Day 29-30 Surprise Lunch with Love & My Own Sleeper Train

May 7 • Blog, Kagoshima, Kyushu • 1096 Views • 6 Comments

The morning after the wonderful ohanami dinner with new friends under the night time sakura blossoms, I woke and went down the stairs to leave Kagoshima. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a small paper bag with a note placed on top.

Ms Jean, the lady who let me stay in her work building, had made bento (lunch) and left it for me. Onigiri, tamago (rolled egg omelet), wieners, cherry tomatoes, strawberries and a green apple. As I took out what was inside the bag, I could not help talking to myself, “Wooooow! Really??” So much love came out of the small black bag as I unpacked. In the letter, she thanked this miracle of having met each other and wished me a safe trip.

Even though she is a very busy woman with a small child and a teaching job, she made the time to host and have dinner AND made lunch for me. It made me realize once again that Japan and this world is filled with so much love and caring. My initial fear of being alone and lonely in this trip has been completely taken away by all the love that I have been receiving from everyone I’ve met. People’s warmth and smile have been the best thing I am getting out of this trip, even more than the delicious Japanese food.

As I cycled to head north that day, I was surrounded by the full bloom sakura everywhere. Sakura trees are all over Japan. I cycled under a tunnel of sakura blossoms and along the rivers surrounded by sakura all day.

Along the way was a small farmer’s stand, selling takenoko (bamboo shoots). They are young bamboos that can only be harvested in early spring. When you see takenoko in your meal, that’s a sign that spring is here. It’s tender and delicious, often cooked with rice, fried as tempura, sauteed…, telling you the arrival of spring.

Spring is filled with pink everywhere! These are shibazakura, literally lawn sakura.

I have a fear for cycling in tunnels…

Spotted a surfer along the coast from Kagoshima to Akune.

Kasago (rockfish) miso soup lunch. The little balls are the mini version of Kagoshima’s staple, tsukeage, fried ground fish cakes. They are slightly sweet and so yummy!

Kibinago Sunomono, silver-stripe round herring was fried and marinated in vinegar and sugar with vegetables:

That evening, I stayed in a riders’ house (a cheap place to stay for motor cyclists, cyclists, and backpackers) in Akune. What was special about this particular one was that it was a recycled sleeper train. It was called, Blue Train, and I still remember them operating when I was little. With the faster shinkansen bullet trains’ arrival, these Blue Trains retired some years ago.

It was a slow day for Blue Train. I had the entire car, actually, two, all to myself that evening.

The sleeper train business was managed by an NPO called BigUp. They were an extremely nice group of people, and invited me to dinner two nights in a row.

Akune City is another port town, where seafood is absolutely amazing. The man who prepared dinner was a cook and a fisherman. Here are some of his delicious creations:

He had been awarded for his invention of extracting collagen from fish scales, and I got to have it in my shochu (sake made with sweet potatoes). The collagen itself is tasteless, but it can be used in many dishes and it’s so good for your skin. Our skin must be glowing with all this goodness!

Satsuma Shochu with collagen makes me feel better about drinking. :p

This man was amazing. He also works for BigUp, and makes these Andean instrument called, quena. He plays it so beautifully too, and sometimes teaches it to children. Not only that, he is an artist who makes beautiful custom knives (think of Swiss Army knives, all hand made with pretty decorations in different materials like mother pearl, etc.), and carves all kinds of things. He also farms too. I could go on and on about him, but he was one welcoming host, who invited me to the dinner and BBQ on the second night.

Akune’s sushi is so fresh!

Kagoshima Prefecture’s soy sauce is sweeter than the other regions of Japan. Here, you can see the regular (left) and sweet (right) on the table.

BBQ on the second night included lots of fresh fish:

Kagoshima’s famous sweet potato is called satsuma imo. With the soil of the volcano ash, they can grow them so extremely sweet and melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

The people of Kagoshima were even sweeter than their famous sweet potatoes. No wonder even their soy sauce was sweet. I have to tell you, it is one sweet place to visit.

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