From Tetsu's phone

Life has been quiet the past two days.  VERY quiet because Tetsu is off in the northern part of Japan while I am staying home with the animals!  This is a first for us!  Usually, I am the on who goes off for the summer (to California) or even away with friends for a day or two while Tetsu holds down the home-front, but the roles have been reversed this week.

(From Tetsu's hotel room I guess...)

The main reason that Tetsu has gone up north is to do some clean-up around our family grave located in Morioka, Japan (where Tetsu grew up and where we met).  We have been talking about getting up to Morioka this whole year, to visit friends, to see to the family grave, but what with Covid and Tetsu's duties as Homeowners' association head, we never found the time.  The trip takes about 6 hours on the expressway and I am not so gung-ho about making the drive.  I also don't much like traveling with Tetsu because we never make PLANS.  It is all about suddenly discovering two or three days are free, taking off with hopes of finding someplace to stay when we get there and not having an itinerary for what to do or see while we are anywhere...  I'm sorry but things need to be arranged like pet care, me taking off from crosswalk etc.  I guess you could say that I'm not a spontaneous type of person...

(His buffet breakfast.  He is sure eating better on his trip than I am!)

So...  As our plans to go to Morioka got pushed farther and farther back, and what with me already taking three days off from crosswalk because of the slipped disc last month and because I basically believe we shouldn't be moving around during this pandemic, I bowed out of this year's trip.  Tetsu doesn't plan to see his friends anyway because of Covid... just do some weeding around the grave, maybe spread some new gravel around the headstone.  

(Our family grave.  We have the low red stone in a Christian part of the cemetery.)

Actually, Tetsu and I both love Morioka.  It is SO beautiful up north and Mt. Iwate looks over the city and the rivers that run through it.  Tetsu would actually like to move back to Morioka now that he is retired BUT it has always been way too cold for me there (the coldest part of mainland Japan) and though spring, summer and fall are beautiful, winter wipes this Southern California girl out!  No thank you!   Tetsu has two or three friends that he would love to see regularly but I think my life there would be pretty lonely...  I have one friend who still lives in the neighboring mountains...  Who knows... Tetsu may be scouting out the possibilities of permanent residence for us up there.  He'd better find someplace warm!!!

(Beautiful Mt. Iwate and the Kitakami River flowing through the city)

Anyway, today's photos were sent to me from Tetsu's iPhone.  He says he has over a hundred photos on his camera already but he sent a smattering of things taken on his phone.   

In the meantime I have been sewing most of my hours of the day, doing some practice lettering, walking John, and eating the same curry rice lunch and dinner for the past three days.  Maybe I'll splurge and go get myself a hamburger this afternoon!