Before I went to Hoshinoya, I had a kind of slow weekend in Tokyo. I went up Friday night and stayed with some friends. They were going on vacation the next day, so I got a key to their really nice apartment. Saturday Tomo had to work, so after we met for lunch I went to Mito for the first time in a couple years. I wanted to see my friend Maeno-san and his wife and child. We had a good time catching up and playing with trains. It is really funny to see Haruto-chan and my niece. They are the same age (two weeks apart) and Haruto is all boy while my niece is all girl. Haruto likes trains, trains, cars, trains, and trains. His Japanese and mine are about the same level. It was funny to see him wearing a rocket t-shirt I had gotten him. I figure the t-shirt came out for my visit but when we were looking at pictures later there was another picture of him in the same t-shirt. Hey, when your dad does orbital mechanics you wear those things proudly. He was not shy at all and greeted me immediately with a “Konnichiwa Fish-san!” I mean he came running up to me to say that. As soon as he realized I was leaving at the train station he burst into tears. Awwww.

We had a good time as you can see below.