Mia-tachi no tabi - Day 15 - Livin' Dangerously

This morning we woke up bright and early. And then spent like 2 hours preparing and eating breakfast with a break for laundry in between. Around 9:30 we finally departed and I got to drive to the hotel! It was like a five minute drive, but it was fun. It was actually really easy to adapt to.

We met up with the rest of our group and headed to the park. The park has a little free zoo with some monkeys, birds, and red pandas. It also has a view point at the top (the park is on what is called a mountain, but is really a hill) and a little tea house with a koi pond.

After the park we dropped by a supermarket and picked up stuff for lunch, returned to Myra's appartment to eat and call home to chat. Then we set off on a drive to the coast. The drive was really pretty and relaxing, though really cramped. 

Then we returned to Sabae. We went back to the zoo hoping to see baby red pandas, since the sign said they made there debut today, but we must have missed them. So we went back to Myra's again and played with the koto. Rich got to drive back.

Myra and I learned how to sort of play bridge (as in, we were taught, but still had no idea what was going on), then around 7 we walked to a yakitori restaurant where we met Myra's friends. Hugh is from South Africa and is here teaching English, his fiancé Mako, and Kaori, the Japanese lady who lived in America for 15 years and has very good English. The food was good, the company excellent, and the night was lots of fun. A great end to a good day.