Of all the Japanese people we got to know in the ‘80s, our Japanese teacher Ikuko and her husband Yukishige (whom she called Peacock) were the most prominent in our circles. We invited them to every gathering and to meet anyone who visited. We also referred Ikuko to all our foreigner friends.

Ikuko was always fashionable, funny, and brilliant. Peacock didn’t speak much English but he was great fun. Often she’d invite us for dinner after our respective Japanese lessons.

Since the ‘80s they’ve become massive Golden Retriever lovers and are on their third dog now, Ribbon.

Seeing them again was definitely a highlight of our trip!

Peacock’s English has improved considerably! We were able to communicate just fine with Japanese, English, and Google Translate.

They invited us to their lovely home for a yummy dinner.

It was so wonderful to get caught up after 36+ years!!!

We could have stayed into the night, but we had a bit of a jaunt to return to our hotel and the trains don’t run as frequently late at night. And we had a 20-minute fast walk to the station!

The next morning we had our last wonderful Japanese breakfast, this time with mochi ice cream!

We headed to Shin Osaka to take the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. this time we had beautiful views of Mt Fuji!!

If you’ve never been on the Shinkansen, it’s hard to explain how fast it goes. This video gives you a glimpse…check out all the posts we are going past.

It was thrilling to see Mt Fuji twice, once at the beginning of the trip and once at the end.

After arriving in Tokyo we went to our hotel, the Grand Nikko Taihama Bay near Tokyo Disney Sea.

It was nice to have a relaxed evening!