Our long-weekend

We've just had a long weekend. It was the end of Japan's "Golden Week", ten days or so that contain a cluster of public holidays. However CAJ had just one day off.

On Friday I chose to do what I didn't want to do: watch two superhero movies (Ragnarok and Infinity War). One a DVD, the other an outing to the cinema. I decided this out of a desire to continue to keep a little bit of a connection with our teenagers' worlds. I'm not sure how effective that was, but I keep believing that I need to continue to make the effort because I'm sure that they are not going to.

Saturday we did the usual for this time of year: went to a track and field meet. It was the middle school finals. We had gorgeous weather. The sort of low 20s, clear-sky day that is a dime-a-dozen in Queensland, but much rarer here. We didn't even get a nasty wind in the afternoon, as has been usual in recent weeks.

The meet was on what I think is an artificial island on the edge of Tokyo harbour. It's in a park, which we haven't spent much time in, given that the only time we go there is to watch our boys compete. However with only one boy running and throwing on Saturday I had a bit more spare time than usual (and I forgot my book), so I went for a bit of a wander a couple of times. It really it quite pretty. Again, hard to believe that close by is major roads and cityscapes.

We didn't see one cloud all day: very unusual for this time of year!

Sunday was a usual day, with church in the morning and resting in the afternoon, as well as some baking for the week to come. 

I finished off this book. If you're interested in Japan and don't mind well-written historical fiction, it is worth a read. It's a story about Japan's most famous revenge story, where an illegitimate daughter of a Lord seeks to avenge her father's forced suicide.

The book is actually quite insightful. Japan has changed a lot since 1702, when it is set. But there are elements that persist in the culture. One striking thing was the language in which they referred to themselves, it was very self-deprecating. For example, "I'm but a stupid fisherman, Your Honor, whom fate has rowed far offshore." There's a good deal of tension as the protagonist is in grave danger the whole book and only escapes through a good deal of cleverness as well as amazing skill. She's quite the hero.

One final photo from the weekend. Yesterday marked eight weeks until we leave Japan. I surveyed the cupboards and found some unopened food that is expired, or that we won't use before its "best by" date. So I took a couple of photos and offered them to local friends using Facebook. 

It's a fact of life when you change countries, you have to repeatedly go through the process of reducing your "pantry" and then building it up again  Thankfully this time we don't have to quite get it down to nothing, but can keep the non-perishables that have long use-by dates. But I do need to empty the fridge and freezer so we can turn them off.

I wanted to include this photo, because it does show how mixed our pantry contents are: Japanese, American, and Australian foodstuffs! (I know you can get peanut butter in Australia, but this is an American brand and size—from Costco.)