The alarm was set for this morning, but I was awake before it went off.  We packed our bags and caught a taxi at 8.00, to Tokyo Shinkansen station.  We grabbed a bento box from the station – mine was eel, and waited for the 9.16 train to Nasuno.  We found our seats, and turned them around so the 4 of us could face each other (we had Mio and Arisa with us), and then it was *finally* time to eat breakfast.  Here was something new – my bento box had a string hanging out of it.  When we pulled that, there was a noise, and then a burst of steam, and the whole box started to heat up!  So not only can you buy hot drinks and food from a vending machine, but you can also buy cold things and heat them up!

It was a bit over an hour later that we arrived at our station – Nasushiobara.  We walked out of the station and there were people from a local show, with a sign saying “Why have you come to Nasushiobara?” (in Japanese, and also in English).  There were obviously surprised at a Westerner coming, so spoke to Kaoru about it, and then wanted a photo of me holding the sign.  We didn’t think to take a photo with my camera until it was too late :(.

We found Ottosan and went to the car.  He drove us to his friends bamboo forest.  People think it is a public forest and not private property, unfortunately, so they have wrecked parts of it.  But we were there by prior arrangement.  We waited for Kenichi, Kozue, Okasan, Yukari and Minami to turn up, and then it was time to find some bamboo!

The trick here was finding bamboo that was the right size.  If it was too long it would be too hard to eat.  If it was too short, there wasn’t enough.  Because we were so close to Tokyo, we couldn’t eat this bamboo as Sashimi – the soil isn’t of good enough quality to grow it well enough.  You can do this in Kyoto.  But it was fine for cooking.  I was shown how to find the right side, clear around the bamboo, and cut it with a mattock.  It was a lot easier than I was expecting.

Once we had collected enough bamboo we went to Okasan and Ottosan’s friends house, who owns the forest, for lunch.  She served a very bamboo-based meal for us that was delicious.  After lunch she pulled out an instrument which was a smaller and simpler version of a Koto.  It made a beautiful sound, and she had music to some traditional Japanese songs.  Remembering how Waltzing Matilda sounded at our wedding, I attempted to play that – but it didn’t bring a tear to my eye like it did at our wedding!

We left in two groups – one group (with the kids) was going shopping, and the other group were going back to the house.  Unfortunately not long after we left we got a call from Okasan, that she had the key to the house!  So we had to pull over at the shops and wait for them to catch up so we could get the key.  Mio came up with the idea of ice cream, so she and I went to get one while we were waiting.

Back in the car, it was a long fight with the traffic, before we finally arrived at the house.  We brought things inside, and then it was time for a beer and a relax.  This whole holiday has been go-go-go-go, and it was nice to just sit back, listen to the birds, and enjoy the fresh mountain air without having to think of packing, or unpacking, or what we were going to do for the afternoon or the next day.

I went upstairs for a siesta, which ended up taking about 2 hours!  By the time I came downstairs, it had actually started to cool off, and T-shirt and shorts were a little chilly.  I sat outside with Ottosan for a little bit, and then came in for a beer and put a long sleeved top on.  Then, at about 5.45, food started coming….and coming….and coming….and coming….  Eggplant, the sweetest of corn on the cob, Tako (octopus), salmon roe (beautiful – from Hokaido), wagu beef…..rice….wine… beer.  I realised half-way through dinner that it was Sunday, and we were having Sunday dinner with our other family!  Usually we would be at Mum and Dad’s house (with just as many people).  We thought it would have been fun if we could have gotten Mum and Dad on Skype and had a big “virtual” dinner!  Then we remembered that Dad was in Tasmania for a golf holiday, so hoped Mum was at Julie’s for dinner.  For dessert I brought down a bottle of muscat that I had brought from Australia, which was mainly drunk by Kenichi and myself, with Ottosan and Kozue having a half glass (we had about 1/2 – 2/3 of the bottle, so a bit left for tomorrow).  Mio had a migraine so went and had a laydown, and Kenichi, Kozue, Ottosan, the kids and I went outside with some fireworks.  It’s legal here, although they weren’t anything big.  The girls got a buzz out of it though, as young kids do.

Back inside, Kaoru and Okasan had mostly cleaned up.  So we showed them photos of our last few days travelling around Japan, and by this time we were all pretty tired.  So after a bath (in my favourite bath of all time!), I was ready to call it a night too.  Looking forward to a day of relaxing tomorrow – nothing to do, other than activities around the house.

So, basically, tonight there is Kozue, Kenichi, Yukari, Arisa an Minami in the second house (my favourite hosue), Kaoru and I upstairs at the main house, and Okasan, Ottosan and Mio downstairs in the main house.

It’s nights like these that I can’t help but be thankful for the family I have.  With all Mum and Dad do for us back in Australia, and how Okasan and Ottosan are equally as giving when we are here in Japan.  We are so lucky, and I’m glad I’ve been able to recognize and appreciate just how lucky I am – a gift that I have only appreciated since Kaoru came in to my life.