Binto Box Birthday – ecw

Ohayo. It:s Thursday morning here, raining again (though it was absolutely beautiful yesterday) and I am in my new home.  My new family is a couple in their 50s (?) who have kids who are college age.  Their daughter will be home this weekend, but for now it:s just the 3 of us – quite a change from the last bustling house!  Sagawa-san is a dentist, and his home and office are attached to each other. 

Yesterday has to rank as one of the more interesting and random birthdays I:ve had.  We started very early and got matched up with our next leaders – various Rotary Clubs in the area are taking turns *hosting* us, and they lead our tours and daytime activities.  Our first stop was an aluminum processing plant, where they used recycled aluminum and melt and form it into everything from car parts for Bentleys to clothes line systems.  There were some very cool robots in use.  We then went to the aluminum factory owner:s home.  He has a traditional style Japanese home (the kind you likely picture in your mind when you think of Japan) with a beautiful garden, and his wife and her friends performed a traditional tea ceremony for us.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Then, after tea, the owner showed us his personal Samuri sword collection! (Scott Davis is soooo jealous right now…)  He has a room that is essentially his own museum, and he had at least a dozen swords, one of which is made of gold, and lots of various handles and decorative bits.  Very, very cool.

We then headed to the Kumagaya (the city where I*m staying right now) Rotary Club meeting, where we were the guests of honor – our table was at the front facing the RC, and we ate when we got there… there:s nothing like slurping noodles and using chopsticks in front of a room full of natives.  There was music (both national anthems and My Old Kentucky Home, plus Barry gave a little concert on the mandolin) and traditional dance, and we gave our presentation on Kentucky.  Amanda and I tagteam during the Louisville portion, and when it got to the point when she reads that the *Happy Birthday* song was written in KY, she announced it was my birthday, and suddenly 40 or 50 RC members are up and singing to me. 

We then went to the firefighters training school – there should be some good pics with our big heads in some tiny helmets.  And after that we went to a museum/exhibit focused on disaster relief/prevention/preparation, where we got to experience an earthquake, tsunami force winds, and a house fire.  The pics for that will be very entertaining.

Finally, we finished our group activities for the day, and went to our homes.  My host father is president of the Kumagaya South RC, and they had a special meeting and reception for me.  It was very nice, but quite surreal.  Let:s see…. there was a Q and A where I answered questions about the differences between the U.S. and Japanese criminal justice systems (uhhh…) and my feelings on China and the Free Tibet movement (nothing hot button there)…. I had to sing My Old Kentucky Home, Blue Moon of Kentucky, and You Are My Sunshine – a capella…. and I got a birthday cake and flowers and another round of the Birthday song. 

All in all, it was a hell of a day.

 

I better go get dressed for the day. 

To those of you who:ve emailed in the last day or 2, I have tried to respond, but when I click +send+, or at least the button I believe to be send, some kind of message comes up, but it:s in Kanji, and my host family is still asleep.  So, I don:t know if I:ll be able to respond or not, but I can read them, so please, keep :em coming!  It:s nice to hear from home!