31 May 2009

We slept in late again this morning, even though we tried to get up around 10am. I eventually rolled out of bed around noon, and I still had to wake Derrick up a couple of times. We stayed up late working on our project, so it was understandable that we were tired. I was afraid that Norio and his mom would be up and about, but they were still wandering around in their pajamas too. Norio’s mom didn’t have breakfast prepared for us since they had plans to take us out to eat at one of their favorite places. Once Norio’s dad got home from work, we jumped in their car and went to get some good food. The restaurant they took us to turned out to be about 30 minutes away, and it was an all-you-can-eat Japanese buffet. It was really busy, and we had to wait for about 20 minutes to get a table. The buffet itself was a lot nicer than any buffet I had visited in the U.S. All the food was consistently changed out with freshly made food, and the variety of foods offered kept changing as well. I had a couple plates of food and definitely got my fill for the day.
We drove back home and were all completely exhausted from eating so much. Norio’s dad went back to work the rest other four of us took a nap. It was such a lazy day! We woke up around 6pm and began working on our project again. Once Norio’s mom woke up, she prepared the bath for us so we could eat shower and bathe before returning to the NOMYC later that night. We packed all of our stuff back up, and once Norio’s dad got back, we loaded up the car and left around 11pm. We stopped by Mina’s house really quickly so I could return her hair supplies to her, and I once again thanked her many times for the kimono and obi. After saying our goodbyes, we still hadn’t eaten dinner, so Norio’s parents took us to one of their favorite ramen places. It was known for its special volcano ramen, so they were really excited to show it off to us. I ordered shoyu ramen, and everyone else got miso ramen. The ramen came out in a stone-like bowl, and when they poured the dashi in the bowl, it sizzled up and spilt everywhere. The restaurant had provided a sheet of paper to hold up in order to protect ourselves from getting burnt. It was really interesting. The meal also came with a bowl of rice, three pieces of gyoza, and anin dofu dessert. The process for eating the meal was a bit different as well since you were supposed to eat the ramen first, then dump the rice into the remaining dashi to eat it. I liked this process much better since I’m not a huge fan of plain rice, and anin dofu turns out to be one of my favorites. We all finished our meals, then jumped back in the car to sadly head back to Tokyo.
The drive to Tokyo takes about an hour and is about 120km. We made one rest stop, and it rained for the entire drive back. I was really sad to say bye to Norio’s parents, but I’m hoping I will be able to see them once more before I leave. It was a great experience overall, and I am truly grateful for their immense generosity. The rest of the night was spent working on our design project and presentation since we have another draft due tomorrow. I still can’t believe we will have everything finished up in a week and a couple days. It is such a crazy thought, but I am also getting excited to see my relatives.