Our next stop was Kujiranami (map) where I went to school. But first we stopped at an extensive fish market. We picked up a few fish for dinner.
We drove into Kujiranami village to go across the bridge over the highway. Our place was just on the other side.
The bridge is memorable because when our roads were still dirt it was the smoothest place to ride our bikes.
Here there is a 5 acre campus that is the location of the Niigata Bible Institute and a summer camp. (Remember this building for later.) The campus was also the location of my elementary school.
This was our school building which my Dad built. Now it is used as part of a camping facility, but the old Japan Sea View School sign was tucked in the rafters above the entrance.
This is that same building back in the day with the same three of us, and Mom.
Inside, the camp kitchen can be seen in the background.
This old photo looks into the same room from about the location of my desk. Marilyn is on her way back to her desk.
I even found the bell that our teacher would ring to call us back in after recess. A few times I was the one that rang it. Out of everything, this one object made one of the strongest connections for me to the past.
Later we went into town and went into a department store. The girls were delighted with the 100 yen department on the 5th floor. It was a perfect source of gifts.
We found this decorated bag. It so happens that the decoration is English words. Since Japanese grammar is so different from English, very funny results can occur if the English does not come from a native English speaker. (This kind of humor is not rare.)
The next day we walked through the hostel where I stayed while in school. My folks were dorm parents there our last three years in Japan. This was the dining room. Marilyn is in blue in front of the window.
This was a birthday dinner from before at the same perspective. I am the tallest head on the right, Lisa is in red below me, and Marilyn is in blue at the back.
This was a living room. Lisa is in the middle.
And this was evening play in that room in the hostel from back when. Lisa is in the lower middle.
That day was rainy, so Art suggested we ride the train in the direction we would go home on weekends when we used to board at the hostel. We went as far as Naoetsu and came back. This is the train station at Kashiwazaki city where we started.
The views of the Japan Sea, the sound of the train, the track noise and the RR crossing bells were very nostalgic! They sounded like home.
At Naoetsu we bought a standard train station (bento) lunch and ate it on the way back. It was actually very good food. Notice the smoked salmon top-right for instance.
We were all eating with chopsticks on this trip.
