The gentle giant. He must weigh at least three times more than me.There are lots of French shintaidoists who come to Japan. I have to admit I've never gone out of my way to get to know any of them, except Georges. He is so huge and strong but capable of such gentle and fluid movement. I also loved speaking French to him, which I can only do because his English is perfectly fine and if I can't say something, (which is most of the time!) I switch to English, or ask Nancy!
Someone asked me what's this Golden Week thing all about. Well, it's simply a string of national holidays close together making it easy for people to take the whole week off. The holidays include the Emperor's birthday, Children's day, and Labor Union day (where strikes take place...) Unlike Japan's most important holiday which is New Years and lasts for three days, and Obon in August which is the time when the ancestral souls come back and descendants pay hommage at the graves, holidays during Golden Week are not that important so people tend to party!
For me, Golden Week has always meant the annual shintaido retreat (we did skip a few years when the kiddies were really little) and this year was no exception. Reina is writing about some other places we visited. The wonderful Hakone Outdoor Sculpture Museum http://www.hakone-oam.or.jp/eng/index.html which has beautiful play sculptures for the kids to climb and explore. The Yunessan Spa was a blast because we went with Nancy, Sakae and Satoshi. http://www.yunessun.com/english/yunessun.html
Guess which of us is the serious martial artist? Hiroshi participated in the instructor level course which consists of wooden sword techniques. It was INCREDIBLY challenging and never before have I seen so many people injured... It was incredible to think that women older than me and men in the 60s participating. Even in my prime, I just couldn't push myself to that level. Still I have an appreciate for them.
Oh, and about my weight. Would you believe it took me three days to gain back the 2 kgs, (under 5 lbs) I spent a month losing!!!! Breakfast buffets, 24 hour snack room and lavish dinners. Boo-hoo. Yes, Nancy, I have found a way to edit out our thighs before putting up the pix of us with the Doctor Fish nibbling away!!!
Trying to adjust back to normal life. School starts on Monday. Rio's b-day party Sunday. Take care everyone!
