Onwards to....50!

Had a great Birthday - thankyou to everyone who sent me "ganbare" e mails, gave me presents...smiled at me!

Thanks to Shuichi Maeda who painted these pix of me based on photos - his mother brought them to class yesterday. Thanks to everyone who bought great cat toys, flowers, games, alcohol, bath stuff...I was surprised again and again.
It was a good birthday - not skiing at Furano as usual, but a stay-in-Sapporo and enjoy day.
Finished work at 5 pm and we went downtown: bought the Adam Lambert CD, dinner at a little Chinese place I like (actually it was our first date spot), then the noise and laughs of the International CM Festival (where I got a free bottle of birthday wine from the organizer!) and finally a drink at the Irish bar Brian's Brew.
Twas good.

Yujiro had spent the day at home with Okaasan and taken her out to lunch at a ramen place.
She of course had no idea it was my birthday. No big deal.

But she did get a phone call from one of her brothers in Saitama. When he mentioned about the brother who died last year poor Okaasan was VERY shocked: "Satoshi? He died? When? You didn't tell me! When? How?".
Of course she DID know...was that last February? I remember all of that in the old house, but that information didn't stay in her memory at all. She didn't go to the hospital or funeral, it was just conversations. So It didn't stick.
Mind you, she didn't seem too bothered last year about it - I don't think Satoshi was a favorite brother - so the shock wasn't too great. But it must be worrying for her to hear Yujiro calmly say to his uncle: "It's ok, I did tell her of course, but she's forgotten"...I think she knows and accepts now that she forgets stuff, but the realization that she has forgotten  such an important piece of family news must be depressing.

After that they called in at Carrot, a wholesale shop we sometimes get things from, where Okaasan stunned Yujiro by buying a KILOGRAM of anko sweet bean paste! A KILOGRAM! It's the kind of pack a cake shop or restaurant would buy to make Japanese desserts with! Okaasan seemed to think she would actually eat this amount.

And so. My birthday. Okaasan's confusions and shoppong. Yujiro doing Family Service with the girlfriend and the mother.

And Chichi and Popo have learned how to climb up a bedspread and onto a door frame.
Everest Here We Come!