Our cousin was our tour guide today. Our communication actually went quite smoothly since we both had a translator on our phones. After the two hour ride, we walked to the nursing home in a neighbouring town. It was reay good to see our grandfather again, despite how different he looked to compared to 13 years ago. He's a lot thinner now, though it seemed like his mind is quite sharp at his age of around 90. He had a game of Go in front of him, and it seemed like he was thinking up of different strategies.
We talked a bit, with our cousin being the translator. I caught up on his recent events and he had the chance to hear about ours. After around two hours, we had to leave in order to visit our grandmother's grave. It was a sad farewell, and I reluctant to leave. My grandparents took great care of me when I visited them previously and comforted me when I was longing for home. I hope to see him again one day, with hopes of increasing my vocabulary.
We then went to fruit park, a beautiful park near my grandparent's house. We tried to grab a bite there, but the restaurant there was too full. We ended up going to a restaurant a taxi ride away. My brother and I had a great conversation with our cousin. We had the chance to discuss things that cousins would normally talk about. It was interesting to find out that she enjoyed western music while we listened to a lot of Jpop and Kpop.
After lunch, we went up to our grandparents house. It was a trip down memory lane, for it felt like I was there not too long ago, despite also feeling that it had been too long. I recalled the room I stayed in, the narrow corroded with sliding doors that led to the backyard where we would have tea and snacks, the backyard where Chibi kept me company (a shiba I believe, that I aged with in the past). After burning some incense for our grandmother, we travelled to the graveyard, which was nearby the house.
It was a hot walk, yet a meaningful walk. I had the chance to think about my grandmother for a bit. When we arrived, we washed our family tombstones and burned more incense. After spending some time there, we returned back to our grandparents house to wait for a taxi to bring us back to the station.
Our cousin saw us off, back at our hotel, so we returned the favour back to walk her to the place near the platform. Besides our grandparents, we haven't seen our other relatives for a long time. After seeing her off, my brother and I windowed shop a bit in Shinjuku and then grabbed a bite at Mos Burger. When we returned back to our hotel,we spent a good hour or so to repack the souvenirs that our aunt, uncle and cousin bought us. We had trouble packing everything in! They have been so kind to us, that I'm not sure how to return the favour...
But that marks the end of visiting our family in Japan. It was only two days, but has been a very memorable two days. It made me realize the importance of families and how strong our bonds can be, even if you haven't seen them for a long time.
And so tomorrow will be our last full day in Japan before we head back home. I'm going to miss Japan, but I have to say that I'm looking forward to go back home.
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