Recently, I have been driven to give more thought to our family’s genealogy. I have a pretty good picture of my Father’s side of the family, and have had the great privilege to meet many of them. They are almost always hospitable to the point of me feeling guilty about taking them up on it, and tend to be chill and down to earth. Also, there are many, many, many of them. This is probably also true of my Mother’s side of the family too, after all, she is the first of six children. Dad is the youngest of seven. Fertility is not a problem in our family.
Anyways, I took a solo trip down to Kagoshima about two months ago, because I’d never been there. In the old days, the Shimazu clan ruled Kagoshima, holding sway through out the whole of Higo (Kyushu) and parts of Honshu. Anyhow, supposedly, after the Satsuma rebellion, the Shimazu clan fell from power and many of them fled to other parts of Japan. Other than the general history of the clan, I have no idea about my ancestors from southern Kyushu.
Walking around Kagoshima, I really felt at home as if I belonged here. The atmosphere was lively, yet kick-back. Seeing the remains of the castle, reading the words of the former lords, looking at statues of heroes I had never heard of; all of this made a big impression on me. It would be nice to meet relatives from around here, and to find out more about the past.
As I walked the ancient grounds of Kagoshima City, I wondered if the people I passed were related to me in some way: Did they have blood in common with me? Were they the descendents of the vassals or masters of my ancestors? Did that guy selling fish have a Great-great-great-great-great grandfather who sold fish to my Great-great-great-great-great grandfather?
I hope I find the answers to some of my questions, and I invite anyone interested in helping to join in! If one of my unknown relatives or someone with whom I have some secret relationship with is reading this, lets get in touch and help each other!
Justin, Mika, Merin- lets get this organized and find out about the unknown part of our family.

Heh heh… I said Meat
For my birthday, Justin flew me up to Osaka to go see ADF in concert!!! They rocked the house, but I missed the lyrical barrage of Deeter. Anyways, the concert kicked major ass and it was one of the best concerts I’ve been to in Japan!
This also happened to be prime time for cherry blossom viewing parties (hanami), so we bought a lot of frozen meat(that kicked major ass!) for really cheap, got the other provisions together, and had a hanami party in the rain overlooking the Tenri Dam. It was friggin? cold, and there were no cherry blossoms up here, but it was good times. Playing with hanabi, eating awesome food, hanging out with good people- Yes, and it ended with a large bag of assorted fireworks (helicopters, ladyfingers, bottle rockets, roses, etc…) being tossed in the bonfire, chasing the unwary from the warmth. It?s never officially a crazy time in Nara unless someone almost dies from the irresponsible usage of fireworks.

This is a picture from the famous Fire Festival (hifuri shinji) at Aso Shrine which took place in late March, on a rainy evening. The modest grounds of the temple were crowded past the limits of safety, and the monks handed out bales of hay to anyone wishing to set these on fire and to join in on the melee. No instructions were given, it was more of a “do as you please” atmosphere. The festival transformed the temple grounds into hell with spent straw bails skewed over the premises, burning bright and emitting as much smoke as heat. More and more people spun fireballs, adding to the intensity. Some whirled theirs too close to each other, and cinders shot out as overlapping ellipses came into phase, exploding like the Death Star.
There was one very enthusiastic Japanese girl who loved swinging the fireballs. She swung them in wild trajectories with great enthusiasm, to the horror of people standing 5 feet from her. Usually when others were swinging a bale and the rope burned through, the fireball would quickly fall to the ground and roll maybe a few feet. With this girl, though, the burning bales would arc through the air, as if lobbed by an Olimpiad hammer thrower. Luckily, the first nine times ended without incident, they just scared the bejesus out of anyone close to her. The tenth time, the rope snapped, and the fireball pounded into a guy not 5 feet away from her. Upon impact, the burning hay bursted from the bundle, fully enveloping the cringing man in fire, smoke, and cinders. Luckily for him, the fireball dissipated quickly and he walked away (albeit, with a slight twitch). If I go next year, I know who NOT to stand next to! Thank goodness for the shrine that Japan is not as litigious a society as the good ol? U.S. of A., or else there would be no festivals that I would really want to go to.

I went to visit my friend Kei last February up in Kita-Kyushu, and got to meet his family. They’re great people, nice and hospitable to an extreme (even in Japanese standards). Kei’s grandfather is the dude in the picture. He speaks english because he piloted in the U.S. during the 50’s and now enjoys shooting stuff in his retirement years. On his head a Davy Crockett style cap made of Japanese Racoon-Dog (Tanuki). Other varmints he has plugged with his 20 gauge include kiji (pheasant), inoshishi (wild boar), and kitsune (fox). Miyahara Ojichan may look like a nice old man, but he knows how to handle the steel.