So, Monday and Tuesday we didn't do much of anything. We enjoyed the opportunity to Skype with those we could find online and Ian and I went for a looonnngg (15km) bike ride on Tuesday. We started by riding to the seniors centre where Ian does his volunteer class. I enjoyed meeting the people and getting to sing a few songs with them. Then we continued the ride all the way to Kitayuzawa before we turned around to head home. The first half of the ride was all downhill which of course meant that the second half would need to be all uphill. We took a few breaks on the way back - soft ice cream at Ato san's mother's restaurant, a few groceries at the Seiko-mart, but it was still quite difficult. My legs were in awful pain for the whole evening but after some self-medicating and a hot bath they got better.
Wednesday we had earmarked to go to the Ainu museum in Shiraoi. The Ainu are the indiginous people here and I had been told that the museum is great and there's a nice walk around a small lake nearby. We ended up getting an invitation to Natsumi's house for lunch and sweets-making so we bailed on Shiraoi. Natsumi is one of the lovely women from my Wednesday night class. She has three children - one of whom I have both at the Sho gakko and at the after school program. Her husband, Takashi, is also very nice and we felt very honoured to be included in their Children's Day celebration. Taran opted to stay home by himself but Joisan came with us. We had a very eclectic lunch with smoked scallops, inarizushi, a special salad and some makizushi. It was all fabulous and although Joisan was fairly bored, Ian and I enjoyed ourselves very much. Ian has volunteered to help Takashi with some chores around their farm on Sunday and we will be having Mother's Day dinner with them. Takashi has promised to make something wonderful!
The other big news is that Ian received a call from Naomi about someone she knows who is looking for some help. Ian hasn't had the final confirmation yet but it's looking like he might be doing some work on a local farm. Yay!
Taran had his MRI yesterday. He said it was REALLY loud and despite the earplugs they gave him he got a headache. We don't quite know the next step but if we don't hear from the hospital in the next few days Ian will call and investigate. In the meantime, Taran is in pain and finds it difficult to walk even to the bus stop.
It will be a busy weekend - Joisan's teacher is coming for dinner tonight and then there's a track meet in Muroran we need to check out tomorrow. Joisan was not quite ready to participate fully in the track and field so we agreed that she'd watch the first track meet and participate next time.
I'll work on having some photos for the next post :)
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