Friday 29th March 2024

Friday 29^th March

SHE SAID:

With Juli-chin & Kiyoka zooming off to “Squashed Prawn” (their house in the hills), which they are hoping to put on the market today, we had a quiet day at the house. We had a slow start, not waking till after 9am.

Juli-chin had sensibility left us instructions on how to use everything in the house (as the writing is obviously all in Japanese). We managed to figure everything out: showering, eating, drinking, heating, all the essentials!

For some unknown reason Geoff thought I’d be fine taking out the stitches in his back from the skin cancer he had removed. I had been dreading it since he told me I could do it. I couldn’t see the knots clearly enough & had to use the tweezers & the zoom on my phone, then change to the scalpel to cut the knot & remove the stitches one by one. I was a mess, shaking, eyes misting over & feeling very sick doing it. I don’t know why he thought I’d be fine with it!

We had a short outing after lunch when the rain stopped. Julian gave us a mud map of the area & told us about a little museum close by which we found.

Julian & Kiyoka had returned when we got back & we headed out for dinner with Kiyoka’s family to an Italian restaurant close by called La Fontana. 

We had bought some small presents for everyone, which seemed to go down well, & we had a great evening; Kiyoka’s brothers' kids were lovely & tried out their English on us, which was very good. They are only 6 & 8 years old.

Geoff & Mum in front of Kiyoka & Julian's place
Kiyoka's parents house a couple of streets away
Bought Cherry Blossom arrangement at the house

Cherry Blossom
J&K's Tanuki with Archie
Street art

A small Japanese museum we walked around

Me trying to walk badly on a traditional kids walking game!
Old letterbox

Museum & graveyard

HE SAID:

We were rather tired from our journey and only getting a couple of hours kip in a budget airline seat so enjoyed a lie-in this morning. It was nice to see some rain again, as it has been so long for us. And, it gave us a few hours to get ourselves organised in Julian and Kiyoka's house. Our wanderings through a small bamboo park and a small traditional Japanese museum on a sunny afternoon helped with our recovery from our travels.

Dinner with Kiyoka's family was fun. It was nice to see her parents and brother again. Kazuki's wife and children were very nice too, and we had a good couple of hours of chat, mostly via Kiyoka's translations. My attempts at a few Japanese words were well received, but I'm sure I mangled a fair bit of it. At one stage I think I mispronounced something and asked about a lick! Katsuichi, Kiyoka's father, very generously picked up the dinner bill.