Sunday by the Kamogawa

Behind the curtain of the Minamiza Theatre

Satoki-chan and his new truck

     A beautiful spring day.  Mayo-san and Satoki-chan met us at the hotel after breakfast and we set out for a stroll along the Kamogawa.  Satoki was thrilled with his new front loader, and seemed equally excited to see his old American friends.  He did miss seeing Ella however.  We threw stones into the river, watched the ducks, and noticed that the cherry trees were close to blooming (actually 15 days earlier than last year according to those who watch the "sentinel cherry tree" in Tokyo), and of course hauled loads of dirt in the truck.  We had a simple lunch and then said good bye to the Oyama's.
     We took a quick tour of the beautiful old Kabuki theatre (Minamiza theatre).  The picture is of us standing inside the curtain which says be beware of fire (these wooden theatres with their cedar stage floors are prone to burning down).  Unfortunately we probably can't see the Noh plays next weekend due to scheduling conflicts.
    Finally we went to see Emilie Louvet and Nicholas and their one month old baby Alix.  They live in a little house near Kyoto Eki, and we spent a nice few hours hearing about their lives in Kyoto, the difficulties of finding academic jobs in science, and meeting their sweet baby.   After a very round about trip home, we stopped at a local restaurant for dinner (the waitress it turned out is getting a PhD in biomedical ethics and was thrilled to learn we would be happy to help her if she ever came to Boston), and now find ourselves more or less out of steam.

Much love to all