Last day

 Tuesday, March 25, 2025

I'm feeling nearly human and consume the convenience store sandwich that Ginger and Sachiko brought home for me last night.  A big step! Sachiko says that she and her friend, Sachiko go out for coffee every Tuesday morning and would we like to do that?  Yep, you bet! More old broads on the town! And we don't even have to walk! Sachiko II has a car and no one has told her that she's not allowed to drive.  It is a treat to avoid the forced march!

This old coffee shop hasn't changed since we were here all those years ago and when I make a kind of sign for iced coffee, the counterman grins and remembers me from last week. A lot of important conversations have happened here, I'll bet!  And there's another one today.

And, oh my, there's food.  Toast and red-bean paste and soup and a half of a banana and a salad and a hard boiled egg!  I can get down everything but the HBE;  my tummy just won't stretch that far!

On the way home we stop at the drugstore for Sachiko to get some medicine which turns out to be for basically all the adults.  The kids are fine~! Google translate says it's a mix of herbal medicines, caffeine, acetaminophen, and ephedrine.  It's some great stuff.  Sachiko tried to buy two boxes, but could only get one because foreigners buy them to take home and resell!

We aren't home very long before the family heads to the "dining room" for lunch! Ginger and I are still stuffed from breakfast! But Sachiko ate what I did and she's doing an excellent job on her bowl of wonderness! I don't get it!  I have a Mr. Donut, double-honey glazed, at Andy's recommendation.  The sugar hit is just what I needed.  Even Ginger got an order of dumplings and a donut!  I'm definitely loosing this competition!

After lunch the kids played one round of this variation of Wack-a-mole.

Ginger taught Iori the dots to blocks game and he beat her soundly!

I wouldn't dream of parking in this tiny little space!!

Look at all those colors!

and these!

but wait, there's more!

Odd little three-wheeled vehicle

classic Japanese architecture - usually cheek by jowl with more modern structures.

It might be time for another nap, but pretty soon Kyoko comes over to say good-bye and she is such a delight!  I'm so glad that Sachiko has two such very good friends so close by!!  It's such fun to use the translator apps to really communicate! Technology isn't all bad!!

Sachiko has also bought us each an energy drink that seems to be primarily ginseng.  She says it tastes bad but we should drink it anyway.  Being obedient, we do!  And it's not that awful and what can be wrong with ginseng!! Maybe by the time I get home I won't need to see my PA after all!!

Oh my goodness! It's time for another meal!! This one is yakatori where everything comes on a stick and the sticks just keep coming!! At one point I think I counted twenty-three different dishes, not counting the repeats!  There's chicken and quail eggs and fried eggplant and gizzards and cartiledge and fried cheese triangles and garlic cloves and ginko nuts and burdock root fries and on and on!  All the sticks go in a container in the middle of the table as a monument to gluttony! Andy, Tae, and Sakurako like the hot stuff so they get all the chicken wings. Ginger asks if they have chicken hearts and sure enough they do!  She gets all of those!

We waddle out to the car and by the time we're home I'm ready to pass out.  Ginger and everyone play Scrooge and Old Maid and have a blast, but I don't even hear them!! I did spend a little time seeing what judicious moves I have to make in order to close my suitcase!!  We're leaving in the morning around 9:30..