Pretty much finished everything. Stuff is being collected tomorrow for shipping… so, we’ll be living out of a suitcase for a while. We vacate the house on Thursday.
Wednesday night is our last meal in Matsudo, so we’ll be going over to our favourite place… Garden Magic (on top of the Ito Yokado store). Yuko and I will miss that place a lot, as we really get on with the staff there. The girls at the restaurant seem genuinly sad that we’ll be leaving as opposed to just seeing some custom disappearing.

This weekend was a bit of rush. We flew down to Yamaguchi, and this time I remembered to have my camera with me when we flew over the top of Mount Fuji. Fantastic view. Yuko’s gran isn’t doing so well, so it was very good to see her (as we suspect, trying not to sound too morbid, we may have no other opportunities to see her while ‘she’s with us’). Then it was onto see the main family house in the area. Although not as many people were present this time (as compared to the first and second time we’ve been), it was a very fun food and drinks session. Once again, the sushi/sashmi from ‘Boss’ was great. ‘Obaa-sans’ onigiri (rice balls) were fantastically tasty once again. We also got rather drunk again… but unlike when we went there for the second time (back in March/April this year), the tiredness of the early start for the flight that day didn’t get to us.
This time, we were all in a mood to party, so we headed off to a Karaoke joint (minus two of the older ladies, and one of the 17 year old chaps). I ended up doing a fair bit of singing, often in drunken duets with one of the uncles (with his renditions of songs in ‘katakana English’).
We will miss the gang down in Yamaguchi… and maybe we can visit them sometime again in the future. We’ve promised to look after the kids should they ever come to the UK to visit or study.

Looking around… saw in interesting little story. Seems that some Japanese tourists get annoyed when they go abroad and then when they decide to eat Japanese food… discover it’s not quite as Japanese as they’d hoped. So, the government is setting up some kind of reviewing system… aka a Sushi Police… to determine if a place can be called ‘Japanese Restaurant’.
I’m in too minds over this one. I think it’s a huge waste of money. But, I understand part of the sentiment. I too find it irritating when I want to eat ‘proper’ Japanese food, and end up with a generic Korean/Chinese/Japanese mixed offering.
However, there are times, when it’s good to Japanese food ‘localised’ to the local country. I guess, maybe the local restaurants shouldn’t label themselves as authentic Japanese as a lot of the Chinese run ones did in Melbourne.
It’s quite amusing in a way though, because the Japanese themselves aren’t exactly guilt free when it comes to ‘localising’ foreign food… I mean, what with wonders such as Ebo-Mayo (Prawn and Mayonaise) Pizza, or their version of Curry.

Anyway, that’s enough ranting for the day. This could be my last post while in Japan, as net access is going to be flakey for the next few days.
I just want to say ‘Thanks Japan’ for treating me pretty well, and expanding my horizons. It’s been fun, and a part of me is very sad to be leaving. Yuko and I are on orders to come back as soon as the ‘first child’ is old enough!!! :) And who knows… the way my job is, I could end up being sent here for a couple of weeks anyway for this project that’s just starting up here.