9/9 homestay in Kagoshima Day 1

OK, this will be the first entry to a 11-part series recounting my homestay in Kagoshima prefecture. I'm too lazy, so I'm just going to copy from my diary notes, so almost all of the sentences will be fragments. Enjoy!

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Left home and did interview with Fairway. Got to Haneda Airport and met up with a Mexican guy and Anchelee (Thai girl whose father is English and mother is Japanese). Got into the plane and Anchelee had the next seat, so I was surprised. We had some nice talk, and I shared my ebi shumai (shrimp dumplings). Showed her how to play go.

Landed in Kagoshima and were guided into a conference room. 24 people from Tokyo. Lots of Taiwanese people. One really cute girl who had an adolescent girl's voice. Talked to Aussie girl and Taiwanese guy who sat at the same table. Met host mom and left airport with Taiwanese girl named Man-Yi. 1977 and kind of pretty. She taught me Chinese (I'm hungry, you are beautiful, I miss you, etc.) on the way to Ichikichou, my homestay town.

Arrived at Man-Yi's host family's house. There were goats and a dog. Bid farewell and arrived at Miura (host family's last name) household. Met Mie-san, the grandmother, who injured her leg last year and uses a rolling chair to help her move around. Waited when Kanako (host mom) was cooking dinner and when she went to get Kozue (host daughter) from school. Watched TV and talked with Mie-san. Met Kozue. She's tall and has a mole on her philtrum (dimple in the upper lip). Was told to talk to her in English whenever possible. Apparently, she did a homestay in Los Angeles. Her favorite subject is English, and she's not good at math.

Kozue and Kanako set up dinner, and I wiped the table. Ate dinner, and it was very delicious. Had complex rice (combination of various kinds of rice), daikon + meat + carrot + etc. soup, kaisou (jelly-like seafood with mustard put on top), peanut tofu, dumplings, and Kirin beer. Host dad arrived home, and we had Tanegashima shochu mizu-wari (shochu with water mixed). Host dad is from Kyoto. We ended up drinking the shochu quite a lot. I don't like shochu that much but southern Kyushu offers imo-zochu (sweet potato shochu), and the fragrance and taste are obviously different from regular shochus.


9/9 first dinner at Kagoshima homestay

Did a personality test with Kozue using the Kururinpa book I bought at the Terakoya UNESCO event. Kozue is Mishira/Kizuna, same characters that my test resulted in. For those of you who might be interested in taking the test, please visit me in Tokyo.

Stay tuned for Day 2.