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HOMETOWN!

Meg's hometown of Shio is a little town about 40 minutes north of Kanazawa right on the sea of Japan coast. It is beautiful. It has a beach, and is an area famous for fish and on-sen (the traditional Japanese hot spring baths where everone scrubs themselves into a naked frenzy and bathes together, kinda scary but after a while I got used to bearing my untoned self to the world of teeny tiny Japanese women with their bony, floppy non-bums).

We stayed 2 nights in the beautiful house of her parents and older brother. I have never experienced such hostpitality, well actually I have from being I Servas. But my gosh wer they amazing and kind and so generous. Her mother is the queen of amazing Japanese home-cooking we ate so much deliciousness I don't know where to begin…Shabu Shabu with 2 differen types of noodles and so many mushrooms I could die a happy man, rice from their feild (they are rice farmers), boiled fish, amazing tempura and we even got to make our own Japanese sweets, the ones with the black beans and the rice that's made into a pastry consistency. It was well good.

We also got to go to two relaxing on-sen with Meg, she took us to only the best, and although it did take a bit of confrontational getting used to from yours truly, you really do come out of those places feeling amazing and refreshed and clean and good. We also got to experience the enigma that is the traditional Japanese toilet, pretty much a hole in the tiles. Interesting times. I love how they put a pair of slipper for you to wear while your in there.

We went to the apple orchards near their house, owned by their friends, they let us pick as may apples as we wanted (Fuji, so sweet and the best apples I have ever tasted) to take back to Nagoya with us. Such kind people. We also went to the beach and drove up the coast for about an hour, to go to one of the on-sen, to go to this little island for a look at the cliff and the view and a coffee, it was a wondrous place to sit and stare.

I think some of best moments of our japan trip has been with Meg and her beautiful family, sitting around the little table with the heater underneath the table which was already underneath layers and layers of blankets, toes toasty warm, cheeks even warmer from the sake and plum wine and tummies full of ricey things, unable to say "Arigato Gozaimas!!!!!" enough.