Holy & Unholy Mackerel - July 5

On the day of our departure from Nara, we felt due for a slow morning so treated ourselves to a leisurely breakfast then took our time packing up, checking out and storing our luggage.  We went back to the park to feed the deer one more time and did a little gift shopping before picking up our luggage and finding a laundromat.  We put most of our laundry into the mystery machines.  I call them this, because there was lots of Japanese writing and instructions all over them, almost none of which I could read.  But we punched some buttons, threw some coins in, and - voila! - the machines begin to wash.  We decided to be efficient with our time, since we were still planning on getting back to Tokyo that day, and went for a late lunch.  For those who are interested, grilled & salted saba (mackerel) with rice and miso soup for me, and oyako domburi (chicken-egg custard over rice) for Julia.  For those who don’t speak Japanese, the name “oya-ko” means “parent-child”.  It’s a reference to the chicken & egg.  But I digress.  We sauntered back to the laundromat just as the machines were finishing up.  We pulled the doors open and - holy mackerel! - discovered the mystery machines had washed AND dried all our clothes!  How nifty is that?!

We made good connections from Nara and found ourselves another warm reception back at Joy’s house in Tokyo by about 8:00 PM.