My family has come and gone now. I'm going to meet them on Saturday in Kyoto. I have to buy my ticket still though. Should be simple enough, since I am not planning on having a reserved seat. I think I can even buy it from a machine.

On Friday I dragged them to elementary school, a tour of city hall, and a welcome reception at the Toyama Cosmopolitan Association. On Saturday Takemaru-san and Shima-san took us to Ishikawa prefecture, where we visited an origami museum, Matsui Hideki's house, and Kenroku-en in Kanazawa. I had only been to Kenroku-en before, so it was interesting for me, too.

On Sunday we went to Takayama. We had thought about going to Tateyama, but you have to get up very early (7am) to do that. We preferred to sleep in some. Plus, visiting Takayama was free for my family since they had railpasses. Victoria came with us to Takayama.

Monday, everyone buy Keith came to visit my school. Keith stayed at my house since he had a bad cough and wanted to relax some. The family participated in two lessons at school, which was interesting and probably confusing for the kids. Monday night the Sister City Committee put on a farewell dinner for my family. It was a traditional Japanese dinner, and I think my family enjoyed it very much. Everyone was quite friendly and kept giving us gifts.