basashi

last 'weekend' john and i saw the mouth of a live volcano, ate raw horse meat, slept in a cabin in the mountains, went to 'cuddly dominion' (a permanent circus/petting zoo that could only exist in japan), and saw one of japan's largest castles. all that in two days. nice.

we had a lovely time with our friends kyoko and syoji. kyoko just moved to kumamoto to live with her parents and to start a new job. she had been living in fukuoka and working for nova, which is of course where we met her. her boyfriend, syoji, lives and works here, just south of the city.

the three of us took the bus to kumamoto, where kyoko picked us up in her car. it was so nice to see some of the country from a car. you get a much different feeling than by train. we drove to the top of aso-san (the volcano) and parked in the parking lot in front of the tourist trap that is its museum, gallery and gift shop. we took a ropeway to the very top where we were allowed less than fifteen minutes to marvel before the winds changed and we were shooed away lest we die of poisonous gases. exciting, eh?

we then drove to a small town supermarket to buy food for dinner. this is where i got a bit confused. something was lost in the translation and i thought that we would be sleeping at kyoko's folks' house or a japanese hotel. i asked where she lived and she said maybe and hour's drive away. the groceries made sense if we were going to her home, but i couldn't understand why we were shopping in this small town instead of near her house.

we then proceeded to drive higher and higher in the mountains and farther away from any towns at all. we came across a small group of farm houses in a valley and kyoko stopped the car. she got out and ran to one of the farmhouses. i was really confused now and decided to let my stupidity known; i asked the boys what was going on. they explained that we were renting a cabin for the night. ohh. it's nice being simple minded and easily amused. i had a good laugh at myself as did everyone else.

the cabin was small, but much bigger than our appartment so that was nice. we had a deck and a barbecue, a rice cooker and a fridge, and hot water to boot. it was so nice to be out of the city. there weren't any guests at the other cabins so the night was filled only with the sound of crickets. we actually got to see stars, too, which was also good for the soul.

we started dinner with the basashi, a famous dish of kumamoto prefecture (yes, it's raw horse meat). i was a little hesitant at first and started to react with the old, "eww, gross. i can't eat a horse," routine before i stopped myself and thought about what i have eaten in my lifetime (e.g. cute little bunnies, bambi, ducks, turtles, raw squid, rotten beans. . .). i then thought, "hell, no reason to cut the list short." it was quite nice. the flavor is very subtle and a little sweet. it is eaten with crushed ginger and shoyu.

we followed that with a barbecue that lasted at least two hours. the japanese have a different idea of barbecue than us westerners. instead of grilling and then eating, everyone sits around the grill and the food is eaten bite by bite with chopsticks off the grill as it is cooked. beer is drank throughout the entire process so in the end you're quite ready for bed.

the next day we were off to cuddly dominion. . .