My Mother Will be Soooo Jealous

Tomone took me to visit Mori-Shogunzuka, an old burial mound today. And all I could think was "My Mom will be sooo jealous." It was a beautiful fall morning, and Tomone had never visited this site before (Yuwen had to work) and Kei was babbling contentedly. Actually Tomone was really delighted with the place and was happy as could be checking it all out. It was a keyhole shaped tomb on the top of a hill that overlooks the Nagano city valley. The tomb (c. 400 AD) was then covered with a burial mound, and then bricked over with native stone. They have completely excavated the site and returned it to what they suspect it looked like back then, including placing terracotta fire pots every few feet along the edges. At the bottom of the mountain they have a really cool museum with an excellent recreation of the inside of the tomb and a recreation of the primitive village that was originally built on the site. Afterwards we went and picked up Yuwen and one of Tomone's grad students and went to their favorite Italian restaurant for lunch. Then it was Tomone's turn to go to work and we 4 girls went shopping. After the imperative trip to the Hyaku Yen shop, we went to the Must-See temple in town, but just as we were about to walk in an announcement played that they were closing. I hadn't taken my camera along due to a mix-up, but I got a chance to use Tomone's. They better check my luggage on the way out, cuz that camera is awsome. We still had a little time to kill before going back to the school to pick up Tomone, so we went to Yuwen's favorite tea shop and had coco and cookies. Then we came back to the apartment and watched Tomone cook dinner. This is a rare site - Japanese Men Don't Cook! A good day was had by all.