Live from Japan!

This past weekend we had the great pleasure of hosting one of my college roomates, Rachel, here in Japan. Having her was splendid in so many ways that it is hard to describe. First of all, it was so great to see her for 5 days after so many years of keeping in touch via email and the occasional telephone call. It is always interesting to me how there are some of those relationships in life that no matter how long they have been dormant, they manage to pick right back up exactly when you need them. There are some of those same kinds of people in everyones life, and she is definitely one in mine. It was good to reconnect.

Second, it was good to have someone fresh in Japan with us. We have been a little lazy and quiet lately. The pregnancy, the work, the new people, the responsibilities, have all kind of gotten in the way of what was our typical busy fun-filled schedule. It was so nice to have someone here with us to give us that spark again. We managed to fill a weekend with awesome, amazing Japan stuff, and now, finally, we have something to talk about. Not to mention, it left me loving Japan again.

Thanks a bunch Rachel!

The first thing we did while she was here was visit my favorite festival from last year. The Mino Lantern Festival. Given that her trip lined up perfectly with the festival, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share it. Like last year, I will post a little photo collage as soon as I can. But for now, I want to show you one of my favorites.

At the festival there was a section for the lanterns made by elementary and junior high school students. Most of them had cute small animals or other such kid-friendly subject matter. But this one was different.

A brain, a heart and a stomach with a simple label below.

Translated, the title of this lantern was “My Important Parts.” Some of us questioned whether his choice of body parts would have been different if he was in junior high school instead of elementary . . .