I didn't mention that this is Golden Week in Japan. April 29 was the last emperor's birthday, now celebrated as Greenery Day. It is an official holiday. May 3 was Law Day, celebrating the legal system. May 5 is Children's Day, specifically boys. The girls had a day back in March. With the three holidays happening so close together the Governemnt includes the day between Law Day and Children's Day as a holiday. Japan is on vacation this week.

Children's Day is celebrated by flying large carp shaped banners, koinobori, at every house that has a son. Inside there are displays of samurai armor or dolls of famous samurai. Here we have a lovely miniature samurai helmet on a laquer armor box, They put it out in my honor. Gawrsh!

Today we went out to shop for a video camera for our trip. We also wanted to get a tour book in Japanese and I needed a watch. Then we headd over to Genghis Khan for lunch. We headed there but never made it. We ran into a line of traffic that stretched for miles. At one point I got out of the car and walked, passing many cars that sat ahead of us. I saw a group of very fancy tricked out vans so walked back for the camera and then back up to take pictures of them. This was serious gridlock!

We gave up and headed back into town to go to a little restaurant we discovered last time. The name of the place is, and I am not making this up, Home Relax Dining. After a very nice meal we went over to Aunt Sachiko's house. She had a wedding gift for us.

Aunt Sachiko is an amazing person. I am sure I've mentioned her before. That woman has more talent, skill, and energy in her little finger than I could have in two bodies. One of her more recent forays into the art world is etched glassware. She gave us a set of little glasses etched with a vine and flower design that she had created. There is also a little serving dish with the same design. She showed us two designs that she is working on, one a lovely caligaraphy motiff and another is a larger version of a design she made for a glass she gave to me. It is a tavern scene (exterior) that starts with a traveler on a horse getting a stirrup cup from a woman, then there is a large tree and a heart shaped carriage with its door open, then a couple walking hand in hand. There are birds in the air. The larger version is on a thick red glass vase. She intends to reverse the image so the background is etched and the picture is clear.