We wrapped up a long holiday weekend yesterday with a slow day at home. We only went out to do a little shopping for the week, but mainly it was lounging around the house reading books and doing little chores ahead of going back to work today.
It was a busy holiday! Last Friday I spent the daytime making enchiladas for a dinner party we were hosting on Saturday, but before that on Friday evening Kuniko and I both had a party. I met up with Anthony in Kobe at Rokko Beer Diner. It had been a long time since I had been there, and the bartender commented that he hadn’t seen me in a while. Now that the weather is heating up I suppose I’ll be a better customer.
Anthony had some big news – his wife Risa had just given birth to his second son in Brunei. He was planning on flying out to see them at the end of the week. It was great to hear, and it was also interesting to hear the hoops you have to jump through to get citizenship for your kids. I guess that’s like in an international family.
We drank lots of beers at the diner and also later at a smoky yakitori that he recommended. We then managed to meet up with Kuniko and ride the train back the same direction while they caught up on all the big news.
After drinking on Friday night it was right back into party mode… we hosted Yoshi’s family for a Mexican dinner of enchiladas, taco salad, and Mexican rice. We had a good time recapping our trip to Taiwan, exchanging photos, and eating and drinking until the last train. Akira was a little more active this time – I think he is more and more comfortable around us. I’m trying to use English with him more, and hopefully he’ll start to communicate more in English back to me.
It was a late night partying with them, so we enjoyed a little sleep in the next morning. We did most of the dishes cleanup after the party, so the rest we left to the robot. Sunday we had our third party in a row – a late afternoon BBQ with the Yamajis and Fukumis in the Yamaji’s backyard. It was good to relax outside and (surprisingly) the weather cooperated. We enjoyed lots of little dishes off the grill, and caught up with everyone. We even had a chance to visit with Ana a bit. Everyone had a chance to hold Hiroka for a while, and he seemed to be in a pretty good mood with very little crying.
The Fukumis seemed like they were in a quandary about what to do about their living arrangements. I guess it is difficult to decide to move to Tokyo as a family, or to keep the homestead in Okubo. There are plusses and minuses to both situations, but it seemed clear at the party that there are some disagreements between them on what the best course of action is. I know what I would do if I were them, but it is their problem to solve, and hopefully they’ll come to an agreement that both of them will be comfortable with in the future.
We didn’t stay too late this time around, as Hiroka really shouldn’t party all night, so we got home at a reasonable time, and we were able to get plenty of sleep.
The next two days were all on our own, and we spent much of the time giving our livers a break, cleaning out closets and organizing our dishware. We threw out a lot of old plates, cups, glasses and mugs that we haven’t used for more than a year. It will be a heavy load going out on non-burnable trash day next week.
So today it is back to work, and I feel pretty refreshed. It’ll be nice to have just a three day week, and hopefully my students have been studying during the long holiday. I’ll find out soon enough…
