July 7, 1991
07:00 Wake up and write a little. M2 wakes soon after and continues watching Totoro while I make coffee. Ellen wakes up and sleeps throughout the movie, but by the end she is fully awake and we drink another pot of coffee and eat toast. I make miso-shiro for Ellen. Play more Twin Peaks video clips: Albert's speech to Sheriff Truman, Cooper's speech as he lies on his hotel room floor after he's been shot.
10:30 M2 leaves to catch the 10:52 train to Oita.
11:03 Ellen and I catch bus #26 to Kannawa. Walk to Hyotan onsen (Sorry, this link doesn't specify encoding so you will have to switch to Shift-JIS manually). Pass Sakae-ya, the minshuku where Ellen stayed on her last trip to Beppu. Stop in the antique store. Bathe at Hyotan onsen. The admission has risen to 700 yen.
Walk to Amamija-ya and eat lunch. Neither of us cared much for the house speciality, dango jiru. But we both loved the agemochi-misu (grilled mochi is a umeboshi broth). And the matcha ice was the perfect ending to the meal. We write out Tanabata wishes and tie them to the Tanabata branch that decorates the entrance to the restaurant.
15:30 Say goodbye to Ellen and walk through neighborhoods I've never been in before to downtown Beppu, composing a letter in my head. Children follow me through the street yelling hello. A little later a teenage boy shouts from a second-story window "Hello. Fuck you. Hello. Fuck you."
16:50 Arrive at Beppu Eki. Buy Myoban Spa yu-no-hana. Kameishi-kun passes me on his bicycle in front of the Magic Yard and we wave at each other. At Daichi return the videos and check out the Vanilla Ice CD. Notice that I've lost MJN's umbrella (I left it either at the onsen or the restaurant). Walk to Tokiwa department store to pick up my bicycle. Buy bread.
18:10 Bicycle home. Rain threatens the whole way and I'm sure I'll get drenched. Big drops splat, but infrequently. It never really rains. My legs are so tired from walking that at first it hurts to use different muscles to bicycle. But there's a fresh breeze from the sea and I'm in shorts and a tank top for the first time this summer and it feels so good to be on the bike again after what seems like weeks of rain. At Spa Beach two former college students of mine see me and come running up to intercept me. I stop to say hello.
"What are you doing?" I ask slowly, in my perfected English lesson tone.
Blank looks.
I try again in my beginner's Japanese, "Nani o shitte imasuka?"
"Mimashita. Looking."
"Looking? At what?" I can't think of how to say it.
They consult with each other. One of them brightens. "Nani o."
"Right. Nani o? At what?"
The other replies. "Jet skis."
JET suki? They like JETs; English teachers? Puzzlement, then comprehension. "Asoka. Jet skis. Wakarimashita."
I say "Bye-bye" and pedal off.
18:35 Arrive home. Work on the computer while listening to Vanilla Ice.
19:13 Ellen calls to tell me she's arrived in Saga.
22:30 M2 calls, a bit frantic about getting her boxes. It seems that she forgot a dinner date with the Goto's on Saturday and has to make it up. She told them that the only evening that she has free before she leaves is Friday, and only afterward remembered that that is when she was suppose to bring the boxes over.
Another Hyoutan onsen link.Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
July 07, 2002
Comments
Wow. I went to all that trouble to scan the box of yunohana and then find the company right here on the web.
Comment by: M Sinclair Stevens. Posted July 12, 2002 05:19 PM.
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July 7, 1991...