Day 6

Mami’s mum Youko, sister Nana and niece Urina, met us in the bus terminus at Hiroshima last night and drove us home to Shunan. This is about a fifty minute drive normally, but with Nana driving it was about forty minutes. The speed limit on the tollway is 80kph. I only saw one car on the bus trip and the consequent drive with Nana who stuck to this. They all average 100kph which is sensible as the roads are so much better than ours in Australia. Nana sat on 120kph for most of the trip! No wonder Mami put me in the death seat.

It was good to get home. Mami’s dad, Yoshinobu, or just Yoshi to his son in law, did not get home from work until 9.30pm. He has his own business as a solicitor specialising in all matters pertaining to property. Business is going well and Mami stayed up late and had a good chat with him. As for me, I hit the sack early and didn’t wake until 9.00am.

Today Yoshi is going to take me to join the gym which also has a swimming pool. I am going to get into my regular routine of swimming and writing and will allocate an hour a day to learning some Japanese. I can then go shopping and try out some of the things I have learnt. I know I will not be fluent by the time I leave Japan in June/July, but hopefully I can be a lot better than my current level of competency.

Rob