A festival of gratitude, in autumn. In October, at Kushida Shrine, the guardian shrine of Hakata in Fukuoka, the great autumn rite is held. It is called Hakata Okunchi, and together with the Okunchi of Nagasaki and Karatsu it is one of Japan's three great festivals of that name. If the summer's Hakata Gion Yamakasa is a fierce festival meant to drive off plague, this one is quiet. It gives thanks for the autumn harvest. An ox-drawn portable shrine moves slowly through the streets of Hakata, followed by a procession of children. In the precincts a harvest market is set up, sweet amazake is served, and a shrine maiden performs the Dance of Eternity. The festival's origins reach back some twelve hundred years, said to lie in the ancient rite of first fruits. It is an old festival, though smaller in scale than those of Nagasaki or Karatsu—which means it is easy to watch, up close, without the crush of crowds. The same city, summer and autumn, wears two entirely different faces. Anyone who knows the frenzy of the yamakasa will be surprised by this stillness. It is the gratitude of a harvest season, offered to the shrine the people simply call Kushida-san. The station is steps away, and Canal City is close. Afterward, walk the old streets of Hakata.