march 30

i had to meet jesse at work this morning.. he overslept and i had his lunch and he had his dog, we traded. the good thing about that is that i got showered and dressed earlier than usual and may actually get my chores started in a timely fashion.

i am going to cardio pilates this morning and plan to work some in that messy office. i did a couple of things yesterday so i hope i can get things cleaned up a bit more today. it sure would be helpful to sell a house or two. i could tidy up everything!!!

i also have my ONE HOUR of work this afternoon/evening.

it is nice and sunny out, although still quite chilly..

monday karen and jack came over for dinner.. meatloaf and lentil loaf, baked potatoes, green beans and salad.. i made some little raspberry walnut pie crust roll up thingies to have with coffee.

yesterday sharon and amy came over for tea in the afternoon. i was making bread, i have some old sourdough starter and i am trying to revive it. the bread was fine, but not really "sour". i guess i'll keep feeding the starter and try again in a couple of days. i sent some starter home with sharon and someone at pilates wants some if it is still alive, (i think it is)

when we came back to the u.s.

we flew from osaka to tokyo, a one hour flight... we were pleasantly surprised to find our seats were in BUSINESS CLASS!! what luxury... reclining seats with massage... too bad for us the flight was only 1 hour.

our next LONG flight was in steerage, but i don't remember anything traumatic so i guess it was a smooth trip..

i have to say that the flight attendants on ANA are terrific.. they are friendly and smiling and attentive the entire time and while the passengers, after 14 hours, are rumpled and greasy, they are fresh and groomed as they were at start of the flight.

back to september

remember last september when laurie and i went to japan to visit with casey, chieko and ray... i think i posted about thursday.. so here is friday...

we opted for a "walking tour" of kyoto

with our guide "johnnie hillwalker"

johnnie took us on a 4 hour, 1 mile (if i remember correctly) slow, back streets and shops of kyoto.... it was very, very slow.

unfortunately some of the local shops (home industry) that we were supposed to see, not on traditional tours, were not open.

we looked into a shop where they made prayer beads, and toured a fan shop

the fans are hand painted and printed,

this woman was gluing the paper, pressing it, to the bamboo.

this is also done by putting it under heavy stone.

one worker will make 500 fans per day according to johnnie

some of the work might be done at home:

one might make the paper

another prepare the bamboo

it is then brought to the shop to be assembled and glued

now i may have things a little mixed up.. i wrote things down, but i am old now and my notes were really messy

we passed a shop where they make tofu, also not open, but johnnie told us it was the "best tofu in japan!!"

we didn't go into a green tea shop, where they sold the "the best green tea" in japan.

we saw a store that sold alters to place in your home for worshipping your ancestors.

the best of everything is japan, come kyoto.. johnnie said so!

we said hello to a buddhist priest who told us to "have a nice trip" supposedly the only english he knew.

we also saw and old geisha school. but no old geishas.

we went someplace else, but i can't remember exactly what it was, a temple or shrine ? but we learned a little about buddhism and shintoism

my notes say...

buddhist - dead

shinto - alive

which i think means

buddhists live a life in preparation for whatever comes next... good karma now, means good karma later and the shintoist (?) live a good life for this life.

i know there is much more to it and i should know more, but at this point we were almost comatose and more focused on the spittle in the corner of johnnies mouth.

we took off when no one was looking and did some more exploring and shopping (casey's favorite thing) on our own

we saw a "geisha" posing with tourists

a dog dressed as a samurai

a bunch a women dressed alike

( i think they are flight attendants)

we said good bye to casey at the train station, he went back to kanazawa and we went to osaka

shopping more at the station in osaka, because there was still room in the suitcase, haha.

we stayed in a hotel near the airport, comfy.

hi

we had a really, really nice visit with casey, chieko and ray, from february 22 till the 16th of march. they were supposed to leave on the 14th, but because of the goings on in japan, we got to have them for a couple of extra days..

well let's see... it has been almost four months since my last post.... what happened in that time? my mom went to oklahoma for a while... eddie got her a one way ticket with points so she can come home whenever she feels like it. she is thinking july (as of last week)

christmas was quiet... we went to california in january to visit devin and aimee. jesse came with us and we went to san francisco, yosemite and napa valley.. it was COLD...

devin was able to come home for a long weekend while casey was here, it was so nice to have the "kids" all home at the same time. he is coming back this week too, he has a wedding to attend, but i don't know how much time we will get to spend with him.. he gets in late wednesday... they will stay with aimee's parents. saturday is the wedding and he leaves again on sunday.. the days just go by too fast!!

tonight we are going to have a bite to eat with the lorentzens and fitzgeralds to celebrate the fitzgeralds' anniversary... goin' to the kreme n cone. yum yum