10 June 2009

Today the Japan program ended. We had to check out of the NOMYC for the last time, so sheets were due at 9:00am, and keys were due by 10:00am. I already had plans to meet Masaru at 9:00am at the front gate of the NOMYC, so I was the first one to leave. Don happened to be walking through our rooms to make sure we were all up and getting ready, so I gave him my key and left. By the time I got to the front gate with all of my luggage, it was about 9:10am. Masaru was waiting there patiently, and once I arrived, we caught a taxi to Shinjuku Station. Masaru had already purchased tickets for the super express Azsua train to Nagano at 11:00am. Since we arrived to Shinjuku Station at 9:30am, he went to the JR office and switched the tickets for the train at 10:00am. We found our way to the platform and caught the train as scheduled. The ride to Nagano took 2 hours and 5 minutes. I slept for almost the entire way since I was really tired. Masaru slept a little bit too, so I didn’t feel as bad for being so tired.
When we pulled into the station in Nagano, Miyo was already waiting for us on the platform! I could tell she was really excited to see us. Her husband Toshio was waiting for us right outside of the gate, and he immediately helped me with my extremely heavy luggage. We walked to their car, which turned out to be a brand new silver Toyota Prius. We loaded my luggage into the back of the car, and it surprisingly fit with no problem. On the way back to their house, we stopped at a café restaurant to grab some lunch since it was just past noon. They helped me pick out something to order, so I ended up getting sliced beef with cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and bread. I think they thought I hadn’t eaten very much meat during my trip. It was really good, and the meat was amazingly tender. Afterwards, we drove to their house, which was still less than 10 minutes from the station. It was a two-story house with a decent sized backyard. All three bedrooms were upstairs, and the stairway was very narrow. I struggled with Miyo to get my large luggage upstairs, so I felt really bad. They were really excited to have me visiting them though, so we sat around and talked for the majority of the day. At one point, I was able to setup the wireless router and Skype with both my parents and Meddie and Yoshi. It was really neat.
For dinner, Miyo cooked a wonderful meal of shrimp fried with cracker crumbs, potato salad, many tsukemonos, rice, and lipton chicken noodle soup that she had gotten from my grandma in the mail. It was quite the combination of good foods! Communication was a bit rough since Masaru is our only form of communication, but it definitely makes things interesting. Hopefully one day I can at least speak conversational Japanese. Miyo and Toshio’s son Mitsunori came home from work late, so I met him later in the evening. He is in his thirties and doesn’t speak any English either. I can already tell it will be a very interesting 7 days here in Nagano. We were able to somewhat plan out our next couple of days too, so I will probably be visiting a lot of museums and shrines. Nagano is situated around a beautiful lake too, so I’m hoping the sky will clear up a bit so I can see Mount Fuji from my bedroom window. Overall, I am really exhausted, so I will get lots of sleep tonight and start tomorrow fresh.