Japanese service

I know a lot of people have very mixed experiences in Japan in terms of service, but for the most part I would say that the service I usually receive around here is one of the reasons I am still living here!  

I had another great service experience the other day when I went to buy a name stamp.  They didn't have our surname on the big rack of stamps, so they apologised profusely and said that if I could wait for 5 minutes they could make me one.  No problem I said and asked for them to make me two... you can never have enough name stamps in Japan.  I was shown to a table in the nice cool room with a nice cool drink and a Japanese snack while I waited.  I think it took 6 minutes in the end so there was more bowing and apologising before I went to pay.  The cost of my purchases.... a grand total of 100 yen.  50 yen per stamp....  I'm guessing the drink and snack came to close to that!  Of course when I went to leave the door was opened for me and the two women continued bowing until I was safely onto the road.  Gotta love Japanese service!

Back again... for now!

The 49 days of "mourning" are over and my father-in-law's house is finally getting tidy.  Life is slowly getting into a routine without Bachan so I hope I will be able to do a huge catch up over the next few weeks.  Firstly... a plea to everyone reading this... clean out your clothing drawers etc. at least every second year or so and throw anything out you don't need so that your poor daughter-in-law doesn't have to spend hours cleaning everything out in 35 degree heat if you are unfortunate enough to not live quite as long as you had planned.  Plea over!

This post is really for my family, but of course anyone else who is interested is more than welcome to click on the following videos.  My son has been doing really well at athletics recently.  He has been selected in a regional training squad and as a result we have been making the hour and a bit drive to Oita twice a week so he can do some extra training.  It causes lots of logistical problems, but somehow we are managing it.  I would have to say that he is absolutely loving it... training with children who really want to do well rather than children who have been dropped off and are using the training session as a baby-sitting session. 

On Sunday there was an athletics meet where the representatives for the prefecture at the All Japan Athletics competition were decided.  He had to get first in the 5th grade race to go and... he managed it no problem!  In fact if he had produced the same time in the final of the All Japan Athletics competition last year he would have been third.... not too bad for a country boy!  His time was a meet record - 13.4 seconds for 100m.  He now has until August 23rd to get even a little faster to ensure a place in the finals..  Yokohama here we come!  

Enough bragging.... enjoy the wobbly videos and I promise I will be back soon with more updates of other happenings around here.  I hope you haven't all given up on me......