Sunday morning catch up

It has been a busy time for me. On Friday we had a snow storm, but it did not stop me from walking the 9 km to Maggye's house where we spend the day talking about various thing: books, social conditions, philosophy, and much more. In the evening after I had walked home, my elder daughter, Kyoko, arrived from Tokyo. She had big news for us. Her baby, which is due in midJuly is a boy. He will be the first boy on the Japanese side of my family in more than 50 years - there have been babies during that time but all have been girls.

As with Tomone, the boy will have a Japanese family name and will be a Japanese citizen. It is going to be very interesting to hear what given name he will receive. For those of you who do not know, in Japanese the last name is the first name and the first name is the last name. In both cases the italicized term is the English and the second term is the position when the full name is spoken or written. (Sorry, that was a little bit like Abbott and Costello's Who's on first routine.) There are no middle names in Japanese, by the way.

Saturday morning I had art classe and surprised everyone when I showed up. They all thought that I was in Shikoku walking the Henro Pilgrimage. I explained about Ian having trouble getting approval, and all was well. They have decided to have a party for me when I get back and were planning it at the end of the class.

Not wanting to start on a lengthy project, I did a quick pen drawing.


Saturday evening I walked into Sendai and went to the Ha'penny bar at 6 p.m. for what we call an Irish Dinner or a Boys Night Out. The group that comes are almost entirely people who are members of JALT (Japan Association for Language Teaching) and most of us are long time friends. It was a very pleasant evening and I was in the last group to leave - starting the walk home a little after midnight.

There was only one problem with my walking - it was extremely cold. It usually takes me close to two hours to walk to the Ha'penny from home, but yesterday each way only took only an hour and a half. Today my legs are quite stiff and sore but I think I added some muscles that will be useful during the Henro Pilgrimage.