank top, short pants, and beach sandals, usually without bag...I can't exactly explain how they are different from other foreign tourists with my vocabulary, though). I guess they were the swimming people. 

 世界水泳選手権2023福岡大会 (fina-fukuoka2022.org)

そんなこんなのうちに、世界水泳が開会。世界の強豪選手が福岡に集まりました。街で妙に肩幅が広く、比較的痩せていて、足と手が長い、私から見るとほぼ裸同然の格好（ペラペラのタンクトップとショートパンツ、サンダル履きでほとんどの人が手ぶら、とはいえ他の外人さんとどう違うのかは説明できませんが）で歩いている人たちを見かけました。あの人たがは選手だったのかな？

6. Meanwhile, there have been a number of car accidents, fraud cases and sex crimes, The latest case is that a man found dead in a car sunk in the sea.

It should be fortunate we haven't seen a child left in a car and boiled to die so far this year. 

一方、自動車事故、詐欺事件、性犯罪も絶賛多発中。最新の事件は、男の人の死体が海に沈んだ車から発見されたというもの。

7.You might laugh at me for still being scared of it, the number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased in July. Now not all the newly confirmed cased are reported, but the estimated number of COVID-19-infected people has steadily risen throughout the month.

まだそんなこと言ってんのかと言われそうですが、新型コロナの新規感染者も絶賛増加中。全感染者が調査されているわけではありませんですが、7月は感染者数が増え続けました。

　

I guess one or two of the above events in a month (or a year?) would be enough for other cities in. I began to feel that being able to live without getting killed/run over by a car or something/kidnapped/scammed/raped/ripped off/infected/food-poisoned in this city is itself a kind of miracle. 

他のところだったら、このうち1つか2つが1か月（もしくは1年？）の間に起きるだけでも結構大変なことになるような...。福岡に住んでいて、殺されたり誘拐されたり騙されたり強姦されたりぼられたり感染したり食中毒になったりしないですんでいるだけでも、奇跡のような気がしてきました。