However, I finally uploaded some pictures, each of which is worth--or so I am told--ten hundred distinct linguistic units.
Now to run through the past several days:
The weekend in Kamakura was great, especially thanks to the kids--to review, the girls are Mariko (7) and Sachiko (3) and the boy is Taiki (10). They were really energetic, or 元気 (genki) as we say in Japanese, especially the youngest, who had a habit of turning on a practice song on an electric piano, ramping up the tempo to maximum and then running around in circles screaming "Hayai! Hayai!" ("Fast! Fast!")
On Saturday I went to visit the school attended by the older two kids, with Sachiko and her mother (Atsuko-san) of course. No, they don't normally have school on Saturday, except for Taiki, who very frequently has cram school, but I managed to show up on the one Saturday that has a half-day of classes set up so that working parents can come visit and see what school is all about. (Hint: it involves indoor slippers far too small to fit any gaijin male's feet adequately.) After that, we went to a Shinto shrine, the description of which I shall skip, then to eat okonomiyaki, which to the uninitiated I can describe only as "do-it-yourself omelet-cakes with extra awesome." We also ate soufutokuriimu, AKA soft-serve ice cream. I got a twist of vanilla and green tea. We then visited a Zen Buddhist temple in a bamboo forest.
Home time was a mixture of playing Wii Sports, wrapping up the kids like sushi rolls in a blanket (Atsuko-san will send me the pictures by the end of the week), carrying and swinging them around, etc. Basically all the things you would want to do if you were suddenly in the presence of a friendly and accommodating giant who could pick you up with one hand. They tired me out, but it was great. Their father was able to come home that night. I'm not sure what I expected, but he was very warm, if a little quiet.
On Sunday, I mostly played around with the kids some more, and we visited a few more shrines before we all drove together to the train station. As fate would have it, SANC is taking us to Kamakura again on Sunday, so I should have a chance to see them again. I really hope that I do.
Some of the things that Atsuko-san cooked over the course of the weekend: cheese-toast with egg and bacon, curry and rice, tempura, soba, and lots more stuff I can't remember! Too bad Daniel wasn't there, or I'd have a complete and detailed list, down to the seasoning on each dish.
Okay, okay, I want to get to the pictures, too, but I have one more important thing to mention. On Tuesday, Yale senseis Murata and Stever showed up to take us out to dinner with Light Fellowship money. We went to a nice restaurant in Shinjuku and went nuts with a tasting menu and extra courses a la carte, not to mention beverages including $100 bottles of champagne. Doumo arigatou, Mr. Light(-ato). I didn't bring my camera, but a couple of the other bloggers photographed every single course, so I'll link to those posts later.
PICTURES!
Sachiko! Alison wants one as a souvenir from Japan.
Too bad! She's mine!
Family shot. Mariko's face looks a bit weird, but I have a better photo from the Zen garden later:
I actually took quite a few pictures of that Zen garden. Zen gardens kick ass (but they do not dwell on this fact, instead enjoying each ephemeral moment of ass-kicking as it passes into the next).
And some of the bamboo:
Oh, yeah, and we saw a wedding at the shrine. Nice hat, lady:
Dude looks badass, though. I'm definitely rocking haorihakama at my wedding.
The kids also made me some postcards shortly before I left:
The top left is Mariko's, depicting an aquarium (they own several), some grapes, and apparently me. It says "Goodbye David-san, please come again!!"
The top right is Taiki's, depicting Wii Tennis. It reads "Thank you for the past 3 days. I hope we can meet again."
The bottom two were hand-drawn with love by Sachiko, with Atsuko-san writing in her name and "Please visit again." I think the first was supposed to represent strawberries, and I have no idea about the second. Perfectly adorable, though.
Speaking of which, why don't we top this post off with a couple more photos of darling Satchan, just to reinforce how cute Asian children are?
Revel in the cuteness, dear readers. Revel! And exult! Excelsior!
No comments:
Post a Comment