I woke up before 7 this morning, and was actually feeling a bit refreshed, which was a nice feeling! As I got out of bed, Okaasan and Ottosan were about to go for their morning walk, so I slipped on some shoes and joined them. Okaasan had a bell that she rang as she walked. The purpose of this was to scare away any bears in the area. This country living is dangerous! It was just up the road about 50 metres and back, twice. On the second trip we bumped in to Shitou-san at the corner, so had a chat to him (well, let’s be honest – I just nodded and smiled). We walked to the next corner which was the edge of a new block of land he had bought, and he showed us the trees he’s pulling out.
Back at the house it was time to get started on breakfast, which was egg, lettuce, tomato, meat and rice. Fantastic start to the day. Then it was time to get a bit of work done.
We left about 10.00 for our destination for the day. It was about a 45 minute drive, through an area I hadn’t been to before, so it was quite lovely to drive through. There, we put our name on the list at the sushi restaurant, where we wanted to celebrate Kaoru’s birthday. We were the 10th people to arrive, which meant we had the last seats, in the first sitting. People who arrived after us had to take a number and wait for others to leave, but we just had to wait for 11.00 for the place to open.
Once inside, you could tell it was going to be good sushi. So we looked at our tablets (we each had one) and started ordering. Okaasan and Ottosan have obviously been here before, because they had 4 or 5 plates before the first of ours arrived! But the food started coming to us too. It was kind of like a sushi train, except it was a dedicated track which just delivered your order to you – everything was made on demand. It was pretty amazing sushi!
We ate for about 45 minutes or so (longer than anybody else in the first sitting, but who cares?) and then started the long drive back. On the way we went to a store which I hadn’t been to before. Just in the door were hanabi (fireworks). What fun we could have! They also had a 4 litre Jim Beam. At today’s exchange rate, that’s about AU$52.
Our next stop, just because we always have to go there, was the dairy farm to get some ice cream. We took that home and enjoyed it as an early afternoon tea (it’s about 1.30ish by now). Then it was a matter of killing the afternoon by clearing emails, relaxing for a bit, a little siesta, wander around the back yard, before watching the sumo and cracking a beer or two.
Dinner was the usual feast – chicken karage, spring rolls, and salad. A perfect way to end a relaxing day. Then it was bath time, a bit of ice cream, and then a bit of reading before bed.
Supplemental
Just after going to bed and closing our eyes, there was a strange sound. Kaoru said it was an earthquake. There was no shaking of the house though. We put clothes on and sat in the lounge, having a look to see what we can find about it on the TV. After a while we gave up on it, and went back to bed. No further events for the night.