The Return to Kansai - Ferry

As my trip to Japan drew to its supposed end, I found that all of the gifts and things I'd been buying over my three-week stay had started to pile up. Since Jillian wanted to send some things back to the states through me as well, she offered that I borrow her larger suitcase. Jillian was sweet enough to accompany me back to Osaka, since our travel plans didn't exactly pan out as we'd hoped. Because we waited a little too long to buy ferry tickets, most of the trips we wanted were completely booked due to the end of the holiday season. Fortunately, we were able to find a spot on the ferry that would depart a day before our ideal time, which meant that our only inconvenience was finding a hotel for the extra night. Midori, with her booking expertise, found us an amazing hotel with a great price even on such short notice, but I'll get into the hotel later.

The ferry for the return trip to Osaka, unlike the trip to Miyazaki, was pretty much packed. This actually wasn't so bad, though, since we made some nice friends on this trip!

The Ferry Gift Shop - items featuring Miyazaki's famous governor, of course, are for sale here.

The people sleeping next to Jill and I were a middle-aged couple traveling back to their home in Osaka after visiting family in Miyazaki. The husband, who never revealed his name, introduced himself by asking us if we drink sake. Jill and I hesitantly said yes, and he kindly poured some for us in styrofoam cups. He didn't know much English, but we were able to convey that we're both International students from America, that Jillian is studying birds in Miyazaki, and that I was visiting her for the break. When his wife arrived from the gift shop, she offered us some salted squid to snack on, and started to chat with us as well. She knew a tiny bit of English, but mostly spoke in rapid Japanese that Jillian was able to follow much more easily than I was. Wanting to share food as well, I offered them some of the toffees I still had from America as well as some cheese manju we'd bought in Miyazaki.

During our shared snack and conversation, we overheard a girl a few sleeping spaces over reading in English with headphones on. She was practicing reading and listening at the same time, and when our new friend (We'll call her Michiko, since that's a pretty common name) realized that she was studying, she asked the girl's mother if she could get her to come over and talk with us.

Michiko, while friendly, was surprisingly outspoken, but the mother seemed really excited for her daughter to have a chance to practice English. While her daughter was shy and surprised at first, we quickly learned that she was much better at English than she thought. We learned that her name was Tomomi, and that she was a freshman in high school. We spoke for a while in the same fashion as at the bar in Aoshima, with asking questions in one language and answering in another. Tomomi expressed that she was feeling really "doki-doki" which is the onomatopoeia for a heart-thumping. We insisted that she needn't be nervous at all, and that her English was much better than our Japanese. She went on to say that she is actually the worst in her class, even though English is her favorite subject. She also told us that her younger brother, (who was really, really tall) while not very good at English, wanted to speak with us too, but was even more shy than she was.

Tomomi's mother spoke with us for a bit, too. She talked about her son, (Who was totally sitting right there, listening to his I-pod) is a baseball player, and is really good at math, if not very good at English. He did eventually come and shake our hands after a while, and introduced himself as Tomomi's younger brother. They also told us that they were from Kyoto, and were visiting their grandparents in Miyazaki. It was a fun little exchange, and we shared more snacks with Tomomi and her family and the Osaka couple as well.

The next morning, as the boat was docking, Tomomi came over and gave Jill and I both little notes written in English. She also wanted to take a picture with us so that she could tell her class about her experience. We took some pictures too, but since my camera wasn't handy, we used Jill's phone instead. (I'll try to put them up later!) While Tomomi went away to eat breakfast, I wrote a note for her as well and tried to fold it in the same prety fashion she'd folded hers, although hers was much more precise and presentable. Still, she seemed really happy to get a note in return, and we all parted happily. (For some reason, though, I got the feeling that Tomomi's dad might not have liked us very much, since he kind of sat grumpily in the corner while the other seven of us chatted, shared food and had fun.)

Tomomi, Jill, me, and Tomomi's brother (I can't remember his name!) [Added after the time of posting - now I've got access to Jill's pictures, too!)

I was really happy with the trip, and joked with Jill about how before the trip, when we were dreading the full-ship, I'd said that we would just have to make the ferry into a huge party-boat. While not exactly what I had in mind, it really was like a party, and made the voyage that much more enjoyable.