Golden Week!
I meant to write Monday after our arrival back from Yoron, but surprisingly enough it wasn’t an office day. I had to go to Kishira Elementary School, which I didn’t mind since it is my favorite school. As for our long vacation, we were celebrating Golden Week. Golden week falls on the first week in May and it is called that because there are so many days off. Friday, April 29 (Green Day); Tuesday, May 3 (Constitution Day); Wednesday, May 4 (National Holiday); and Thursday, May 5 (Children's Day) were all national holidays. So, Cristina and I only had to take two days off from work in order to have such a long holiday. Friday, April 29th, we left from Kagoshima City to Yoron. Yoron is the southernmost island in Kagoshima Prefecture just north of Okinawa. It took us 20 hours by ferry to get there.
The ferry was cheap, but we can see why. It wasn’t that bad, but we did have to sleep in a big, full room on tightly crammed futons. Knowing our luck, Cristina and I got placed next to the two loudest snoring people in the room keeping over half of the others in the room awake. The other negative about the ferry was that I got a real bad cramp or ache above my stomach, which scared me a bit especially after the ferry employees informed me that nothing can be done until we reach the next port 3-hours away. Luckily, it passed.
The positives about the ferry was that we had plenty of time to read and watch for sea life. I finished reading three books after all the ferry rides we took: Carlos Eire’s Waiting for Snow in Havana, Doug Coupland’s Life After God and Sara Backer’s American Fuji. All were extremely interesting and easy to relate to in some way. As for the sea life, we saw tons of flying fish, a couple pods of dolphins, a couple sea turtles and a whole mess of man-o-wars. Cristina was definitely not as keen as I was about all the sightings.
Upon arrival, we were greeted by David, the Yoron ALT, who offered his services as host during our stay. We were able to sleep over his place and get the first-hand tour of Yoron. The second night we were there, David threw us a welcome party with many of his friends and people from his office to introduce us to Yoron kempo. Yoron’s main crop in sugarcane; thus, they use sugarcane to make their scent-free liquor called Yu-sen. Kempo involves the host pouring himself yu-sen in a bowl and tasting it after saying a short speech. Originally, this practice evolved from the host tasting it to ensure his guests that the yu-sen is not poisoned. However, since it is no longer made at home, that is not the case. Now it is simply for fun and to get drunk. After the host finishes drinking, he pours it for the honored guest. He then makes a speech and drinks from the bowl. The bowl is then given back to the host who pours for the next person. Once all have drunk from the bowl, the bottle is passed to someone else to play the role of host. There are other rules involved as well to make this game a bit more fun.
Yoron was absolutely breath taking. It was just like the picture on the cover of a magazine that sits on a rack outside my office. The island is about 20 km in circumference and is surrounded by coral except in the parts they blasted to make room for a port. Thus, the beaches are usually calm and crystal clear. You can see the fish, rocks and your feet with your head above the water. We went swimming most days we were on the island and exploring its different coves.
Besides going to the beach, we went to a couple museums showing the history of Yoron. It wasn’t ruled by the Satsuma Clan like the rest of Kagoshima, but it wasn’t part of the Ryuku Kingdom (Okinawa) either. Yoron had its own language, but has obviously adopted Japanese. It was really interesting to learn all of this. We also visited a cave embedded on a cliff-side where many people on Yoron died. About 100 years ago, Yoron had some type of disease or plague that claimed the lives of many people. Since they did not recognize what it was or how to cure it, the people inflicted with it went to this cave to live out the remainder of their days. Today, the cave is full of bones and human skulls.
As for food, we were happy to discover that Yoron had an Ai-Shop with a bakery just like mine in Uchinoura. I was ecstatic about this and we ate there almost everyday for lunch. For dinner, we usually ate at a very cool restaurant called Seaside Avenue, which had lots of beach/ocean type things to build an ambience and, of course, a view of the shore. On our last night there, we also went to an izakaya (a Japanese pub) to eat some of the local specialties and do some more kempo. After, we went to see a local band play some Okinawa music in a small bar. It was really nice and I would have bought the CD if it weren’t about $30. Cristina and I were taken up to the front of the stage more than once.
The middle three days, we went with David to Okinawa for a bit of American food and city life. Naha, the capital of Okinawa, is a 5-hour ferry ride from Yoron. Technically, because two of the days were spent traveling, we really only spent one full day there. Anyway, we stayed of the main strip, Kokusai Dori. It was full of restaurants and shops. The first night, we ate at Sam’s Maui Steakhouse, which is a lot like Beni-Hana’s where they cook steak in front of you. The restaurant was Hawaii-Tiki themed that really made us want to go to Hawaii too. The second day, we went to the Okinawa castle, Shuri-jo, that was a lot better and bigger than I expected. I had always seen pictures of it and thought it was a temple. I was surprised to find out it was a full blown castle complex. In the afternoon, we ventured to American Village to see what we could find that would remind us of home. Surprisingly enough, not much. Besides the Tony Roma’s we ate at and an A & W that’s all over Okinawa there wasn’t anything else that we saw. We did visit America-ya (American Store) that included lots of army surplus stuff including ejection seats and used parachutes for about $25,000. After walking into a few shops and along a beach boardwalk, we went to the movies and Baskin Robbins.
This week has been full of school visits until today. This is my first day in the office where I get more that 20 minutes to myself. I never thought I would actually look forward to these. Tomorrow is likely to be the same since all the kids are going on a school picnic which I can’t go to because of “insurance”.
This weekend Cristina and I are going to climb Mt. Kaimon, which is the miniature Fuji of Kagoshima. We also plan to go in the famous sand baths nearby in Ibusuki. On Sunday, we are coming back to watch an air show at the (Japanese) Kanoya Air Force Base.
The ferry was cheap, but we can see why. It wasn’t that bad, but we did have to sleep in a big, full room on tightly crammed futons. Knowing our luck, Cristina and I got placed next to the two loudest snoring people in the room keeping over half of the others in the room awake. The other negative about the ferry was that I got a real bad cramp or ache above my stomach, which scared me a bit especially after the ferry employees informed me that nothing can be done until we reach the next port 3-hours away. Luckily, it passed.
The positives about the ferry was that we had plenty of time to read and watch for sea life. I finished reading three books after all the ferry rides we took: Carlos Eire’s Waiting for Snow in Havana, Doug Coupland’s Life After God and Sara Backer’s American Fuji. All were extremely interesting and easy to relate to in some way. As for the sea life, we saw tons of flying fish, a couple pods of dolphins, a couple sea turtles and a whole mess of man-o-wars. Cristina was definitely not as keen as I was about all the sightings.
Upon arrival, we were greeted by David, the Yoron ALT, who offered his services as host during our stay. We were able to sleep over his place and get the first-hand tour of Yoron. The second night we were there, David threw us a welcome party with many of his friends and people from his office to introduce us to Yoron kempo. Yoron’s main crop in sugarcane; thus, they use sugarcane to make their scent-free liquor called Yu-sen. Kempo involves the host pouring himself yu-sen in a bowl and tasting it after saying a short speech. Originally, this practice evolved from the host tasting it to ensure his guests that the yu-sen is not poisoned. However, since it is no longer made at home, that is not the case. Now it is simply for fun and to get drunk. After the host finishes drinking, he pours it for the honored guest. He then makes a speech and drinks from the bowl. The bowl is then given back to the host who pours for the next person. Once all have drunk from the bowl, the bottle is passed to someone else to play the role of host. There are other rules involved as well to make this game a bit more fun.
Yoron was absolutely breath taking. It was just like the picture on the cover of a magazine that sits on a rack outside my office. The island is about 20 km in circumference and is surrounded by coral except in the parts they blasted to make room for a port. Thus, the beaches are usually calm and crystal clear. You can see the fish, rocks and your feet with your head above the water. We went swimming most days we were on the island and exploring its different coves.
Besides going to the beach, we went to a couple museums showing the history of Yoron. It wasn’t ruled by the Satsuma Clan like the rest of Kagoshima, but it wasn’t part of the Ryuku Kingdom (Okinawa) either. Yoron had its own language, but has obviously adopted Japanese. It was really interesting to learn all of this. We also visited a cave embedded on a cliff-side where many people on Yoron died. About 100 years ago, Yoron had some type of disease or plague that claimed the lives of many people. Since they did not recognize what it was or how to cure it, the people inflicted with it went to this cave to live out the remainder of their days. Today, the cave is full of bones and human skulls.
As for food, we were happy to discover that Yoron had an Ai-Shop with a bakery just like mine in Uchinoura. I was ecstatic about this and we ate there almost everyday for lunch. For dinner, we usually ate at a very cool restaurant called Seaside Avenue, which had lots of beach/ocean type things to build an ambience and, of course, a view of the shore. On our last night there, we also went to an izakaya (a Japanese pub) to eat some of the local specialties and do some more kempo. After, we went to see a local band play some Okinawa music in a small bar. It was really nice and I would have bought the CD if it weren’t about $30. Cristina and I were taken up to the front of the stage more than once.
The middle three days, we went with David to Okinawa for a bit of American food and city life. Naha, the capital of Okinawa, is a 5-hour ferry ride from Yoron. Technically, because two of the days were spent traveling, we really only spent one full day there. Anyway, we stayed of the main strip, Kokusai Dori. It was full of restaurants and shops. The first night, we ate at Sam’s Maui Steakhouse, which is a lot like Beni-Hana’s where they cook steak in front of you. The restaurant was Hawaii-Tiki themed that really made us want to go to Hawaii too. The second day, we went to the Okinawa castle, Shuri-jo, that was a lot better and bigger than I expected. I had always seen pictures of it and thought it was a temple. I was surprised to find out it was a full blown castle complex. In the afternoon, we ventured to American Village to see what we could find that would remind us of home. Surprisingly enough, not much. Besides the Tony Roma’s we ate at and an A & W that’s all over Okinawa there wasn’t anything else that we saw. We did visit America-ya (American Store) that included lots of army surplus stuff including ejection seats and used parachutes for about $25,000. After walking into a few shops and along a beach boardwalk, we went to the movies and Baskin Robbins.
This week has been full of school visits until today. This is my first day in the office where I get more that 20 minutes to myself. I never thought I would actually look forward to these. Tomorrow is likely to be the same since all the kids are going on a school picnic which I can’t go to because of “insurance”.
This weekend Cristina and I are going to climb Mt. Kaimon, which is the miniature Fuji of Kagoshima. We also plan to go in the famous sand baths nearby in Ibusuki. On Sunday, we are coming back to watch an air show at the (Japanese) Kanoya Air Force Base.
posted by Jesse Montano at
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