Saturday morning

Saturday starts in Japan much like it does in America - sleeping late and enjoying a leisurely breakfast - today fresh cherries, French toast and coffee. Oh, and Grilled Cheese Pringles to cleanse the palate (: I haven't posted any pictures before because so far on this vacation I have looked terrible. But this morning I think I am finally getting adjusted to this time zone. Yoko and I stayed home most of Friday. We talked a lot, on many topics, to catch up on our lives apart the last six months. I think Yoko is happy that her English skills have not abandoned her. We cleaned her house (I vacuumed) and took the dog for a walk. She made a big salad for our lunch; I like her potato salad (with onions, cucumber, carrot and 2 kinds of ham - YUM). Shotaro has After School School on MWF until 8pm. He is SO independent for 10 years old! Yesterday Yoko taught me the regions of Japan, which I correlated to US regions to help me remember. Then Shotaro helped me practice my new knowledge last night by working a geography puzzle with him. I managed to stay awake all day and then go to bed at 10:30. I slept good and am ready for the day!
I am so interested in the vehicles here. Yoko and I are both shopping for a new car right now, so we had a long discussion of the features we are interested in and the models available. This is the car she has chosen - a Daihatsu Mira Gino. We both picked Orange paint. Here there is a terrible pink color available on some cars. The yellow license plate means this car is super-efficient so the taxes are cheaper and you don't have to prove you own a place to park it before you can buy it. Also at 4 years old all cars have to pass a rigorous inspection, so many people trade before then, but there is not a big used car market. Most used cars are shipped to other countries. OK, that's probably not fascinating to anyone else but me.