Japan: Day 2

Tokyo to Gifu

The faint sound of a Japanese alarm clock combined with the delicate ring of the wake-up phone call brought me into the morning. It was 5:40 AM and time to have a nice shower, shave and repacking of clothes before scrambling for the bus... likely down the road again.

The night before I had realized that my ziplock bag of personal care items withstood the explosive blast of my body wash container, and everything inside had been covered in a clear, aromatic ooze. I washed everything out that night so I was in business this morning - all was dry and ready to go.

Of course the Kovach's were the last ones on the bus, but we weren't too late. The shuttle headed back to Narita airport where we received breakfast vouchers for ¥1,000 ($10) and went to grab some food at an airport coffee shop. My parents had an American-like breakfast, and I opted for a Japanese meal which was quite good. We then had to catch the Narita express train which would connect us at Tokyo station with the Shinkansen.

After a series of elevators, escalators and numerous underground paths it was obvious that my parents' dual rollie-bags were becoming a nuissance while navigating the Japanese underground - and all because of blind people. The Japanese have large, rubberized embossed dots indicating a change in elevation - whether it be stairs, elevators or an incline; and large lines which signify an exit. These are great for the blind, but not so great when my beloved parents are each carrying two rolling bags in addition to jackets and a violin, and the casters catch on these little nubs and cause serious baggage management issues.

Nevertheless, we arrive at Tokyo station, make our way through the terminals via another series of clean underground pathways until we arrive on the platform, and board the Shinkansen. As expected we leave on time, and the train flies toward Nagoya at a million kilometres per hour.

On arrival at Nagoya train station, Yuya's dad, Masami and his fiance, Rina were there to meet us. We drove toward Gifu - me with my camera out the window every five minutes to take shots of numerous passing cars that I didn't recognize, or buildings with loud advertising which usually involves the use of random English words for cool factor.

Just after parking in the Shimoda's driveway, we greeted Yuya and his mother - they pulled in right behind us, Yuya driving his brand new four-door Civic Type-R - and entered Yuya's late grandfather's house. Since his grandfather passed away, they had renovated the street-facing house, where Yuya and Rina will live after the wedding. Yuya's parents still occupy the connected house behind his grandfathers', and both homes rest at the dead end of a very narrow street just barely wide enough for two-directional traffic.

After some kitchen-table discussions, and giving us a tour of their renovations, my Dad got out his violin and had a rehearsal with Rina's friend (also Rina) who will accompany him with the piano. I sat glued to the computer and did some much needed emailing while the duo played on, and Rina selected which pieces she would wanted to hear during the reception.

When the rehearsal concluded, we were whisked off to the cars as our favourite big-sushi restaurant was going to fill up soon, and if we wanted a seat we best move out. Yuya's parents took off first to grab some seats while Yuya hung back to wait for the fat Canadians to get their act together. We then piled into the Type-R and the V-TEC kicked in quite a few times during our express trip to the restaurant, Senari. What a car.

The Shimodas treated us to quite a feast. The sushi chefs worked their magic, and placed gigantic pieces of sushi covering miniature pieces of rice - or in the case of the tamago (egg-omelette sushi) the rice was nori-strapped to the top of a huge slab of egg. We sat and drank a lot of sake, and consumed many rounds of fish, grilled whole shrimp, chowan mushi (egg and seafood soup) and fresh seaweed - all placed directly on the countertop. The most entertaining part of the evening involved watching two guys at the bar inhale packs of cigarettes while dipping flaming Fugu fish fins into a large cup of sake.

When the Canadians were full, we eventually headed back to Yuya's place and drifted off to sleep before 9pm.