Fun with friends

Golden Week ended up being mainly about hanging out with friends this year. Last Saturday we had a picnic lunch with Tomonori, Ritsuko and Rensei up at Muki-Banda-Isekei. K seemed to enjoy crawling round on the grass and didn't object too strenuously to his new hat (size 3 to 4 years...).The weather was lovely and we had a great view over the whole peninsula:

The next day it was picnic time again (Yumigahama Park this time). Bad weather had cancelled our attempt at an International Family Picnic the week before, but this time the weather was perfect. We didn't have as many people as I think would have come the week before, but we still had a good time, and I hope we can do something like that again soon.

Apart from that we hadn't really had any big plans for the holidays, until a phone call from Katherine! I knew she was hoping to come down for a few days but nothing was really set until the last minute. Having her stay with us for a few days (and having H around of course...) created a real 'holiday' feel for me, and acted as a catalyst for seeing more friends. Miho popped in a couple of times, we all had lunch with Miki on Monday and then she brought lovely little Rento round on Tuesday night. It was the first time (at almost 4 months) that I'd seen him and, after K, he seemed so small and light. A proper 'baby' baby! It's hard to believe that K was like that less than a year ago...

Katherine and I also went for a little drive around Daisen and were very excited to think we had found a 'Bear Observation' place. Sadly no bears were to be seen after all, so we had to make do with tofu doughnuts instead (and sorry again H for not bringing any back for you...).

Of course, we couldn't let Katherine stay here completely free of charge and so we set her to work on the weeding! Progress has been made, and I have the blisters to prove it, but we're not exactly at the 'after' stage yet, so you'll have to hang on for photos...