I wake up on the beach
With Belinda in my arms
The sky dances in time with the beat
While I gaze at the horizon
Amami Oshima
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| Amami Oshima |
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Amami
Daybreak
I wake up on the beach
With Belinda in my arms
The sky dances in time with the beat
While I gaze at the horizon
Amami Oshima
I wake up on the beach
With Belinda in my arms
The sky dances in time with the beat
While I gaze at the horizon
Amami Oshima
Monday, July 13, 2009
Crab Gut Paste 蟹味噌
A whirlwind of packing, hauling and preparing. A rush of last goodbyes.
On the road.
Yesterday Dwight and I flew into Kagoshima after an eventful morning of long delays. Who doesn't love the immigration department?
It is hot here. And further south we go. Closer to the equator and thus I figure that much hotter. At least my washing will dry quickly. No small blessing considering how little clothing I have brought with me.
Last night we checked into our hostel and headed out for a hot spring in a rather run down (ぼろぼる) but undeniably authentic place recommended to us by the hostel manager. Then we went to the Tenmonkan (天文館） area for dinner. After wandering around and feeling quite hungry we happened upon the entirely wrong place where we ate far too expensively. Nevertheless, it was delicious. Sashimi, Satsuma-age, Satsumaimo Tempura and Salmon Belly. (刺身、さつま揚げ、さつまいも天ぷら、サーモン焼き) think the Satsumaimo Tempura was the pick of the bunch. Subtle, fresh. The definition of what tempura should be and rarely is, even in Japan. We thought we would finish with some nice crab cooked in miso. That's what I thought kanimiso (literally, crab miso) would be. No. Apparently the miso like paste which is the crabs intestines is a delicacy. To be enjoyed with Japanese sake or spirits. After shelling out for some imojochu (potato spirits) in an attempt to improve the taste of crab intestines we were left disappointed. I won't forget the meaning of kanimiso for a long time. Intensely crabby with just the right amount of totally disgusting to make it edible but repulsive. I can still taste it now.
We went next to a small open air bar and had some more potato spirit and tofu. In Japan when you drink at almost any bar or restaurant you are treated to a compulsory service charge and accompanying snack. In this case it was squid sashimi (イか刺身). I am not a huge fan of raw squid but it is OK. The bar was run by a woman and her husband and had only a couple of well inebriated customers. We chatted with them all for several hours and got quite drunk. I was trying to get someone to teach me some Kagoshima dialect but I couldn't get much out of them. They said it was impossible to speak Kagoshima dialect to somone outside Kagoshima. I don't think they meant that they wouldn't but rather that it feels very unnatural and that they use dialect without thinking. Nevertheless, I learned that tofu is sometimes referred to as okabe from another drinker. Then the owner sang us a song in Kagoshima dialect about a bug being found in a rice bowl even though it had been washed three times. While he sang his wife translated for us into standard Japanese. Chawanmushi is a steamed egg custard served with sushi. Mushi 蒸し means a steamed dish. However mushi 虫, which has the same pronunciation but a completely different meaning and Chinese character means bug. Chawan means ricebowl and so literally ricebowl-bug. I am not sure whether this song was meant to be a pun or not but it seemed so to me.
While I was writing the above I asked one of the managers here about dialect. She is young and said that young people don't use dialect much. She said that the main thing that changed was that when she spoke with other Kagoshima people the intonation changed. Standard Japanese is very flat but apparently in local speech in Kagoshima there is more tonal variation.
The barkeepers daughter showed up some time after midnight and eventually came and sat with us. It turned out that she had been to university in Tokyo and when she was there she dated a guy who lived in the same town as me, Niiza, so she knew my Japanese hometown well. Not that there is a lot to know about Niiza! I asked her how it felt to come back to her hometown after spending time in the city. She said at first she hadn't wanted to come back but that now she really enjoyed living here. I feel like Kagoshima is a lot like Wollongong. I really like it here so far. I asked this question because I am thinking about it myself. I have spent some time in the city now, in Sydney and Tokyo and I sometimes feel unsure about how I will feel when I finally return to Wollongong. I think I might miss the busy intensity of city life. On the other hand I know that I could not sustain that pace forever and that the joy of living in one's hometown is something that can never be matched in a big city. Oh Wollongong, how I love and miss you!
One final comment before I say goodbye. At my farwell party on Sunday
.I had to say goodbye to Michiko and to all my Japanese friends. When she left I was feeling quite sad and then one of my friends started singing a song on the guitar about my journey. I started to cry in front of everyone and eventually of course people noticed. My friends hugged me and comforted me and then one of them started to cry. He cried intensely and passionately and I held him. It occurred to me that he was crying not just for me, after all we have know each other only a short time, but that the situation had opened up the potential for crying. I don't know whether crying is socially acceptable for men in Japan but I doubt it. For me, it was a great privilege to have another man cry in my arms. It is difficult for me to recall ever having witnessed a grown man cry. I have seen my own father cry but only very rarely and only while constantly apologising for doing so. I feel that allowing me to see him cry has been a great gift. We men are not allowed to cry. We have to be strong, tough. This taboo has brought me great unhappiness because without the ability to cry sadness just accumulates inside oneself with no outlet.
And so as I write this, on the second day of my journey I am crying softly. Crying for myself and for all the men who have been brutally dispossessed of this beautiful means of emotional expression. And I will go on crying until the day I die so that I don't drown like so many of the men that I know in the bitterness that builds up inside.
From Kagoshima, with love.
Kagoshima Photos:
On the road.
Yesterday Dwight and I flew into Kagoshima after an eventful morning of long delays. Who doesn't love the immigration department?
It is hot here. And further south we go. Closer to the equator and thus I figure that much hotter. At least my washing will dry quickly. No small blessing considering how little clothing I have brought with me.
Last night we checked into our hostel and headed out for a hot spring in a rather run down (ぼろぼる) but undeniably authentic place recommended to us by the hostel manager. Then we went to the Tenmonkan (天文館） area for dinner. After wandering around and feeling quite hungry we happened upon the entirely wrong place where we ate far too expensively. Nevertheless, it was delicious. Sashimi, Satsuma-age, Satsumaimo Tempura and Salmon Belly. (刺身、さつま揚げ、さつまいも天ぷら、サーモン焼き) think the Satsumaimo Tempura was the pick of the bunch. Subtle, fresh. The definition of what tempura should be and rarely is, even in Japan. We thought we would finish with some nice crab cooked in miso. That's what I thought kanimiso (literally, crab miso) would be. No. Apparently the miso like paste which is the crabs intestines is a delicacy. To be enjoyed with Japanese sake or spirits. After shelling out for some imojochu (potato spirits) in an attempt to improve the taste of crab intestines we were left disappointed. I won't forget the meaning of kanimiso for a long time. Intensely crabby with just the right amount of totally disgusting to make it edible but repulsive. I can still taste it now.
We went next to a small open air bar and had some more potato spirit and tofu. In Japan when you drink at almost any bar or restaurant you are treated to a compulsory service charge and accompanying snack. In this case it was squid sashimi (イか刺身). I am not a huge fan of raw squid but it is OK. The bar was run by a woman and her husband and had only a couple of well inebriated customers. We chatted with them all for several hours and got quite drunk. I was trying to get someone to teach me some Kagoshima dialect but I couldn't get much out of them. They said it was impossible to speak Kagoshima dialect to somone outside Kagoshima. I don't think they meant that they wouldn't but rather that it feels very unnatural and that they use dialect without thinking. Nevertheless, I learned that tofu is sometimes referred to as okabe from another drinker. Then the owner sang us a song in Kagoshima dialect about a bug being found in a rice bowl even though it had been washed three times. While he sang his wife translated for us into standard Japanese. Chawanmushi is a steamed egg custard served with sushi. Mushi 蒸し means a steamed dish. However mushi 虫, which has the same pronunciation but a completely different meaning and Chinese character means bug. Chawan means ricebowl and so literally ricebowl-bug. I am not sure whether this song was meant to be a pun or not but it seemed so to me.
While I was writing the above I asked one of the managers here about dialect. She is young and said that young people don't use dialect much. She said that the main thing that changed was that when she spoke with other Kagoshima people the intonation changed. Standard Japanese is very flat but apparently in local speech in Kagoshima there is more tonal variation.
The barkeepers daughter showed up some time after midnight and eventually came and sat with us. It turned out that she had been to university in Tokyo and when she was there she dated a guy who lived in the same town as me, Niiza, so she knew my Japanese hometown well. Not that there is a lot to know about Niiza! I asked her how it felt to come back to her hometown after spending time in the city. She said at first she hadn't wanted to come back but that now she really enjoyed living here. I feel like Kagoshima is a lot like Wollongong. I really like it here so far. I asked this question because I am thinking about it myself. I have spent some time in the city now, in Sydney and Tokyo and I sometimes feel unsure about how I will feel when I finally return to Wollongong. I think I might miss the busy intensity of city life. On the other hand I know that I could not sustain that pace forever and that the joy of living in one's hometown is something that can never be matched in a big city. Oh Wollongong, how I love and miss you!
One final comment before I say goodbye. At my farwell party on Sunday
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| Farewell Koenji |
And so as I write this, on the second day of my journey I am crying softly. Crying for myself and for all the men who have been brutally dispossessed of this beautiful means of emotional expression. And I will go on crying until the day I die so that I don't drown like so many of the men that I know in the bitterness that builds up inside.
From Kagoshima, with love.
Kagoshima Photos:
 |
| First Night in Kagoshima |
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