Seki & Mino

What a long journey it had been to get to this point, and finally after having travelled a FULL 24 hours of trains, planes, and automobiles we arrived in our home away from home… Seki!

I won’t go into too much detail about Seki itself as many of you have been bored to bits by us rambling about it for the past 3 years… I’ll tell you this however, it was wonderful to come back!

We had the great pleasure of getting to stay with our good friend Chisako who was kind enough to pick us up from Mino-ota station and organize a rental car for us to make use of during our time in the area. Getting behind the wheel and driving the roads that use to take me to and from our many adventures in Japan was totally a throw-back and we were both instantly transported to a different time. Had we really ever left this place?… it was like time had stopped in this little place and here we were right back in the thick of it.

First order of biz was of course to get our bellies full of food from our favorite Chinese restaurant… trust me it’s something that is more Japan for us than you would believe! The owners were shocked to meet our suprise arrival!

That first night it was even more food with a very special evening at one of our old student’s restaurant. Not only was it fantastic to see familar faces and catch up, but as always the food was outstanding! I’m happy to take flak for saying this, but truely you don’t know sushi until you’ve eaten at this place. It was a red-carpet experience the whole night.

The next day we had the whole morning and afternoon to visit with Chisako. Given the fact that she is an incredible paper doll maker we thought it would be fun to take a trip out to Mino… home of much of the washi paper production here in Japan. Of course I had no complaints with either, but had to use some serious restraint to not buy reams of exquisite papers for printing.

We enjoyed wandering the streets lined with udatsu homes and poking our heads into the paper and lantern shops.

At night we gussied up and headed out with a large group of former students for an enkai (party). We went to a great isakaya we ate and drank WAY TOO MUCH. The night ended with darts at small and really cool place that I’ve been to a number of times before. And yes, if you are wondering… that is “Pocky on ice”… its a new fav!

Erin and I parted ways the next morning for the first time in over 4 months. While she stayed close to home nursing a hangover and helping prepare a large thanksgiving dinner with Chisako I headed out to have lunch and a visit with my printmaking teacher Wani-san.

The visit to Seki wrapped with a huge thanksgiving party that night at Chisako’s place. The annual party saw about 40 guests this year with no shortage of delicious food and interesting people to chat with. A great time was had!!!

By late morning we were on the road. With a quick stop at our pottery sensai’s studio and another to drop off our car (a Vitz), we were on the train and bound for the beautiful autumn colours in Kyoto!

Matta ne (-_<)