Day 28-30

Day 28-30 : Meeting old friends

On Wednesday, me and my three boys headed for Nagano to see my old friends.

We left home around 9:30 am. From Tokyo station, we took the Asama bullet train. We bought bento at the station, and enjoyed our lunch on the train.

Our first stop was Karuizawa, where one of my high school / university friends live with her family. They just had a baby girl in May and I really wanted to see her and their awesome cottage house.

We got picked up at Karuizawa station, and drove through a forest and there was this beautiful house right in the middle of woods. I admire their decision to move from the big city to this quiet peaceful place full of nature. They have a fireplace and her husband and their son cut down trees from their property and make their own logs. Must have been a big change for everyone, but they seemed to really love it.

We spent a few hours there. The boys had fun playing with their son, and I had a great time chatting with my good old friend. The baby girl was adorable. Oh how soft a baby girl felt...

Then we spent some time in the outlet mall by the station and I spoiled my boys with new shoes and t-shirts from Nike and Adidas. We also enjoyed their famous soft cream. Good times.

After that we got back on the bullet train and headed to Nagano. There, our all time family favourite woman was waiting for us. She drove us all the way to Nakano, where my husband taught English at junior high schools for three years. She made us an awesome dinner, and we got to hang out with her family. Her son was home for holidays, and my boys loved playing with him.

The next day, we decided to visit the famous monkey park, where the wild snow monkeys live near the hot spring. You can see them have a bath in the hot spring. We parked the car and walked through the woods for some 20 minutes. We got to see some cute baby monkeys too. 

Then we had late lunch at a noodle restaurant nearby. We enjoyed their buckwheat noodles. After lunch, we stopped by a local hot spring for a quick dip in a hot tub, then headed back to our friend's place. After a short break there, we said goodbye to her family, and she drove us back to Nagano station. We wanted to drop by the famous Zenkoji temple but unfortunately a big thunderstorm hit us on our way, so we just went right to the station to catch yet another bullet train back to Tokyo.

She is such an awesome woman. It was great that I got to talk a bit about Life By Design with her and her husband.

We had a great time in Nagano. I'm so glad that I made this trip this time with my children. Next time will be with my husband for sure. In terms of eating, it was not By Design, but we sure had fun and lots of walking in the nature. I even carried my youngest on my back and walked up the long stairs ;)

Today was a bit of a slow day for us all, but we had great news. The social worker at my dad's hospital worked very hard for us while we were enjoying our trip. She put all the papers together and sent them to the nursing home and she asked me to contact the home already. I called the home to arrange the interview for Monday. Things are moving forward, and I'm happy that I can be a part of the big process before I leave for Canada.

I went to see my dad in the afternoon. He was his usual self, saying he was tired and all that stuff. But as soon as I started our regular routine exercise, I noticed that he felt stronger today. He was able to lift his hip much higher and more by himself. He started to roll over on bed so he could sit up before I asked him to. He was able to sit for a longer time. Wow. I feel pumped. How could I not get excited!! I'm certain that as soon as he starts receiving more systematic rehabilitation program, he will see a big improvement. I just need to figure out the way to keep him motivated.

Tomorrow I'm going to Chikara CrossFit. I think this is going to be the last workout at Chikara. On Sunday I will go to Musashino and that will conclude my CrossFit journey in Tokyo.