Day 39 - To Kumamoto
We took a train to Kumamoto at midday - the Shinkansen makes it so much faster to travel around Kyushu than it was when I was here before. Ang got a pick with her new boyfriends... a boy band that has done a lot PR for trains around this part of Japan that i recovering from a major earthquake last year.
We got lunch before boarding a trolley for the trip through downtown to our apartment.
The apartment is a really interesting place. I think it used to be an office in a building that has apartments on the upper floors and businesses on the bottom. They have done a really nice job making a cool living space that is plenty big enough for all of us. It's clearly our favorite Airbnb so far on this trip. The kids especially love the "yoga hammock."
Walking around the shotengai - shopping streets - has brought back a million memories both of my missionary and student time in Kumamoto, and we took a bus to Kumamoto University, where the memories really hit me like a ton of bricks. The campus is still pretty much the same as when I attended in 1991-92. It has more trees than most Japanese school campuses and parts of it are really beautiful, but Japanese campuses are generally less manicured than those in the US.
We walked through the college of humanities building and discovered that not only has my department moved to a different wing of the building, but I think the department name has changed as well. It used to be kokushi - "national history", but now is Nihonshi - "Japanese history."
We made one more stop at the club houses along the edge of the playing fields where I used to be part of the Wandafogeru Club - a backpacking club whose name is the Japanese pronunciation of the German word for "wandering bird", I think. They have updated the clubhouses, though, and I asked a few soccer players where my club is now and none of them had ever heard of it... I guess it is no more. Oh well.
It is really nice to be back in Kumamoto, despite a heat wave that makes it impossible to be outside for long at a time. Our ice cream budget is in bad shape.
熊本が大好き。
We got lunch before boarding a trolley for the trip through downtown to our apartment.
Walking around the shotengai - shopping streets - has brought back a million memories both of my missionary and student time in Kumamoto, and we took a bus to Kumamoto University, where the memories really hit me like a ton of bricks. The campus is still pretty much the same as when I attended in 1991-92. It has more trees than most Japanese school campuses and parts of it are really beautiful, but Japanese campuses are generally less manicured than those in the US.
We walked through the college of humanities building and discovered that not only has my department moved to a different wing of the building, but I think the department name has changed as well. It used to be kokushi - "national history", but now is Nihonshi - "Japanese history."
We made one more stop at the club houses along the edge of the playing fields where I used to be part of the Wandafogeru Club - a backpacking club whose name is the Japanese pronunciation of the German word for "wandering bird", I think. They have updated the clubhouses, though, and I asked a few soccer players where my club is now and none of them had ever heard of it... I guess it is no more. Oh well.
It is really nice to be back in Kumamoto, despite a heat wave that makes it impossible to be outside for long at a time. Our ice cream budget is in bad shape.
熊本が大好き。
Kumamoto!! Thanks for sharing! (Feeling just a little jealous!) Can you see any affects from last year's earthquakes? I lived in Kumamoto for 10 months in three different areas/apartments: Two in the Shirakawa Branch, one in the Suizenji (?) Branch. So many memories!
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