Living vicariously

As mentioned yesterday, Takumi is off traveling around northern Japan this week. Sunday we got together with Tetsu's mother for lunch and Monday he left with his skateboard to explore his roots. (Tetsu's hometown is in northern Japan and Takumi was born there too.) I don't know when he'll be back but thanks to cell phones I don't worry too much since I know we can get in touch with him if we need to.

Ah, to be young... Last week, Takumi spent a couple interesting days with his friends from jr. high school days and in the evenings he would share his adventures with me. He had some great pictures but I forgot to have him download any of them into my computer. One day he went paragliding! There is a paragliding take off area not far from us and for a minimum fee one can get flying instructions in the morning and then take off and fly in the afternoon! I was suprised since I thought more hours of instruction would be required but Takumi came home with pictures of his flight! Not only pictures, smart boy hung his camera around his neck, pushed the video button and then soared into the air! What fun for me who will probably never do any paragliding! True, half-way through the flight his camera flipped over and we could only see his shirt, but there were 9 minutes of conversation (by wireless) of Takumi and his instructor (on the ground) while Takumi glided over the hills and I did get to see the take-off and landing!

Another day, Takumi and friends took off in the middle of the night and climbed a very tall mountain near us (nearly falling off the cliffs in the process) in time to see the sun rise from the mountain top. I doubt I'll ever make that climb either so it was interesting to see that there is a Japanese sword stuck in a rock on the top of the mountain (King Arthur?) Sorry, no pictures of that today either.

In the past three days, Takumi has met up with MY old friends in the city that he was born in. He was trying to find the apartment that we lived in until he was three.

"Find the main street behind the station and if you walk long enough there should be a camera store. The owners were always very nice to me and the husband liked to carry you around on his shoulders. They should remember me (the foreigner) even though they won't have any idea who you are."

Sure enough, Takumi found the store, introduced himself and it sounds like they had a fun reunion. I had a chance to talk with the wife briefly for the first time in 20 years on Takumi's cell phone!

And last night we had a very large earthquake in Japan (I slept through it) and when I woke up this morning all the news on TV is about the earthquake damage in NORTHERN JAPAN! I am concerned about all the people up there, but I did want to know where my son was since he was headed in that direction last I'd talked to him. Gave him a call on his cell phone this morning before 7:00 and he sleepily answered and said that yes, he had been at the heart of the earthquake and yes, he was fine and was camping out at a friend's house. I let him go back to sleep. I'll hear details later. Another page in Takumi's Japanese travels chapter. I think he's stranded there now as according to the news the trains aren't going to be running for awhile. I wonder how far he can get on that skateboard.

Children sure give their parents an interesting viewpoint on life!