Book Launch

I had a very interesting Sunday afternoon at the launch of the International Society's book, "Folk Stories of Iwate Town". It is a nice bilingual book with lots of beautiful colour photos of the area and some local legends which have been translated into some really interesting English, such as "cigarette fields". The doctor who I did homestay with when I first arrived is the president of the International Society, so he invited me along. On the phone he described it as "little get together", so you can imagine my surprise when I turned up to find 200 people in their best bib and tucker and an entry fee of 3000yen. You could have knocked me over with a feather. So I quickly sat in the corner table with the rest of the foreigners and tried to look as if I was in my best suit, even though I was wearing the clothes that had been left on the floor since Friday night. So there were lots of speeches, but the food was good, and I got to see one of those huge vats of sake being opened for the first time. I also got to talk to Kate who for some reason or other I haven't had a change to see much since I arrived two and a half years ago. After a good natter we agreed we really should get together more often.