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One Crazy Weekend

Yesterday Yurie and her mother, Sae-mama picked me up early to go to there home about one hour away for the night. We drove through alot of country as I tried to communicate with Yuries mother. She just smiled and told me she had a lot planned for me. Yuries second home, located above her father doctor practice is a small cozy little home in the country. The clinic, Strawberry Fields, named after the Beatles is a popular clinic for people with back problems as Yuries father is an orthopedic surgeon. We pulled up and were greeted by Yuries dogs and then I was taken for a grand tour. The clinic is pretty cute but very crowded and staffed with a bunch of high pitched nurses who had no idea what to say to me. Then we went up to the living quarters and the huge comfey guest room. My room had a large screen television and a brand new ginormous apple computer. I didnt get to see Yurie and her sisters room as it was a mess apparently. Sae-mama cooked us a meal and then we hung out at the house for a little while. Later we headed to the Jardin de Monet. In the most obscure random countryside of Kochi-ken Japan some dedicated citizens built a beautiful water lilly garden to resemble Monets painting. It was beautiful but the rain quickly messed that up. we did some shopping and then headed for the onsen. Onsen. I:m sure the majority of you have no idea what the onsen is. Basically the Japanese people love onsen because they are natural hot spring and very much like a spa. One cache: you are completely butt stark naked with a bunch of woman of all ages. And heres the best part... as Kochi is really the middle of know where people like to stare at the gaijin. At home in American I hate being naked so I hope you can imagine my shyness at the onsen. when we jumped in the water i found a nice rock to hide behind. But like everything else in the country, I quickly got into the swing of things and got used to it. It may seem a little weird but onsens aren:t actually bad. Not that I want to make going to them a habit...haha. Yuries father met up with us afterwards and we headed to a habachi steakhouse thingie. It was delicious if I do say so myself. As I was eating the rice and miso soup, Yutako Hirosue yelled at me as apparently I wasnt doing it right. So Yurie showed me the right way to switch off my chop sticks.　Hey what can I say? Im trying. Back at the house Sae-mama showed me how to play her Hotoko. This fascinating instrument is used for that familiar song Sakura. Everytime you go into a Japanese restaurant you probably hear it. Then we all went to bed. Today I woke up and played Sakura again, this time from memory. Apprently Im getting very very good. Next we hung around for a while until heading back to Kochi city. There we met the Tosajoshi principal and Yurie sucked up a little bit. Afterwards we went to the mall to meet Yuki, Yuries little sister for lunch. For lunch I had pizza but was forced to try the weirdest thing I have ever seen in Japan so far. Yuki ordered pasta covered in Squid ink. When you eat it it turns your mouth black. So you can imagine the table of me, Yurie, Yuki, and Sae-mama with black mouths. Kinda crazy actually. From there we went to see a movie, all in Japanese and I was bored to death. When it was over my host parents, very worried about me ordered me home as I was kind of later than anticipated. I also found out my computer was broken beyond repair. So kind of a bad way to end a good day.