We took Akihiro's secretary and fairly regular church attendee, Biren-san, her two boys, Kotaro and Koushin, and an elderly woman, Iwama-san, another regular church attendee (85 years old!) to Hakodate. Iwama-san had never been to the north island and had mentioned she would like to go many times. So, we hit a few birds with one stone and took a group. It was a lot of fun. We tried to go squid fishing, but only caught one--later we heard from Akihiro's dad that the squid had run away because of some bigger fish in that area. The boys got sea sick and slept for quite a bit of the time, but the ladies had a nice time--it was their first time to go fishing on the ocean! Biren-san caught an anemonae (?sp).
We also did some sightseeing and ate lots of good food. It was fun to see them experience how much more delicious the fish is from this north area than the Tokyo area. One night Akihiro's dad took us to a restaurant known for its extra big breaded shrimp. These things were huge--at least 10 inches, I would say! We all ate too much, but enjoyed it!
It was a trip of many "firsts" for Iwama-san. Can you believe she had never taken a shower before?! In her old style Japanese home, there is only a bath. She asked us how to use the shower in the hotel! She also had never used a hair dryer. It was fun to see her bravely challenge these things at 85 years old!