A good pair?

Some people might say that Tetsu and I make a good pair. We chat a lot while we walk in the mornings. We try do things together on the weekends. This may not seem so unusual to American friends, but many couples in Japan don't really get to spend too much time together once they are married. The husbands work until 9:00 or later. If children are in the family, the mother ends up doing a lot of club activities on the weekends. Baby sitting is frowned upon so husband and wife rarely if ever go out once children are born.

Last weekend I had a "discussion" with Tetsu about his recent lack of time with me. This has been an ongoing discussion for nearly 30 years. He comes home around 10:30. He often works on weekends. Let's just say I wasn't too happy with him. Since I had Sunday afternoon to myself I decided to do some household shopping. I wasn't in a very good mood but while I was out I wandered into the women's clothing section of a department store and found a shirt that was nice. Not great but nice.

"Hmph. I'm going to buy myself this shirt. It is nice. I know I don't need it but I want it."

It was only about $20 but still I spent some time debating if I should splurge on myself. In the end I went ahead and bought myself the unnecessary shirt and came home in a better mood.

I think it is interesting that I don't question or particularly mind opening up my wallet for some things while others will make me stand and debate the pros and cons for quite a long time. I agonize over things for myself and even for the house, but I can budget and willingly pay $100 for some minor vet bill. Another place I don't really mind spending money is at the fabric shop. I mean if the bill teeters towards $100 then I get a little concerned but that only happens once a year or so (I also make numerous trips in order to fool myself.)

I realized another place that I hardly bat an eye is at the yarn shop. Even though I was a bit put out at Tetsu this weekend, I also made a stop at the yarn shop (they were having a sale) and purchased enough yarn for the vest that I will make him for Christmas. That is 30 years of sweaters and vests that I've made him and if I computed it all, a lot of yen spent! Though I would never pay the same amount of money in a store for an item of clothing for him (or anyone!) I don't mind the paying a lot for yarn. It keeps me busy for a month or so, and it is proof to Tetsu that even though we may not always see eye to eye all the time, that a lot of love is knitted up into his yearly present. If I didn't make him a vest or a sweater he'd really think something was wrong!

Here is Tetsu looking spiffy for some important meeting he was headed out to. I usually only show pictures of him sprawled on the sofa or doing some sort of carpentry task. Here's hoping that we can do something fun together this weekend. (By the way, Tetsu cooked dinner for me on Tuesday night! And he came home early to do it! Great husband!)