kyoto

This year, the Golden Week's holidays were kind of spread out, so that if you took vacation, you could have 11 days off from work. Since Satoshi had to work on Monday, Children's Day a.k.a. Boy's Day, we went to visit Satoshi's mom on the weekend. From Osaka, it takes about an hour and a half to get to his mom's by train. (If we leave the house by 8:00, we can usually get there by 10:00 or so. )

Saturday was spent just sitting around and dozing off here and there. In the late afternoon, his mom had made an appointment with the funeral home. The guy that was in charge of my father-in-law's funeral and wake is so patient. Even though everything is over with, he still comes to check on my mother-in-law and is there to answer any questions regarding memorial services, customs or just to "talk story" (chat).

Sunday we went to the Botanical Garden. This is about a 15 minute walk from his mom's. Sunday was so hot, no one would have thought it was Spring as the sun was blazing down.

There were lots of people there, especially people sketching or painting. Many of them had umbrellas to shade themselves from the blazing sun.

Others brought their own lunches and were in the shade, eating and chatting.

There was a tree that we checked out, the flower is big and white, since it looks like a handkerchief, that is what it is called--handkerchief tree.

Also at the botanical garden was an exhibit with these miniature orchids. They are only the size of a fingernail!

After walking for about an hour, we decided to eat lunch.

We popped in to Hasegawa, this place has been around since Satoshi was a kid. He said that they are known for hamburgers. And if you look at their sign...that's what it said.

Hamburgers aren't presented how Americans picture them to be, they usually come on a platter, sometimes they come out sizzling. This is usual yoshoku (western) fare. There is the hamburger with sauce (this one was tomato), a fried shrimp, tartar sauce, some greens, Japanese-style potato salad and ketchup laden spaghetti noodles. They also serve you rice on a plate. Very filling!

The decor was really retro!

We had a nice two days with Satoshi's mom. I think she was a bit sad to see us go.

This coming Sunday is the 49-day service, so we'll be heading to Kyoto once again.

Hope you have a great week! We still have 2 more days of Golden Week to go.