Two halfs equals a whole

On Monday we took a bullet train from Morioka to Sendai, the capital of the Miyagi Prefecture. The 112-mile trip took a mere half hour. Despite the train's 300-mile-an-hour clip, the trip is surprisingly smooth for its passengers.

In Sendai, we met up with a few Rotarians, who took us to Ogawara, southwest of the city. All five us us stayed in a luxurious guest house with Yoshio and Yuko Yaegashi, who own a construction company.



The common theme in all our stays has been the mass quantity of food that our hosts provide. One day, we went from breakfast to a cake factory — where they served us four deserts in a row — to lunch.

Tuesday we visited Montishima Bay, where we took a boat ride through hundreds of the area's islands. We arrived at a port town, where we visited a Buddhist temple that Samurai Date Masamune, who founded Sendai had build in 1609.


Our final night in Ogawara was one of the best Japanese learning sessions I've had on the trip. None of the Rotarians in this town spoke much English, yet we all managed to piece together what we had in order to communicate, including using a bit of charades. We had a barbecue in the back of our host families house, and with the help of some sake, had a great time conversing.



Lesson learned: Bad Japanese plus limited English skills equals a great classroom.