Groovy Okaasan

Sapporo City Jazz Concert and Okaasan BIG success!
She went there on her own, she had a seat near the stage for a famous Japanese trumpet player and loved every single moment of it. Came home safely and is still grinning ear-to-ear about it this morning. She's feeling so perky that when I went into the kitchen just now to make tea she actually got up from the kotatsu and came in to say "Good Morning!" to me...

And us?
We had a packed weekend of socializing and enjoyed our own lives.
All very well with this family.
Amazing!
Okaasan is in a good spell at the moment and life feels...dare I say it...normal?

Music of course is balm for the soul and I'm sure for someone with dementia it is a relaxing, wonderful time. Jazz in particular speaks to our deep body rhythms.

We had a busy weekend: I got invited out by an ex-student to a Dinner Show of Japanese Dance at the Prince Hotel Friday night. Lots of ladies in kimono, men in heavy stage make-up, twangy shamisen music, drums, loveless ladies of the night, swash-buckling comedy routines - like Japanese pantomime in a way!
Then Saturday night we went out with two Swiss Couch Surfing guests, Sunday lunchtime I had a date with the same ex-student to see her new apartment and eat sushi...and Sunday night we were deep in the wonderful Sapporo beer garden in Odori Park with a bunch of friends and a 4-liter Kirin beer tower.

Somehow my leg is getting stronger through all of this and I actually walked to the subway station and through Odori Park.

AND!!! 
I have decided. October. Hawaii. Using those airmiles.
Gonna DO IT!
My mate Beth in San Francisco urged me on to make a decision and once she said a friend would let us rent his apartment near the beach in Maui cheaply - I was on to ANA reservations desk in a flash.
So now I am on waiting lists for flights. But hopefully will fly to Tokyo with Yujiro and a friend to see  the Adam Lambert concert on October 7th and stay the night, and then fly to Hawaii the next day for a few days of sunshine, tropical greenery, cocktails at sunset and chat time with a friend.

Now I just hope that my step-mum's condition in the UK doesn't worsen and change my plans. All last year thru the endless Japan/UK tripping and stresses I promised myself a relaxing holiday on the airmiles and I SO SO need to go to Hawaii in October.