Fishing and laundry

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Okay, I was wrong. Cousin Tsurue and her husband left Beppu this afternoon. So we are on our own for these last couple of days. Mother and Father plan to go on their own tomorrow to the "old neighborhoods" to reminisce. And yes, Lyn, apparently the site of your birth is nothing like it once was. Apparently it used to be a parking lot but Mother says there is now a building and she can't tell what it is. Father says they haven't been back to the place yet so it seems the jury is still out.

Father, Troy and Ian left shortly after 930 this morning to go fishing. Gary went along to challenge his sea legs and enjoy being on the water in the sun. I assume they'll be back in the next hour. I hope! I gave Father SPF45 but any time at all in the sun is not good for him, especially refracted from the sea. Still, he has been very excited about it for months and I hope it is turning out to be everything he wanted it to be.

Mother and I are stuck here doing everyone's laundry. I can't convince her we should just wash what people need for the next two days and forget the rest. And I can't let her do it on her own. So here we are.

Catching up from yesterday... following my impromptu trip to Oita, we returned to the hotel to find Mother and Father with Tsurue and her husband. We eventually went up the street to a restaurant near the Beppu train station. Excellent tempura and something I don't know the name of. We watched Tsurue and her husband devour an entire fish, from end to end. It was thoroughly fried, so bones must not have been an issue.

I missed getting a photo of the Big Fish [confession: I didn't want my gaijin-ness to be so apparent], but the promise of our tempura was enough to draw me back out of my shell...

Following our lunch, Mother and Father came back to the inn to get ready for Aunt Fuchan and Uncle Hiko and left Gary and me "in charge" (ha) of Troy and Ian. After Tsurue and her husband returned to the inn, the four of us young ones (also ha) took a stroll seaward. We found several cats and many friendly locals. Then we found the beach, with lots of seashells (mostly broken), a few starfish, a sand dollar, and lots of breastbones of cuttlefish (those things we used to buy for our parakeets... ew). In the water were nicer things - lots of puffer fish, small anemones, mussels, and my favorite, chitons (EW).


We wandered back to the inn around 320, at which time my non-adventures with Uncle Hiko began. Mother, Father, Aunt Fusako and Aunt Kuniko returned from the family gravesite (visiting her parents, Uncle Muchi, his son Junya, and Uncle Norio) around 430.

After much reuniting, we retired upstairs to Troy and Ian's massive lodgings, aka the party room. It is a 21-mat room, so it was easy to fit everyone in. Uncle Hiko gamely lifted his shirt to show off not his seven broken ribs (impressive on their own) but the quite alarming scar on his back, signifying his formal exit from a gang.

Family help bind Uncle Hiko back up.

Photos (3): Family, by Ian Smith

Dinner was served around 715 and was the biggest yet. Sashimi, steak, sukiyaki, some egg custard with pork and ginko nuts, osuimono, gingered seaweed in a puree of some sort, and many other dishes. Desert was sort of a cream gelatin, very sweet. Photos were taken, good health was wished, and then family vanished as easily as they had arrived. The shock still hasn't worn off.

Photo: Dinner, by Ian Smith

Everyone slept very well (good futons and continued adjustment to the time zone - too bad we're about to head home), and here we are on sunny Thursday.

As for today, guys have returned from fishing. They estimate they caught a thousand small fish totaling a length of two feet. Okay, so most were on the order of 5-6" and one whopper which was 7". All of which went into the boat's holding tank, for some nefarious purpose (probably dinner) on the part of the captain. Troy clarifies: the holding tank was a plastic pail. From Ojiisan: This is a really soft deck... must be dry-rotted. Father also notes, he was disappointed no one hauled in a really big tuna. But everyone had a good day, with Father catching four or five and Gary catching rays (as in sunshine, not the fish).

Photos (4): Fishermen, by Gary

From the boat they could see Monkey Mountain and other peaks, and the shore too, as they didn't go that far. Gary enjoyed the view from the boat's bow. No one got sick. Everyone had a good time. Troy and Ian still smell like fish, but in a good way.

Now to encourage Mother to cease and desist laundry duty and come out for lunch.