Niigata

I arrived yesterday evening at Yuuka`s family`s house in Niigata. That`s on the Western coast of Japan, the other side from Tokyo. We took the bullet train across the country, and seemed to get there in no time at all. I`d heard (fro my my old geography teacher, Mrs Willis) that Japan was still pretty rural outside the big cities,and that looked true from the train windows. All the arable land was sectioned off into fields, mostly for rice, and there were even people in traditional wide-brimmed hats working in them. A lot of narrow roads between the fields with tiny figures cycling along. After Tokyo Sci Fi city it could have been fifty years ago, if it wasn`t for us whizzing past in the Shinkansen.
It was fascinating to meet Yuuka`s family after hearing so much about them. After many 'Meet the Parents' style predictions it was actually a complete success. Even old Granpa, who had become a legendary figure of foreboding (not met a foreigner since the War) smiled at me. We shook hands. It felt like a diplomatic event.
Yuuka`s mum cooked a pasta dish that was worthy of any Italian restaurant, and I was able to communicate with them in my crack Japanese. In fact my only fear is that she goes overboard in trying to welcome me...for example a new fluffy toilet cover had been purchased for my benefit.
I was then treated to a viewing of all Yuuka`s baby photos. Amazingly she has changed very little since she was one year old. One of the photos had a close-up of a large boob being sucked by baby Yuuka, but I managed to stop myself before the question `whose is that?' slipped out. Not for the first night at least!