Tarto in Japan

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am now staying with my relatives, in Hita (north-east of Kyushu island). I hadn't seen them for 3 years, and before that there had been 15 years without meeting them!

I'm staying with my aunt and uncle (I have another aunt who lives nearby, but it seems that she has somewhat cut the ties with the rest of the family...). Here's my aunt cooking lunch:

I've just realized that I haven't got any pic of my uncle, and I'm not going to wake him up now just for that. There will be other occasions anyway. I'm thinking about the New year's party, which I'm gonna celebrate here, Japanese-style!

This afternoon, two cute little monsters came...Go-chan (9-years old) and Yui-chan (10-years old), the children of one of my cousins:

We all went to see my grandmother. She used to live a few houses from here in the same street but, for medical reasons (Azheimer premices), she's now in a hospital. She didn't recognize me at first, but when she learned that I was her daughter's son, her memories suddenly came back. We spent a very strong moment together, especially considering that I won't have many opportunities to meet her again...

It's easy to understand that we're in Japan, because we take off our shoes, even at the hospital:

And also because of that strange object in one of the waiting rooms (at the back on the pic):

Can you guess what it's used for ?

I've decided to go to Nagasaki for two days, maybe a little more but I have to be back by the 31st in early afternoon.