Well it is 1:30 in the afternoon on another beautiful sunny day here in Japan. CJ was luckily able to sleep in till 8:30 am but I was once again up too early and on this computer at 6:30am. We have been working together all morning here in our upstairs office. CJ is catching up on work expense reports and moving information and I am trying to keep these very looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong
blog post stories up to date. Sorry I am using this as my own journal as well, and so I apologize once again, if I get too carried away. Read what you will and ignore the rest. :-) Or just take a look at the photos to see what we have been up to.
We are gonna take a break here for lunch soon and then we will be off to witness the hoards of people that supposedly gather to take in the BIG display of the rockets red glaring and the bombs bursting in the air and night sky over Yokohama Harbor. This 149th Anniversary celebration is for Kaikoukinen Minato Festival when Japan first opened its doors and ports to International trade and foreign ships back on May 2,1859.
More tommorrow....
written Monday 7 21 08 6:07 pm
We had a fun night last night walking down along the harbor area and watching the mass of people many walking around in their bright and colorful yakuta robes and geta wood clogs. It was interesting to see the whole different gait the women had as they shuffled along in their A line fitted robes. Many men had robes on as well, or the short PJ outfits like I bought for CJ and I. We should probably have worn ours down there too. When we first got down to the working pier people were arriving early and marking off their territory with plastic sheets. Quite a few families and groups of friends were already there many having picnics, playing card games, mahjong, hand held computer games, reading Manga comic books. Some men and women alike were tucked under umbrellas, towels, and/or tents to shield themselves from the afternoon setting sunshine...It was quite amazing to watch the order and respectful flow of movement, by that many people in one small area. Controlled chaos as CJ likes to call it!
We were going to sit down, but then thought it more fun to walk and people watch as this is the thing I was hoping to see when I came here to Japan. People in their traditional garb. YEAH !!! It was a rainbow of color, patterns, flowers...FUN!
When we got over to the warehouse district where I bought my bike yesterday, we sat down in the road and about an hour later it was covered with 1,000's of people. Of course, when the first fireworks went up our view was blocked by a tree :-( and so we watched a few more and then decided to walk back home and view it from our upstairs office window. When Tad and CJ brought the desk here, Tad looked out the window and said "you will have a perfect view of the fireworks from here" and so we thought what the heck we might as well go back and avoid the crush of people when it was all over. We peeked under trees to see the 6,000 piece light show as we quickly zig zagged our way through the massive crowds lined up in streets, parks, on staircases in front of buildings...there were like we read...people everywhere. Unbelievable!!! I am glad we missed the whole chaos of departing and we did have quite the view of the fireworks. As you can see form the photo, if that one high rise building was not in the way it would have been a perfect full on view. We know now, where we will watch them from next year, when they have the VERY BIG 150th anniversary celebration.
CJ and I then ate a very late light supper, showered, downloaded and looked at our photos/video of the light display we just witnessed. As we were viewing the shots,our phone rang and it was CJ's brother Brett and wife Dina calling to tell us their dad Harley John Harriman had passed away this morning July 20, 2008 at 7:50 am (which was actually 11:47pm here-now that will really confuse one, hey ?). Thankfully his wife of almost 53 years, Jeanie, was there with him and lovingly held Harley in her arms, stroking his head as he loved her to do, while gazing into each others eyes when he took his last breath and left this physical world and all the pain and suffering behind. Peace he had at last. Of course we are all saddened by this great loss and the finality, but also a bit relieved that he no longer has to suffer. Harley had been fighting Parkinson's for the past 10 years or so and had a fall in late June 2008 which left him with some disc problems and virtually bed ridden this last month. He literally wasted away in weeks when he could not move about nor eat due to sores he devleoped in his mouth.:-(
We called CJ's mom who was waiting for hospice and the coroner to come to the nursing home and chatted with her just a few minutes and sent our love and support her way and let her get back to be with Harley for those last precious moments they would have together.
We then called our kids and CJ's aunt Sharryl in CA, which is Harley's only surviving biological family member and had a nice visit with her. She is all alone and so it was good for her to visit with us a bit about daily life, Japan and plane arrangements....
CJ then checked out plane flights for us as well, and we will be back in MN and WI for a week Thursday July 24-31st. CJ will do some work for a few days in MPLS the following week after the wake on Friday eve from 7-9pm and the memorial service at Chetek Lutheran Church on Saturday July 26th at 10 am. Harley will be cremated and buried in the Lakeview Cemetary in Chetek, WI.
It was a very surreal ending to a long day for us. CJ and I knew this day was coming soon and we had been talking about Harley alot earlier this afternoon while working in the office and what we would do when the call came, etc... When going through papers CJ came across a copy of a photo Graham had taken of his pops Harley at CJ's sister Mary Ann and Mike's wedding 3 years ago and he taped it to the window sill on his side of the desk. That prompted us to talk more about him and his life...Then about 10 hours later we got the call. So we like to feel like we were kind of with him for his last night which was day here.(confusing I know) I too, like to think he went out with a BIG bang as we got the call only a short while after the one and 1/2 hour fireworks show ended here in Japan. It was interesting to me how he drove truck cross country for years and perhaps hauled and delivered many things some of which may have been exported from here at the harbor gates in Yokohama.
We were then off to bed, with prayers, some tears and gratefulness for family and friends to support us and hopefully some sleep as well.
Rest in Peace Pops we will miss you
KJ and Charlie
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment