My husband, then fiance, and I drove to Narita to pick up my parents on October 2nd. It's a pretty long tiring drive, so I offered to drive part of the way. I was rejected because of the traffic. We ran into a lot of traffic while going through downtown Tokyo (by the way, there's always traffic). We had time to eat quickly and do 5 minutes of shopping before we had to go wait at the terminal. I think waiting for someone to arrive is the most stressful part of picking people up from the airport. You're constantly on look out, and every time you see someone who looks like they might have come from Texas, your spirits raise only to be dashed again and again. After my family arrived and there was the traditional hugging and smiling, we went over to rent my mom a cell phone. I made a mistake this time. We rented from a place that was renting out Softbank phones. Apparently they're not very compatible with where I live, because we got spotty coverage and the phone acted funny when I called from my AU phone. Next time I'll know better.
We didn't linger long before setting out again. My hubby put on his manly face again and didn't let me drive. We finally got back to Suwa around 6 or 7 and checked my family into their hotel. Up until now, they have always stayed with me at my little Japanese apartments, but I decided that it was time to spend the money on a hotel. I think they were a lot more comfortable in the hotel being able to sleep on beds in the air conditioning. For dinner we hopped over to the friendly neighborhood Canadian Rocky Steakhouse for some good ol' western food. It was my first time in one since I don't eat beef. I ended up having fish. My dad and brother had steak and they both wished that they had ask for their meat to be cooked a little more. Apparently the standards for Japanese Canadian Steakhouse's cooking times are shorter than Texas. My brother usually gets rare, so that's what he ordered. But he ended up with steak tartar. Dad usually gets well done, but his was more like medium. So my advice to you is: when in a foreign country, don't order rare or well done (in the case of over cooking). Stick to medium.
The next day I let my family relax until about noon and then we went and had lunch with my friend. After that we had a rehearsal for the shinto ceremony and then went to look at the land that we're thinking about buying. That evening we went to a shabu-shabu restaurant and had sukiyaki...don't ask my why we didn't have shabu-shabu. I have no idea. I didn't have either anyway, I had shrimp.
To be continued...