Day 25 - 21/01/1998: Miyazaki City: We had to go back Miyazaki city, this time we drove. That saved us from paying about 8000yen ($100AUD) in bus fares! My JR Railway Pass (which also worked on the bus from Kobayashi to Miyazaki city) had expired, meaning I would have to pay cash fares. Fortunately for us Ritsuko's father was kind enough to lend us his car.
Ritsuko had to go to Miyazaki city because of the strange bank account she had, only let her withdraw money from the branch she opened it in and she used to work as a school teacher in Miyazaki city. You might think it is a very strange bank account, I certainly did at the time, but enough said, I could write a whole thesis on the weirdness of the Japanese banking system!
After doing the banking we went to a local department store where I purchased some presents to bring back to some kids in my Sunday School class. The cashier was the mother of one Ritsuko's former students and she respectfully greeted Ritsuko as "Furukawa-Sensei" as she was know when she taught in Japan. It amazes me just how much respect being a teacher commands in Japan compared to Australia.
In Miyazaki city we met up with a friend of Ritsuko's for a meal in a nice western style restaurant.
In the above photo you can see some of the down town Miyazaki city and the palm trees which grow quite well there. Miyazaki is the warmest city on the four main islands of Japan. The only city warmer is Naha on Okinawa (which is not one of the four main islands). Miyazaki city is not very big (in terms of area) it only seemed like a few minutes had past when started driving and we were back into the country side.
It was nightfall as we headed back to Kobayashi and we noticed all of the cut out police offices (silhouettes of police offices made from plywood with reflective strips stuck on them) along the way, just to scare you into not speeding.
