I am now in the process of planning my trip of a lifetime. From the time I met my husband, almost 20 years ago, we have been dreaming of traveling the globe with our kids and discover other cultures. We have saved and dreamt about this, my kids have heard about it since the day they were born, and it is happening now! We both are in love with Japan, so that is the main destination.  We will be 10 weeks in Japan, learning all about their culture and doing all kinds of classes around Japanese arts and crafts, food, dance and language. One of the things that I am looking most forward to is meeting new friends around the globe, and am already thinking of friendship gifts that I can bring them.  What is great about Japan, it is a culture of gift giving. It fits me perfectly, as my favorite thing is giving gifts! I cannot wait to leave my Friendship Stones all over Japan.  (some are already there!

Last year my husband sent me to Japan with my mom for 2 weeks to celebrate my 50^th birthday.  It was a year ago; this week I will be 51!

OMG, never quite got used to 40, much less 50 and now I am already 51!

When we were in Kyoto, we discovered this amazing restaurant that is on the second floor, overlooking a small little creek.   Sakaya agremant, near Takase River,  Stellam 2F. Phone # 075-253-0550, opened 17:00-24:00.  When I went inside, my Mom decided to wait downstairs to make sure that that we could get in so she would not climb the stairs for nothing.  He told me they did not have room, but I begged him to let us in, it was late, we had walked around all day and night and were exhausted and just wanted to eat something authentic Japanese (not Italian).  He took mercy on us and agreed to find us room. It turned out to be my favorite restaurant and we returned 3 more times!!

The best home made tofu I ever ate! I think I will ask him if we can spend a day in his kitchen when he makes it to learn his secret.  He did not really speak English and I don’t speak Japanese, but we communicated.

His restaurant was one that you have a choice of veggies, chicken or Kobe Beef, choice of 3 different qualities, and then he brings it on a plate, not cooked and you cook it yourself on a small grill in front of you, and then dip it in a sauce.

When we came back the second time, I told him we were celebrating my birthday, so he decided to treat us to cold sake to celebrate with us.  I asked him to join us, and he was so surprised and happy to do it!  (He was the owner of this restaurant, but I guess that maybe that was not something that usually happens in Japan. SO then I decided to give him a Spontaneous Friendship Stone (I always have them on me- for those wonderful Random Acts of Kindness) as I wanted to say thanks to him for his generosity and good wishes. He was so surprised and appreciated it so much that he then came back with a huge plate of the best Kobe beef, on the house for us!  That is one of the things I discovered, once you start the gift giving, it keeps on going, so great!!

I took a few pictures of him when I was there, and when I was home,  I printed them up as 5×7 and put them in nice frames and then sent them back to him.  He does not speak English, so I have no idea if he remembered me or that I took his picture, I also sent him the image of his incredible tofu, and hope hw will be able to enjoy those images and I still have the taste in my mouth and wonderful feelings of making a friend that I can not speak to. I can’t wait to go back to Kyoto to see him and eat his food again!