Tuesday March 28, 2006. After a wonderful continental breakfast consisting of katsudon, miso soup, and Japanese sweet bread, we took the bullet train to Tokyo and then on to Tomobe, where Celestine’s cousin and uncle live. In the Ueno train station, we each had a wonderful ramen, and then took a regular train to Tomobe.

Tomobe is a town of about 35-40 thousand people and is considered to be in the country. We arrived a little early and had time to talk to Celestine’s Uncle Kazuteru. He had a new house, which was built two years earlier.

Kazuteru San owns 20 rental homes that are across the street. He also owns a ramen shop but said that the proprietors do not know how to cook, so he goes elsewhere to eat.

Here is a picture of our Tomobe Family. From left to right, Hiroko (Cel's cousin, who tutors math and Japanese writing), Ikumi (18 years old and in college), Kazuteru San (eldest uncle and adopted father of Hiroko, 82 years old), Shingo (13 years old), and Toshiyo (who is a 6th grade teacher). They also have an older son named Ryota (21 years old and in college in Tokyo) not shown in the photo:

I had to post Kazuteru's pink toilet. Reminds me of Mom Hobbs' pink refrigerator. The toilet seat raises when you enter the bathroom and closes when you leave. It also has heated seat, butt wash, and bidet.

Constrast the pink toilet to the one in the Narita train station which is the old style--drop and squat. We only had "drop-and-squat-type" toilets on my mission. Japan has really changed.

Celestine’s cousin’s son, Shingo, put on his Kendo uniform and showed us a few moves. In Japan, Kendo is required in elementary and middle school. The Japanese characters on Shingo’s uniform say “Sato” or the family name. In the right-hand corner, the kanji for "Shin" is written, representing Shingo’s first name.

That evening the family took us out to a Japanese restaurant where we tried some new food. We were greated by this racoon as we entered the restaurant:

Here is a picture of the dinner we had in Tomobe:

The most unusual was probably the uma sashimi or raw horse meat. Sam liked the raw horse but did not care for the pig intestines in miso soup (seen in the lower right-hand corner of this photo).

The food was good and the company was great. We returned to Kazuteru’s house and slept on tatami mats in futons listening to the ticking of the huge clock next to the family shrine or "butsudan".