Kaoru had to leave this morning to get her hair cut.  Arisa was at school so Mio and I had the morning together.  We had to leave the house around 9.30 as the cleaner was around and she wanted to stay out of the way, so we decided to start the day off with a relaxing massage.  We went to the shopping centre and found a place, and got changed into the “trendy” outfits we had to wear.

Our next destination was wine tasting.  The same place that Mio had purchased the whisky from the other day was doing a wine show at the moment.  Mio couldn’t taste any as she was driving, so it was up to me.  Most of the wines were french and Italian, but they also had some “New world” ones, which included New Zealand, South Africa and a number of other countries.  Some were good, some not so.  We also tasted some cheeses.  So it was a nice way to kill another hour or so.

Once she had me “liquored up”, Mio told me my next mission for the day – I had to pick Arisa up from Juku.  Which meant introducing myself as her Uncle (in Japanese).  Surprisingly, it worked!  The 3 of us then went upstairs to the bookshop, where I found a server-down issue back home which I had to take care of.  Not long after, Kaoru arrived from the hair dressers.

I realised I had not yet had a sushi-train this trip, so we went to the one at the shopping centre.  There was quite a long wait for it, so we sat down.  While we were waiting, Arisa started playing up, and eventually we had to leave as punishment.  So we drove her back home and left her there, and Mio, Kaoru and I went to a sushi store for some more delicious food.

We went back to the house and Kaoru and I did our packing (well, mostly Kaoru – I was there for moral support).  I confirmed that our baggage allowance was 30 kg – otherwise we were going to be in trouble!  We then had a drink downstairs, and decided we should go for dinner.  Yoichi wouldn’t be home until late so we weren’t waiting for him.  As it was starting to drizzle Mio wanted to drive instead of walk.  We went to a Texas Steak House, where I had a mixed grill.  Another fantastic meal!

Back at the house, I had a glass of Ichiro, and then Mio decided she wanted one of the other “almost empty” bottles to be completed.  I had had a good crack at it on Saturday night.  So I did my job and finished that off while Mio and Yoicho enjoyed the Ichiro; I then joined them in a couple more before calling it a night.

A couple of photos:

These prices were for tastings. This bottle can be bought for $450 in Australia.

Mio had received *another* delivery today.