Upon arrival at the train station, we were greeted by my eldest aunt and uncle. It's been about 15 years since I last saw them, but they were able to recognize us, and we recognizing them.
After a quick greeting, we headed to my grandfather's nursing home. He seemed in good spirits, and looked healthier from last year. He's still undergoing rehabilitation, though it seems like he was making improvements!
It wasn't as long of a visit compared to last year, though it gave us time to catch up. We left, and once again I felt a tinge of sadness. After leaving the nursing home, we grabbed a bite to eat at a nearby conveyor belt sushi place. It was pretty decent and the pricing was quite fair.
We headed to my grandma's grave afterwards. The weather was quite hot, but we were in a vehicle for the entire trip. After getting out, I realized how beautiful the view was from our family's cementary.
After we washed the graves and lit incense sticks, we headed to my grandparents house. We were greeted by loud barks. The barks came from inside the house, which surprised me for my grandparent's dog passed away a while back.
It turned out that the barks belonged to my aunt's two dogs. They ran outside once the door was open and straight towards us. One of them was barking his head off at me, though he quieted down after some time. I'm assuming at that point that he was comfortable with me.
We went inside and we made our prayers to the family shrine. It was, is, and always will be a treasured place for me to visit.
After we finished visiting our grandparent's house, it was time to head back to my aunt's place. She lived about 2.5 hours away from Enzan (we were quite grateful for them taking the time to visit us from so far away). As no stranger to long trips, I took a nap for a good portion of the trip, with one of the dogs napping by my feet.
We finally arrived at my relative's place and were greeted by my cousin (their youngest daughter), her husband, and a pair of fraternal twins. It was my first time seeing my cousin on my eldest aunt side. After some conversation, with grapes and cucumbers (the grapes were quite juicy), my aunt's eldest daughter and her family dropped by. As my other cousin, I have never seen her before as well. It was a pleasant surprise to finally meet my other cousins after a quarter of a century has passed by in my books.
We chatted a bit, with some hilarious moments where we were trying to figure out words in the foreign language (us In Japanese, they in English) before we all headed out for dinner. Before dinner though, we took some group pictures. It was at a nice family restaurant, though we weren't able to sit with one another since there wasn't a table big enough for all of us.
After dinner, we headed back to my aunt's place to rest up for a bit before my cousins' families had to go home. We said our good byes and see you agains, before they left for the night. My brother and I then took showers and got ready for bed.
And that's pretty much our day for today. Like the other day, earlier in the trip, where we met our other cousin, it's always nice to see family members and reconnect with our roots. Despite never seeing each other before, an instant bond is formed.
Till we meet again! Off to sleep since we have to get up at 5 tomorrow!
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