Millie, my daughter is in Lynchburg putting up a determined resistance to Jerry Falwell's Liberty College from her own school. As for hammered dulcimer it is one of my favorite instruments and one that I have longed to play for many years. I look forward to meeting you and hearing you play.

Donuel, on behalf of my fellow travelers, thanks and know that we may all show up at your house if you keep talking like that. If we bring our own bottles can we play and sing all night?

Charley, we are working hard at putting Wakana back together again. I did receive my CD and enjoyed it but it was during my daughter's visit and I could not give it the due consideration it desreved. I also enjoyed Jerry Bryant's efforts at unexpurgated sailor songs but I have to say they were just what would expect and that the old songs lose nothing when they are cleaned up.

When I arranged for our tickets I also requested a wheelchair for Wakana. In Guam we had to wait half an hour before the promised wheelchair showed up. Then Wakana had to put up with the indignity of a 100% search. We arrived at the gate just as they were boarding the plane and she needed the bathroom. But we were flying first class so our seats were slighlty less comfortable than a living room recliner. We were served coffee and orange juice while we waited for the rest of the people to board back in the economy section. After we got into the air we had more coffee and then breakfast was served. They spread a table cloth over the tray and brought us omelets and croissants. We had jam served in little glass jars and real tableware made of metal, porcelin, and glass. Then we reclined our chairs and watched TV and movies until we arrived in Japan.

The wheelchair was waiting for us at the door to the plane. We headed off to immigration and then to customs, breezing through each one with no hitches, no searches, and no questions. The wheelchair left us in the seats outside of customs where Wakana's brother was supposed to meet us.

We waited for a time, I went off to change some money and I bought some soda, Wakana went off to find a bathroom and it occurred to me she should call her brother on his cell phone to tell him we were here and that he didn't need to park in the parking garage. Shortly after she left to find a phone Fumito grabbed me from behind in a friendly bear hug. We were just exchanging greetings when his cell phone began to ring. He answered it and then handed it to me. I said to Wakana, "I know where Fumito is!" Her mind was all set to hear Japanese and my English knocked her for a loop. After a little confusion it dawned on her that she was talking to her husband and that her brother had joined us. It turned out that he did better than that. He'd been there all along, asleep in the row of chairs right behind us!

Anyway, he drove us up to Nishinasuno and delivered us to Wakana's parents. After a lengthy greeting and discussion, very little of which I understood, we went to the family doctor's office. There I was dismayed and angered to see a doctor who was almost as useless as a human being can be. This was one of those stereotypical docotrs who is in love with his position as a man of learning and medicine. He talked to Wakana and her father for half an hour or more and never once looked at her. I didn't understand a word being said but I could see he was a man who loved the sound of his own voice. At one point he sanpped his fingers at a nurse so she could turn out the light over his desk, a switch he could have reached with the same effort as snapping his fingers. His hair was colored dark but fringed in natural grey and he had a mouth like Edward G. Robinson, frog like and wide. I was not happy and neither were Wakan and her father. He gave them no clear advice but dwelled on the value of exercise and stretching to keep such injuries from happening.

Today we went to the hospital in Otawaya City. We were in and out in a couple of hours and left with medicines and an appointment for physical therapy. She'd been interviewed, x-rayed, evaluated by a neurosurgeon and sent off to physical therapy. Tomorrow she starts her rounds of PT nd then in two weeks she gets re-evaluated. She is much happier today. Something is being done!

Tomorrow, after PT, we will go to town hall to get a list of organizations that are teaching Japanese. I want to start classes as soon as possible. It is one of my goals to get a good start on the language on this trip.