My aunt's wedding

I went to my aunt’s wedding party. She is 60 years old and the bridegroom is 61. This is the second marriage for my aunt and the first marriage for her husband. They both work in the same organization and they got to know through an executive.

My aunt asked me to perform at the wedding. I planned to form “in-law’s big band”. I thought a bigger band would be more fun. However not many of my relatives can play instruments. My cousins have never learned instruments, so I asked them to play congas and tambourine. I asked my uncle to be a backing vocalist because he had also never learned to play instruments. My father was a guitar player when he was young, but he hadn’t played for about 25 years, so I asked him to practice hard. My mother can sing because she has string lung. My aunt in law is taking violin lessons, but she had never played in front of others. My wife is a good piano player and I play guitar. We could only practice two times, but it sounded good because my wife’s piano playing carried the band.

Most of the party participants were over 60 years old. We played old songs that were around when they were young, so they really enjoyed our music.

Go to Mt.Daibosatsu-rei

I joined a climbing circle which is generally called “Sangaku-kai” in Japan. They are unique private organizations and exist only in Japan. The main role of Sangaku-kai is to teach safe mountaineering techniques to beginners.

I went overnight trekking with four members of the Sangaku-kai. We walked along the ridge of a mountain range. The mountain which we wanted to climb was Mt. Daibosatsu-rei which in Yamanashi prefecture.

We were staying in a tent overnight, so we had to carry parts of the tent, our sleeping bags, dishes, and so on. My back pack was nearly 20 kg.

I started climbing and soon my legs were sove. My muscles weren’t used to such weight. However, the other members didn’t look tired, so I couldn’t show any faintheartedness. I walked and walked for about 7 hours. I got blisters on both big toes and they were broken.

In the tent, a member gave me a cup of hot-sake. I had never drunk such delicious sake. The banquet in the tent grew livelier until midnight. I want to trekking again.

Go to the office by bicycle

I have three colleagues who sometimes take their bicycle to work. Two of them live near our company Azabu-juban, Komagome, but one lives in Chiba, far from our company. He told me that it takes about 90 minutes. Each time he takes his bicycle, he seems physically tired, but mentally refreshed.

I live in Kamata, which is far from our office, so I never thought about taking my bicycle to work. However, one day, the idea crossed my mind that I might have fun if I went by bicycle.

Most of long distance cyclists have racing bicycles that are designed for road cycling. However I can’t afford me. I had no choice but to use my “mamachari”, city bicycle.

I thought that it would take 90 minutes from my home to our office, so I started 90 minutes before work.

About 30 minutes later, I was disappointed that my bicycle was slow. Some racing bicycles overtook me in an instant. Moreover, my tires were about to go flat. I noticed that my “mamachari” can’T go for longer than 90 minutes. Besides, I lost my way and wandered into a strange place when I looked for back streets where there were few cars. Because of this, I was late for the office. There was sweat all in the back of my shirt when I arrived at the office. I was very refreshed, but very tired before beginning work.

In total, U cycled for about 200minutes that day. Because of this, my muscles were stiff and sore.

Too much delicious food

I hadn’t returned my hometown for 6 years for New Year’s holidays because airline tickets during the holidays are very expensive. However I decided to go my parents house with my wife this year. It was the first time for her to spend “Oshogatsu” in Saga. She was looking forward to. So I bought discount tickets, it still cost 100, 000 Yen in all.

My parents were excited that we were coming for New Year. We ate and drunk a lot everyday from December 29 when we arrived at Saga to January 3 when returned to Tokyo. We ate a lot of things like oysters, crabs, turban shells and sashimi. My wife doesn’t eat so much and what’s more she and her family don’t have custom of drinking everyday even during New Year’s holiday. However my parents said to her “Don’t hold back! Please eat and drink as much as you want”. Actually, she didn’t want to eat any more, but forced herself to eat much more to meet their expectations. The food was good, but there was too much to eat.

Of course we gained weight. We had a lot of delicious food and we ere very tired.