On our last day we went see the beach and take a few pictures one more time.

                                           Mr. Kadowaki

Then we went out to lunch with Fumio Kadowaki San, Wenji, and Hong Nan.  We went to a Japanese restaurant in Tabanake.  They served us a fantastic meal.  I even liked the sushi!  It was all oishii! 

Then we checked out of our apartment, gave away all of our accumulated house wares to make room for our accumulated souvenirs and got a ride from Mr. Kadowaki to the Petersen’s in Miyazaki where we would spend our last night.  They invited the staff and family of The American Kindergarten for a wonderful dinner.  I came to know and love these people in the few short months I was there and they all became my family away from home.

 Mr. J, Mrs. Takiko, Mrs. Peta, Miss Kumi, Leslie, Scott, Mrs. Erika, Emi, Dennis and Mrs. Takiko's and Mrs. Peta's children.

We left for the Miyazaki airport at 8 a.m. and didn’t get home until 10 p.m., but with the 16 hour time difference we traveled for about 30 hours. During the entire 30 hours it was Tuesday, December 11^th everywhere we were.  The longest day of our life! Our plane leaving Tokyo was late, so we missed our flight to Denver from San Francisco and had to fly to SLC 4 hours later.  Then when we were on the runway ready to fly from SLC to Idaho Falls the auxiliary power went out so we had to sit on the runway for an hour while they tried to fix it!  We did eventually make it home.

It is bittersweet.  We are thrilled to be home, but we miss Japan already.  We had a saikou-pronounced psycho, which means awesome, experience in Japan.  We absolutely loved it and are grateful for the experience.