Entry No. 24

It is a week since I last made an entry - and I still plan to return and complete Entry No. 23 by discussing further some of the issues raised by Edward Ricardo BRAITHWAITE in his book, "Reluctant Neighbours".

However, this Entry will be a re-visiting of some events and incidents of the past week.

One of my 2nd Year students here at Rikadai, IKEMOTO Suguru, from Shimonoseki, last Monday gave me a present at our first class for this academic year. It was a tie printed with some seven major figures of the last days of the Edo Era - including that of my hero, YOSHIDA Shoin. It was a surprising yet thoughtful gesture! I put it on at once, around my polo-necked skivvy! Another lad, TAIRA Naoya, from the same class, had a folkcraft leaf-strip woven "snake" for me, which he had brought back from his spring vacation home visit to Okinawa. When the mouth of this "toy" is slipped over a finger, it proves impossible to pull off! (One learns to push further forward to release the grip.) Quite amazing!

That night I receive a 'phone call from friend Keiko OKAMOTO-SCHUCHERT, in Germany. Back in February her car slid in the snow on an Autobahn directly into the path of a truck. Miraculously uninjured, she was able to get a back door open and to escape the wreck of her beloved Nissan "Sunny". She's had a couple of bouts of pneumonia, it seems, and her heart is playing up - a leaky ventricle, I think. Come back soon, I said - Christine will be here from April 30 for five weeks! She promised to send me the German equivalents of Aussie chocolate Easter eggs: two Easter Rabbit biscuits and a Paschal Lamb cake arrived yesterday in the post! I've put them aside to share with Christine when she gets here on Sunday.

On Tuesday evening, after the last of my four classes at Rikadai, on my way home, I collected friend Sachiko DENT (just briefly back in Japan to get her Australian residency visa stamped in her passport) and we went to "Pacific Blue", a Thai restaurant within 150 metres of my house. Sach had her visa and was returning to Australia on Thursday - back to Armidale, where her husband Cameron is doing post-graduate studies at the University of New England (UNE) as well as some part-time teaching at The Armidale School (TAS). TAS has a link to "Calrossy", the Anglican Girls High School in Tamworth, at which my sister-in-law, Nelly KABLE, does some P/T teaching of French. As we chatted with restaurant owner, YAMANO Takako, it transpired that her husband, "Bob" Nopparat NAMPANYA, the chef, would be taking the same 'plane as Sach from Fukuoka Airport, for the first leg to Bangkok, where he was heading to visit family. Small world!

Next day, Wednesday, my SHINTO Priest mate, MARUMO Yuji, invites me to "Nonbe" for a fugu plate and "hire-zake" with friends SHIRAI Kyoko and husband. Later that night Yoshi calls around to "Neko-Yashiki" (my house)with Yoko IKEDA. We visit Etsuo at Kaisendonya for espressos! It seems Yoko will join the Shoin Fellowship! Yoko and I have been friends since we taught together at Fuzoku Junior High about nine years ago.

Friday turns out to be something of a surprise. My four classes at Rikadai are all enjoyable, though by the last I'm feeling quite weary, of course! Then I get to OHSHIMA for a reviving coffee. It's time for my class at Suijin-sama. Almost everyone is present BUT -there's no key to get into the meeting room! And Yuji and his wife are both out! After standing around for 10 minutes, we reluctantly agree to fold the class for tonight - it's too chilly to contemplate sitting around together outside!

When I go home I give Yoshi a call - he's had a welcome barbecue at his school and is just finishing up. It's nearby and he comes around. We go to a Yakitori-ya I don't think I've ever been to before, called "Daruma". It looks good as we walk in. The Master invites us to sit at the centre of the long counter rather than at the end. He looks at me and then says: "Jim KABLE"! Walking around Tokiwa Park - he adds for my benefit. And indeed not so long ago he has similarly greeted me at Ohshima Coffee shop. He's about four or five years my senior, his wife about the same age as me. The music they play is all from the 1960s. And Yoshi knows lots of the singers/songs as well! The food is good and the discussion on the horrors of war and the fools (politicians) who lead us into them, is passionately pursued!

Later I call on a friend, ITAGAKI Yoshiyuki. I've confused the time for his historic "tsuba" sword guard exhibition (in conjunction with Hagi-yaki potter HIRANO-san of Ube) - and missed it by a week-end. Sorry, Yoshi! He says it was a busy two days, and there were reports in many regional newspapers. Congratulations. He and his wife have a smallgoods business and work hard! He had some time (a month or two?) in the US when he was a student, I think, and his English remains good!

From here I drive to Suijin-sama to see Yuji. His wife tells me he's up in the meeting addressing a visiting group but that it would be no problem for me to go up. I do so. There are at least four people in the group whom I know, one very well. SASAKI Kyoko translated my Curriculum Vitae (C.V.) back in mid-1995 when I had decided to try and find a position in a Japanese university. I sat and listened to the group - a volunteer "cleaning" group (part of a national movement to show that dignity comes from performing service at the lowest possible denominator) to whom Yuji is giving a lecture on "ga-gaku" or old court music (a regular component of Shinto Shrine ceremonies in fact)! Discussion moves beyond this and I am still present when he receives messages from "o-kami-sama" for each person present - concerning ailments. The thing which most impresses me is that all of these messages are of advice and reassurance; there are no messages of darkness. Not one person denies the conditions he refers to - each face in turn one of amazement, hands touching the places/parts described. Later he and I go to Limoges for dinner together, before he heads off to another meeting (preparations for the Heian Era "Foxes Wedding and procession due to take place during Golden Week - when Christine and I will be away in Shimane-ken/Tottori-ken). Limoges has at least nine foreigners dining in it while we are there, including Dr Sue TURALE from the School of Nursing. I briefly greet her and her Canadian ALT friend before departing.

Doug rings up on Sunday morning. We'll meet up, he confirms some earlier e-mail exchanges. He calls around. It's a conversation on teaching (he's got some experiences at his new school, "Keishin", to think through) and some of the practicalities as well as the philosophy that underpins the thinking/experiences. I suggest later that we might go to Ejio Park in Onoda. The purple "mitsuba tsutsuji" is in full bloom right now, I have heard. He's happy to do that and off we go in his grand automobile. The conversation continues as we walk around the park and indulge in our photography passion. The "Three-leaf Azalea" is indeed in full bloom - and we are there so late in the afternoon that we have its marvellous vistas (there are said to be 50,000 of these azalea shrubs in this park) almost entirely to ourselves! Upon our return, it's too late for Doug to join his Aikido class. Instead he gives me a further shakuhachi lesson at home, plays some beautiful pieces of music on this instrument for me and then we adjourn to "Hakkenden" for dinner.

Later I speak to a mate of mine teaching at Yasugi Joho Kagaku (Science Information) Senior High. I'm ringing to see if there's a chance of Christine and I seeing him and his wife Yuki, in Yonago (Tottori-ken) where they live, over the Golden Week break. Not only is there a chance but he insists we stay. So that's what we shall do. He's busy as "Somu-Bucho" Head of School Affairs -No 3 in the school hierarchy - as well as with school team sport. His wife Yuki is the Deputy Principal of a primary school in Yonago. First son Hiroki has just started teaching at Tottori-ken Ritsu Kurayoshi Higashi High - and is enjoying it (I'd spoken briefly to him the night before); daughter Eri is pursuing training to become a physio-therapist in a College near Masuda, in Shimane-ken; whilst youngest child, Kei, is now at a Dance school in Osaka, pursuing his dream. Hideki's mother, in Kasubuchi (below Mt Sanbe) has had some blood condition recently though is now better - his brother is fine - their town region in Shimane-ken has had a name change with the recent amalgamations and so forth - to Misato-Town 「美郷町」. We'll catch up more next week!

To-day at Ube Kojo Senior High, I met the last of my new classes - First Year! What a bright, cheery lot they are! One born in Tochigi-ken, another in Miyazaki-ken!

Bye for now!

Entry No. 23

Life has been busy of late (when is it ever not) with Entrance ceremonies and meeting my first classes for this year at each of my educational institutions. It is always very exciting such a time - to see the enthusiasm and hope in the faces of my students as I outline my philosophy and we engage in our important early introductory "conversations"!

I am presently re-reading "Reluctant Neighbours" by ER BRAITHWAITE. In it he revisits the major periods of his life (grew up in British Guiana/entered Cambridge/WWII RAF/graduated as a Physicist/became a teacher/Education Officer/employed by International Agencies/UNESCO/Ambassador to the UN).

The book is about human dignity - especially in the face of racist thinking. (Where does it come from, this assumption that me and my lot are far superior/inferior to you and your lot - simply owing to skin colour, hair texture, religious belief, wealth, cultural background, whatever?!!!) Perhaps you may not recognise his name but he was the author, directly from the notes he kept of his teaching experiences in London's East End in the 1950s, of that wonderfully uplifting tale, "To Sir, With Love" and, later, such a fine film starring Sidney POITIER and the singer Lulu, whose rendition of the title song still curls its way in my memory. I want to write a little about this book but I've not yet finished it...

Entry No. 22

I left off my last entry last Friday when Yoshi was musing about doing something so as not to waste the great weather (and the cherry blossom) of that day. He was back at his studies as of yesterday (Monday the 10th) while I've had three days straight of Entrance ceremonies for my three institutions. It was clear that the chance to enjoy such a day was not going to come around again. I had a number of errands to do but they could lead us to Mt Dragon King（竜王山）which has some 10,000 cherry trees - and is by far the most beautiful place in Yamaguchi-ken for cherry blossom viewing, I said. Yoshi was happy to accompany me - so, after a light lunch in his family's restaurant （福久) we set off. First to Kojo High School（鴻城）so I could collect my class lists; then on further to give Yoshi a tour of my Rikadai campus. He saw the computer work-station, my classroom, and my office, en route to which we bumped into my English-teacher colleague and long-time friend, since my 2nd or 3rd Year here in Ube, IKEDA Kyoko. Yoshi was rather taken by her and I think at the moment I'm in something of a "go-between" role... From here we went up to the nearby Mount. Fortunately so, it was rather later in the day, so the traffic of visitors to admire the cherry blossom was not so heavy. The cherry blossom was indeed stunning, and photos were taken to prove the point. After this we went down to the Cafe/Bar at Sol Poniente for an iced coffee and then returned to Ube. I collected my things for my evening class at Suijin-sama and we called in there on the off-chance that I might be able to introduce Yoshi to the priest, MARUMO Yuji. And we were in luck. Yuji was able to offer Yoshi some useful advice - not only healthwise but also in making certain decisions about his future. Then we three adjourned to 大島 Coffee House (the best in Ube, I think) for a coffee and something light to eat. Then Yuji had to head off to a meeting and I had to drop Yoshi back home - not far away!

On Saturday afternoon, after a private class with Yasue (YAMADA) whose daughter, Kaoru, caught up in Sydney recently with Christine (while doing some English language studies at Sydney University during her spring vacation - from Okayama University), I called in on Yuji at the Shrine to thank him for the previous afternoon's meeting with Yoshi. After an enjoyable chat with his wife - she'd been to Ise to help settle in their elder son who is to do a year of post-grad study there, at Kougakkan University [皇學館大学] (he's a classmate from Primary School days of FUKUNAGA Ryota, about whom I wrote in an earlier blog entry) - Yuji appeared. We chatted for a while and then he asked if I had plans for that night. No, not really. I replied. Well, let's go for a drive, he suggested. Okay. Where to? To Hagi? To Yumoto (onsen district of Nagato-City) - both destinations on the Sea of Japan coast. Okay. Right. Just give me time to go home and call Chris, I said. (I was forgetting that she was in Sydney with Judy and Graham, helping their daughter Dana, who had taken on a luncheon catering challenge)! So my call became a message on the answering service at home in Australia - "I'm off to Hagi with Yuji!".

Then we set out. First we called in at Ube Kamaboko (pressed fish sausage) where he purchased omiyage. Then to Route 2 where it was time to fill up with petrol. Idly looking at the cars waiting at the traffic lights I caught sight of one of my surgeon pals, Taku. He was just on his way back to the Yamaguchi University Medical Hospital from an operation he'd performed in Hagi. The cherry around Noyama-Goku (the site of the Clan Prison in which YOSHIDA Shoin was incarcerated when sent back to Choshu from Edo in late 1854) was perfect, he told me, when I ran across to his car to say hello. Taku used to play Rugby with Professor "Thomas" OGIHARA from Rikadai, before Waseda University enticed him away to the east from April last year - their youngest professor I think - but in any case, both of them are Shoin Fellowship Members. "Thomas" has just been an another of his twice-yearly public health study trips to Kazakhstan.)

As we drove along Yuji asked me if I'd seen Ono-Cha - the local tea plantation. No, I admitted (and in truth there are very few sites in this western part of Japan that I've not seen)! So we turned off and soon arrived at this vast tea plantation in a back valley/ridge area I'd never been to. It was vast - and beautiful. Yuji is from Nagato-City so the northern side of Yamaguchi-ken is well-known to him. We passed through Oku-Akiyoshi and another road I do not recall ever driving on. I love new roads - the freshness of the vistas - this particular afternoon enhanced by the lines of cherry trees and the splodges of pinkish red of wild cherry trees in blossom across the mountains above our road made it especially beautiful. Finally we came out onto Route 191 at Misumi alongside the KAZUKI Yasuo Art Museum (haunting images in his work of the the treatmentof Japanese POWs held in Siberia for years, himself included, by the Russians, who had shrewdly entered the war against Japan on the very eve of the Surrender).

From here it was a pleasant drive into Hagi, nearby, and to the sea food restaurant ー "Suzu-Toyo" (鈴豊) owned by INOUE Isaburo（井上伊三郎）, the head of 井上商店, a 5th Dan in Kendo, and, although I didn't realise it then, soon to become a member of the Shoin Fellowship. He's about a half-year older than me - but fit! Deportment, demeanour - straight-backed, clear of eye! He's a friend of Yuji. Upon entering the restaurant we are shown into a room set for three - us! Fantastic food is brought in, dish after dish - all of it amazing, delicious, beautifully presented. I am given the chance to talk about YOSHIDA Shoin and the Fellowship and Isaburo then expresses an interest in joining. He also tells us both about an extraordinary Korea woman - something of a Mother Theresa, it would seem, now 75, who also respects Shoin! Her name is something like KIM In-Sun (金任順)from the island of Kozedo where she runs a school called「愛光園」. Isaburo urges me to contact her but I am a little reluctant to do so via 'phone even though I take down her telephone number. Nevertheless she will be here in Hagi in June, so I may have the chance to meet her then, undaunted by trying to speak to her in Japanese by telephone. Isaburo also offers me the chance to enter "Yubikan"（有備館), the (剣道道場) Kendo Dojo (alongside Meirinkan School) from the Choshu Clan days - in which SAKAMOTO Ryoma himself practised/competed in the very late Edo era. From the restaurant we glide in Isaburo's leather-upholstered limousine (he doesn't touch alcohol) to a bar where we are to meet six Kendo teachers (leading a contingent of three hundred for a special practise session the next morning here in Hagi) from Hiroshima-ken. I am able to chat here by cell-phone with another noted Kendo teacher from Kagoshima, HAMADA Shinji (濱田臣二). He'll be in Ube the next day but I'm caught up with Rikadai's Entrance Ceremony on that day! It's a pleasant time. While taking photos of our group I engage in some conversation with another party sitting near by - Toyota Company officials, two of whom had worked in Australia, one in Sydney, one in Melbourne. They had a foreign guest - a Toyota dealer from Dublin - a very interesting chap called Denis SMYTH. We shared opinions on the state of the world and found they matched perfectly - which fact made our conversation even more memorable and enjoyable!

Since that night I've been busy, as I stated at the start of this blog entry, with Entrance ceremonies at my three schools! We've had cool and very wet and windy weather - really stripping the cherry blossom from the trees so that we know we are beyond the best of it! And there have been two new members join the Fellowship. OZAKI "Na-chan" teaches History P/T at Kojo High. Her husband is the Baseball coach and the two of them run the school's hostel for 16 lads in the Baseball squad whose homes are too far away for baseball practice and then travel back and forth each day. She's from Ishikawa-ken, born in Kanazawa but grew up in Suzu-shi on the Noto Peninsula. I've been to Suzu-shi twice. The other new member is a former student of mine from the same school - OKAMOTO Tetsuya, a brilliant lad, composer of a range of musical styles, English speech contestant, self-taught in German - now in 2nd Year at Kyoto University of Education - studying to become a teacher of English! He's a classmate of INOUE Wataru who was recently in Australia with Christine. He was prompted to contact me after I'd been discussing Shoin (by e-mail) with another of his fellow students, TOMITANI Yukihiro, now studying at Ryukoku University in Kyoto.

Time to close this Blog Entry

If you care to contact me at the following address - please do:

kajim@ed.yama.tus.ac.jp

Entry No. 21

So many adventures have come my way since the last entry (completed April 1st just before I drove down to Beppu) - time to record the outlines!

a) The drive to Beppu. I take the long way via the Tosu Junction (my penfriend of 33 years standing lives in Tosu)! It is strange, after the brilliance of cherry blossom in Fukuoka-ken, to drive across the highlands of Oita-ken back into the starkness of a winter landscape. My car (or the GPS system in my head?) takes me directly to my friends' home. I am early. The friends are YAMAMOTO Yosuke and his wife Chizuko. Their son, Ryujiro ("Dragon" aka "Rob de MONT" from his days as a member of my Rikadai Open Class), has been inviting me to visit for some time. (He and his parents are Shoin Fellowship members!) This is the week-end. He will not be back from Toyota-City (he designs carpark spaces/bicycle park spaces) in Aichi-ken until dinner to-night. Chizuko is visiting her 82 year old mother in Usa (30 or 40 minutes away) so Yosuke (an IT specialist) takes me for a drive: to Lake Shidaka; the back of Yufu-dake (a mountain peak visible from Ube on a clear day across the Seto Inland Sea); and then home, via Myoban Jigoku (back in Beppu) where they produce sulphur crystals. We'd hoped to view the firing of a vast grassy mountain slope up above Beppu, Ogiyama, but too much rain forces its cancellation. Dinner is at a sushi restaurant called "Sen Goku" (千石）where Ryujiro joins us. After dropping Chizuko back home we three head off for a bath at an onsen called "Yumetamate-Bako" (reminds me of Kata-no-Yu" in Ube) and then to the nightlife quarter where we enjoy a few drinks in a jazz bar called "Speak Easy" (which is what we do). Ryujiro is the designated driver. After going home he shows me a documentary he has made on "The Beppu Project" - a kind of three year cultural arts festival period now just into its 2nd Year in the city. He's been a film-maker since his high school days - brilliant. Next day Ryujiro, Chizuko and I wander around the beautiful mountain spa resort town of Yufuin - which, despite the inclement weather, is crowded with visitors AND gift shops (more so than ever due to the recent NHK daily serial/drama which featured the town)! Then Yosuke joins us for lunch in their favourite restaurant/hotel called "Moustache", high up above the town - leafy (and sunny, now)! The locale reminds me a lot of Karuizawa, in fact (where noted Australian author, Elizabeth KATA ("A Patch of Blue"/"Someone Will Conquer Them"/etc) lived out the WWII days as a kind of Prisoner, despite her illustrious Japanese in-laws. After a congenial lunch, it was back to Beppu, Ryujiro's sister, Rika, a student at Junshin University in Nagasaki, is just back from several weeks spent teaching Japanese in Mexico-City. She loved it! Farewell!

b) From here via the Usa Expressway and Route 10, skirting Nakatsu-City and Yukuhashi and on into the centre of Kokura to the underground carpark between Kokura Castle and the futuristic-looking River Walk shopping centre. I arrive early for a meeting with INOUE Wataru (my old Ube Kojo student who is just back from ten days in OZ with my wife, Christine. I am wanting to hear his stories and see his photos. I fill in my time snapping photos of the cherry blossom around the Castle and the fallen camellia blooms in the Castle Gardens. Then, after meeting up with Wataru, we find a coffee shop. He has had a marvellous time he reports, meeting lots of people, seeing lots of places, learning lots of things. He also has with him Shoin Fellowship papers for himself and his parents! Keeping the conversation going we move to a restaurant for dinner before I depart for home at around 8.00p.m.

c) There is an invite for lunch to join my god-daughter, NAGAI Shizuka (three years old this coming July); her mother Madoka (I attended both wedding parties five years ago - in Ube and in Tokyo [at "What the Dickens"] - researching/re-interpreting (?) the almost forgotten writer/poet NOGUCHI Yonejiro; and her grand-mother (Madoka's mother) HORI Setsuko (a contemporary haiku poet)! Madoka's father, HORI Ken, is a noted artist and Professor of Art at Hiroshima City University. It's always good to catch up with Madoka, who lives in Tokyo, because she is one of the few people in Japan who really understands my former engagement with the literary world in Australia - and is encouraging me to write something about that world! Unexpectedly, the following Thursday, we have the chance, the four of us, to continue the conversation over a relaxed lunch at the Ube Kokusai Hotel. just around the corner from where I live.

d) This same night, with my sushi restaurant owner mate, FUJIMOTO Etsuo, we visit a favourite late night jazz bar, "Major 7th". The owner couple have a daughter who will be in one of 3rd Year junior high classes at Fuchuu this year! I take along my jar of Vegemite. They prepare some yaki-mochi, and with some margerine and lightly dabbed on Vegemite, this fusion Japanese "toast" with Aussie Vegemite "taste" is declared a great success by all who sample it!

e) Next day, Tuesday April 4th (my step-father's birthday - he'd have turned 89 to-day had he still been living) MARUMO Yuji, Priest of Suijin-sama, calls me to find when I might be free for dinner. I check my schedule - to-night is it, it appears. He calls back - seems we are to dine in Chofu (the old Castle town part of Shimonoseki-City). I'll drive, I volunteer. When I go to collect him it appears that the plan has changed, we'll be going by taxi - it's raining - he'd like me to enjoy myself and have a drink or two. So that's how we go. We arrive at a small restaurant called 「小樽」 pron. "Kotaru" (The Little Barrel) owned and run by Mr & Mrs IKI. I first met them late last year when I gave an address at Imi-no-Miya Shrine about YOSHIDA Shoin, at the invitation of AOTA Kunio (Gon-Negi priest of Akama-Jingu in Shimonoseki) who is also present to-night, with his wife, Ryuko. Altogether we are 11 at this function - splendid food (which reminds me of a November 3 Culture Day banquet Christine and I enjoyed some five or six years ago in Karatsu-City when staying at Yo-Yo-Kan - a superb Meiji Era Ryokan - as guests of my Rikadai boss/colleague/friend SHIMA Yukiko, at the time of the Karatsu Kunchi Festival). Son, IKI Shinji and new bride, Mayumi, have returned here for a brief visit from Utsunomiya where they are engaged in Shinji's in-laws' "senbei" production business. He had some two years study in Seattle and Jackson, Tennessee around ten years ago he says. The dinner is to honour them and introduce them, especially Mayumi, to local friends. The others present are Ms TANAKA, a teacher of Chinese, and her class group - two men (Mr INAMURA an architect, Mr SHINKUBO an ophthalmologist) and the IKI parents. MrIKI is the life of the party - an amazing singer of funny songs with accompanying dance - and a constant stream of punning. Japanese is just like English with respect to wordplay enjoyment but it is really only just recently that I've been able to detect and, in some cases at least, follow what is being said! Late in the evening I am invited to speak about YOSHIDA Shoin (with generous introduction and elaboration from AOTA Kunio and MARUMO Yuji) following which the seven people present who are not members immediately declare their intent to join the YOSHIDA Fellowship! I am stunned! Overwhelmed. One of the final dishes prepared by (Mrs) Hatsue IKI is a crisped (though not blackened) mochi-rice ball over which has been poured a sweet chilli sauce! MMM!! Yuji, sitting alongside me, has had enough to eat and offers me his! Hurrah! I begin to eat when suddenly there are cheers from across the table - Hatsue IKI sees her new "fusion" dish as a success, at least with the foreigner! Our taxi driver, HOSOKAWA Minoru, on the return journey, speaks excellent English, and when we reach Ube, Yuji invites him to join us for a coffee at Limoges (a restaurant just a minute or two on foot from my door) before tackling the journey home to Shimonoseki.

f) To-day, Wednesday, is the first staff-meeting of the Year at Ube Kojo 「宇部鴻城高校」. I meet some of the new teachers including one of the English staff, OSADA Ken(ichi). In beautifully spoken English he informs me that he listens to Margaret THROSBY and her ABC classic musical program! That night we spend some time together during the welcome dinner party for staff at Kawa-Cho Hotel and trade educational philosophy - the same kinds of thinking. Unfortunately, OKADA Hiroshi, my English teacher mate and "protector", the one who first introduced me to this school, has not been able to come to the party - his elder daughter, Saki, has been identified with what I think is some thyroid deficiency problem and has been hospitalised. She's just about to enter junior high, too. It's a worrying time for him!

g) It's Friday. I'm up early to walk around Tokiwa Park, greet fellow walkers and take photos of the cherry blossom. Then to Shimofuri-yama - arriving a good ten minutes before the gate opens at 8.30a.m. (KATOH-san is late, but she gives me some of the bore water [renowned for its curative properties] later on, when I stop by the Spring. Cam (now at UNE in Armidale) introduced me to here in late 2004! The wild cherry is pretty. Then it's home for the rather mundane task of getting rid of the accumulation of unburnable garbage from my 勝手口 〔back entrance〕. Christine will be here in just three weeks - I don't want her to have to see it! After taking it to the city "Recycling Centre" - at no charge, so insignificant is the amount, I decide to call on Yoshi who lives nearby. He's just up so we sit in the sun and chat, joined by his sister, Hiroko. It's such a good day, he muses, we should do something. And so we do. (To be continued)