A different Saturday to the ones that have come before

After two months of Saturdays full of cross-country, it's been a bit different today to have nothing. We did have plans, though. 

Yesterday I took a couple of trains into the city to meet an OMF missionary who is here to help run training for our mission. She is an Aussie who works in Taiwan and has never been to Japan. Though her trip is short and very focused on the training (Mon to Fri), she wanted to experience a little bit of "real" Japan. She saw my post about my ride to the reservoir a few weeks ago she asked me if it would be possible for us to do that together. It just happened that that worked in beautifully with our schedule.  It also turned out that we had gorgeous weather for our ride.

This was one of the many small farms we passed along the way.

This is Christine, she's also an author, but has had books published, unlike me. It's been fun to hang out together, including a delightful picnic at the dam. We stopped along the way at various places where she wanted to take photos. It's fascinating to see our "home turf" through the eyes of an Australian who is familiar with Asia, but not specifically Japan.

The lake was sparkly! We rode further around it than I did last time, I think we probably rode about 30km. I met an elderly couple on the dam wall who looked at my heavy, dual-basketed bike and asked me where I'd ridden from. When I told them they were shocked. Japanese people generally only ride distances like that on road bikes or mountain bikes, not round-the-town, work-horse bikes.

The rest of the family had some plans too. Biggest one was buying new wrestling shoes for our youngest son who's about to embark on his middle school wrestling "career". He loves new stuff and is delighted by his bright new shoes. 

It's not easy to come down after a busy time, but I see November as an important refreshing time for us for the months to come. After November life just gets busier and busier as the school year rolls on (with a slight break for Christmas and New Year). It will be a slippery slope, especially as parents of a Senior, not to mention as parents of wrestler and track and field athletes.