Home again! Home again! Jiggidy jig!

After a quiet, uneventful New Year's, Akinori, Sara and I got on a plane on Monday (1/4) and went to Okagaki, a small town in Fukuoka, to visit my Japanese homestay sister and family. Makiko stayed with my family for a year in high school. It was my first year in college and I wasn't living at home, but we still became quite close over the year.

Since I don't have any real sisters of my own, she is really the closest thing, and her family has been my family since I came to study abroad in 1996. I was studying in Osaka, but I went to Kita-Kyushu, where they were living at the time, to visit with them for 10 days before school started and during all of the breaks. Makiko is the one who I call whenever Akinori and I have a fight or whenever I have big news, or am sad or lonely, or just want to chat to someone. She came to Hawaii for our wedding while 6 months pregnant, and her oldest son was one of our ring bearers. Her parents came to Hawaii too, and my father always says that he feels closer to her father than he does to his own BIL, even though they can't speak the same language.

Whenever my parents come for a visit, we always go to Kyushu for at least one night, last time Sara was only 3 weeks old, so my parents went to Kyushu on their own to visit their Japanese daughter and her family. At her brother's wedding I sat at the table with the rest of the family and was in all the photos with the siblings. At her sister's wedding her dad said in his speech that he was only waiting now for his oldest daughter (me) to get married.

We have been wanting to visit since Sara was born, but Akinori could never take the time to make it worthwhile. He always gets a long New Year's holiday, so we decided to go after the New Year's travel rush. We didn't get in until quite late, and stayed the first night at Makiko's parents' house. It was close to 11 by the time we got to their house, but that didn't stop us from having a feast when we walked in the door. I love sashimi and sushi, and after living in Osaka for so long where I could get fresh seafood any time I wanted, coming to Nagano, prefecture without a sea border, has been quite a disappointment in the fish department. So I requested a chance to eat lots of seafood when we told them we were coming for a visit.

We had buri (yellowtail) sashimi and namako (sea cucumber) the first night (usually I'm not a big fan of namako, but it was yummy!). The 2nd night we went to an all-you-can-eat buffet type place right on the ocean, and ordered buri shabu-shabu and an arrangement of various sashimi, in addition to the buffet. The 3rd night we ate at home, but they ordered a super-deluxe sushi platter with o-toro (fatty tuna) and crab and big-ass shrimp to eat in addition to what Makiko and her MIL cooked for dinner. Man did we feast! and drink! LOVED LOVED LOVED the fact that Akinori and I could both drink beer, shochu and whatever else our cups were filled with to our hearts content, and there were more than enough hands and eyes willing to take care of Sara for us, and neither of us had to drive anywhere.

We didn't go anywhere or do anything particularly special while we were there, but it didn't matter. It was just so relaxing and fun and what going home should feel like. I really wished we lived closer! It wasn't remarkably warmer in Kyushu, but it was so much warmer inside their houses. You can see your bloody breath in our house! If it weren't for how cold it is INSIDE our house during the winter, I wouldn't mind living in Nagano at all, I don't think. I can deal with most of the other inconveniences, no matter how lonely I get. It's the goddamn cold, INSIDE the goddamn house that I really can't handle. Well that's a rant for another time.

Now that we are back, it's time to get down to business and adjust to reality, clean the house, do the laundry, etc. Akinori was supposed to be off until the 11th, but it looks like a lot of work has suddenly come in and he has to go back tomorrow. Lots of work coming in is always a good thing, so I'm not complaining, but it was nice having him around all the time. I find it difficult to get motivated to leave the house in this cold when he's not around. I'm going to have to get my butt in gear and get out of the house though because Sara had so much stimulation while we were in Kyushu from Makiko's 3 kids, and all the jiji's and baba's to play with. She's going to be so bored with just me as a playmate. Hopefully Akinori and I will be able to provide her with a live-in playmate by the end of the year though.

Baby making requires more effort than we expected. Sara was a miracle baby, in that we decided we stop trying to not get pregnant, had sex once and got pregnant. Not that we made a huge effort last month, but we definitely could have given it a better go. Thank goodness making babies is enjoyable work! Hopefully I'll have some good news to post soon! And with that, I am off to seduce my husband!