EASTER IN JAPAN

 March 31, 2024    

Easter Sunday started very early. We heard a noise at 2:45 a.m. It took a minute to figure out it had come from our phones and another minute to get to them across the room. We finally realized the sound came from our Ring doorbell. Larry tried to use the talk feature, but it was already too late.

We looked at the video and realized it was our postal clerk delivering mail to our front door. She wore her rain outfit. (She had brought it to our door because it was raining pretty hard.)

Once we were awake, we had a hard time getting back to sleep. We were still overtired from the day before and excited about the afternoon.

We eventually got up, showered, and got ready.

Today was the reunion party for the USJ Construction Team. We’d have liked to have gone to our church in Kobe, but we didn’t have enough time before the party. We were excited to see everyone again.

We went to breakfast a little later than usual, and we took our time eating.

As we passed through the hotel lobby, we stopped by the minions to take pictures.

Then we returned to our room and repacked most of our stuff since we were leaving the next day. Our dirty clothes went into the checked bag, and the clean ones went into our carry-on bags. We had received quite a few gifts from friends, and they had to be fitted in.

Terri had asked us to bring copies of our book, 31 Months in Japan: The Building of a Theme Park, because some of the contractors wanted them. So, we put them in a bag along with the other items we needed to take with us to the banquet (omiage, etc,).

Then we headed to the hotel where the banquet would be held.

One of the first people I saw was Dote-san. We were really happy to see each other!

Dote-san and me

We spent quite a while catching up with friends.

Miho, Dote-san, Yuki, Lorna, Chie, Larry, Richard (Chie’s husband)

Hatanaka-san and Bob Murphy

Hunvey Chen, Christiane Sentianin, Tommy Garcia, Mark Adams

Noriko and Maki

USI Team: Back: Bob Murphy, Mark Adams, Larry Collins, Tommy Garcia, Setsuko
Front: Hunvey Chen, Terri Igarashi, Christiane Sentianin, Lorna, Tomoko, Chie

Opening the sake barrel: Ritzuko, Terri, Tomoko

These were the sake cups we were each given as mementos of the event.

Hunvey, Christiane, Tomoko, Terri

USI Team: Christiane, Mark Adams, Hunvey, Bob Murphy, Lorna, Larry, Yuki

Terri and Larry

We were served a terrific buffet meal with lots of choices to please everyone. Sake, beer, and other beverages were available. Non-alcoholic choices were also offered.

And there were games…

Lots of socializing.

Lorna, Chie, Christiane, Larry

While we were all there, we took a “class photo” of everyone.

What a great event! And we sold six books. We could have sold more if we’d had them.

We received a wonderful gift. Yuko Yamashita, the wife of one of the contractor employees, gave us a CD with our book, 31 Months in Japan: The Building of a Theme Park, translated into Japanese! I have always wanted to have it available in that language so all our friends could read it. Now I have to figure out how to format it.