The Hales -- Paul, Kumiko, Leon and Emily

This week was the so-called “Silver Week”, a coincidental alignment of a few national holidays resulting in a 5-day weekend (too much to explain how or why).  The more well-known Golden Week in April-May is an every-year thing, but this year, we got another long holiday period and took the time to visit our friends, the Hales, who live in Nagaoka.

For us, it was just a day trip, but with highway tolls at a 1000 yen flat rate, that made the journey to Nagaoka quick and easy.  Once there, we went out to lunch with Paul, Kumiko, Leon and Emily, and spent the rest of the day talking about all kinds of things on our minds.  Paul managed to properly configure my phone’s Bluetooth to work with our minivan, and thanks to him I can finally drive the thing without worrying about a 20,000 yen fine if I am caught driving and talking on my phone.  Thanks, Paul!

Biggest surprise of the day:  Leon is huge.  Its as if someone took his body and stretched it out.  He is taller than me and taller than Paul.  There was a time when the order of height was Paul, me and Leon.  Now I am the shortest.  Sigh…