9/10 homestay in Kagoshima Day 2

Wow, two posts in two days! I hope to wrap up the Kagoshima homestay series soon.

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Woke up around 5 a.m. because Kanako-san was making bento (lunchbox). Fell asleep again and woke up around 6:30 a.m. Kozue was getting ready for school. Ate breakfast (miso soup, egg rolls, rice, meatball, etc.) and had a quick shower without soap (I don't quite remember, but I probably couldn't find it). Went to Ichikichou Post Office and cleaned up the place with Mandy (Man-Yi's nickname) and Tabuchi-san, Mandy's host mom. I used the vacuum cleaner. After work, Fukuyama-san, the post office director, showed us books that covered 120 years of Japan Postal Service history and gave us omiyage (gift), a mailbox-shaped piggy bank. Mandy and I watched post office rules on video which is shown to new hires. Fukuyama-san bought us yogurt, and we participated in the radio taisou (morning exercise performed in schools and companies). We introduced ourselves in Chinese and English.

Left the post office and stopped by A-Coop, a supermarket, and bought some coffee. Went to Tabuchi-san's friend's house and watched a Korean drama called Autumn Fairy Tale. Seemed like a rich family because the house was pretty big and the living room was fairly large. Mandy taught me Chinese while Tabuchi-san and her friend were chatting. After the drama was over, all of us went to eat tonkotsu ramen and dumplings at a restaurant.


9/10 tonkotsu ramen

Afterwards, we went to a dessert place and ate cakes and the famous shirokuma dessert. It's basically ice covered with ice cream and fruits. It's supposed to look like a white bear, hence the name shirokuma which means exactly that in Japanese. What do you think?


9/10 shirokuma dessert

After taking Hinokuchi-san, Tabuchi-san's friend, back to her house, we visited Kawakami Elementary School and introduced ourselves. We were going to spend a day with elementary school kids on 9/16. Children were riding unicycles. Went to Tabuchi-san's place, and I played with Qoo, a dog, and Tatsu, a cat. Other dogs were barking at me, and there were two chickens walking around the garden. The cell phone reception was so bad near the house. After fooling around a bit more, we went to pick up Hiromi from middle school. Stopped by Daiwa supermarket to buy some food, and we saw an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher, basically an English teacher) there. I asked Hiromi about it, and apparently, they have an ALT in elementary, middle, and high schools.

Tabuchi-san dropped me off at Miura's on the way. Kozue was already back from school eating a Korean snack I had brought from Tokyo, onion rings. The black-white cat, Tama, was inside the house, and I played with him for a while. Grandmother Mie-san doesn't like cats, and she hit the poor cat on the head and tried to get him out of the house. I actually carried Tama outside. Studied for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 1 for a bit and ate dinner. I automatically got extra helping of food, and it was once again 1:3 sitting style, me sitting on one side while the others sat across from me.


9/10 yummy chahan and soup dinner

Some guy from the Karaimo Homestay office came with a large shochu bottle. He talked with me for a bit, asking some questions, but he spent most of the time talking to the host mom. Supposedly, I was to go to his place and help fix some computer problem (ended up never going to his house). Miura-san's first daughter, her husband, and two children visited later. They left Riena-chan, the older child, to sleep at the house. Miura-san's second daughter, Tomomi, woke up from slumber and came down. I was seeing her for the first time, so I gave her my omiyage. She didn't open it right then, so I don't know what she did with it. Maybe it's still unopen. Who knows.

Did some Internet surfing, and watched the TV drama version of "Sekai no chushin de ai wo sakebu," which roughly means "Shouting out love, from the Center of the World," with Kozue in Mie-san's room. While watching the drama, Kozue found a BIG cockroach on the wall and freaked out. I had to put it to sleep with a flyswatter, and I threw it out the window. Anyway, the TV drama is based on a popular novel, and a movie came out last year as well. The movie's title song by Hirai Ken, Hitomi wo tojite, was the best-selling single of 2004. The drama's title song by Shibasaki Kou, Katachi aru mono, was really popular as well. Shibasaki also starred in the movie. Confused? Anyway, the story is pretty good. Good enough for me to buy the DVD. It has English subtitles, so if any of you wants to watch it when I'm in America, let me know. Kanako-san asked me if I wanted to go to the chorus practice and watch her sing, but I declined because I wanted to watch the drama.