Iori's Big Day!

 Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Woohoo! We've got to leave by 8:15 and it is quite exciting to see Andy and Iori in their suits and Tae in her stunning kimono.  She could have stepped right off the pages of Vogue! Satchiko, Sakurako, Ginger, and I are just dressed in regular clothes because, like many graduations, only two guests are permitted for each graduate. We all trek to the temple to meet up with Iori's best bud, who's father is in charge of the temple and he and his wife are all decked out too.  The boys are Mutt and Jeff with their son being tall for his age and Iori not yet having had his growth spurt.

Inside the house that comes with the temple

Breakfast goodies!

More trekking (so many steps!) and we finally reach the school.  All the girls are in their kimonos with their hair up and decorations pin into their 'dos.  There is a sign which probably says congratulations graduates, or something similar, because everyone needs a picture beside it in all the possible family configurations and often with favorite classmates as well. No wonder we had to leave early!

All the moms and grandmas taking photos!

The girls are all so gorgeous!

There is always a crowd milling around at events like this.

Hurry!

Finally the kids are parents head inside and the four of us start another trek, this time to the coffee shop.  I remember this place!  Satchiko's friends run it and we kind of move in and take over! I have an iced coffee (I know, it's cold out but we'e ben force-marched about a million miles and I'm hot!) and I strip off my top two layers. It comes with a little packet of crunches and like everything else here, it's delicious and crunchy.

Sakurako is our translator!  But we also do pretty well with sign language and as everyone relaxes a bit the fun begins.  I show her a simple hand clapping game and she one ups me with a more complicated one!  There is a ton of giggles and smiles and everyone gets into the act! Then we try to figure out how to clasp Ginger's new watch and Sakurako is the only one who can actually snap it shut!  She says you have to "Puuuuuush...Puuuuush" and we're laughing too hard to even try.  Then Ginger learns it in Japanese and that's even funnier!! Ginger tells Sakurako that she'll just have to come back to America with Ginger so she can 'puush" it closed every morning!

Sakurako showing us how to be prim and prouper.

We are women, hear us roar!

After a couple of hours when the kids haven't called to say it's over, we head back to the school to see what's going on.  There are kids and parents and, probably, faculty heading from one building to another.  But one one is leaving.  A few other grandparents are milling around but eventually we'e had enough of all that and head home, stopping by the grocery store on the way. This seems like the perfect time to open up the puzzle that Ginger brought!  It is 500 pieces and I find a piece of cardboard we can put on the table as a work surface. That way we can easily clear the table for meals.

Like Aldi's, you bag your own!

After an hour or so Tae and Andy come home and Satchiko has made another glorious meal of some kind of egg-drop soup and fried rice with a ton of other things mixed in.  After lunch we are talking about the beautiful porcelain cups we've been drinking from and she brings out a piece of bone china that her father's company made.  Did you know it's called "bone" china because it contains cow bones?

The grandmas!

And the lessons go on! Next their appears a box with a drawer and a slot with a sharp blade. The box contains something that looks like a piecce of wood and you run it back and forth over the blade to get tiny flakes. What the heck?  Turns out it isn't wood, it's smoked and dried bonita, a kind of tuna, and you can use the flakes to flavor soup or to include inside a roll of sticky rice! Satchiko used a translator app to tell us the treat is called onigiri and that she often takes it for lunch.

    

Tae and we look over the new house plans in detail!  After living here for just a day or so, I can easily understand that building a new house will make life a great deal easier. Although the old house is very cool with it's sliging doors and antique furniture, it is...old...and in need of major repairs and modification.  It would probably be more expensive and much less satifactory than building from scratch. The plan is for the nuclear family to live in the new two-story, five bedroom house and for Satchiko to live downstairs in the town house next door.  The upper floor will be for storage, which will be at a premium. As with any project this size there is a ton or up-front work to be done before the razing/construction can begin. So glad it's not my project!!

Ah!!  Here's the newly-minted seventh grader! He's been to karaoke with about ten of his friends! and he's carrying a plate of those yummy eggs that are my favorite at the sushi bar! The family has assembled around the table, so it's a good thing that we made the puzzle portable!  Satchiko has spent so much time in the kitchen!  In addition to the eggs we have a clear soup with I don't know what taste treat floating in it and a different fried rice dish.  When we're all stuffed, she and Tae make individual rice balls wrapped in cling wrap and they will be available to anyone who gets hungry!

You have to look closely to see that Andy solved the puzzle!

After dinner we sit around the table talking about the day and looking at Iori's very impressive graduation document! Satchiko is making more of those lovely embroidered place mats that she gifted us with earlier in the day. We talk about tomorrow's plans and there are two choices.  One involves an aviary and since Satchiko doesn't like animals, we decide to put that one off for another day!

Andy has taken this week off to be with us and so his schedule is turned upside down!  He usually goes to work at nine in the evening and works until six or seven in the morning, then goes to sleep until the kids get home from school.  That way he is in sync with his Atlanta workmates and also gets to see the kids!  We've turned that schedule on it's head and I can't believe he's still awake! Actually, we're all pretty ready to turn in by nine or so.  Some magic elf has drawn us a hot tub and we take turns showering and then soaking in the blissful water.  When I realize I'm falling asleep I know it's time to get out, put on my jammies and go to bed! Sweet dreams!  (The ibuprofen, Ginger's Emergen - C, and Tae's allergy meds are helping!)