A relatively boring week at school was capped off with a rather nice weekend. After hitting the gym on Saturday morning and having lunch, we took the kids to a little Christmas festival with a magician, singing, story telling--and best of all, no cliche manger drama! Then we and an Australian family we're friends with were invited to a little welcome party held by two Japanese families. We drank beer, ate sushi and shot the breeze while all of our kids ran around and entertained each other. Both of the Japanese fathers spoke decent English and one who hosted the party had lived in Virginia for several months and remembered how lonely and frustrating it was for him before he met people who began to show him around a bit. Nothing like a little ex-pat empathy to build common ground--he even offered to lend us an extra TV he had when he found out the kids were watching DVDs on a little seven-inch portable player.
On Sunday, the kids and I walked a mile or two to nearby Taisan-ji temple to enjoy the colors of fall and explore the temple grounds. Afterward, we soaked our tired feet in a small hot springs foot bath located outside of Taisan-ji onsen (hot springs), before taking a free bus back up to the train station near our house. Then we walked over to McDonalds for a cheap & easy kids meal and a nostalgic taste of home. Early in the afternoon, we got the TV, went shopping for a small book case to put it on, and a carpet for the floor, came home and now--voila!--we have a cozy little living room set up where we can watch TV or DVDs though out the could winter months ahead. Can't beat that.
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