Going to meet more relatives

I should probably change that to “going to introduce Kaika to more relatives.” At any rate, Kaika, Naoko, her parents and I are heading out in about 6 hours (got to get to bed!) for a 2-day, 1-night stay in Hitachi, about three hours north of here in Ibaraki prefecture. Hitachi is where Naoko was born, and where my mother-in-law is from. The ostensible occasion of the visit is the 10-year anniversary of Naoko’s grandfather’s funeral (called houji in Japanese).

By all accounts Hitachi is not the most beautiful city in Japan, it being a port city and home to some 600 industrial companies, not to mention one of Japan’s largest copper mines. Nevertheless I’ve got the cameras in tow and we’ll see what comes of it. And of course I’m bringing the mobile phone, and plan on posting from the road on the progress of our trip/visit, so come back and check the “Wandering Muses” sidebar to the left to see how the trip is going.