Day 49: Fun with the Family

Luckily, I had a chance to sleep a bit later than usual today. After breakfast I had some time to write postcards for my friends and family back home. I have been carrying them around for some time, but just got to writing them today. I just want to share some of my experiences with everyone back home, and let them know that I am thinking of them.

Yoko and I took the dogs to the countryside while the kids studied. The countryside where we walked looked like the Japan that I had pictured in my mind before visiting: rice fields, bamboo trees, local people, and mountains all around. We walked past several rice fields, traditional-style homes, and the Osawa pond and before reaching the Daikakuji Temple. We did not actually go into the Temple, but just looked into the entrance and turned back. Today was a very hot day and I was dying after a few minutes outside, so it was nice to get back in the car and turn the air conditioning on. I am sure the Temple is interesting, but the walk through the countryside was fun and something I had not really experienced before in Japan.

We took the dogs home and rested for a while. The plan for the day was to go bowling and the kids couldn’t wait. Maybe they were really excited to bowl, or perhaps they just did not want to study anymore. Either way, we all headed to the bowling alley. I was amazed to see how nice the bowling alley is. They have many lanes and leather couches above each one. Back in Wisconsin we used to bowl once a week in college, and it was a lot of fun. It is a sport that even the young kids can enjoy. The bowling alley even had a replay system which would show you throwing the ball and the ball hitting the pins. For serious bowlers they might use it to perfect their game, but we used it purely for entertainment. If Misaki was bowling, for example, I would run behind her and make faces or dance around. While she was playing she couldn’t see me, but after her frame it would show the replay and she would laugh. The replay was fun to play with.

As for the bowling itself, I have played better. Usually I have no trouble scoring over 120, but today I averaged about 100. It was a good time, though. Yoko beat me two out of three games, but my overall score was better. I let her win those two times because she is a black belt and might beat me up…just kidding; Yoko beat me fair and square. While we bowled we had some coke and French fries, both of which came from a vending machine. In Japan, they have vending machines for everything: beer, hot dogs, soda, candy, and just about anything else.

The strangest thing happened after our games of bowling. A couple of days ago a random memory of my brothers and I popped into my head. When we were younger my brother Tim had a Sega Genesis and we always played a fighting game called Virtua Fighter. It is one of those great memories from when all of the family still lived together. Anyway, I will get to the point. As I watched the girls play some of the games, I found a Virtua Fighter game! It would not have been a big deal, but the memory I thought of a few days ago made me want to play the game, and there it was! Strange.

The plan was to head to dinner at one of the Arai’s Korean BBQ restaurants, but we made a quick stop at their relative’s house first. The kids’ aunt and uncle just completed the construction of their new home. It was an absolutely gorgeous house! They have not moved in yet, but everything is finished. When we walked inside, we could see that mostly everything was made of beautiful wood. It was easy to enjoy the view of their well-landscaped backyard through the large picture window in the back wall of the house. Apparently the father designed the backyard and garden himself, personally selecting each tree from the mountains in the Kyoto area. If I ever build a house, I think I will try to make it exactly like theirs. First, I must get the money for such an extravagant project.

We made our way to the Korean BBQ in time for dinner. Mr. Arai was waiting for us in the room where we would dine. I was happy to be back in the building, because it is the same building where I first went after arriving in Japan; if you remember, this was the restaurant where I had to put my suit on in the car before going to my welcome dinner party in the basement. At the time, I had no idea where I was in Japan, but now I am more familiar with Kyoto and how to get around. The building, which Mr. Arai runs, is located at the intersection of Omiya and Shijo. For dinner we cooked up some meat right at our table: cow tongue, chicken, and beef. The very interesting new food for the day was a piece of raw liver. It was alright, but I only ate one piece.

Before we left the restaurant, the kids shared their best funny faces with me. Miyuki did not want to make the faces in front of me, so they went out of the room and took pictures of their faces to share with me. They were some pretty silly faces I must say. The kids are a lot of fun. We headed home after dinner and called it a night.