"Ton Katsu."
Sunday, 14 October. Day 80. Fine. Warm to Hot. I did some washing.
Every morning and evening, at seven o'clock, local information is broadcast into every house in Ueno-Cho. The broadcast starts and finishes with a musical "bing bong, bing bong", and consists of local occurrences, accidents, deaths, coming events, possibly advertising.
Shouko went to work.
We spent the morning waiting for Ritsuko's friend, Yuki, and deciding our immediate future.
Originally, it had been wondered, by way of invitation, if we could spend three nights "in small Japanese house".
After the three nights, we had intended to travel to Kagoshima by bus and to stay there for several days in a ryokan (guest house). But the bus journeys involved were now declared to be beyond our level of linguistic competence.
So next we thought we would go back to Shibushi, our return ferry to Osaka was to depart from there the next Friday, and make Shibushi our base of operations, but this was ruled out too on the same grounds, and also Shibushi wasn't a tourist destination.
The best idea, we were told, was for us to remain in Kanoya until Friday, either at their house or in a guest house, and the Shimizu family would take us to Shibushi and farewell us there on the departure day.
Submitting to the power of inertia, we opted to stay where we were, and Toshiharu set about telephoning invitations to a monster farewell party to be held the night before our departure.
There was a minor hiccup when Colin realised that he had told Toshiharu "mokuyoubi" - thursday rather than "kinyoubi" - friday for our departure. A cloud briefly crossed his brow, but then Toshiharu quickly re-did his calls, and social calendars were re-written in numerous households.
Colin and I went out for lunch with Yuki, Yuki's sister, Eri, and Ritsuko.
We went to a famous "ton katsu" restaurant in Kanoya. The restaurant had been operated by the same family for several generations and had recently been the subject of a TV documentary.
"Ton Katsu" is a pork speciality, believed to have been introduced to Japan by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century.
A generous slice of pork fillet is coated in egg and breadcrumbs, deep fried, and served with finely sliced raw cabbage, dipping sauce, mayonnaise and condiments.
We five squatted or sat on cushions beside a low table which stood on a raised tatami mat floor that ran along one wall of the restaurant. The cooks worked in one corner adjacent to the opposite wall. The other corner on that side was taken up with entry and cash register.
Ritsuko's friend, Junko came and sat with us. It was her father, a smiling, enormously moustachioed man, who owned the restaurant, and her brother, a fine arts graduate from San Francisco University who was sharing the waiting. Perhaps the several others working there were family members, too.
Aside from the simple deliciousness of the food, it was a very spirited meal: everyone could speak English, in fact Yuki spoke fluent Australian. She had lived in Geelong for two years, becoming an enthusiastic adherent of the surf lifestyle.
A photograph shows Colin, a slice of pork at his lips, sitting between Ritsuko and Junko, and on the other side of the table, Yuki is holding an enormous chopstick load of cabbage, while Eri has an arm around Barbara's shoulders. Barbara is holding as much cabbage as her lack of facility with chopsticks permits, and Junko is making a devil's horns sign at her brother, who was taking the photographs. On the wall behind us hung sporting calendars illustrated with baseball players and sumo wrestlers.
Heavy exposed beams, as in the manner of English pubs, are a feature of Japanese ceilings, but these are much lower than ceilings in England: when moving about inside one must always be aware of what one's head is doing as well as seeing that one's feet are obeying the various shoe rules. Colin's head, being some inches above the average head, as well as being the only head with blonde hair and blue eyes in this part of the island, was a frequent cause of delighted anticipation as bystanders assessed its nearness to the ceiling beams.
Today, however, it was Colin's turn to be delighted when a tall young man at a table behind us caused a resounding "crack" as he stood to leave the dining area.
Alas, all good things come to an end; after the meal, after a further session of photography, Eri, Yuki, and Ritsuko set off for their homes in Sendai, three hours drive north of Kanoya. There they attended university.
We stayers were all now completely dependent on our own abilities in one another's languages, but the irrepressible Toshiharu kept the conversation going with his incredible mix of Japanese and English, and Shouko (after she returned from work) surprised us by shyly using one or two English words in conversation,
To keep the conversations flowing, there were drinks in the bar from about five o'clock.
There was beer, and there was shoochuu with "momo yama" or mountain peach liqueur (made at home by Takao and incredibly delicious) mixed with ice and soda water.
This evening we started on "kai" or periwinkles as a snack, but presently, Takao arrived with a large parcel of "fries".
Subsequently it was hard to eat tea. It was another delicious smorgasbord from Itsuko. There were two distinct fish dishes, two sorts of salad, choko pickles, and rice mixed with chopped salmon garnished with both black and white sesame seeds.