Seeing Misaki, Miyako, Eiko and more!

10.2.11

Yesterday was a lot of fun. We went to dinner with Misaki, Misakimama (Tsugiye) and Misakipapa (Hiroyuki) at a small traditional restaurant, Izakaya, about a three minute walk from my aunt and uncle's house. It is very traditional. You have to take off your shoes at the entrance and sit on tatami mats as you eat. Misaki and her mother were already there when Misaki's dad came and got us and walked us there. There were appetizers of ceasar salad and edemame (blanched soy beans). Starting when we sat down, a steady stream of amazing dishes kept coming. Somehow it all managed to fit on the table! There was sashimi, sanma (a fish about a foot long with very strong flavor, it is called "autumn fish" because right before winter it has a lot of fat to stay warm and is more delicious), tofu salad, eggplant with miso sauce, shitake mushrooms, enoki and asparagus wrapped in bacon, konyaku with miso on a stick (konyaku looks like grey jell-o that is taro paste) and other things that were...interesting. I had never tried a few the dishes before, one was beef tongue and the other intestine. I was pretty uneasy about it and despite the good flavor of the tongue...it grossed me out a little and I had to push to finish it. The intestine was such a small amount that it was only one bite - flavorful - then it was gone. I ate raw horse the last time I was in Japan... all I could think of was a cute pony and those large, glassy eyes. I decided I wouldn't do that again. But the Japanese say, a cow is cute too and you eat beef! Which is true and I feel a little guilty about it, but I guess that is what I am used and that is what they are used to and neither are wrong. So...no more beef tongue and no more horse. That's okay. My mom's friends are impressed that I love nato (fermented soy beans that are stringy with a slimy texture and have a pretty awful smell...at least that's what people say!), kimchi (korean pickle, I think, of pickled cabbage in hot peppers) and umeboshi (pickled sour plum). I have always eaten them since we can purchase them all in America, but even some Japanese do not like to eat it. It was great seeing Misaki and her family again. They are really kind and joyful (totemo genki desu!). They asked me to come see them again and I think I will. Misaki's major at her high school is English, so I might go with her for one day. Plus it is right in Kumamoto, city school! I showed them pictures of Elijah and they said, oh what a man he has become! So handsome! I like to show him off, for he is quite handsome:) Even last time he was here Ema's friend thought he was handsome (and then, he was still a boy). I miss having Elijah around, I have never been to Japan without him... and now that I am at my aunt and uncle's house it seems empty because Kazu is in college, Elijah at home and right now Miyako is still in the hospital...however, she is coming home Tuesday and this house will be more full. Of course, there is Nonta, the little dog. I don't know a thing about dogs but I want to say he is a doxen? Or something? Like a hot dog dog with brown and black, very small. He is a fierce gaurd dog, he barks endlessly when I come in until Ema or Makito-jichan comes in and comforts him. He jumps up on them and he licks their faces in glee.

As a side note for vocabulary I might be using...
Obaachan is Grandma. Ojiichan is Grandpa. Ojichan is Uncle (notice one less"i" making it shorter) and Obachan is aunt. You change all of the ending "chan"s to "san" when you want to be more polite. Using chan is more cute and endearing, used for family or close friends. So when I say Uncle Makito I just say Makito-jichan (it might actually be Makito-ojichan, but when said fast, you drop the extra "o").

Aftr dinner last night Misakipapa said I will go get some ice cream and meet you all back at Makito's house (Makito and Misakipapa went high school together and are good friends, as are Ema and Misaki, but Ema went out with friends to celebrate the sports festival). So Michael, Mom, Misaki and her mom all went back to the house and chatted for a bit. When Misaki's dad came in, he had two full bags of all kinds of things (iro iro na tabemono!). Chips, popsicles, mochi ice cream, yogurt, cream bread, chocolate bread, jell-o, tomato juice, apple tea- like he just went around the store grabbing one each of whatever he thought would be good. I ate the strawberry mochi ice cream. It was a thin layer of mochi (pounded rice, it's sticky and soft) with ice cream in the middle. I had never tried it before, but since I love both of those things, I thought I would like it and I definitely did! It was a fun night and I promised to see them after I go to my first farm in Kikuchi (near here).

This morning we relaxed before going to visit Miyako at the hospital. I think Miyako is so beautiful, because she really is. Even wearing the hospital gown and after days of being in bed healing, she was still beautiful. Makito-jichan said right after the surgery she had looked so white and tired but everyday it got better. I thought she looked a lot better and she was smiling and laughing and chatting with mom. We showed he the pictures from Ema's sports festival, which I think she really appreciated since she couldn't be there.It was very nice to see her and is good to know she is doing well and she will be home in just a few days. I will come visit again later and she will be here too.

My cousin Kazu is in college but he will be graduating in the spring. Mikayo and Makito are very happy because he already has a job working on trucks. Working with vehicles is his passion, so I am happy for him. I just learned he is 20...I should have known seeing as I'm 18, but wow! 20?? Though it is only two years away it sounds like such a big number...stupid, I know, considering that 20 is still young. My uncle commented how Kazu has a little belly now that he is not biking anymore...he has always been skinny and I'm sure he is skinny now too. Having a "little belly" here in Japan is what I consider skinny in America...so...I guess it is just perspective!

Today after visiting Miyako we went to Suizenji Garden in Kumamoto. Very beautiful. The trees in Japanese gardens impress me, for they are pruned very precisely like how you can see the pine trees on Japanese scrolls and paintings, they really look like that!
We ate lunch there at a little restuarant. I got Dangojiro (dumpling soup, though the "dumplings" looked more like udon noodles for giants, for the noodle was about an inch wide and very long). Michael and Ema got oyakudonburi (i think thats what it is called, but it is egg and chicken over rice) and Mom and Makito got zenzai, sweet bean soup with mochi-delicious! I love it too, but wanted salty food for the meal. I have seven months, I can eat zenzai many other times.

That is an odd thought. Comprehending seven months at this point is...impossible. I have never come to Japan for so long, and I am used to being in this mode where I'm constantly wanting to find the best gifts and therefore buy a lot of things. But since if I buy things now I would have to carry it for the rest of the time...I am trying to resist buying much. I bought a little fabric today, though. It is blue with pink poka dots and a print of rabit heads wearing different hats, the rabits are white. It is pretty funky. Mom said she would take it home and make me a pillow out of it. The rest I can keep for patches or something. Seeing all the fabric and yarn makes me want to really learn to sew. I can sew a patch, but I can't do anything neatly...I learned to knit a long time ago and made a never ending scarf (I didn't know how to stop knitting, or finish the piece) but it was an ugly thing because the number of stiches whent up and down and there holes were I missed a stich and all kinds of bad things. I aslo have no patience...mom, on the other hand, is one of the most patient people I know so she doesn't quite understand me for that.

We went to clean Ojiichan and Obaachan's ohaka just now. It is a decorative above ground tomb that you place the urns inside. You have one for the family. It is made of beautiful stone, Obaachan and Ojiichan's has a cross made of stone carve into the top. There is a platform to pray on and a step up with vases for flowers and a plaque that has something written. On the side there is a a space that currently has two pieces of stone set in it, one with Obaachan's name and the lifetime and one for Ojiichan's name and lifetime. There is room for more...I assume one day Mom will be there too. Part of her with me, if I am in America, and part of her there. We cleaned it with wet cloths and swept it. Mom bought fresh flowers for the vases. It looks very shiny and decorative with the colorful flowers.

10.3.11

Last night was a lot of fun because we ate and made dinner together and we stayed up chatting for a little while. Mom made spaghetti made with a base of ketchup rather than our noraml tomato sauce. There were also buns, nashi (Japanese pear), kaki (persimon), gyoza (pot sticker) and this traditionally Kumamoto food that is fried lotus root stuffed with hot mustard (it was...okay). Then we talked about all sorts of things, but mostly Makito told us about his past. He is very interesting and I learned different things about him. He loves mountain bikes and motorcycles and he is very good impersonating the sounds of motorcycles. He said when he was younger (and there were few motorcycles) he could tell what it was by the sound. He also built little model motorcycles from paper. He showed us one and he said that this wasn't even the best one. But it was very detailed and exact and definitely impressive. He also makes stickers having to do with mountain biking because he is head of a group now for mountain biking but before he started several other groups. One he wanted to start was the "health angels" which is amusing because in Japanese when you say it, it sounds like "Hell's Angels" (the famous motorcycle gang). He also talked about how he had participated in many running races in college and had done very well in many of them. But he told us one time that he had fainted because he was dehydrated. He told us when he was in middle school the teachers told him you shouldn't drink before a race and no matter what, as long as you believe you can do something, you can. He said he learned that that wasn't the case this one time because he was very dehydrated and he lost conciousness and fell during the race. He said that was when he realized that what his teachers said was not very true. He had other stories like that, like when he got hit by a motorcycle when he was standing on the side of the road. One thing that I found very interesting is that when he was young he believed he was bad at sports because he always recieved a bad grade since he couldn't play ball sports such as baseball and the like. And it wasn't until he started and biking and running that he realized that he wasn't bad at it. He is still very strong and athletic. You just have to find your place in the world...

Soon we went to bed and when I got up Makitojichan had gone to teach at the university and Ema had left at 4:45 am to ride her bike to school...AH! We walked around the town after breakfast. I went to the book store while Mom and Michael went on a walk. I was observing the variety of things they had for office supplies. It's incredible! Everything is not only functional but also aesthetically pleasing. There were tape dispensers that looked like elephants and the binders were in all different sizes and colors and there were all different cute file folder holders. Just about everything was there! Pencil holders, picture frames, book ends...I have decided I'm going to go college shopping here, by another bag for check in for when I go home. I'm so excited to go shopping towards the end of my trip!!!:p

Then we went to a bridge that is covered in tiles that Mom's old ceramics teacher made. Very beautiful. There were the largest carp in the water below and Michael bought bread to feed them. After that we walked down the road to meet Mom's friend, Eiko. She came to America for Mom and Michael's wedding...years ago! But the restaurant was unlike anywhere I had gone in Japan, kind of a mix between Bead Paradise in Oberlin and a tradtional Japanese Restaurant. They sold different artsy products. There was a bag I really grew fond of, but decided I didn't need it :( It was good to see Eiko again, we usually only get to see her for a few hours for every trip. She knows some English because she used to teach English at a high school before she had children. I guess that place was very craftsy. The dishes used were mostly made by the woman who started the restaurant and I think the couple who do ceramics is where Keiko learned ceramics too. The room we were in was cozy with two high tables and a low one with cozy chairs and the walls were painted as if it were a Western place with pretty white and pink wall paper, flowers with vases and a window with a woman sitting at a table outside. There were curtains over the door and wooden bird cages  hanging from the ceiling with ceramic birds inside. We ordered from a menu that had a pretty handmade cover in all different colors. They brought us hot tea with tiny little bowls with tiny little handmade cookies inside. Then we ordered the lunch special. Soon it came, amazing with many little dishes on a tray. Rice, tempura, daikon, miso and eggplant, chestnut, miso and pickles. It was delicious! For dessert there was a tiny little cheese cake (the width and length of my pointer and middle finger). They were playing all different kinds of music, first folky music, then traditional Japanese music (like the woman ...yodling? Maybe that is what it is called), then there was something that sounded European and then suddenly...Elvis! We think they played it for us since they knew we were Americans. It was fun, though, eating and chatting and listening to Elvis.

Afterwards we went back to Makito's house and I showed Eiko the photo album I brought with a couple pictures of graduation. She brought us Taiyaki ("Tai" is redsnapper), but it isn't fish. It is a sweet bread filled with sweet azuki bean paste in the shape of a redsnapper with details of scales and the eye. yum:)

Soon Makitojichan will take us to the station so we can take a train and then a trolly to near Hiroko and Keichan's house, for we will be there until Friday, when I go to my first farm in Kikuchi.