I feeling knackered… but not as bad as it I was earlier having had a few hours sleep at around 16:00 today.

This weekend, we travelled down to see Yuko’s extended family, who live in the Yamaguchi area of Japan (it’s down on the southern tip of the main island Japanese island of Honshu, for those not in the know). I not quite sure how how the various people were related to Yuko, as it’s a pretty complex family tree in her somewhat unconventional (by Japanese standards) family tree.
This is the second time I’ve been. The first time was back in September 2004. (Pictures here).

For some reason, the parents in Law decided we HAD to go this month… despite my somewhat busy weekday schedule. Since I couldn’t guarantee what time I would finish work on a Friday, we couldn’t take the overnight train. So, we ended up having to fly (which I felt somewhat bad about, would rather take the more Eco-friendly train).
As time was short, we ended up taking the 07:00 flight, which meant getting up at 03:45 so we could get the train to the airport. So, before even arriving at Yamaguchi, we were knackered.

One redeeming feature of the flight though was the route taken. When coming from Yamaguchi-Ube back to Haneda airport, you fly over the sea. However, on the way to Yamaguchi-Ube, you fly right over Mount Fuji. It was certainly an impressive site, and was fantastic to be able look down onto the crater at the top of Mount Fuji. Shame that I didn’t have my camera with me :(

On arriving at Yamaguchi, we first went to see Yuko’s gran, and other family in the Hofu area. One thing about the family in Yamaguchi is they all live in typical Japanese houses… bloody freezing cold in the winter due to crappy insulation
Eventually, we arrived at one of the main houses, in Yamaguchi City where we had a big drinking session. Just like last year! Most amusing, and I like a lot of the family who live there. One of them always tries his poor English out on me, once he’s had a few drinks. Another relation reminds me of Horiemon, who is somewhat (in)famous in Japan at the moment.

Eventually lack of sleep finally got to Yuko’s dad, who just crashed out. I managed to hold out until we got the taxi back to the hotel. This year, there would be ‘Men’s night out and karaoke session’ which we had last time.

In the morning, somewhat hungover, we went back to the main house to say our goodbyes. There we found the owner of the house getting started on some beer (at 09:30!!), and his brother walked over to join him. They wanted us to join them, but we had a flight to catch at 12:30 to get back
After saying goodbye, we headed over to another family member, who we all call “Boss”. Boss owns a sushi and sashimi place. Last time, he was great fun in the party, but this time he was missing. We found out when we met him at the shop that he’s been ill and can’t drink at the moment. In fact, it was really sad to see how ill he looked. I suspect he’s got stomach cancer given the symptons he described. Typical of Japanese doctors (and sometimes family members who also know), they don’t tell a dying man/woman if they are terminally ill, which is a completely stupid thing to do IMHO.

Shame that what would have been a good holiday had to be so rushed (and tiring), and tinged with a little bit of sadness :(