we had a fantastic weekend, and so much to tell! so, i'm going to split this up into three posts. cool.

on friday we thought we'd try to head out at 5:30 in the morning, but on thurday night i thought i'd try for 6, since yoshi had a drinking party and i had tons of things to prepare. we didn't actually head out until 6:20, though, which is a little 'late' for us when we head off to miyazaki. none of us had had breakfast (except for sasha) so we stopped at hirokawa sevice area and had a nice meal. i actually had the japanese version for once with salmon and rice. so did yoshi, and we ordered the 'toast set' for hiro, which included coffee, which i drank since i was the driver.

it usually takes us about three hours to get to vicoria's house, but with stopping for breakfast and baby nursing breaks, it took us four. actually, when we got there, the camera crew was already there. victoria had just finished chanting and was still wearing her robes. she and her daughter came down to greet us--with cameras in tow! they were very intimidating at first, filming everything we did! haha! then victoria changed her clothes and started preparing for the night's dinner.

i talked to her in the kitchen, and almost everytime i said something (unless victoria was doing something interesting over the stove) the camera would point at me! ack! i was so shy...one time i looked into the camera, which i thought was a 'no-no' so i quickly looked up and to the side--right at the camera-man. he smiled kindly at me, so i thought it wasn't so bad after all. thank goodness it was all about victoria, though!! haha.

she had to go out and do something else that day (i'm not sure what, maybe some kind of house visit) so we went to lunch with her husband and kids. it was very nice, i had chicken nanban, a miyazaki 'speciality'. hiro shared udon with sahara and then we had ice cream to finish! when we got back, part of the crew was there and so filmed and 'interviewed' the kids. i pretty much 'hid' in the house nursing sasha! haha.

that night's dinner was delicious. the producer (director?) wanted victoria to make british food and had chosen guiness beef and wrapped trout for dinner. the trout was wrapped in bacon--actual american bacon i got at costco--very different from japanese bacon and was very interesting to the crew! the guiness beef was a stew which she served with mashed potatoes (mmmmm). then there was the cheese! LOL i know i've already said something about the cheese...victoria wanted a cheese plate so i got blue cheese, gouda, brie, fruit cheese, a garlic cheese and camenbert. with crackers and grapes, so yummy! loads left over so we had it all weekend long!

she made a trifle, yummy dessert with sherry. i'm afraid i ate waaaaay too much that evening, hopefully not too much on camera! LOL

victoria's friend suzy also came to the dinner with her husband--i absolutely love her! she's so much fun and very friendly. and she lives in kurume, which is about two hours from here...so close and yet so far! the three of us laughed and laughed, especially because suzy opened the sparkling wine when she got three!

during dinner the filmed us (of course) and asked us each individually what kind of person we thought victoria was. my japanese really isn't that good. i did fine with that answer, she is fun and we always have a laugh, but then the guy doing the 'interviewing' asked me how we met...oh dear! LOL thankfully victoria was sitting right next to me and helped me with that. all in all it was fun, and i'm so glad she invited me to dinner!

i am trying to download photos, but it's taking waaaay too long. something's wrong. but hopefully i'll have pictures up soon!