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Nar3: Japan

Kyushu: Day 6 (Jan 5)
Posted on Monday, January 12th, 2004 at 7:41am by Brett.
(Monday, January 12th, 2004 at 9:41pm Japanese Standard Time)

Today was the last day in Hita with Sei's family. We woke up early...rather, Sei woke up early, then woke me up about a half our later. We were planning to take a train to Kagoshima to visit my grandmother's realtives. The week at Sei's had been so much fun, that I found myself not wanting to leave. The house was so homey, and there was a strong feeling of family that I have missed since moving to Japan. Nevertheless, after breakfast we were off to the station to catch our train.

Right after breakfast, I went to brush my teeth and get changed and everything. As I was walking back into the main room, I felt a soft pop right above my left temple. I felt a bit dizzy, but just shook my head and walked in the room.

Sei's mom said something to me, but all I heard was Charlie Brown style adult voice muttering. I went to ask her what she said, and what came out was "What did you say?" Then I stopped and realized that the soft pop was my Japanese saying "You've used the last of your Japanese Usage Points for the week. You're on your own from here out. Good day."

And it was pretty much true. The rest of the trip's conversations consisted of me asking Sei "What'd s/he say?" and everyone else asking Sei "Nan tte?" Poor Sei didn't realize he was going to have to play translator...

We left the house around noon. Our train left the station at like 2:30 or so, and the ride was about 2 and 1/2 hours, I think. It was actually pretty nice. Got to sleep a bit, and it was more roomy than the buses or planes.

Once we got to Kagoshima, we were picked up at the train station by Hiroki, who is something like my second cousin. He's 23, so he's the oldest of us. He took us to his house, where I met Yuuko, who is my grandmother's neice (I think). It was around 6:00 when we got to the house, so we didn't do much that night. Mostly, Sei got to know Hiroki and his parents, and I sat trying to decide if it was better to speak completely in English or the incredibly unskilled Japanese that I might be able to pull off.

I sat quitely for a while.

Hiroki's house was quite different from Sei's. It was less traditional, for one, and had a completely different feel about it. It's hard to explain, exactly. The family was a bit older, with Hiroki being the youngest, and only one of the sibblings still lived at home, so maybe that was it. I don't know...

About the sibblings--Hiroki has two sisters that I met about 5 or 6 years ago when they came to the States...Reiko and Hitomi. Reiko is living in Tokyo right now, so I didn't get to see her, but Hitomi was there, so it was kind of fun to see her again. She had some pictures from America of my family when we were...well, five years younger...(Brad was fat...bwa ha ha)

Hiroki took us up to a mountain that had a pretty cool view of the city below, and then we came back to the house and had sukiyaki, which is also oishii good.

Then we went to bed...the end.



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"Kyushu: Day 4 (Jan 3)"Newer Post
"Kyushu: Day 5 (Jan 4) (Updated)"
6 Comments for this post.
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bwa ha ha! by Brett [2004/14/01 00:08 ET]
bwa ha ha!
 
ah brotherly love... by ted [2004/13/01 20:09 ET]
great to see that being half a world apart can't stop brothers from being brothers...
 
WHAT?!?!?! by Brad [2004/13/01 20:04 ET]
You call THAT fat?....Brett, I'm SURE i can find a picture of you from you're younger, or shall i say, LARGER years? Don't make me resort to that. Although it will take alot to convince me that i need to go through the trouble of figuring out how in the heck to let EVERYONE see one of these pictures, but if worse comes to worse.....I'll do it, and oh how i will laugh.
 
ouch... by ted [2004/13/01 20:00 ET]
that's all i can say... ouch...
 
I give you Exhibit A by Brett [2004/13/01 19:45 ET]
<a href="http://narnarnar.com/brett/fat_brad.jpg">Exhibit A</a>
 
What?.... by Brad [2004/13/01 15:46 ET]
I wasnt really THAT fat back then, just a little on the chubby side....theres nothing wrong with that!