Enjoying cake with Naoko at her home. 

More lanterns but I don't know what they are advertising or what is written on them. 

Street decorated with lanterns for a festival. 

Train stations...in Tokyo are unforgettable.
In just a few more seconds the horde of people will rushing past me to catch the next train or subway. The larger stations will have at least four and maybe up to eight different 'lines' as well as local or rapid for each of these. The local stop at every station on route and the rapid stop only at major stations. When transferring one has to climb or descend stairs...rush to the appropriate gate...rush through the turnstiles, rush to the next gate for the other train line, through their turnstiles and then either acsend or descend to your platform and then be ready to board during the 20 to 30 seconds that the doors are open. It is amazing when I start to do some calculations. Our station is small....but in the mornings a train stops here about every 1 to 2 minutes, some rapid and some local. Each train has either 6 or 10 cars, with 4 doors on each car. At peak hours....6:30 to 9:00 am and all evening....at least 10 and up to 30 people will cram into each door onto a train that is already full. That is anywhere from 240 to 1200 people every 2 minutes just from our station!!! A 10 car train would hold the entire population of Killarney by the time it arrives at our station and then the town of Ninette would decide that they were pushing their way onto the same train. And this happens 30 - 50 times every hour. The ordinarily polite and respectful Japanese become driven, determined, super-strong. I have watched men back up to an open door, get one foot on the ledge of the train doorway and push about 30 people back so that he can back into the doorway just before the doors close. I have seen a women on the outside with her bag on the inside when the doors closed. There was only room for her bag...the others would not squish together to let her in. We ride this type of train only 4 minutes if we take the rapid, or 8 minutes if we take the local. After that we are on a train going opposite direction to most people and we can sit down for that trip.

Posted by Colleen
Last Sunday, June23, we visited the people from Abiko that befriended us last fall...well, the 'grandma' in the household is a barber, and has been for 53 years. She still works 5 days a week. She is over 80 years old....still rides her bike. We had stored some of our things from last fall at their home and were going back for the last of them. Shigeko does not speak any English, but as we were leaving she was able to emphatically "tell Jim" that he was to sit in the chair and she was going to cut his hair..no charge. It was settled...there would be no argument. Jim got the full treatment complete with a neck and head massage. They are very wonderful people and we have really enjoyed getting to know them. That is her daughter-in-law in the background. She speaks a little English and is really put to the test while we are around, trying to translate both directions. The 3 generations live in a very large and lovely home in the same yard as this barber shop. Shigeko and Akemi seem to have a good relationship. My students tell me that most mothers-in-law bully their daughters-in-law, even though they take care of them in their home and usually till they die. Apparently they are jealous, according to my students.

There were many irises and hydrangeas blooming in the park that we visited. 

The park we went to had a lot of lilies and hydrangeas blooming.