KYUSHU TRAVEL DIARYREVIEW KYUSHU TRIPS WE HAVE VISITED

It was dark when I arrived at the Sueyoshi’s home in the countryside just outside of Kagoshima City. For the past five years, the Sueyoshi family has been welcoming school children from cities in Asia to experience life in the Japanese countryside. They stay in this big, traditional Japanese farmhouse, pick organic vegetables, cook and eat healthy home-grown food. The Sueyoshi’s get to meet young people plus they get a little help with the daily chores. In their small but diverse garden out back, they grow their own vegetables and rice. I arrived just in time for dinner, so I could enjoy a fine meal prepared by Mrs. Sueyoshi. That was great since by then I was exhausted from a full day of touring. Unlike a typical pension or ryokan, you can experience Kagoshima family-style life when you stay with the Sueyoshi Family. I ate dinner together with them in the kitchen.  Normally, a guest might take a bath before dinner, but I was too hungry to wait. After a leisurely, delicious, and filling dinner featuring raw chicken sashimi, miso soup, rice, and pickles, with lots of conversation (in Japanese)

After the dinner, I attempted to take a hot bath. It didn’t quite work out the way I had planned. Kagoshima folk have a tradition of the “Samurai Bath,” which requires extremely HOT water. I had heard about it but didn’t want to add too much cold water to the log-heated tub. So instead, I cautiously dipped a toe in and WOW! It was so, so HOT! I ran the cold water for a short while. When I thought it was sufficiently cool, I threw caution to the wind, got into the tub, and submerged myself up to my neck. Almost immediately my poor legs couldn’t handle the heat. Red hot, I jumped right out and took a comfortable shower.  Turns out the bath water had been ‘cooled’ to a scalding 46 degrees Centigrade. I usually go for 41 degrees. I recommend simply taking a shower unless you are able to cool the bath down. After this escapade, I was so tired, I turned off the light in my bedroom and crawled into my huge, down-filled futon and slept until 6 am. Then, it was time for a full Japanese breakfast of fish, rice, miso soup, and pickles, and “natto” (fermented soybeans), served with hot tea with the Sueyoshi’s before my much-anticipated agricultural experience.