Mia-tachi no tabi - Day 14 - Descending Down the Mountain

Today I woke up bright and early... at 6:30 when people started going to view the morning service. Since the walls are literally made of paper, any noise outside is crystal clear inside a room. I didn't mind it much though.

We ate the Japanese style breakfast for the first, and last, time.

I'd like to keep my review of it short: yuck. The End.

We took another nice bath and got all backed up and checked out. We left our luggage at the front and went in search of additional substinance. We found a little grocery store and I got bananas and grapefruit juice. Then we caught a bus to the station.

To summerize the next 4 hours: we rode trains, bought some food, and the ate it as we rode the trains some more. Then we arrived in Sabae and Myra picked us up at the station. She took us to the hotel so we could checkin and drop off bags before going to her apartment. I took the chance to snap a shot of her tiny, tiny car. It's design is very bad for anyone on the back seats....

After watching Myra play her mountain dulcimer a bit, we went for a short walk near the river. I've seen lots of cemetery plots here, but of course none compare to Okunoin. They are pretty cute though.

The above picture is of Myra's appartment building (green in back) and the company building in front.

Finally we were hungry enough to go to dinner, which was at a tonkatsu restraunt (my request), which was delicious. I wanna go again, but our schedule doesn't allow for it. Maybe in Tokyo...

After dinner we walked over to Book Off and bought some books to practice kanji with. Myra also discovered a karuta set, so we got that to play with. Then we dropped Rich and Mom back to the hotel and Myra and I returned to her appartment for the night.