We woke up to another beautiful day in Yamaguchi - we got up a little later today due to the late hour festivities and "all-you-can-drink" wedding after party after last night's reception.  

We ran into everyone (Robert, Haruna, Robert's family and friends) downstairs in the lobby - they were all assembling for a trip to the limestone caves outside Yamaguchi, which we visited on our last trip here . 

We went for a short walk to the Shin- Yamaguchi Station across the street from the hotel. We checked out all the shops and restaurants there, and ended up having breakfast in a French Bakery/Cafe called "Vie de France". They offered a wide selection of baked goods - various buns with meat and vegetable selections baked in. Greg went for the chili/cheese dog baked bun for breakfast and Eve had a ham and cheese sandwich dipped, along with coffee and tea.

Haruna's mom Mizue picked us up to go to Labo kids meeting at noon. We stopped for a quick lunch of Udon noodle soup (one of Greg's favourites) and some quiet conversation. With so many people around for the wedding it was nice to have Mizue all to ourselves for some quiet conversation.

Mizue is one of 10 Labo International tutors in Yamaguchi - they teach English to children from the time they are very young through games and stories . They also organize student exchanges for one school year in another country (like we had originally with Haruna) or one month visits in the summer. As with our last visit, she asked if we would speak to her students - always fun for us! Today we spoke with kids between the ages of 3 and 11. All in all, 21 students attended this meeting - we weren't sure how many would actually come as it is a holiday in Japan today. 

We gave our little talk about Canada, where we lived, the climate, things we do, and some differences about our countries. For the speech, Mizuki, one of the Labo graduates in attendance translating. We spoke English to each and every one, and let them introduce themselves, tell how old they are and what they like to do. Greg read them a couple of English story books and we played a game of Bingo with word/picture recognition, with lots of 'Canada' souvenir prizes which we had brought along. We had snack time before finishing up the afternoon .

This evening was for the Wedding "Shower". This is a little different than those in Canada. In Japan, the Wedding Shower is after the wedding, and is a pot luck supper - a gathering for friends not invited to the wedding but wanted to celebrate the wedding with the happy couple. This shower was held by the Labo moms and students, many of which who have known Haruna since she was a child. There were a few speeches, entertainment and general get-together with casual conversation. We had a piano and singing performance by one of the Maho's Mom, whom we met last time here in Japan. Some of the older Labo students performed a skit chronicling some of Haruna's life, portrayed how Haruna and Robert met, and their lives to this wedding celebration. We also had a sing along, where we all sang in Japanese (words were written in English characters for us) with Maho's mom accompanying on the piano. A beautiful wedding cake was presented with Haruna and Robert cutting the cake and feeding each other the first pieces.

The Labo moms prepared an extensive and varied pot luck supper with many, many delicious dishes. One of the more interesting items we tried tonight was raw marinated whale meat, which was quite good.

Yasutoshi, Haruna's father, and the best taxi driver(!) drove our group back to the Yamaguchi Grand Hotel. 10 of us decided to finish the evening with a visit to the Izakaya Nonta Pub on the lower level, we actually closed the place at 11 pm. We had a few drinks, shared some appetizers including some edamame beans, kimchi, cheese sticks, deep fried chicken bites and some deep fried blowfish.

Another full day comes to an end with happy spirits, happy bellies and good friends!