Sunday - the proper Omi visit
Jamie had to leave super early in the morning to get back to Tokyo. The rest of us had breakfast with Yuki, and then Akemi, Masataka, and Naoki, came to drive us back to their home in Seiro.
Akemi and the family drove us about 45 minutes back to Seiro, where we first stopped off at the old family home, which is no longer held in the family. I wasn't exactly clear about who had lived in this home and when it had been sold.
After this, they took us to the home of Masataka and his mother, Yuko (daughter of Sachiko, sister of George/Juji). This is the home that we had arrived at in the dark the previous night, and the same house that we had visited 12 years prior. It is a beautiful, traditional Japanese home and they were very caring hosts.
The home had a beautiful and well maintained family alter in the main living room.
Akemi brought us two different versions of the Omi family tree, and she helped us navigate and translate. I attempted to reconcile my Ancestry.com version with her more authoritative versions. We took pictures of her documents for later reference.
Yuko, who is in her mid 80's, is still running the salon and cutting hair! She sent us off with a bad full of goodies, including many bread rolls with sweet peanut butter and a ton of rice crackers that are famous from Niigata, the chili pepper peanut mix that you see in many Japanese bars, Kaki no tane. We relied on these snacks on our travels over the next two days.
From the house, we drove to the local cemetery, where the family graves are located.
Before we left, they took us to a local ramen restaurant and we were able to relax and talk a bit longer. Akemi and Naoki had run a restaurant for many years, but they closed it during Covid and are now retired. They said that I looked like Tom Hanks (tee hee).
Akemi also shared a photo album with us from their honeymoon trip to California from the mid 80's. There are so many precious images from the album, including people that we miss very much.
We had an emotional farewell when it was time for them to drive us to the train station, and they waited the entire time until the train pulled away.
From Niigata, it was off to Matsumoto. The train route took us most of the way back to Tokyo, and then bent back west. Matsumoto would be our gateway to the Japanese alps!
Our Airbnb in Matsumoto was the most traditional home that we would stay at in Japan, but our hosts were a pair from Tokyo that really liked to grill up a feast. We ate and ate, until we literally couldn't keep eating. It came in so many waves that we were unable to budget space for the food that we didn't realize would be around the corner. These guys were by far the most generous of our hosts.
Then we were off to bed on our tatami mats ...
