Our day in Naze

Tuesday was our day in Naze, our day in the sun. Except it wasn't very sunny.
We got up at like 3:45 am and went to catch the ferry boat to Naze. W/ bad weather, though, the ferry doesn't come to the port which is right near our house. Instead, it comes to the port which is clear on the other end of the island. Argh. So we had to ask our friend to take us there, which she did graciously.
Given that the weather was so windy, the seas were pretty rough. Aubrey hadn't been bothered by that on the way back from Naze last week, so she figured she didn't need a seasick pill. I knew I did and was glad to have bought some, so I rested more or less peacefully during the ride. I woke up halfway thru to find Aub coming back from the bathroom - she had been very seasick and had to, um, expel her stomach's contents several times. Poor thing. But since she couldn't keep anything down, there was nothing to do but wait for the end of the 2.5 hour trip.
Once arrived at Naze, we spent just over an hour at the hospital, where the doctor gave Aubrey a clean bill of health. That's great, b/c she's had a ROUGH week. First the miscarriage and the recovery. Just when that started to get better, she caught a bad cold for two days. Just when that started to subside on the third day, she got terribly seasick (today). Sheesh.
Having left the hospital, we just walked around Naze for a while. When we passed my favorite convenience store, called "Everyone," where they have a good bakery and these WONDERFUL sweet rolls, we ducked inside for me to grab some. Yummy. While we were resting and I was noshing on my rolls, an older Japanese man wearing older, tattered, and dirty clothes started talking to us in Japanese. He didn't seem ALL there, but he wasn't really freaky or anything. I didn't want to talk to him much, but Aubrey reminded me, "You were praying for divine appointments, right?" Good call. So we talked and found out some more about each other, and I found out a whole lot when I asked what was in his ice coffee bottle (since it was far too clear to be coffee). "Oh, it's sake," was his reply. Ah.
Anyway, I asked him later what restaurant he would recommend for lunch, and he told us to follow him, which we did w/ some trepidation. He took us to a hotel restaurant and ordered us two keihans (which we love, and which were quite good) and a big bottle o' beer. We had told him we don't drink, but the waitress brought three glasses...and left only one. So we talked some more, and he seemed quite reluctant to talk about anything more than surface level stuff. Too bad, really. We had given him a Christmas music CD and a "Digest Bible," which is a summary of the teachings of the Bible, about 25 pages or so. Anyway, he said "See you later" after a while and walked out, and we thought that was strange b/c he had offered to pay for our lunch. We protested a bit, but we've learned after 4 months here that protesting is useless. When he left, we thought that he'd taken us for a free beer. Oh well.
We relaxed and read there a little longer, and while we were preparing to leave, he returned. We said goodbye again and it turned out he HAD paid after all - I guess he was just a really nice guy. But I was pretty concerned about him, since he had downed about 16 oz of sake by 12 noon and then 20 oz of beer during "lunch," during which he ate nothing. And then when he stood to walk away, he slipped a flask of whisky into his pocket. We couldn't help but wonder if his wife's death a year ago (which we are pretty sure he said) had driven him to the bottle.
Later we sought out a cafe that Aubrey had seen during a previous visit to Naze. We did find it, which is surprising. We spent about 2 hours there - a cute place w/ pretty decent coffee and really good hot cocoa. We spent alot of time conversing w/ the owner, and it turned out he was born only one day after my dad was born, same year, same month and all! He was surprised to hear that and so we had a good time talking. It was really funny.

The weather was chilly, a bit windy and sometimes a little sprinkling rain, but generally was fine since we had adequate clothing for the weather. So except for Aub's seasickness, it was a good day. We BOTH took a seasick pill on the way back and were in good shape when we got home (yes, we went home that same night on the ferry. And another friend was nice enough to pick us up at the faraway port). Actually, *I* felt a little unsteady on my feet from seasickness the next day. I am happy to say that last night (Wed night) Aubrey felt good enough after a day of work to spend a half hour modern dancing in our living room while I was cooking dinner. That's great! So we're so thankful for her physical recovery and for your prayers!