大洲市 My wife's hometown, Ozu (Day 1)

FINALLY!

I've been waiting to meet Mary's family in Japan since we got married, and the opportunity has finally come.  I left for Ozu late Friday night.  After teaching class, I rode the subway up to Namba station, where I then waited in the rain for a half hour for a night bus to arrive.  Once it came I loaded my luggage and found my seat (after two wrong tries; just as I'd sit down somebody would come up and look at where I was sitting, confused that the location on their ticket was already occupied).  I tried sleeping on the bus, but the AC wasn't blowing in my direction, and the seats, though reclined, were rather uncomfortable.  I watched Jurassic Park on my iPod until it ran out of batteries, and then I just closed my eyes and waited for the bus to arrive.

At 7AM, we pulled into the Konan Kanko Bus Garage in Ozu, and I met up with Mary, Yumi, and Koichi, Mary's uncle.  We zipped over to the Ikeda household (which is conveniently located right behind their family bakery, Izutsuya),

The big sign is an ad for the bakery's famous Mizuman and Momiji-manju pastries.

 
where I was able to meet the rest of the family; Grandma and Grandpa, uncle Yuji and his wife Aiko (as well as their kids Ryotaro and Shotaro), and aunt Keiko.  They were all together to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the passing of great-grandma Ikeda.  I was able to participate in the memorial service, but I'll get into that with the next post.

After getting ready, Mary showed me around town.  As it happened, there was a small "festival" of sorts, called the Iris Festival (しょうぶ祭り Shoubu Matsuri).  Japanese irises were blooming in and next to the river which ran by the house.

That's only a smidgeon of what was there.

We walked over the river and headed across town (well, the residential part of town; Ozu is kind of like Orem, in that there is one main street that has a bunch of businesses and then it's residential for the rest.  Although Orem doesn't seem to have as many rice paddies as Ozu...).  

This guy was probably like "why the heck is this white dude taking my picture?"

The street in front of Mary's hosue.

I got a good look at a traditional graveyard, the stone markers covering the mountainside.

 So...freaking...COOL!!

 Later, we visited the neighbors and said hello to their cat, who Mary named Gatchan when she was little.  The kitty is still kicking, around 13 or 14 years old now.  

Nyaa!

He's got the peculiar and amusing habit of sticking his tongue out when he's receiving attention.  The more attention he receives, the farther he sticks his tongue out.

Gimme all your lovin'! Meow!

I was then introduced to the other "pets" Mary had grown up with; the biggest, fattest, mondo-sized koi fishes I have ever seen.  I thought the ones at Kinkaku-ji were huge, but these put those fish to shame.

I was also introduced to Ryotaro and Shotaro's friend, Takaya Suzuki.  He's about Ryo's age (15 I think) and  is going to Australia for two weeks in July for a homestay type thing.  We practiced a few English phrases, but mostly just had fun.  He's a really cool kid

I wanted to see more, but as it was raining all day, and we couldn't do as much as I wanted.  Still, we had a yummy dinner with the family

Ebi tonkatsu....Shrimp cutlet....*drool*

before Mary and I were taken to the Ozu Plazahotel (yes, it's one word).  Since the whole Ikeda family was here this weekend, there wasn't space for Mary and me.  We stopped by Uniqlo on the way and bought some new shirts, and then checked into a nice hotel (the lights were automatically turned on when we put the key in the dish next to the door; sweet!).

More about day 2 in Ozu later!