Sunday Kuniko and I took the train into Kyoto to see an exposition of artwork by Georg Hallensleben from his “Gaspard and Lisa” books. Kuniko is crazy about the two characters from the books, and they have kind of taken Japan by storm. When she heard that there was an expo of art in Kyoto, we penciled it into our calendar – a can’t miss event.
We had a chance to meet up with Tomomi-chan and her husband Kouhei in Kyoto. Apparently she is a big fan of Gaspard and Lisa as well, so it worked out great. I like hanging out with them – they are really friendly and are patient with my broken Japanese.
Since we arrived earlier than they did (Tomomi-chan had a violin lesson in the morning) we decided to do some shopping. Kuniko agonized over a skirt in a shop under the station, we bought omiyage for our coworkers (in my case, I only have one so that simplifies things), and then met them for lunch.
We found an interesting Italian restaurant in one of the upper floors of the Isetan department store in Kyoto station, and talked over pizza and pasta. They had moved since we had seen them last, so we talked about their new place and finally made plans for them to come see our place.
As for the exhibit, it was everything we had hoped for and more. All of the art from all of the books was there in it’s original form (oil), and there was even a special book about Gaspard and Lisa’s adventures in Japan. The artwork was great, and it featured Gaspard and Lisa in various famous Japanese locations.
Of course it wouldn’t be a proper art show if they didn’t try to sell all kinds of merchandise at the end of it. Nobody from our party went crazy, but a lot of other people seemed to be. Gaspard and Lisa have a huge fan base in Japan, and I think most of them were there Sunday.
After the show we walked around Kyoto, and for once it wasn’t all that crowded. Once you got a block or two away from the station things quieted down big time. We walked the mainly empty streets until we found a little contemporary-styled tea house. I had an African tea, Kuniko had Royal Milk Almond Tea, Kouhei had Muscat tea, and Tomomi-chan had a Chinese tea that took everyone by surprise. Nobody was sure whether they liked it or not.
We spent an hour or so over tea and then headed back to the station and went our separate ways. It was great to see them again – and we’ll be having them over sometime next month for a taco party at our place.
When we arrived home Kuniko went to work cooking dinner (cold udon noodles with green onions) and I went downstairs to buy some flowers for Kuniko’s mom for mother’s day. I bought the flowers because whenever I go in there the florist always is happy to see me and he likes to try to speak English. He also gives me free flowers sometimes. When Kuniko goes in he doesn’t recognize her, and so no bonus flowers.
Today was busy with people buying mother’s day flowers. I ordered up 2000 yen worth of flowers, and the lady right after me did the same thing. When my flowers were ready the florist handed over a huge bouquet of beautiful flowers. He really went all out. I felt bad for the lady next to me – her bouquet was quite a bit smaller. I was waiting for her to shout out “discrimination!” but she kept quiet and accepted the smaller bouquet. It pays to be a regular sometimes.
Kuniko’s mom loved the flowers, and we spent just a little time over there after dinner. Kuniko’s mom was cooking dinner for everyone, and Kuniko told her dad to get out of his chair and help her out on Mother’s day. He said (almost proudly) that he never cooks, but we know differently. It was the first time that I had seen Kuniko give him a hard time about it. Times, they are a changin’.
