Visitors Part 4

After six days of non-stop sight-seeing in Tokyo, Hiroshima and Kyoto, getting on the train bound for Nodagawa was very welcome.  We got back to the apartment and had just enough time to relax a bit before hopping in the car (which was brand new!!) and heading to the Yoshida's for dinner. 

As usual, Kumi and a feast laid out for us!  When I had called to invite us over (I do a lot of inviting myself over to their house, haha), Kumi asked what we wanted to eat.  I told her that Prad loved sushi, but that we would love anything at all!  Well, it turns out on the day we went they had been given a young yellow tail tuna that their friend had caught that morning!  Talk about fresh sushi!  It was really good, and a lot of fun to visit with them and tell them about our adventures so far.  Since Bryn and I both had to work the following day, Kumi and Masami offered to take mom and Prad out to show them some of Tango.

So, the next day while Bryn and I were wasting away bored at school, Mom and Prad got to go out to Ine where I hear they went to an ooooold sake brewery, visited a funaya (traditional boat house that Ine is famous for) watched festival practice, and even got to take in a couple of the cool views of Amanohashidate.  It sounded like they had a really good day (much more interesting than my 7 hours of nothing at school!!)  That night we did one of my favorite things - made takoyaki! 

The next morning Bryn went to Kyoto to meet Clodagh, one of the new AETs in Yosano this year.  Mom and Prad came to school with me for a quick tour, then I showed them the way to the beach.  They spent the morning hiking and swimming while I stayed at school, until about lunchtime.  We met one of my good friends, Shinobu, for lunch at at very Japanese restaurant in Amino called Torimatsu.  Torimatsu is famous for it's barazushi.  I'm sure I've talked about it before, but it is basically sushi rice that is topped with smoked mackerel, shredded egg, green onion, crab, pickled ginger, and a variety of other things depending on where you get it.  Prad and I each got a set that also included sashimi (some really good, some really missable if you ask me!!) and mom got one that came with fried fish - whole ones!  They were troopers and ate everything!!

After lunch we took a drive around Amino to the 5 colored beach, and then out to Sora to say hi to the cows and eat some ice cream.  By the time we got home Bryn was back, so we went out to yakiniku (Korean bbq) for dinner. 

I took Thursday off of work, and we spend the morning doing some random shopping before meeting Bryn to go get okonomiyaki for lunch in Maizuru.  The drive to Maizuru is quite nice, but it's not a short one.  We were quite disappointed when it turned out that our favorite okonomiyaki restaurant was closed for lunch!!!!  We stopped at the fish market to have a look around, then made our way back to Amanohashidate for soba and udon.  Of course we went up to View Land so that mom and Prad could view Amanohashidate the correct way!  And then we walked while we waited for our dinner guests to come meet us.

Mom on the chairlift up to View Land

That night we met Yoko, Junko and Ippei for a beer garden reunion!  There was lots of ...decent...food, beer and chuhai flowed like water...it was a really fun evening!  Junko had brought us some fireworks, so we went to the beach after the beer garden to play with them (in Japan, fireworks mostly equals sparklers).  It was SO fun though and a perfect ending to a fun evening. 

On Friday we had a quiet morning before meeting Bryn to go to Kappazushi for lunch.  After lunch we went out to Tate Iwa (standing rock) in Taiza, then further around the peninsula to Kyogamisaki - the lighthouse on the furthest western point of Tango.  (We even saw some monkeys on the way!) 

Thunder threatened us all afternoon, but luckily we never ran into too much rain (just a bit).  That evening we went back out to Amino for the Kawasuso festival - my old neighborhood's festival.  We got to talk to loads of students, then Yoko met us to watch the fireworks.    The fireworks were especially good this year!  Since they had to finish early last year (because of rain), they had all of the leftover ones as well and this year's allotment! 

That ended our whirlwind tour of Tango.  We slept late on Saturday before driving to Sonobe to catch a train into Osaka for the night.  We went out to dinner in downtown Osaka and an izakaya (where more beer and chuhai was had), and then mom and Prad gave Pachinko (the gambling game) a go...except I'm pretty sure they never actually figured it out!!  (The flashing lights and screaming bells in the place had given me a headache after about 5 minutes so I waited outside!!!)

The next morning we had to say goodbye and send them back to Tokyo to catch their flight (which we heard went off without a hitch).  It was a really good visit.  I'm so glad that Prad was able to come over to see Japan, and I really think he enjoyed it (everyone seems to like Japan though!!)  Hopefully everyone will be able to come back again sometime before Bryn and I move on to somewhere new (but who knows when that will be!!)