The Cycle of Life

For the last few months Yukiko & I have been celebrating the births of our siblings' babies. Yesterday, however, we were saddened to hear the news that Yukiko's grandfather had passed away. I'd only met him a few times but according to Yukiko he'd had quite a life. He was an avid outdoorsman, mountain climber, cycler and gardener. He'd been suffering from Alzheimers for the last few years though and had deteriorated quite a bit. Yukiko visited him in the hospital last week and said he looked very thin. He could no longer recognize his children. Yukiko's family had been expecting this for a while and are probably somewhat relieved because even breathing had become difficult for him lately. Yukiko is taking the next couple of days off from work to be with her family and to attend his cremation on Tuesday. I'm not going to the ceremony but I will be staying at Yukiko's uncle's house to babysit their dog Rin.

On Saturday I met up with 2 other students in my upcoming Linguistics program. It's quite bizarre that within this international program 2 other students live not 10 minutes away from me. Linda is from England and Brent is from Australia. We had a few beers and some food at a local Japan izakaya (pub) and chatted about lots of different things. Interestingly enough they both practice martial arts here. Brent is a member of a shootfighting gym in Kobe called Purebred that is pretty famous. Maybe I'll get to spar with him someday.