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Nar3: Japan

Kyushu: Day 8 (Jan 7)
Posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2004 at 8:28am by Brett.
(Wednesday, January 14th, 2004 at 10:28pm Japanese Standard Time)

Sei and I came back to Tsukuba today.

We got up "early" and Yuuko had made us breakfast. It was a more traditional breakfast...like what Sei's family servered.

I decided I really like the traditional Japanese breakfast. It's nice...that's all.

Yuuko, instead of serving salmon like Sei's family had, served a smaller fish...cooked, but whole. When I first came to Japan, and just...in general, I try to (sometimes force myself to) try different things. I'm glad to say that there has been only one thing placed in front of me since I came here that I wouldn't eat, and it was large, red, fish eggs. I just couldn't eat them.

So, I'm eating my rice and miso soup, and look at the fish. I decide to give it a try, and pick it up. It was a split second decision--Head side or tail side first? I picked head side...my reasoning was that food goes in on that side...

I take a bite and chew. It tastes, as expected, like fish. I'm chewing when it suddenly hits me. I just ATE a fish head. The head of a fish is in my mouth, and I'm chewing it. I felt a little...a little warning, if you will, that if I want to continue eating breakfast, I need to immediately swallow or spit. I started shoveling rice in my mouth trying to force any suggestion of fish taste out of my mouth...but all in vain.

I start chewing a bit faster, and something crunched. As it always does when you're very nervous or worried, my mind thought the worst thing..."An eye...you just bit down on an eye."

Luckily, half a bowl of rice later I was able to swallow the fish head instead of having it return to thank Yuuko itself for the delicious breakfast. The rest of the day, though, I was convinced I had fish eye stuck in my teeth...

After breakfast, we went to the station where we caught a bus to Kagoshima airport. From there, we caught a plane to Haneda, then a bus to Tsukuba.

And so ends the trip to Kyushu. It was, without a doubt, one of the most exciting and fun weeks I've spent here.



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This isn't the missing day... by Brett [2004/20/01 19:43 ET]
Look before this post...
 
i thought that might have been the missing day... by ted [2004/20/01 10:36 ET]
when i read through all of the stories and realised that based on your account you had never returned to tsukuba... well... the thought crossed my mind that the last day was the missing day... hehehe...