Sayonara

But I don't often hear the Japanese say that. I hear 'bye bye.'

Kind of a sad day today.

Through the blur of flowing tears, I watched my brother Kevin pedal off on his loaded bike, heading west along the Tamagawa river.... beginning his very long and hopefully not too dangerous 1 1/2 year journey across Asia.

We had a great 2 week+ visit with him and he actually managed to get a couple crash courses in Japanese from friends, in addition to.. Ira. hmm. It's amazing with the little that he has, all the planning that goes into the trip. Here he is testing and re-testing his tiny gas stove.



That look in his eyes means there is some 'hot dog soup' in his near future.


Ever get the feeling you are being watched by a strange foreigner?




My nephew David and his wife Kirsten are also visiting from Duluth MN for 1 week. They seem to be enjoying all the wackiness of the country and Dave has quickly picked up on the mind boggling train system here. It took me months.










My brother Steve, his wife Judy and son Karl will be here on Friday. Let's see if Stevie is as quick with the trains. "Here is a map, some yen, now GO!"

So here is Kevie, all ready to go. He should be in China after catching the ferry boat in 2-3 weeks I guess.

And finally, I loaded a video clip of him biking out of our neighborhood. Hope you can watch it.





All for now. More updates soon!