Lift Up Your Hearts!

Mt. Fuji was beautiful again this morning, definitely worth getting up for. I took time today to begin packing, since Saturday and Sunday will be busy. I also made another blog post, and Janet worked on her kanji Narnia book, while Porter read something he found in the bookshelf, left by Janet's predecessor. In the afternoon, we rode to the D2 store (sort of a cross between a K-Mart and a Home Depot) where we bought a few items to take home.

The day was so lovely we took another bike ride to Dragon Park, and today we were rewarded with the only local view of Mt. Fuji better than that from Janet's balcony. We arrived at the same time as a group of young children whose leader was not at all shy about approaching foreigners. He and Janet communicated reasonably well, in a combination of English and Japanese, but I believe he was disappointed that we couldn't say much about the part of American culture he knew: television shows and the NBA. We saw the same kids later, as we walked by the playground, and they inveigled Janet into joining them on the slide.

Tonight was Janet's birthday dinner at Maman Pumpkin's Indian restaurant. (A little early, but she wanted to celebrate while we were with her.) It was a lovely group of friends, some of whom we had not yet met, though I'm not sure Janet thinks it was worth all the effort it took to arrange, and she was embarrassed about the cost of the prix fixe dinner. Her neighbor, Mark, drove us to the restaurant, and I noted that he had at least one advantage over many JETs who acquire cars in Japan: being from England, driving on the left side of the road required no adjustment for him.

Fellow teachers Naito sensei and Yuko were also there, as were Courtnay from church (also JET), former neighbor (and former JET) Dennis and his fiancée, Eun, plus friends Rudy and Adam whose connection I don't remember, as they sat on the far end of the table from me. I spent much of my time talking with Dennis, Eun, and Courtnay. If Dennis and Eun have children, they will start life with a huge advantage: they will be brought up trilingual. Dennis's native tongue is English, Eun's is Korean, and they communicate in Japanese, at which both are fluent.

Looking at Courtnay, you would never guess that this mild-mannered young woman has traveled all over Asia, thinks nothing of heading off to Vietnam with no idea where she will stay, and barely winced when at one hotel she was awakened by a rat running across her bed.

Janet had hoped for a larger crowd, so we would have a chance to meet more of her friends, but because the Japanese schools are on break, many people are taking advantage of the opportunity to travel. But since we really only had a chance to interact with those closest to us, I think it was a nice-sized group and a wonderful dinner. Thanks, Janet, for making it happen!