So, we are on our way to Yamaguchi today to finally see Haruna and her mom Mizue and dad Yasutoshi.

Packing to leave was a little more planned, due to our shopping additions, we put a piece of our reserved luggage (which we have been carrying around in our suitcase) into action! We arrived into Japan with one large suitcase and one small carry on each plus my backpack. We are now leaving Osaka with one large suitcase each (one totally packed for Canada), one medium bag, one carry on and my backpack. Our luggage all nicely stacks, so when we roll the large one, we have another one attached on top - so really its not as bad as it sounds.

We got a nice late start today (leisurely for once), and checked out of the hotel at about noon. We left our bags and headed back to the retail area we had found last night. Eve wanted to use the ATM machine we saw there, which lets us Cirrus users access our accounts from Japan. We actually got a better exchange rate withdrawing from the ATM here v.s. ordering Yen at our home bank, plus no service fee. Also in this area, there are many Pachinko, which are full of slot machines. After a quick stop there it was back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head off to the JR Rail Osaka Station across the street.

Today it is raining here, but looks like the weather forecast south is more promising. We caught the JR train to Shin-Osaka, where we had reserved a seat on the Shinkansen to Yamaguchi upon arrival here on Tuesday. The reserved seat trains do not seem to be as crowded as the unreserved trains - with our JR Rail passes, it does not cost us any extra to reserve a seat, so really, why not?

Of course we were over-estimating again, and arrived about 45 minutes early for our train. We found a rare seat, grabbed some sandwiches, and settled in for our short wait. Passengers can choose from a large variety of food options, restaurants and kiosks. We liked the assorted sandwiches, with 4 different flavour sections each.

Its been interesting seeing the different sights as we've been waiting or traveling around - the various women's fashions, the very cute children, the assortment of retail shops selling "gifts", the architecture and of course, the variety of foods available here. Sometimes the things which are the most interesting to us are the little things, like the decorative manhole covers and the local advertising.

We had a relatively short ride to Shin-Yamaguchi, two hours and 2 minutes, and it was exactly two hours and two minutes, leaving at 1359 and arriving at 1601. The terrain this time was more low mountains and rolling hills, with the Shinkansen traveling through more mountains tunnels. A beautiful countryside mixed with more rice and agricultural fields and townshhttp://www.travelpod.com/cgi-bin/edit_entry.cgi?tweb_tripID=1&tweb_UID=gmalnyk&tweb_entryID=1241744220&tweb_token=619882211790985870&tweb_editor=BASICips enroute.

When we arrived, Yasutoshi, Mizue and Haruna were waiting for us on the platform, and it was very nice to see them and to finally meet Yasutoshi.

Good thing they brought both of their cars, as Mizue's Honda would have been too small for all five of us and the luggage. So the luggage went with Mizue and the rest of us went with Haruna and Yasutoshi in his Toyota.

We decided rather than eating out, we'd stay in tonight. We proceeded to the grocery store(the largest one we have seen yet, very much like a western grocery store in size and setup, but which is actually a smaller store Haruna says), where food for supper was purchased. The store had not only groceries, fresh produce, meat and seafood, but also clothing at the front. Next we made a quick stop at the local bakery, where baking was purchased. The presentation of pastries and aroma in the bakery were both very mouth watering.

The next stop was the Daikoku house. Their house is actually partway up one of the mountains overlooking Yamaguchi. They have a two story, three bedroom home, with two toilet rooms, a shower/bath combo, living/dining room, kitchen, and traditional Japanaese room. The house is filled with numerous works of lovely art from Mizue's students, children's book illustrators and pictures of students, friends and family.

We all sat down at the (western style) dining table, talked, and had a few drinks, while Mizue & Haruna prepared supper. We then had a very delicious supper, consisting of about 8 different dishes, including 3 seafood dishes, salad, peas, meat and potatoes, zucchini and one of Yasutoshi's favourites chicken spring rolls. Haruna says they don't eat like this all the time, just for special suppers :-) I was then convinced to try some fermented beans, or as Haruna calls them, stinky beans. Not bad, but I don't think I would eat them every day. Eve also tried them, but I don't think she is enthralled with them.

After supper we talked some more and one of Mizue's friends Makiko and her daughter Maho dropped by. Makiko was Haruna's piano teacher (for about 12 years). Mahkiko and Maho played a few piano pieces for all of us on the piano in the living room then we also had a little sing-along. Haruna was persuaded to play a couple of songs as well, and still plays very well. (A hidden talent we didn't know about!)
Soon after that, the party broke up, and we all retired to bed, as we were a bit tired, and Mizue had a 7am appointment.