Warming up

Here in the Land of the Rising Sun we are well and truly started on the new school year.  Cherry blossoms have bloomed and are beginning to fall, the days are warmer and the mornings milder...spring is a beautiful time.  ...unless you are a hay fever sufferer...

We are rolling up on K's father's 60th birthday this Saturday.  Preparations are in fever pitch, for this party is not confined to the weekend, but lasts all year long.  60 is a big deal, especially when you consider both his parents passed in their late 50s. 

I've been tasked with rounding up some fairly difficult to find gifts...not especially expensive, but truly a pain in the neck to track down.  Got a line on one, still hunting for the other.  Plenty of time though...we have presents for this weekend's party, the next event is the formal dinner which will happen in May, then the final deadline is the trip to Okinawa in July.  Plenty of time.

Samantha continues to charm a swath across southern Japan.  Yesterday the girls went to the drugstore, where, with a wave and a smile,  Samantha wiled a random older feller into buying her candy.  She can't yet eat the particular candy, but that was never really the point.  Her mother's daughter. 

I'm still getting tossed around at judo practice, although with less frequency and growing reciprocity, so that's good.  Takes longer and longer to recover after each session though...I suppose that comes with the territory.

Oh, and that impending nuclear disaster up north?  Not improving noticably.  Japan's vaunted food safety industry doesn't seem up to the task of policing the possible (probable?) contamination of sea products and agricultural products, which is worrisome.  Meat and veggies can be procured locally to minimize risk, but when stuff comes out of the ocean provenance is a much trickier business.  Apparently where ever it comes off the boat is labeled as the place of origin, fish that might have been caught hundreds of miles away can be called local produce if they arrived in a port near you.  That's not exactly reassuring. 

Not exactly much we can do about it though...take one for the team and minimize exposure as best we can.  Had a thought about possibly relocating, but there really are no appetizing prospects.

Return to the States, to a crippled economy ruined by a cabal of rapine greedheads who still call the shots?  No thanks...at least here if (when?) I get the cancer my socialized medical insurance will pick up the tab. 

Europe would be a tough nut to crack, points south are not appealing, India is breeding drug-resistant supergerms, Australia is awash in killer reptiles of all shapes and sizes, and hell, the world ends next year anyway, so we're staying put.

Yay.   

Changing gears

Spring has sprung here in the LotRS, the cherry blossoms are in bloom and the weeds are poking up out of our graveled yard.  Its been a tough few weeks here, sorrow and woe spiced with worry, so I think a little break from the bad news is in order.
The day after the earthquake the family took a trip to visit K's grandmother on Shodoshima, a little island off the Kobe coast.  There we came across some exotic and classic cars which were there for a race and rally that weekend.  Of course the event had been cancelled, but there was still a parking lot, a lot of cars, and a bunch of guys who wanted to fiddle and strut.  Check them out!