In which we ride the 6-kilometer Miki Railway (scheduled to end service by the end of 2007) and see Kakogawa for the first time.

The second and final snow of the 2006-2007 winter season in Tamba, our parting dinner with Star Child's, and a DS shot for good measure.

We ride trains for four hours to Nagoya, rest for five minutes, and then spend the next eleven hours sightseeing.

We go to Inuyama, see Inuyama Castle, Joan Teahouse, half of Meiji Mura, and then we return to Nagoya to bask in the aura of Midland Square.

What I came to Aichi for: my trip to Toyota's Motomachi Plant, the Toyota Kaikan Exhibition Hall, and the Toyota Automobile Museum, all courtesy of Toyota's Public Relations Division.

We spend a slightly rainy day viewing Nagoya's famous temples, and eating Nagoya's famous eats.

In which we see all of Nagoya from the top of the JR Central Towers, go to the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, and grab dinner at the Nagoya Lucent Tower before a 4-hour train ride back to Kansai.

ride back to Kansai.

So Howard Fan randomly showed up in Sannomiya, and then the next day I took some random shots of a baseball scrimmage at school.

We go out with several of the Hikami teachers to a Hanshin Tigers game at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka, and then spend the rest of the night in true Okinawan style.