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May 6

Hang Out in Kagoshima

After peanut butter and bread and leftover fruit for breakfast, headed back on the ferry to Kagoshima for chores. Went to the tourist info center, found a shoe store to repair the other shoe, which had broken in the same was as the previous one. Went to a restaurant that serves kurobuta (black pig) which, although an expensive meal, was exquisite, and then came to this large electornic department store to do some free internetting. You are supposed to pay ahead of time to use the computers here, but I just showed up, sat down, and started typing away. I think they're were too scared to talk to me about it.

Around 3 p.m. I headed back, not wanting to miss the volleyball tournament. I went back to Sakurajima with the ferry, and got there around 4:15, going straight to the auditorium, called Sakurajima Soukoutai Ikukan. This is where the girls were playing in some competition.

It was amazing. I don't know if you've ever seen one of those Japanese animation movies about sports, where they are all running around gung-ho, and screaming chants (including the kids on the sidelines), and playing their hearts out. Well, that's exactly how it was in real life. The huge auditorium was carrying out about 5 seperate volleyball games, all with screaming and chanting. Watching the team was impressive. They looked like professionals! After the games were over, individual players would come up to other coaches and ask for advice on their playing. I talked a little to the coach of Sendai Minami (my team!), and then took a picture of them afterwards.

After returning to the Youth Hostel, I talked to the workers and they turned out alot more friendly (if not mostly incomprehensible). It all started when I asked one of the girls who works there if it wasn't scarry living on an active volcano. I think she tried having a pretty intense philosophical conversation with me, and I understood what she was trying to say, but she had no conception of talking slow, or using simple words, so it mostly went over my head. Basically, her speach went something like this:

Anywhere you live there are catastrophes that one cannot see coming. For example, look at the World Trade Center. So no matter where you live, something might happen. So, if the volcano erupts: RUN!

I got dinner and breakfast for the next day, and all-in-all the hostel food was ok. I also met Shun, a Japanese guy from Yokohama who is studying French and International Communication in grad school (although he acts pretty immature it was hard to guess he'd finished high school). Also met a girl from France who is living in Japan, for almost a year now, studying and working as a cook. She plans on going back to France and start a French-Japanese fusion restaurant at some point. I even got the two of these travellers to have a little French conversation (although, it turns out she spoke as much Japanese as he did French, and I don't think she was impressed by his maturity level).