13/3 - Concerts and Cooking

Tuesday found us rather flat and we all had an unplanned sleep in. Probably not surprising given the number of activities and length of days we'd been experiencing. So, Tuesday was the day for Nobuko and Hajime's (Keiko's 2 kids) school concert.

Due to the sleep-in and some missed calls on either end it was nearly 11:30 by the time we got to the town concert hall, and we had missed seeing Nobiko's group perform. After lunch we saw Hajime's group, and we must say how impressed we were with the quality of the students' singing (it was all choral + piano work). Here's a contrast to Australia, near the end of the day the P&C (parent's group) choir also performed and were quite good - their kids loved it.

Keiko then took us along (about 10 minute's walk) to her old house to see what a Japanese building rennovation project looks like. She will soon be renting out the property. Then it was next door to what used to be Keiko's grandparents's place but now is a special school for kids who drop out of the education system, but then (eventually) want to get a high school education so they can find employment or get into University. The Japanese education system does not deal well with such cases, and this special school of some half-dozen students and the single teacher (a wonderful woman who has lived in many places around the world) seems one very good way of dealing with such issues.

After that it was back to Keiko's house for warm food and even warmer company and wide ranging conversations. Finally though it was time to leave (getting onto towards 10pm - the kids are dealing with the long days and walks really well) so it was a very cold 30 minute walk home in the wind.

As an aside the cold temperatures are an ever present reality of daily lives. Currently the temperatures are ranging from about a minimum of 3 or 4, to a max between 10 and 14. The house we are in gets extremely cold, so the first task in the morning is to turn the 2 heaters on. Going out we get all rugged-up with our multiple layers - its a shame we just didn't have sufficient luggage room for proper coats. Due to the cold weather over the last week (also due to continue for the next week) they've revised the Sakura (cherry blossom) blooming times to later (23rd here in Tokyo). The blooming of Sakura is a national event here - it gets covered every day/night during the weather, and blooming prediction dates are provided for each city/region. Anyway, its cold here such that rain is predicted for Friday and they say it may snow.