Stuff That Matters In Life

I don’t know how many more highlights I can write here, but here are a few more:

2. One of the evenings on the tour we stayed in a Japanese style inn, as our tour guide called it. It’s a modern building equipped with elevators and air conditioning, but the rooms were made to look like traditional Japanese rooms with tatami mats, no beds, and a tiny bathroom.

All the rooms have an open view of the bay with sounds of waves crashing on the rocks. We can see the horizon, fishing boats coming in, and a clear sky, a rare and precious sight if you live in So Cal like me.

The hotel also featured a hot spring spa in a “public bath” style. I got over being modest among other women a long time ago when I had to take showers in high school, so I had no qualms of enjoying a soak in the natural mineral water. It’s suppose to heal all kinds of ailments, but unfortunately a 15-minute soak for me probably didn’t take away a single wrinkle. But it did feel good!

That evening we delighted in a traditional Japanese meal of little dishes of various pickled this and that, each person with an individual little pot of seafood soup and chicken simmering at our table, a few pieces of sashimi, and plenty of green tea. Apparently dessert is not a part of a traditional Japanese meal. The only time we had green tea ice cream served was with an Italian lunch. (The pasta was not up to par with the Italians or even Americans. Japanese don’t use cheese or italian herbs.)

3. We met really nice people on our tour group. One family from Denver was 4 generations traveling together – grandpa (age 85) & grandma, the mom and dad, the daughter who is in med school who looks like she’s in high school, and the nephew of this med student (his parents couldn’t come.) This little boy followed Elliot around desperate to talk to another Pokemon fan.

A successful civil engineer in the group told Audrey he can get her an internship any time she wants one.

Then there’s a doctor with Kaiser who is acquainted with a friend of ours in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!! Talk about a small world! He lives not more than 15 minutes from us in Diamond Bar, and attends the same church as my sister.

There were 3 teachers on the tour, a man who didn’t bring the right plug for his MacBookand was happy to discover Elliot with one he could borrow, 4 guys who just took the bar exam a week earlier and giving themselves this vacation to celebrate, a mom with 2 girls, one starting UCLA in September, a mom with a boy and girl celebrating the girl’s 16th birthday…we all got along great, everyone was cooperative, never late to convene, and we all thought we got a tremendous deal with this tour package.

to be continued…click here.