April 2: Stacy Gets Dressed Up!

One of the unique things about this part of the trip to Japan is that I have been taken under the wing of the Utsunomiya West Rotary Club. My host father is busy with work, so his fellow Rotarians have planned extra special events for me after everyone else heads home. Today I was taken to an Utsunomiya Kimono shop and was able to try on a beautiful Japanese kimono. Of course, it barely fit - but hey it did fit and that's what counts, right? The shop owners were clucking about me, trying to tuck all the fabric in the right spots while the two Rotarians sat watching. It was quite fun and I got a kick out of the two men sitting on the floor - I'm sure they would have rather been somewhere else, but they at least pretended to enjoy it!
The lovely shop owners gave me a fabric bag with some small gifts when we left. In return I gave them a box of chocolates. I can't believe the amount of gifts we have traded on this trip. I thought we may have had too much, but I am rapidly running out!
After the kimono shop, I was taken to a tofu restaurant for dinner. The restaurant had individual private rooms - we wound our way through the restaurant until we came to our room with a very tiny door. I felt a little bit like Alice in Wonderland - but the room was nice and it had a table with a hole so I wouldn't have to sit cross-legged (my legs ALWAYS seem to fall asleep!)
Our first course was a plate full of beans. For those who don't know me very well - I HATE beans. I never eat them, but tonight I ate them all. I wasn't going to have these men who have done so much for me think I was ungrateful! We had course after course of delicious food made mostly from tofu. (I was able to avoid beans for the rest of the meal!) I don't know how the Japanese stay so slim - there had to have been 10 different courses - each better than the last.
My dining companions were the two gentlemen Tokoi-san and Okagawa-san who had accompanied me to the kimono shop and Ito-san, the former temple chief I mentioned in a previous blog. They were all very kind and we were able to communicate very well with the help of a translator. After dinner I presented the three men with SF baseball caps. The gift paled in comparison to what they gave me, but at least it was something!

Earlier in the day we had our usual packed schedule:
9:30: Hiki Hospital: A tour of a local general welfare hospital. Mostly preventative care and nursing home facilities. Very high tech. It was interesting to hear their views of healthcare in the US. They believe Americans have several doctors and nurses for each patient in the hospital - with all the nursing strikes recently I can't believe that is the case. Here they only have about 1 nurse for every 7 patients.
12:30: Utsunomiya-Yoto Rotary Meeting: Another presentation - I haven't been keeping count, but we must be closing in on at least 15 presentations now.
2:00: Suignome Gakuin - a school and home for developmentally disabled adults. The people there were so kind and those who lived there seemed to enjoy our visit.
3:00: Sinohara Residence. This is an old home in Utsunomiya that has been turned into a museum. It is more than 100 years old and one of the few homes that survived wars, fires and modern rebuilding.