Niigata and other tibits…
Before I get into our weekend and Niigata (and shower my blog with photos) I just want to say I am not insured in Japan and it is a huge relief! Shun picked up my special peice of cardboard today and I have Japanese health insurance so WOO! I am off to my clinic this Saturday with my boshi techo and insurance and maybe I will get to see goma-chan again and hopefully he is doing well in there (yep, I still think goma-chan is a boy!)
Well, over the weekend, Shun & I went to Niigata to visit with Sarah and Ryohei and Nay and Naoki came also. I went up (across?) on Friday a day before the others since I am still currently not working and I figured Sarah could use the extra company! I caught the shikansen to Echigo Yuzuwa and switched to the local train line out to Sarah`s stop and she met me at the station. Her PIL`s house is about a five minute walk from the train station although as Sarah has said, there is not much around there all though I did spot a bakery and a hair salon on the walk up the slope to the house.
Sarah and I spent the afternoon lazing around (me in the comfty chair- oh the chair she had was just so awesome, I seriously wanted to steal it and bring it back to Chiba- I think I may have to get my own!) and also looking at all the baby stuff she has for BG. Once her MIL came home I went down and did aisatsu (greetings) and gave her my Tokyo/Chiba omiyage. She kind of just left us to ourselves until dinner which was a gyoza feast. Oh how i love gyoza and these were really really good gyoza. I wish I could of got a photo!!! After dinner Ryohei taught me the macdonalds religion dance while we were listening to classical music (haha, I know Sarah will hate me for writing that!) and we just sat around talking and planning our weekend.
Early the next morning Nay & Naoki arrived from Shizuoka and Shun arrived a couple hours later on the bus from Tokyo. We went into Nagaoka to see Sarah & Ryohei`s new house where they are moving in just a couple of weeks. I could only see the outside but I am insanely jealous as it does look awesome. We also had a lunch of ramen and a starbucks and international food shop stop off!!! After a couple hours resting back at the house we also headed out for dinner at the local family restraunt.
Sunday was spent playing Mahjong (me, Shun, Naoki & Ryohei)- Naoki and I had only ever played once or twice and Sarah and Nay not at all but I think by the end of it we had all got the hang of it again (of course Ryohei won though!)- I had forgotten most of the rules but they all came back to me eventually and I even won a round (much to the surprise of the boys!). We also went to Ryohei`s work`s 50th year anniversary festival which was nice- I love Japanese festivals with the food and the stalls and it was just a shame about the weather and that Sarah was not feeling 100%.
Most of the weekend we just relaxed and chatted and ate. It was lovely to get out of the city for the weekend and spend it in the country with the girls. I am so lucky to have met Sarah & Nay as we always have such a fun time together even if we can`t see each other as often as we would like. This was the first time Shun had met Ryohei as well but they got on well, in fact the three boys got on really well with their love of ramen and manga. haha!
Here are some photos from the weekend-
There are a couple more photos over in my flickr account also.
Today I met up with Khea for lunch and a spot of shopping and then after that I met up with Ai, my old boss/owner of preschool where I worked, whom I hadn`t seen in over a year. It was great to catch up with them both!!! Ai`s last year has been crazy and seriously I am hoping it starts to calm down for her now.
It is my turn to make dinner tomorrow night and I am making buritos- I will make sashimi for Shun & Otousan as well since I am not sure how Otousan would take only having one plate of something at dinner time. I have to go to the shops tomorrow to pick up some cheese and mince but everything else we already have here thankfully. I like cooking and I am glad to be able to cook once or twice a week. Last week I stuck with fairly Japanese style food but this week I am going with something different.
Well I guess that is all the semi-interesting stuff I have to say for now! Tomorrow I have a meme to post that Vicky tagged me for!
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It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun together! Ma-jiang is huge huge huge over here, probably a bit like pachinko is in Japan. People seriously send their families into debt over ma-jiang gambling problems. I know how to play but I could never play with Chinese people, they’re way too fast for me. I had an ex who was a ma-jiang player and he could pick a tile, rub it between his thumb and forefinger once, not even looking at it at it before knowing if he wanted to throw it out or not, he could tell the tiles just by the feel. I look like a total loser trying to play next to people like that, hehe.
Congrats on being insured, that must be such a relief.
That’s great news about the insurance, you must be so relieved!
Weekend sounds like great fun, I love those times when you can just get together and chill out with good friends. Hmmm, burritos sound yummy, I might have to get creative and make some soon!
Glad you finally have your insurance! Definitely must be a huge relief. Enjoy all the Drs visits.
What fun.. a girl get together is the BEST! Fabulous!!!!!!
Glad you all had so much fun. That’s a GREAT picture of the 3 of you btw!
Hope the burritos went over well.. I can’t see how burritos and sashimi could EVER go together though lol You have one odd FIL
Hope to meet up again soon! Take care~
Lulu, I am behind on reading your blog, so I was SOOOO happy to read your comment on mine about the baby you are expecting!!! Congratulations!!! I hope your pregnancy goes just great!!! Take care of yourself, now!!! SMILE!