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We arrived in Akita the night of the 25th and Brian meet us at the train station. He took us to our hotel which was actually attached to the train station and incredibly easy to find. After we checked in and dropped off our bags we went to grab some dinner. Brian took us to a place that makes great noodles that Akita is known for. The whole time before we made it to Akita we kept asking people if they had ever been and we had yet to find anyone who had. Everyone`s response was...oh, that`s so far or it`s so cold there. Well, we were far North but not that far and it wasn`t any colder than anywhere else since in general it was cooling down in Japan and we were not dressed appropriately. So, for the second half of our stay in Japn everywhere seemed cold as we recycled all the warm layers that we brought. So we applogize for all the pictures of the North Face team but thouse jackets saved us.
Anyways, we spent the night catching up and making plans for the rest of our stay in Akita. Brain is my cousin who has been living in Japan for I think nearly 16 years and owns and his own English school in Akita. The last time I saw him was at his wedding reception in Mankato, MN ten years ago when both Brandon and I meet Akiko and her parents for the first time. Brandon and I had been dating for only a short time and we were only 16 and 18. So it was really exciting to see them again and to meet their daughter Alicia.
Sunday moring we woke up and went to Brians for breakfast and to gather the family. It took a few moments but by the end of the day Alicia warmed up to us. We went the family to Church which was held in a nice small cabinlike structure where after the sermon (which was in Japanese that day) we had lunch and meet a great group of people. Between all the people there we got a lot of advice for our travels and were able to break our habit of broken english for a short while. After lunch, we drove a little outside of Akita to Iwaki where we checked out an old Japanese village that exhibited some traditional homes of samuri, farmers, and other tradesmen. It was nice driving around and seeing some new landscape that seemed to be left a little more untouched than the rest of Japan.
We spent the evening at a house warming party of one of Brian`s coworkers where we enjoyed some decent pizza and again met some world travelers with all kinds of good advice and stories. Alicia kept us entertained most of the night, although we couldn`t understand her most of the time. She definitley speaks more Japanese right now than english but you could tell that she understood us but it was probably easier for her to answer in Japanese than to try in English but by the end of the night we got some words out of her that we could understand.
At this point we wern`t sure what we wanted to due for the next couple of days and we were in no rush to get moving again so we stayed another day in Akita to relax and catch up on email, laundry, and sleep. Monday night we meet up with Brian again and went to check out his school and to see some classes. We hung out there for a few hours taking it all in and learning a little about the business. It`s pretty amazing the busness Brian`s got going here in Akita, he really seems to have made a difference in how english is being taught. His students really seem to enjoy their classes and are well on their way if not already there to having meaningful conversations. We meet Brain one last time Tuesday moring. He helped us figure out our train schedule and to get some reservations and then we headed back towards Tokyo.
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