Tonight is my last night in Japan, it`s a little sad to go, but I`m quite excited about Thailand and my wallet is even more excited.

The day after we went to Ninja, Akiko`s mom prepared a huge dinner for us. Well actually there were 12 of us, Akiko, her Mom and Sister, me, Erik, Ryan and his girlfriend Mika, the Sudo`s, and then 3 of Akiko`s mother`s friends. When I finally got up (still a little sore in the head) around 4:30 on Tuesday, I went with Akiko and her mother to the department store to shop for food. We were having Okonomiyaki (Japanese pizza, kind of) and Gyoza. Vegies are so expensive here, but fish isn`t too bad, we picked up all of the items and went home to prepare for dinner. Now, the Japanese pizza really isn`t pizza, it this strange yam-like vegetable grated up into a thick paste mixed with cabbage and raw squid. It is then put into small circles and cooked on a machine that looks like a pizza maker. You eat it with this special sauce and it is really quite good, and I would definately recommend it to anyone.

The gyozas were delicious also, same as in Vancouver, except Erik and I helped make these. Mrs. Sato (one of the other guests) zoomed through folding them are here`s were absolutely beautiful with nice fold and everything. Erik and I on the otherhand (probably more me than him) made them rather slowly and kinda just folded the first couple in half without making any nice creases in them. By the end we were a little better, but no where near Mrs. Sato`s. Anyway, seeing as I am running low on time, I`ll just sum and say that dinner was very tasty, lots of Japanese spoken (apparently since I spoke a bit of Japanese at first one of the men assumed that I could understand it and spoke really quick Japanese to me, that didn`t last too long).

The day after, Mrs. Moriguchi (Akiko`s Mom) bought us all passes to the spa at Hakone. Hakone is this little mountain town that has natural hotsprings running through it. It was extremely nice of her to do it (she is an absolutely lovely lady, and probably knows a bit more English than I know Japanese). Let me tell you, these hotsprings were just what the doctor ordered. They have some with little jets and bubble that you sit in like a jaccuzi, just heaven. Erik and I went in, had a very delicious lunch, and then went back for a second time. I ended up picking up a nice bottle of brandy for Akiko and her mother to say thank you for all the hospitality and everything.

Well, my hour`s almost up, my next post will probably be from Thailand.

Take care!

Drew