Saturday, May 6th, 1989

Note:  This is a series of journal entries from my two years living in Himeji, Japan (1988-1990).  I'm archiving them electronically through my blog.  Last names have been deleted and replaced with first initial only.  For details on this series of blog entries, see this post.

Tuesday afternoon Karl & L.L. & I went to the museum to see the Naumann elephant bones and the giant deer bones.  It was a nice museum and the exhibits were interesting, but the museum consisted of only these things so it didn't take long.

I went down to the dock again & sat for awhile after this.

Kyl came around 8:00.  It was so nice to see hm.  So, that evening we played "Probe" for awhile, then went to bed.

Wednesday we got up and walked around the lake.  It rained on us part of the way.  We stopped at the hotel near the village half way around the lake for lunch and met a girl named Akiko.  She lives in Tokyo, but spends holidays helping out at her father's hotel.  She spoke very good English, and was very nice.  Kyl and I managed to go faster than K's, so we had a good chance to "catch up". When we got to Nojiri Village, we went souvenir shopping and then went back to the cabin.

Karl & Kyl & I went to Capitan for dinner and ran into some good friends of K's from their Hiroshima days...the "T's" (They were a delight!).

Kyl & I went to the Granpin Hotel and took an onsen, then came home & went to bed.

Thursday Kyl & I walked around the lake again.  We met the T's on the way around and invited them to go to Madarao, a village at the top of a mountain (with a fabulous view across a wide valley to snow capped mtns. on the other side) which specialized in Western architecture.  We went souvenir shopping & ate dinner there (we didn't find any souvenirs, though, because it was all cutesy, tacky stuff).

After walking around the lake Kyl & I took a paddle boat out to the island on the lake, and saw the temple, and all that was on the island.

After we went to Madarao, Kyl & I went to the onsen again.  What a nice one!

Friday, we packed up, closed up, dropped Kyl at the Kurohime station, then drove home (1 stop for lunch, made it in 9 hours- compared to last years 11, or so hrs. because of traffic jams!).

Last night I started laundry, called home, called Robin, watched "Ghostbusters", and went to bed.

Today I finished laundry, went to the post office, and have been recuperating from the vacation.

The trip was fun, (but) now back to the real world...if I can stay relaxed, and remember that I'm only visiting here...that all of the cars, and people, and crowds are the norm here, and I'm not really a part of that, only a visitor, then I should be okay for the remainder of my time here...

Today I've been a little depressed, whether because I'm tired, or because I called home, or because it's raining, or because vacation is over (or a combination of all of these things), so I'm very glad I'm going to a singles barbecue this afternoon.  I'll write more when today is over...