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Nar3: Japan

Kyushu: Day 2 (Jan 1)
Posted on Friday, January 9th, 2004 at 7:58am by Brett.
(Friday, January 9th, 2004 at 9:58pm Japanese Standard Time)

I woke up, got dressed, and went into the main room, which was next to the room where I slept. Sei had still not come home. The futon I slept in was nice and warm because Sei's mom or grandma had put a heating...thing in it when she laid out the futon. The heating thing was a hot coal placed inside a plastic box, then wrapped with a couple layers of sheets. The room where we slept wasn't heated, so it made it nice and toasty under the sheets.

Everyone was already in the family room when I woke up, and Sei's mom had prepared the breakfast. I can't remember what everything is, but it was all good to eat. I do remember that the plate on the upper left had warm sake in it. As tradition, we all took a drink of the sake. I thought Shu was going to gag himself to death by coughing, but he managed...

After breakfast, Sei's grandpa took me around to the two shrines and showed me the ceremonial things to do for the new year. Shortly after that, Sei got home, had some breakfast, and went to bed. He had stayed up all night...

Sei's mom took Shu and me bowling. The Japanese bowling balls seem to be, as everything is here, just a little bit smaller. My fingers wouldn't fit into the finger holes, so I ended up using a 16 or 17 pound ball just so my thumb wouldn't get caught. Oddly, they use pounds to measure the weight of bowling balls instead of kilograms, like everything else....

Shu pretty much put me to shame. I've never claimed to be a good bowler, or even a decent one, but while I was saying "YES! I broke 80!" Shu was saying "YES! I broke 150!" His mom beat me too...

After bowling, we got some KFC. It was the first time I've had KFC while in Japan. It tastes exactly the same.

We went back to the house and people started coming by to do their new year visitings. There were probably 4 or 5 different groups of people that came by. Each of them gave every family member a new year's gift, and in return Sei's family gave them the traditional new year food that we had that morning for breakfast. It was kind of amusing to watch all the visitors be slightly surprised that there was this foreigner sitting around the table, but it was a lot of fun. All the people that were there gave me these little envelopes. I didn't open them until I got back to Tsukuba, and it was then that I realized they weren't new year's cards like I had thought, but money! I feel bad that I didn't have anything to give in return...

Later that day, Yuu, Shu, and I were upstairs listening to music. We shared pretty similar tastes, and I was wanting to hear some Japanese alt or ska. Sei's father had returned from his rescue mission, and went upstairs to meet me. After meeting, we went downstairs for dinner.

We had dinner with Sei's aunt, uncle, and two cousins. The cousins were two younger children, Takamu was 10, and I can't remember the other one. The reason I remember Takamu is because he spent the night for a couple nights, because he looks like my cousin Ashley, and because he has mad crazy dancing skillz.

After we ate, they opened op the sliding doors to the room where Sei and I sleep to make it up to be a sort of stage. They laid down some cardboard, and were trying to make Takamu dance. I didn't understand really what was going on, so I was just watching. When they had finally convinced him to do some stuff, I was in shock. This boy was about 10 years old, and he was proper break dancing. At times, I thought for sure that he was connected to the ceiling by wires. One move he did started by spinning around on his head, then rolling a bit, then ending up in this hopping on one hand upside down crazy thing. It was amazing. Yuu was also in there dancing...he was nearly as good as the 10 year old...

Sei's aunt and uncle left, and then Sei, Yuu, and I went out to play pool. Sei and Yuu were both really good, but I managed to loose with a respectable score. I think I actually won one game, though...

We got home, and it was around 11:30 or so. Sei had said he wasn't feeling well, so he went to sleep. I took a bath, then went to sleep...



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adventure by ted [2004/09/01 13:12 ET]
it sounds so far like you had a really nice trip. judging from the pictures i'm sure it was an adventure that you'll remember forever. i have to admit that i am a little jealous of all that you've gotten to see and experience.