The next night he called me from the airport, then showed up an hour or so later on the bus, dropped so conveniently at the station only minutes from my apartment. Hawaii is 19 hours behind Japan, or 5 hours ahead and a day behind; whichever is easier for you to get your head around. In either case, he was tired as it was about 1 AM Hawaii time, so he went to bed early, though of course he'd be up early.
The next day was the opening ceremony for the new semester at my school, so I had don my black suit and off we went. My dad tried to catch some Z's while I was attending the ceremony. The only interesting thing at the ceremony was the performance by the university cheerleader squad, which, aside from the language, could have been imported directly from some Asian-dominated town in the US, so perfectly did they smile and cheer and give that all-too-familiar "cheerleader nod." You know the one.
That evening we met up with my friend Yuka and the three of us hit a great udon shop in Umeda, quite famous (if getting into the Lonely Planet Eating section counts as fame). After a tasty dinner, we headed over to Osaka Castle for some nighttime viewing of the cherry blossoms, which were just hitting their peak. Amazingly beautiful. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera, and though I used Yuka's, I couldn't get all that I wanted...but there's always next year. We walked a lot that night, exhausting my dad completely, although he never complained at all. Saturday was a take-it-easy day, so went to Costco for lunch, dropped by two hardware stores, then home. Easy-peasy.
Sunday we headed to Okayama, to Shiraishi Island for a little quiet relaxation time. We took the Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Okayama City, 45 minutes, a local train to Kasaoka, another 45 minutes, then a ferry, 30 minutes.
We checked into the Villa and found that there was a Danish girl, Marie, staying there as well, just the three of us. We got tipped off that the next day might be rainy, so we headed out immediately to check out the beach (so-so, but then I'm a harsh judge, coming from Hawaii and all) and hike up the mountain to the observatory. The weather was perfect that day, with a strong wind and lots of sun. The following day it did rain, and rain, and rain, but let up enough in the afternoon that we walked down to the beach with Marie to check out the low tide. In Hawaii, the high and low tides are not so drastic, but farther from the equator, a drop of several feet is normal, so we got to see a lot more of the beach than we had earlier. Some kids were digging out some kind of shellfish, but what exactly they were, I don't know. Long and skinny and cylindrical like a cigar. Our last morning there, we took out some bikes and rode around the island. Aside from one rather long and steep hill we had to push the bikes up, it was a pleasant ride. The next day, Wednesday, was my last free day. We took in a bike ride in Ibaraki, going first to a great sushi place (of the conveyor belt type) and then the Expo Park, or Banpaku, which I've written about before. We caught what was probably the last day of the Sakura Matsuri, or Cherry Blossom Festival, and enjoyed walking the grounds and taking in the beauty of the trees and their fragile flowers.
Then school started. Luckily I only had one class first thing in the morning, but other work required that I stay on longer, so I didn't get home until after lunch. That first class was great. 7 students, mostly higher ability levels. Unfortunately, it was downhill from there. Friday brought me back to reality. My first class was a TOEIC prep class; that's a test designed to see how well people can use English in an international setting, for work and such. I had over 45 students. It's since been trimmed to about 32, but it's still a big class. My other class was noisy...very noisy. They are all freshmen and obviously still don't realize that they are in college now...I'm going to have to teach them. SIGH.
My dad and I had lunch on Friday, then said our goodbyes, as I was leaving directly from school for my friend Kurara's place in the countryside for her wedding, and my dad was leaving that evening for Hawaii. He got out on his flight just fine. I had by this time started to feel a bit under the weather, a bit of sore throat coming on. But I was the wedding photographer, so I had no excuses, just had to push through.
The Shimizu house, which was always full of life, hit new highs this weekend. Daniel had five relatives in for the wedding--his grandmother, mother, aunt, uncle, and his uncle's fiance--not to mention Kurara's brother and two sisters, brother-in-law, two nieces, two friends from Canada, and me. And her parents. FULL HOUSE. But in a good way. Spanish, English, and Japanese...and that may have been the only time I have ever been called on to be a translator...what a poor job I did at that!
The wedding was at 1 PM on Saturday, so that morning I was up and shooting whatever preparations I could: Kurara's make-up, Daniel looking for something, Kurara's mom putting on her kimono, etc. We hurried off, went to the chapel place, and I got set up: one camera with a flash on a tripod, another held in my hands for close-ups. The service was bilingual, with a priest from the Congo (yes, in Africa) presiding, speaking both English and Japanese (the guy speaks 7 languages). It was nice, though with my duty as cameraman, I didn't get to listen as much as I wanted.
The picture session afterwards was a flurry of confusion, with most of the set shots we wanted to do tossed out because of how late everything was running. But we mangaed to get in some lovely shots in any case, but after what felt like only a few minutes (but was probably more like 30) we moved on to the reception. There was a nice buffet set out, a lovely cake made by Kurara's younger sister, and even a short song and dance later on. 
I had the good fortune (actually Kurara's good planning) to get seated with six of my former students, all classmates of Kurara. It was so nice to see them again, grown and mature, one of them married and pregnant, others working, one still studying in a master's program. It was really nice to see them after so long.
Although I was busy shooting pictures all day and so didn't get to enjoy the wedding as much as I would have liked, I felt good knowing that I was doing it as a gift, giving them something I hope would be good, something I hope will stay with them throughout their lives together.
Now it's back to reality. That cold that I felt coming on the day I left for the wedding went full-blown, into my chest, so that I now have a sore throat and a gross cough. YUCK. I hope to kick it by the weekend, but two days of rest have only helped a little...got some meds from the doctor today, but no antibiotics (dammit!), so I'll have to wait for my body to beat the cold on its own.
I hope all of you are well. Aloha.
PS: To steal from the Daily Show: Here is your moment of Zen:
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