Kagoshima was really wonderful. Kazu dropped me off at Uto station (in his new, cool car that has the engine in the back instead of the front so I got to put my bag in the hood of the car! whoa!) and then took the train to Kumamoto, found platform for shinkansen, rode shinkansen for like 45 minutes got to Kagoshima. Megumi was waiting for me at the gate and we took a taxi to the ferry and then took the ferry to Sakurajima, the "used to be island" volcano in the middle of Kagoshima. That ferry is famous for udon so we ate that during the ride. Then Megumi's friends picked us up at the otherside and we drove into the mountains of Teramizu to the campground where we met Megumi's college professor and about 25 other people for the overnight camp. Megumi's friends are mostly guys - I think due to the fact she went to technical school for woodworking and what not. One of them was "Joe" who lives in Miyazaki - he is the same age as Megumi and really kind and hilarious. "Testu" and "Gaku" (shortened names because they have terribly long names) were also really nice. They were 29 and 30, but they didn't treat me like a little kid which I really appreciated.

We set up camp and then the five of us plus three other women went on a river walk which was fun and perfect activity for the hot day. When we got back to camp other people had started tempura and BBQ so we basically just got to eat. Another of Megumi's friends came later , Shogun- he works at the nearby by chicken meat/egg company. I got to eat all kinds of strange tempura - even ocha leaf tempura!
There was a night hike for the kids (there were about 8 kids, elementary age)  and after chatting and drinking some more I got tired and went to bed while everyone else stayed up but it was fine. Megu, Joe, Shogun and I had plans to get up at 5AM and climb a mountain to see the sunrise. The night was cold so I slept on my belly with my arms under me - which I haven't done since the Smoky mountains while hiking the Appalachian Trail. Anyway. I was the first to get up and somehow we managed to get Joe up (who had been awake till 3) and we climbed the mountain. The valley of the mountains is where the chicken company is, so it is dotted with the houses for them. But the place is famous for the azaleas (which had just finished blooming) because the mountain we climbed and part of the valley is basically entirely azaleas - it is a major attraction during the blooming season. We had a late start so about half way of the mountian the sun came up over the other mountain. But the top was still incredible - rising sun to one side, view of the bay and Kagoshima, a view of the valley of azaleas and chicken houses and a perfect view of the valcano that happened to start spouting ash while we were up there (that happens 3-4 times a day). Joe had a pretty difficult time making it to the top, but it made him feel a lot better so it was fine and back at camp we made coffee and tea until everyone got up and we made breakfast.

We were done with camping stuff at 12 when Megu and I met another friend - Rumi - near the port. She was going to drive us around Sakurajima. She was born and grew up (with four older sisters) and still lives there with the ash spouting volcano. We ate lunch before driving around the island. One side of the island where all the ash goes is really rocky and only has pines, while the other side seems pretty normal. Cars that have been parked too long are dusted with ash, the city gives the residents bags to collect ash so to keep the place clean. One area looked like it was dusted with flour - the trees and plants were all whitish. I couldn't live there...it even gets in your eyes and hair and clothes and stuff when it's bad.
Rumi was really cool - she too treated me like an adult, and we listened to Monkey Majik (aweomse band) toured the island and even got to see her families mikan and loquat farm. The island is famous for the smallest mikan in the world and the largest daikon in the world - pretty funny.
We also went to see a giant Nagabuchi memorial...which was both amazing and amusing. We ate mikan ice cream before she dropped us off so we could return to Kagoshima for the night. I'm really hoping Rumi and Megu come visit me in America together - Rumi is learning English so she was excited to meet me and the idea of going to America.

We took the ferry back to Kagoshima and went to a little tonkatsu restaurant. The city is also famous for "kurobuta", black pigs. So I got to eat kurobuta tonkatsu that came with cabbage, miso soup and rice. It was a tiny little traditional style restaurant - and the tonkatsu was delicious.

After that we got breakfast materials and snacks for the next day before taking a taxi to Tetsu and Megumi's friend's place who is in charge of a house that is actually an NPO office. It's emtpy during breaks and nights so they were letting us stop there for the night. The house was beautiful. Shiny and clean and new Japanese style with wide open wood floored rooms and lots of windows. We ate snacks and drank tea and chatted before taking baths and falling asleep.

In the morning I made yogurt/apple/banana mix while Megumi prepared this thing (which I forgot the name of ) but is like mochi/dango but is made with rice that is cooked with ash water. You eat with kinako and black sugar powder mixed. It was really good! I could eat it all day - and I know Mom could too:)

Then we went to the sweet potato sweets cafe/shop that Megu used to work at and got to try some samples:) After that Megu rented a car, we went to Tsutaya to rent CDs (Nagabuchi, Monkey Majik, Blink 182 and I think "Ikinogakari" or something like that). Then we went to the other shore side to see the Sand and Flower Festival. Basically a sand version of the Sapporo Snow Festival. It was super hot but also incredible - my famous piece was done by an Italian woman, a sculpture of the Wizard of Oz. It was really beautifully done. I can't imagine making such pieces of art from sand...I can't even make a mini sand castle. We walked the route and enjoyed sand scultpures of Star Wars, Broadway, Titanic, Totoro and more! For our first lunch we got shaved ice and shared a sausage on a stick. After that we made our way back to Kagoshima, bought souveniers, ate our second lunch of sushi and chatted before she took me back to the station.

It was really sad saying good bye. She waited at the station with me, and stood right outside my window until the train left the station. She cried a little and I was kind of surprised. I think one of my faults is I don't really trust that people truly care about me or are genuine until a display of emotion like that...it's kind of pathetic on my part. I was really touched. I know how I feel about Megumi...I think we will be friends for a long time. It's pretty amazing that in this big world we happened to meet at the right time in the right place. Before she came to Kikuchi, I almost chose that time that she was coming to go to Mashiki, but the way it went we got to meet and clicked right away. Very amazing.

I'm looking forward to either the day she comes to visit in America or the day that I get to return to Japan.

I'm back in Uto and it is really hot. Today I went with Ema and Obachan to see an art show of bead work. It was incredible... tiny little beads, such beautiful artwork - the time it must take! The patience and steadiness! Not for me, but what a sight to see!

Right now in Hashirigata it is still very busy. Almost 200 boxes of tomatoes today and lots of cucumbers. I went with Yoshifumi-san to the market when taking the cucumbers. There was so much there! Boxes and boxes of carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, daikon, eggplants and watermelons...filled the place. I bagged the tomatoes and cucumbers that can't be sold in normal stores for the afternoon. Tomorrow I'll  go for a full day, because I only went from the afternoon today. I think I can get through the houses one more time clipping the sprouts...

I wrote that portion on Sunday, but now it's Friday and I haven't posted yet!

I finally got through picking off the little sprouts of the tomato plants - twice. Yesterday I spent the whole day lowering the strings of the tomato plants...hard to explain...but it was kind of tiring. I literally did the same thing for like 5 hours - but it gives me a lot of time to think and luckily there was a cool breeze that managed to get into the green house. It's been 29 or 30 degrees Celcius recently...hot.

I went to eat a unagi dinner with one of my mom's friends - Eiko-obachan on Tuesday. It was very beautiful and very, very delicious. Eel has recently gotten more expensive than usual becuase for some reason the population has gone down...oh no!

Sunday is another MTB race with the family, which I'm looking forward to. Everyone is so busy, it is rare I get to spend a day with the family.

11 days.