The Superior Labor in Okayama Part 1

I’m slowly making my way through the gajillions of photos I took while in Japan, and I’ve finally arrived at Okayama. A week and a half after we landed in Osaka, we made our way west to Okayama, where The Superior Labor has their operations.

The last time we came to Okayama we took the plane, but this time, we boarded the Shinkansen bullet train. Alas not much money saved by taking the train versus a plane, but I cannot resist a good train ride! We checked out of our hotel in Kyoto, made it to the train station, and with bento boxes in hand, took the high speed train out to Okayama, and then a local train out to TSL. There’s something meditative about watching the city turn into the suburbs and then out into the countryside and mountains.

How wonderful to see Makoto-san, Yoshimi-san and their family and team and Nap Village again, this time on the other side of the ocean. We last saw them in Toronto, last summer, and now here we are in Japan, seeing them again.

It was our first time staying in their newly constructed guesthouse, which was beautiful and serene.

What a treat after our hectic and strenuous first two weeks in Japan, schlepping our luggage around, squinting at Google maps and then back out into the sun, pressing random buttons on metro ticket machines and hoping for the best—to arrive here, far out in the country, in this oasis, in this peaceful guesthouse, to be greeted by the TSL family and their people.

Just completely surreal after the exhaustion of travel, to rest here.