Day 13 in Japan

Patty with one of her three cakes. This one was chocolate and it was pretty tasty.

Here I am with cousin Izumi. She's going to be 50.

Here are Auntie Keiko, Mommy and Uncle Hide.

MONDAY, JUNE 2

It was one of those rare days where Ken-chan didn't have anything planned for us.

In the morning, Auntie Keiko came to get us so we could go to lunch.

We went the the big shopping center of downtown Kashiwa.

In one multiple level tall, we picked a buffet. The food was very good. The best may have been the tofu.  The restaurant made it and fresh tofu so sooo good.

That night, we had a surprise birthday party for Patty. Actually, her birthday is June 3, but since we were going to Kyoto, we decided to have the party a day earlier.

Our Uncle Hide came to my mother's surprise and delight. He was recently left a widower and apparently had been depressed. My mother is the youngest child in her family and Uncle Hide is the youngest of her five brothers. He's two years older, which makes him 81.

Uncle Hide was a butcher and still has some connections. For dinner, he brought a huge amount of beef. All of it was sliced paper thin. Noriko brought a lot of pork that was similarly cut.

We just didn't have the pots and pans necessary for shabu-shabu, so we just fried it. For shabu-shabu, you get a boiling pot of water and then dip the thinly sliced meat in the water, cooking it instantly.

Frying the meat cooked it very quickly. And the meat is so fatty that it just melted in your mouth.

Fred was in meat-lover's heaven!

It was a fabulous meal with everyone talking and laughing and eating.

And Uncle Hide had a great time, possibly for the first time in a long time. His daughter, Izumi, had recently quit her job to take care of him. And she's obviously doing a great job looking after him.

I have to say that Izumi is a nut! She's an outdoors girl. She loves the beach and surfing, so she's very, very tanned. But her skin is good for someone who loves the sun as much as she does. And she's almost 50.

I think our family has good genes.

It was another great evening with our relatives.