Our First Day in Iijima

Wednesday morning Ike got up and went to school and Pete and I slept in. I think I got up around 9:00. After Pete got up we took a walk around Ike's neighborhood and it is really great! All of the houses have beautiful gardens, both flower and vegetable. They put mine to shame. There are rice patties everywhere, tucked into back yards and all over. There are irrigation ditches running all through his neighborhood, which is really cool. We only walked around Ike's area and didn't venture too far. Today we'll give that a try while Ike's at school. It is just so pretty here because Iijima is tucked into a valley between two mountain ranges.

After Ike got home he took us for a drive up into the mountains. It was raining on and off but it was still beautiful. There are tons of little waterfalls all the way up, and the trees are gorgeous. Every once in awhile we would happen upon a little shrine just tucked into the woods. We stopped at this neat dam and had fun taking lots of pictures. I will try to get them up on facebook today. We really enjoyed the signs they had posted, especially the one that is simply a big exclamation point. :-)

After our drive we came back to town and went to the grocery store to get stuff for supper. Ike cooked a delicious meal of dumplings (actually Peter cooked those), miso soup, and some chicken dish. And yes, I ate the entire thing with chopsticks! I crashed early (9:00!) which made me wake up early. Pete made us breakfast today and now I'm trying to talk him into another walk around town. I think we'll venture a bit farther from Ike's house today.

Tonight we are going out to eat in the next town over with some of Ike's friends. We're going to a Chinese restaurant (seems funny to go to a Chinese restaurant in Japan).