We walked back to Seikoh-san and Hatomi-san’s house. On the way we stopped to look at a tanuki caught in a trap. A tanuki is a Japanese raccoon dog with a very sweet face.

Seikoh showed us how to roast and roll the tea leaves before they were dried. We had a delicious lunch together. We were tired and Seikoh-san took us back to the lovely Mikiura Guesthouse for a rest.

We all had baths in the cypress tub. It smelled lovely. Varsha and Laxmi put on their kimonos for the special dinner Takeshi was preparing for us. Seikoh-san and Hatomi-san came too.

Takeshi made hot pots. We each had our own with flames underneath and plates of seafood and vegetables and meat to cook in them. He made sashimi and cooked rice over the old wood fired oven as well. It was very special.

We rolled out our futons onto the tatami mats for our second last sleep in Japan.