B Is Back from Japan!

B got in from Tokyo late last night (at about 2 am). I was very happy to see him: I missed him and was also a little bit tired of taking care of little R without any breaks for 4 days straight, especially while trying to unpack and organize all our worldly possessions. He had a fairly good time at the conference, and was reminded anew of how much he likes Japan. I hope that we can visit again soon on a family vacation: R will be too small to care for quite some time yet, but I would love to see the Japanese alps, Nara and Kyoto again, and stay again in a traditional ryokan. And there are many attractions that we didn't have time for before, including Hiroshima and the Itsukushima shrine.

B returned home bearing gifts. I got several pairs of tabi (split toe) socks featuring rabbits and shochu (sweet potato) liquor housed in a statue of a tanuki (magical raccoon dog animal known for drunkenness), and little R got a summer yukata. She looks adorable in it, and now I have another reason to visit Japan: to buy her a new wardrobe!