The trip to see Paul was interesting. It was 676 km total distance, and it took about 7-7.5 hours of driving to do it. Driving in Japan is fairly interesting, in that it is the one thing the Japanese seem to do like reckless idiots. They normally follow all the laws to the letter, but they don't seem to mind running red lights and speeding a lot over the limit. We decided to fit in with the speeding thing, mainly to cut down on our travel time. So the speed limit is about 80 km/h, which is around 50mph. This is terribly slow for such big highways. We went between 100 and 120 during most of the journey. It is interesting because some cars are going the speed limit and many are going well above the limit. This causes some serious problems with realizing the car in front of you is going much slower than you, and having to slam on the brakes.

We got started about an hour late and we had to stop and get dinner pretty early. So we really didn't start driving on the expressway until 8pm or so. Sarah drove first, then we switched at about two hour intervals. It wasn't too bad until we got to the Meishin Expressway, which goes from Tokyo to Osaka, and was horribly crowded. Near Osaka half the highway was under construction, so we were slowed there. There were tons of eighteen-wheelers (lorries) on the road also, so things were not as fun here. I had the wonderful honor of driving this stretch of the journey. We called Paul and told him we were running late. He eventually met us with his car at Toga's major landmark, Kirara-taki, a big building by the sea. We arrived at around 3am, so Sarah was getting a little crazy by that point. She was driving the last stretch, but Victoria and I started wishing she wasn't. We got to Paul's place and basically collapsed, since it was so late.

On Saturday we slept in a little bit, and Paul made everyone pancakes. It was nice having a food from back home again. It is pretty easy to find pancake mix here actually, I've just been lazy about making them. Paul showed us the wonder of Japanese music videos (Paul has satellite TV). Some of them were quite scary, worse than a flashback to an 80s video. Paul's theory is that the Japanese artists saw a bunch of Western music videos and just took things they liked from each of them and threw them all together in their videos. His theory seems to hold water after watching some of the top ones. We got all our stuff together and headed to the beach. It is a short drive away, at Kirara-taki. You can nearly see it from Paul's house. The beach was very pretty from a distance (like most beaches in Japan, it was covered in trash), and quite deserted. It was a lot of fun. We played frisbee and swam in the water. Apparently swimming is often bad in Japan because of jellyfish (or so they say). However, we didn't see any jellyfish and the water was really clear. It also stayed shallow for awhile, so we could play around in the waves yet still be far from the shore.

After the beach we went up and had ice cream at Kirarataki. Taki town is famous for fig products (every town is famous for something), and so they had packages of figs and fig products you could buy as omiyage for back home. Also, they had fig ice cream, which I tried. It is interesting, but didn't really taste that strong. On the way home we bought some figs at the grocery store, which we ate along with a cantaloupe, some peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes we found in Paul's garden. It was a nice little fruit/vegetable snack.

I don't know what we did the rest of the afternoon, but I think it involved watching a movie on TV. That night we were supposed to meet some of Paul's friends in Izumo, the nearest large city (100,000), for a dinner. We were a little late, but we got there in time. We went to a yaki-tori restaurant (food on sticks), and the group of people filled up the room. The guests included our host, some director from Izumo University Medical School, foreign students of the med school, local JETs, Toyama JETs, and some other random people, including 5 kids. 4 of the 5 kids ended up sitting at our table, so it was basically the four of us with the kids and one parent who spoke a little English. The food was pretty good, and I ate a lot. Victoria and Sarah played with the kids while Paul and I talked to the parent more (just where we were seated). Then afterwards we went and played with the kittens of a JET in Izumo (Jessica, one of Paul's friends) and then we drove back home.

Sunday morning Paul and I woke up early to go to one of his undokai (Sports Day). His junior high school was having its Sports Day, so I thought it would be cool if we both showed up. However, many people didn't seem to immediately think we were brothers, which I thought was a little strange. I met one of his English teachers (facing backwards in the center) and his principal (right side). The school had many events involving students' legs being tied together. They had a relay involving jump ropes, and another with carrying a ping pong ball in a spoon. My school didn't do anything like that. I only stayed half the day, then I went back to Paul's house. Sarah, Victoria, and I decided to go to the holy shrine in Izumo, Izumotaisha.

The shrine was interesting. It is the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan. It has been destroyed and rebuilt about 20 times, according to the guide book. It used to be quite tall apparently. It is the shrine of marriage and many people who want to find marriage soon come there. Apparently it's not always the person you're there with though. So many single people go too. You are supposed to throw a coin up into this giant rope and make it stick there. Why? I don't know, but I did it anyway. It was fun. Also, many people bought wooden cards and white ribbons to put on trees, buildings, and about anything else they could find. Why? I don't know that either, but it was too expensive to do myself. It didn't look that fun either. Victoria and I posed for a picture by a nearby turtle pond. We walked through the shrine grounds, ate some food, and went to Paul's home again. One curious thing about the shrine is that all several million Shinto Gods are supposed to go there in October to meet. All the other shrines have no Gods during that time period.

The night we went to Izumo to get groceries, and they cooked a spicy creole rice dish, while I sat and did nothing. Paul has a large kitchen, but I didn't really feel like cooking. I just did the dishes later instead. We watched most of "Best in Show" and went to sleep. The next morning we talked to the family on the phone, and then started the epic drive back. This time there was more traffic in the beginning but less on the way back. We got back just in time to return the rental car, and thus ended our trip.