Iain in Japan (Take 3): Host Family Day

Today was out Nascar with Eddie day. We traveled great distances on narrow winding roads at bullet train speeds. We started with a trip to Magome, a 400 year old town with shops and some great views. The trouble for one of us is that the road we walked on is very steep. Coming down was a real struggle for this unnamed brother that is taller than me, but shorter than Adam. He is actually doing really well, but going downhill causes some meaningful discomfort. Adam is doing really well other than a sore back.

From Magome, we went to a place to make Japanese cakes. They were made with beans that were smashed up into a paste. We rolled them into 20 pieces, then took some dough made with brown sugar. We wrapped the dough around the bean balls, then they cooked them for us while we had a great lunch with all kinds of Japanese food.

Finally, we went to the paper museum and made some notecards and did some origami. This is one of my favorite places here. I don’t know what it is about paper, but it’s fascinating to me.

We are on the way home now to get ready for the banquet. We are a bit late, so Eddie is driving like Jeff Gordon in the commercial that went across the Internet a while ago. We will have five minutes to change, then we have to drive fast to the banquet place.

We made it with two minutes to spare to the country club for dinner. It was very good. They had more food than last year, so I left not hungry any more. However, we still stopped by the mini mart for ice cream after. I had one little problem at the dinner. I went to the toilet and was very pleased with the fancy toilet with a heated seat. When I was finished, I was looking for the flush handle and could not find it. So, I started pushing buttons written in Japanese. I had no luck with the first few, then when I pressed the blue one, some water started spraying out to clean whomever is sitting down. However, I was not sitting, I was standing in front of it and got sprayed. I quickly pressed the red button which stopped it. Eventually, I found the handle on the side of the tank. It was kind of hidden. I quickly made it to my seat at the banquet then waited for my trousers to dry. Nobody ever noticed.