A Rainy Day in Kumamoto

Easter morning dawned grey and rainy.

While Nobie attended church, Stewart and I hopped in the car and traveled out of Kumamoto heading towards the coast of the Ariake Sea. Nobi’s parents own what is essentially a very large, nice shed on a small bit of land by the seashore. In the past Stewart said, Nobi’s mother enjoyed coming there to tend a small vegetable garden. Now, the shed serves primarily as a storage unit for Stewart’s books, teaching materials, and maps: which what had brought us there for the day. As I perused this small section of Stewart’s large book collection – and grew very excited that I will have plenty to read while I am here – Stewart searched through his maps and found several English road maps of Kumamoto and the entire island of Kyushu.

Before we headed back to the city, Stewart pointed out the several ‘love hotels’ in the area. To those who may have not heard of Japanese ‘love hotels,’ please let me explain. A ‘love hotel’ is a pay-by-the-hour inn for couples to go to have sex. Now, this isn’t necessarily as sleazy as you think, you dirty minded Americans. In a country where population density is almost 350 people per square mile, privacy can be hard to find, especially when you are living with your extended family which can include not only the parents, but grandparents as well. That said, some of them are a sleazy as you think. I saw one the other day called the ‘Red Rose’ Hotel, which had hot pink velvet-like curtains in the windows. Classy.

Back in Kumamoto, Stewart took me to a Japanese buffet restaurant – similar to a ‘Golden Corral’ I think. It was a good way for me to see and try a variety of Japanese dishes. It was great. I loved the small bits of fried chicken – about ten times better than Chick-fil-a – and fried mackerel. Tempura vegetables, steamed sweet potato and carrots, and rice with shitake mushrooms were also delicious. My only misstep was a large piece of steamed enoki mushroom - practically impossible to bite and chew - requiring that I put the entire thing in my mouth and gnaw on it for quite awhile. Despite Stewart’s stifled laughter making me want to laugh along with my driving instinct to gag on the slimy rubbery thing, I finally swallowed it. Stewart expressed his admiration and confessed that he probably would have spit it back out. I felt so proud.

We arrived back home around four o’clock and simply enjoyed resting with the several New Yorker magazines I brought with me. Later, that evening Nobie made ginger pork for dinner along with mashed potatoes, tortilla chips and homemade guacamole. My favorite meal so far, though I confess I left the guacamole alone and had some of my Mom’s homemade salsa that Stewart had brought with him from his last trip to the States. After dinner, Stewart and I took Meg, the dog, for a short walk and returned for a relaxing evening in from of the television, which Stewart attempted to teach me how to operate. They do have satellite, which receives CNN, BCC World, and a few movie and U.S. channels, primarily FOX World. Common U.S. shows on the schedule are House, NCIS, Bones, and all of the CSI shows.

It was a fairly quiet day, but an enjoyable one. I was feeling some jet lag still and forced myself to stay awake until ten o’clock before I collapsed into bed. My next day would be quite full as I planned to explore downtown Kumamoto, this time all by myself.

-Jenny