At about 8 a.m. I was awakened by the sound of a helicopter buzzing by overhead. It was really low and really loud. I rolled out of bed and shuffled off to make some breakfast, and then I got organized and went across the street to check out the opening of the new Nishi Futami train station.
This new station is only about 150 meters from my place – really convenient. It was really only built to accommodate the gigantic new Ito Yokado market that they built next to my apartment. The grand opening of the station today was accompanied by lots of events and fun for people that might otherwise be bored on Saturday.
I walked over and took lots of pictures. They had loads of Sanyo Train Line souvenirs for sale, and they were doing a good business. Lots of people had bought tickets to get on the train platform and take a picture of trains arriving. I don’t know why that would be worthy of a photo – the trains had been running at the new station since 6 a.m.
This station is the one that I’ll be using about 90% of the time now, so I enjoyed walking through it. There was a flea market type thing going on outside, a TV station was there, and the aforementioned helicopter was taking off and landing in an adjacent parking lot.
The Ito Yokado had a big sign showing that they will be opening on September 17th, so I definitely scratched that on my calendar. I can’t wait to see the setup in there. I saw that they had at least one restaurant inside, a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yikes!
Around noon Kuniko came by to pick me up – we were looking to spend some time together before going over to meet her parents at six. We ended up going to a park in Akashi situated directly beneath the Akashi Pearl Bridge. We had a little picnic in the shade of one of the trees and just enjoyed relaxing with each other. It was some good quality time before the main event.
We walked along to Tarumi and did a little shopping in the outlet malls. We didn’t buy anything, just looked around. While we were shopping in one of the women’s fashion stores they played “Pretty Fly For A White Guy” by The Offspring, and that was kind of a surreal moment.
After the picnic we went back to my house where I took a shower and put some decent clothes on. Then we headed over to say hello to her folks.
They live in a dense neighborhood, in a nice big house. We went inside and I followed Kuniko’s verbal cues as we took off our shoes, trying to say the right things. They had laid out a small pair of teddy bear slippers for me to be comfortable in. Didn’t quite go with my outfit, but I didn’t want to appear rude.
We went into the kitchen and I met Kuniko’s mom. She was fluttering around the kitchen with a big smile on her face. Kuniko introduced us, and we chatted for a little bit before she disappeared into the next room to take care of some things. Kuniko’s sister, Tomo-chan, was also there, so I got a chance to catch up with her. She was cooking up tonight’s dinner, sukiyaki.
I gave my gifts to Kuniko’s mom, and she seemed very happy. I was waiting for her dad to show up, but he was conspicuously absent. We all sat down for dinner, and about five minutes into the meal he showed up looking very tired from working somewhere. We introduced ourselves, and watched me carefully, maybe a little suspiciously, for a while while we ate.
I asked him a couple of questions in Japanese, and he opened up a bit. He seemed surprised that I spoke a little Japanese. I think maybe Kuniko low-balled my ability just a little, which seems like a good tactic. We talked about all kinds of things, and Kuniko helped fill in missing information when I didn’t understand something. It went really well, actually.
After dinner we went out to the living room and watched a little TV, looked at my picture album that I brought, and had some watermelon for dessert. Everyone really enjoyed looking at the pictures, and seeing my family and where I came from. At around ten o’clock, Kuniko made the motion that it was time to go, so we excused ourselves, and after countless thank-you’s, bows, and excuse me’s, we left.
While we drove back Kuniko and I chatted about how we thought it went, and we both agreed that it went pretty well. She dropped me off at home, and I drank half a bottle of Norton Malbec to celebrate. What a relief – they’re nice people!
