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Japan July 2005 Trip Report
written & typed by Nils Bertelson, edited formatted & added to by Alice Bertelson.
DAY 10 - Sunday July 10th

Slept in till 7a.m. and got up for toast and coffee. Worked on the jigsaw puzzle for a bit and now it was time to make the pancakes. I promised everyone that I would make banana pancakes and today was the day.

So I mixed up the batter and fired up the griddle. After a half hour of flipping and flapping I had enough pancakes to totally stuff all who were hungry and then some. We wrapped up the leftovers and put them in the fridge for later.

The 2 little girls took off to play with their new friend Nikko. Actually they all went to watch the competitors in the triathlon that was going on all morning. It is an annual event and has quite a following. We saw lots of people training over the last few days. Riding their bikes and running and swimming.

Well it is like 8:30 and I need to take a shower and hit the links with Matt. Got in 9 holes and improved my score by 4 strokes to a 37. Matt didn’t keep score but had some good holes. We got back to the cabin and I made some fresh sushi for lunch.

After lunch and some work on the new 300 piece puzzle, we cleaned up and headed over to the Sillavan cabin for church which was going to start at 4pm. On the way there I came across an elderly couple who looked a little stressed. I stopped to see if we could be of any assistance and they said yes we are locked out of our cabin and we don’t have any keys. So Alice's brother and I grabbed some hand tools and the couple that were walking at the time and headed over to their cabin. We managed to get in with no difficulty and they were happy. Funny enough they were from Florida. All was good and it was nice to able to help someone.

We had several families at Alice's brother’s including the Benedicts who are a family of 12. Not all of them were there but still a big family. Mr. Benedict led the church service. We sang some praise songs. We prayed and then Mr. Benedict told us a story about a demon possessed man and how Jesus removed the demons and cast them into a herd of pigs who jumped off a cliff and drowned. Luke 8: 27-29. Church was nice and I look forward to next week.

The girls went to the lake today, before church of course and had a good time swimming and playing. The sun was in and out so you could get cold in the water (68 deg F). But the kids didn’t mind. After church I decided to go to the Daichi (food store) and get some sea weed (nori) so I could make some more sushi rolls tonight. It was around 5:30 and I now know that this is the time to go to the food store as a lot of the pre-made sushi and the rest of the seafood are marked down to as much as 50% so to keep things fresh.

I was like a kid in a candy store. I bought enough pre-made stuff to feed Alice, Matt, and myself and if we went to a sushi restaurant at home we would have spent at least 60 or 70 bucks. I think I spent like 20 for all of it. YUM YUM YUM. I almost forgot to get what I came for. Got the nori and some ice cream too and headed back to the cabin.

I divided up the pre-made stuff for Matt, Alice and I (see picture) and pulled out the surprise that Alice had got for the girls. She got them each a big slice of homemade pizza that she got at the bakery the other day. They were very happy, especially Melanie. Mackenzie got to stay and eat over at the Silliavans and she had lamb and rice and veg.

Alice's brother and Alice's brother's wife brought Kenzie home and stayed for a chat. We were talking about what to do tomorrow and it seems we will go to the lake for the first part of the day and then go do some shopping and eat dinner at the 100 YEN SUSHI place. This is the conveyer belt thing like in the movie "Johnny English" where Mr Bean gets his Tie caught.

I have several gifts to try and find tomorrow as well. And Matt needs to check into the price of a baseball bat that he needs to replace as they were hitting things other than baseballs (BIG ROCKS) and the bat suffered some fatal damage.

We had a little excitement tonight and it came in the sound of a local fire truck. Alice's brother heard the siren which was completely different than what I was used to so I didn’t pay any mind to it. But up in the mountains if you hear a siren like that it usually means fire. We ran outside and nothing was close so we got in the van and set off to see if we could help. It ended up being nothing. But we had fun looking anyway. Fires here can be devastating very quickly as they have limited equipment and they have to come from far distances too. Alice's brother said that they had a cabin burn down completely last year. Well with no fire and it was getting late (10:30) we went back home and to bed. 

                                                                                                                                  
 DAY 11

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