Yesterday I spent with Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama in Fukuyama. Fukuyama is a fairly large sized town about a two hour drive west of where I live.
Mr. Hayashi was going there because he was attending a seminar. He talked Miss Kageyama into going to study English on the way there and back, and I went because I heard that there was a decent castle nearby, and I was hoping to take some good pictures.
The day started out with heavy rain, and I was thinking that it was going to be miserable – walking around a strange city in the rain isn’t usually my idea of fun. It stopped raining on the way, though, and most of the day I spent pretty dry. Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama were in the seminar until about four o’clock, so I had a couple of hours to kill. I really enjoyed walking around the grounds of the castle. It was not nearly as dramatic as Himeji castle, but it was still pretty nice.
During my travels I managed to find some interesting food courts, a Starbucks, and a pretty good imported food store. I was able to buy refried beans, root beer, pickles, Crystal extra-hot hot sauce, and Jelly Belly jelly beans.
Finally, I met them after the seminar in the lobby of the hotel. They both said the conference was not very exciting. We talked for a little while longer, and then hit the road back home. We stopped at a restaurant in Kakogawa called “Amuse”. I had been there once before, and the pizza was still good. We drank lots of beer – they had Guinness in bottle (not good) but for laughs I was drinking Corona. It’s hard to find Mexican beer in Japan.
Afterwards Miss Kageyama walked me to the station and Mr. Hayashi walked home – he is a ten minute walk from the bar. It was a fun time – but I’m looking forward to relaxing today. I might run into Kobe to pick up some goods. In other good news, the local grocery re-opened, so I’ll probably zip in there today and get some veggies for next week.
