We are continuing to cram everything we can do into each day, and I think everyone is holding up well. Last night we went over to Kuniko’s parent’s house, and it went really well. Considering the culture and language barriers, everyone seemed happy to find out the new members of the family are nice people.
We ate and ate and ate and ate, and talked about all kinds of topics. At first it got started very slowly. The Kageyamas were working hard in the kitchen, and when Kuniko arrived she started helping them, leaving all of us to sit in the living room staring at each other.
Finally we coaxed Mr. Kageyama out of the kitchen and we all did a quick toast. Once the alcohol started flowing, people seemed to be a little more relaxed.
We had sukiyaki for dinner, with some rolled sushi on the side. Everyone did really well with their chopsticks – nobody asked for a fork. After dinner there was a big gift exchange. The Kageyamas seemed to like their gifts from my family, and they returned the favor by giving everyone giant bottles (twelve!) of sake and sho-chu.
We came on back to Akashi and tucked everyone into the hotel. Today we’re going to visit my high school, tour Himeji castle, and then finally have a party at my local yakitori.
It has been a challenge to squeeze everything that I think they should do into the schedule. I’m really hoping that we don’t have to sacrifice too much, but I don’t want to drive everyone to exhaustion. We’ll see how it shakes out!
