Cue the montage: Part 1

Our hero steps out the door of a classroom full of commercial high school kids, the ones who aren't going to college, even if they want to. He spoke to a crowd of silent faces, and played every card in his hand to win a few laughs. But it was worth it, when at the end of class half of them come up to the front, and look through the photos he has brought of his life. They speak in broken half-sentences. And smile.

Later that day he helps them clean, sweeping leaves with a split-bamboo rake while the brave ones invite him "welcome to toilet! It is my clean!" and the shy ones catch his eye through the windows, turning away giggling. He is no longer embarrassed by the attention, but still goes through the motions. Eyes down, focus on raking, and pretend like you're trying to stifle that goofy smirk.

The next day our hero stands in his little one room airport, and realizes he calls it "his" airport. He walks through security, out the door towards the little prop plane to the mainland and the security guard asks "you're coming back, right?"

An old friend, getting older, greets him at the gate: "my god you're blond" or something to that effect. "How the hell you been!?" or something to that effect. Eli. Were they 6 or 7? Our hero just picks one, whenever it comes up. It comes up a lot, and every time our hero is glad that somehow, they are on this adventure together.

They eat noodles in a shop on the third floor of the airport, and our hero enjoys the simple pleasure of being just another gaijin, instead of the gaijin. They told him he would be a rock star, a celebrity. They neglected to mention that on an island of 8000, this meant he had responsibilities. When he walks into a restaurant on Kikai, it makes the town gossip.

Our hero is seated at a table in an izakaya, Eli next to him, and Shinji, his sister is friends with Eli from Tokyo, across from him. They get very, very drunk on the local shochu. He even likes the taste, after he's had a few already. The waitress comes over while Eli and Shinji are off in the bathroom, and smiles at him while complimenting his Japanese. He does not remember speaking to her. She is really, very pretty.

Fight through headaches to stop by the sports day of a middle school which is closing later that school year. There are maybe 30 students. The banner on the wall reads "never forget our last scene" in English. For some reason, it makes him want to cry. A girl attempts to beat her own high jump record. But chokes. Everyone our hero meets gives him little green oranges. The fact that he does not find this strange is strange to him.

An Indian restaurant in Kagoshima city, as the Japanese exhaustion threshold is reached, and awkward pauses fail to fill the air. They drive around with Shinji for a little while, and find an overlook of the city, with the grumpy silhouette of Sakurajima puffing in the background, across the bay.

Night time and our hero is seated in the corner-booth of a Joyfull. Family restaurants are what Japan did to Denny's. A foreign standard of quality injected into an American hallmark. He likes the Japanese version better, except for the atmosphere. Like 50s diners in America, where the waiters have to grease their hair. The nostalgia for a world which never existed is stifling. Everyone at the table is a native speaker of English. It is the first group he has been with in 2 months, which did not require him to think.



More to come tomorrow. Ramen eating contests, drives along the coast, James Bond, tug-of-war festivals with man-sized ropes, the middle-school years, and further adventures in Kikai.

Our hero needs to write more, to keep such backlogs from accumulating.