One of the reasons we were at the Kawasaki’s so long was to see their daughter Sho, but Sho’s daughter Kei caught the H1N1 influenza and Dr. Kawasaki forbade the rest of their family from coming just in case they were still in the contagious incubation period. Dr. Kawasaki is a bit paranoid and makes everyone coming to his house use an alcohol hand cleaner and gargle with some awful tasting stuff. It didn’t seem to help him much, because he has a cold now that he can’t seem to shake.

Sho and her daughter Yuu were going to stay overnight, but since that was nixed by Dr. Kawasaki Sho, her husband, and her daughter Yuu got in their car for a quick visit at the mall. Dr. Kawasaki was even against this idea but no one was showing any signs of the ‘flu and we all figured that just being out in public exposed us to all sorts of people who have come in contact with the ‘flu. They made a 3+ hour drive down to see us and we ate at the incredible sushi-on-a-track restaurant in the mall. On the plus side of all this nonsense, I hadn’t seen Sho’s husband since he came to visit us in Oregon sixteen years ago and I got to see him again because of this crazy car trip.

Here’s a picture of all of us with the facemasks that Dr. Kawasaki insisted we wear.

We got back to the Kawasaki’s house and I crammed all my crap into my suitcase, which required kneeling on the bag. My sister requested one of two Uniqlo puffy jackets, and they got her both of them and boy do those take up a lot of space. We rushed off to catch an earlier train than we were initially planning to take and had no troubles getting to Osaka a little early.

We wandered around looking for dinner and went to the restaurant floor of Yodobashi Camera where there were long lines for a lot of the restaurants, including the omuraisu restaurant we were looking for. Omuraisu is fried rice wrapped in egg like an omelette, and both my mom and I hadn’t had one in years. Plus this was the first chance we had in ten days to eat a meal that didn’t include a pile of sashimi. My mom had an “SS” (super small 2-egg) omuraisu with mentaiko. I had an “S” (small 3-egg) omuraisu with a pork cutlet on top and hayashi rice sauce. Hayashi rice, or hashed beef, is an interesting flavor I haven’t tasted since I was working in Japan that is kind of like burned or carmelized ketchup. Anyway, it was pretty good.

After dinner we bought the usual silly t-shirts from my favorite Japanese t-shirt shop and I got a few for myself and a couple for my sister.

I just realized I haven’t gotten anything for my brother-in-law. I wonder what he wants.