October 31, 2005 -Monday

Cloudy and cool, a bit of sun later on.

A great day, but it didn't start out that way. In the morning, I was woken up by Fumihiko bumping and thumping in the kitchen. I knew that he wanted to get up early and get his new driver's licence. I got up for a minute, closed the door and went back to sleep. I woke up a lot later because someone was at the door.

I had forgotten that today was the day the men were coming to check the smoke detectors. Sigh. I was in bed, Fumihiko was in the bath. Neither of us wanted to get the door. However, they had a key and tried to let themselves in. We both yelled out "Chotto mate kudasai" and then I let them in. I went to the door in a dressing gown. Maybe it's scandalous at 10:30 am in Japan, but who cares?

They did their stuff, then left. I finally got a call from Taeko. They'd meet us around 2. Probably. Reception was really bad and I wasn't sure.

Fumihiko and I went and had lunch. We went to Cocos. It was okay. Not crowded and we had a good meal.

After lunch we drove up to Mount Haguro. We got there a bit early, but it wasn't long before Taeko, James and their friend John arrived. We walked around the temples and shrines at the top of the mountain. They were beautiful. They'd finished some of the renovations since I was there last time.

When we finished looking around we decided to go to the pagoda. We drove down the mountain and then walked down all those steps to the pagoda. It was a lovely walk. It was cool, but not too cold and not as crowded as it is sometimes.

What surprised me was climbing back up from the pagoda. It usually kills me, but today I did it and I was okay. I was a little out of breath, but not nearly as badly as I used to be. Hurray.

The group decided to go and look at Tsuruoka park for a while, so we did. We walked around and even saw a rabbit that was half tame. It was a nice walk.

We dined at Togashi, the great yakiniku restaurant that we go to. We had a lot of meat, but it was all great. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I know I did!

Sadly, we had to separate afterwards as Taeko and her party had to get back to Niigata prefecture. We made our long goodbyes and then drove off in different directions.

Fumihiko and I bought a few groceries and then came home and watched The Empire Strikes Back. It was great.

We're both very sleepy from our day, so we'll likely have an early night. Got to go. Night night.