I didn’t sleep great last night but it also wasn’t awful. I keep waking up before I want to get up. I had to meet the group of company presidents at 9AM and I was up by 6. Even then I thought I was going to be late, like I was for dinner with them. I was able to squeeze in a “morning set” at a tapas place on the way to their hotel.

I was in time to go to Matsushima with the presidents. This group was the travel committee, and the full group of suppliers goes on trips every other year with 30 more presidents. I found this out when the senior member of the group said it was time to choose the next destination and whoever spoke up would be more likely to get their choice. They had a two-day trip/meeting and their business seemed to be concluded in 5 minutes. Of course there was the business of having a good time.

It looks like I only took one picture of Matsushima’s islands.

There were a couple of reasons for that. One was it was kind of foggy out and there are lots of better pictures taken by professionals out there. The second is that I agree with my grandmother (my mom’s mom) who said, “Meh, the islands near Murozumi (part of Hikari-City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) are prettier.” I’ve translated that from the original Japanese.

We even took a boat ride out in the islands where there was a recording constantly describing the islands. One of the presidents (the youngest one, who spoke very good English) asked me, “What makes an island? These look like rocks,” and I tended to agree. How Japanese to name all these damn rocks with reasons for the naming.

We went to the fish marketplace (kind of a tourist trap) and had sushi for lunch. It certainly was tasty though.

On the way back we stopped at a chikuwa factory. Or was it kamaboko? Yeah, kamaboko. It was pretty tasty and is made from whitefish. The factory was a little odd as it also housed a couple of art museums, and a tanabata museum next door. Why? I don’t know.

We also stopped at the castle, which I went to a couple of days ago, for ten whole minutes. Then they dropped me and one of the presidents off at the train station and the rest went off to the airport to head back to Kansai.

I lucked out – it was more fun chatting with the presidents club on the way to see Matsushima than going by myself listening to economics podcasts.

I got back to the hotel around 4PM and I decided it was time for laundry! And then I went out looking for dinner at the station. It was kind of crowded because of the Sendai jazz festival and from a baseball game letting out. I found a place that wasn’t that crowded, probably because the beef needed more seasoning. But it wasn’t bad, and there were multiple people in mobility devices inside! Yay inclusion!

I also finally made it to the big bath downstairs, and figured a way to spend the money on my extra Suica cards!

And a happy pumpkin pudding to you too!