August 18-20 (Sun-Tues) - Somen in Sabae, or of monks and menkyou

Sunday August 18: Ani and I tried to eat this weird green thing for breakfast. Remind me I don’t like green-tea bread.

However, green tea kitkats are tasty.

Luggage in tow, we went north to the small city of Sabae. There’s not a lot here. But I like it well enough.

At last my family got to meet my friends and confirm they are not figments of my imagination.

Kaori picked us up from the train station, and we ate lunch together at an Okonomiyaki place. If you visit Japan, you have to try okonomiyaki. For one, you cook on the grill in front of you, and this is fun. In addition, okonomiyaki is yummy. It literally means something close to ‘whatever you like, fried’. 

I showed the family Nishiyama Park, and we even got to see the zoo.

Here's Ani with a lessa-panda:

my favorites, risuzaru!

Hugh and Mako joined us for dinner, we collaborated to make somen, or cold noodles, and various other stuff. Ok, so it was mostly Mako and Kaori. I got dishes out and stuff and was generally fidgety and a bit cranky. Course, it was hot. Have I failed to mention this? Because it was still hot. Dad took the time to use my computer and uh, check up on, uh, stuff. Or maybe just because the computer is below the AC unit. Who knows.
(He worked his special magic on the computer at any rate. It's behaving.)

Dinner was lots of fun, and even Ari tried the inari-zushi (fried-tofu and rice sushi), and even Ari liked the somen (!!!). Dad regaled us with travel stories, some of which were new to me, and he was happy to talk about South Africa. 

Afterwards, we did FIREWORKS!!!!

That’s it for Day One in Sabae.

Monday August 19: Bank, post office, used books, 100-yen store, curry again, and lots of driving. (Guess what — Ani and Ari drove too!) 

The main attraction of the day was Eiheiji. It’s also, like, the main attraction of the entire prefecture. Founded in 1244 (oldest remaining building 1794), it’s a Soto Zen Buddhist temple. It’s probably my favorite temple in all of Japan... though I admit my memories of others are a bit fuzzy. The location is nice but not as picturesque as Byodoin or Kyomizudera for example, but the temple itself is huge and you can walk through the whole thing. 

It’s still in operation, training around 200 monks who wake up at 3:30 every morning (except in winter when it’s 4:30!) and polish the floors. (Well, first they like wash and meditate, then they clean, then they eat but eating is like meditation too.) 

Also, Mr Miwa works there, so I said hi to him — once I finally found him... at the end. Next time, he said, come here first, then he’ll show us around :)

The last event of the day was karaoke. It was a bit rushed and it was the first time I encountered a karaoke place that didn’t include drinks and I had to get a membership — but eventually we got to singing. Or, in the case of Ani and me, more kinda croaking, since we were still sick.

Eventually, it was Time to Say Goodbye, and we retired for the night.

Tuesday August 20: An easy morning, we made a visit to the nearby cemetery and I shared the vast knowledge I’d received from Kaori-sensei. Also we saw the rice up close.

At noon I drove them to the train station. Goodbye!!!

Then it was off to the city for my driver’s license interview. 

I’ve read it’s frustrating for Americans trying to get the Japanese license. But I also read this is America’s fault for making it difficult for Japanese to get American licenses, so I’ll just grumble and complain about politics this long.

But it is frustrating. Luckily I had someone to go with me to translate, as I was asked a lot of questions. She wanted to know exactly, in each detail, how I got my license. It was 7 years ago but yeah, I took a 20 hour course and had 20 hours of instructed driving and yes, I definitely did all 40 hours of required practice with my permit. I’m sure of it.

Once she was finally satisfied with that, however, we encountered a problem. I have a lot of stamps in my passport. I’ve been to many countries in the last 4 years since I got the newest one. And did you realize the U.S. doesn’t stamp your passport when you re-enter the country? So there is no way to prove you actually returned to the U.S.? 

Yup. 

I needed to prove I’d been in the U.S. for 3 months after getting my license (er, my renewed license). What that proves — ok, nothing. Red tape. Jump through hoops. Give them water utility bills which don’t work because they don’t have my middle initial on them, then give them unofficial community-college transcripts which do and make them happy. 

Next step, driving test. Oh. No.

Once I returned from that ordeal and taught my first classes back after vacation, and stepped into my apartment again, it hit me that it was back to eating meals alone, driving alone, and generally being by myself. After 23 years of ALWAYS being with my family (minus a short stint in New York), it’s really strange to be living alone. After 5 months perhaps I'm used to it, but a week with my visitors was really nice. 

(Also, it was strange talking in English all the time! I started to forget Japanese!!)

They went on to have further exciting adventures in Japan, and since we were in the same time zone, they kept me updated on their progress. 

So they know everything about this post already and don’t need to read it :)

Miss you all!