Good News

And the Wheels of Time turning in reverse.

The first “good news” is really just “not as bad as I thought but still not rosey news”.   As we happened to be near a electronics/home appliance store I suggested we look a dish washers in the hopes that either a new model I had not yet seen that was not as bad as those I had found earlier or for some other reason there was one that was comparable to our old dish washer might be available.   We found only two models, both by the same maker.  After searching we found what we were most interested in knowing; 80 minutes wash time.  We took a catalog and I wrote down the prices.  Perusing this during dinner, my wife comes to believe that the 80 minutes includes drying time.  If so, this is the same time as our old one.  I remain suspicious as in my mind washing time should be among the easiest things to find and it should be clearly stated.  Reading further, she finds that it takes 20 minutes to wash and 25 to rinse.  The remaining time is drying.  Our current washer finished washing and rinsing in 20 minutes, so the newest and greatest takes over two times longer to complete the basic function of our 14 year old dishwasher.  Yeah, progress.  But, this is far less time than I recalled.  35 minutes to dry.  While the washing function is no more, our old washer still works as a dish drier.  It has settings of 15, 30 and 60 minutes for drying.  We use 60 the most so the 80 minutes start to finish is the same, if the new one can dry as well in a little more than half the time.

But then there is the price.  Our current washer cost 30,000 yen 14 years ago.  The older of the two models we saw has a 80,000 price tag, the newer over 90,000 yen.  Yai yai yai.  Then my wife reminded me that our current one was a bargain when we bought it.  The maker did not sell at stores, only online and thus had a price far below all competitors.  Additionally, looking at information found online, the new ones we looked at hold more dishes.  The cabinet for them is certainly bigger than our old washer.  Overall, not as bad as I thought but still not what one would hope for with 14 years worth of technological advances.

I take care of the dishes and have since we married.  She cooks, I wash.  Until she went for her master’s degree, I washed by hand.  It was really a gift from my wife to make it easier as I too was busy working but she cold not do as much around the house.  I will, hopefully, have a few busy days a week once classes begin fully, but not as busy as before.  Do we need to spend a minimum of 80,000 on a dish washer?  If I were earning what I was prepanic, we would have replaced it already.  But I am not.  We’ll see.

Despite National Geographic claiming that the cherry blossoms are blooming earlier than before in Japan, few were opened Sunday for our Hanami parties.  The matsuri group originally planned on having ours on the 23rd but it was too cold and none of the buds had blossomed.  So the date was changed to the 31st.  Sadly, the oldest kid is on Spring vacation schedule at the cram school and had classes from 10am until 3:50pm.  So we could not go.  However, another part of our city has a huge hanami festival and we have gone to it each year they have held it.  It finished at 6 pm Sunday.  The plan was to pick up the 10 year old and run on over to enjoy some craft beer and for the kids whatever drinks suited them and then for some great matsuri food.  However, we had to pass by the shrine where matsuri group was holding their hanami.  So we left a little early so we could stop by and say “Hi”.  In less than 20 minutes they had a glass of wine, a glass of home made Umeshu and two cans of beer in me.  Something that I was wanting to report earlier but could not tie it in to anything until now is that the member who told me I must mask at our friend’s wake said nothing to me about the incident at the meeting we had between the wake and the hanami.  In fact, we sat next to each other and were yuking it up as usual.  Same with Sunday.  That is good news.

We got to the cram school just as they were letting out but due to the number of kids and only one elevator we had to wait longer than expected.  We still got to the festival in time but just.  They were playing the closing music near the station where the craft beer booth was.  Wife choose and excellent ale and I a wonderful Imperial Stout.  We then made a bee line for the bakery that had excellent seafood soup, chashu (braised pork belly) and bacon sold in stalls in their parking lot last year.  Sadly, the soup was not offered this year.  Last year too, we arrived at this area late and we were able to enjoy multiple bowls of this awesome soup at continually cheaper prices as few were buying it.  This year they ran out of the chashu as I waited in line but the bacon, almost a foot long, an a centimeter thick was out of this world.  They had sausage on the bone too.  Um um good!   We were the last group to leave as they were taking everything down and the sausage vendor came over and gave it us 6 more sausages for free.

This was the warmest cherry blossom festival in many years for me.  Despite this fact, it was the one with the fewest cherry blossoms as so very few had opened yet.  It was a great time, great beer and great food and great weather.  But the best part was despite getting there late on the last day and fighting against the crowds who were leaving, it was PACKED.  No unsocial distancing was even considered and few wearing masks.  The amount of masked folk seemed to me to be what we would expect for hay fever only before the panic.

Perhaps it is my love of history, reenacting and collecting old photographs (Have you ever held a real daguerreotype? They are like a hologram!  And they are around 140 to 180 years old!), whatever the reason, there are situations where I feel transported back in time.  Not just back to a time I’m my own past, mind you; but often to a pst that I have not experienced yet I feel I have been there. There are those who can explain this better than I but I have yet to read any who have captured the essence of this feeling; like seeing ghosts of those who passed before your grandparents were born yet knowing them intimately and yourself being a ghost simultaneously amongst those you have known in previous lifetimes while haunting the present.  I felt thus as we enjoyed our drinks and food under the unopened cherry blossoms on Sunday.