Saturday; French toast, amanohashidate, more izakaya please.

Saturday was a day for sleeping in. It was warm in our futons and we'd all stayed up fairly late. When we were in 'waking up mode', Amy made delicious french toast from the few ingredients that she could find in my kitchen. (I should note that kokedama-chan™ [mossy] was admired).

I took the kids on a driving tour of Ine. Ian played 'postal service' the whole way, which was oddly fitting to the surroundings. The washi tree was sadly only occupied by one washi today, but the skies were clear and you could see all the islands surrounding the bay in Ine! It was really spectacular! We then drove to Amanohashidate to walk around since Ian hadn't been there before. [Again, Amanohashidate is the bridge to heaven where them gods came down and birthed some Japans. ] It was chilly but a really nice walk in the mud and Amy told excellent stories, as per usual. I also had no idea how many of my friends had fired shotguns out of moving vehicles! People never cease to surprise me.

We moved along to meet my spectacular friend Yuuki and her nurse-buddy Momoya at an izakaya in Nodagawa that I really love going to. Liz was originally intended to join, but could not because she had to save a schoolbus of kindergarteners from bears or something. The izakaya is called Isshin 一心　(one heart/mind). I really enjoy that izakaya and have had many a good time there! This particular time was really laid back and man oh man, they have good food. The bartender/owner is Toshi and his mama is the cook. They treat us good. I think Yuuki really liked hanging out with Amy, Ian and Megan too (especially b/c Megan and Ian can speak to them properly).

I hurried everyone to the train station in Miyazu afterwards (not realizing how ridiculously close it was) and dropped off Amy and Ian. Their visit was short but sweet and I think they went home happy.

Megan and I went home to watch Firefly (she'd never seen it!) and to play with Kirby-kun. That was pretty much all we did! It was fantastic! Desirae was supposed to come up, but she too had to save a school bus of children from a bear. Maybe... the same bear?