A day spent with Tim & Zach

As of last Monday, we're living in Yasugi, where Hitachi Metals has its largest factory. More on that in a future post. Today was our first Sunday (actually more like a Saturday since the "weekend" here is Sunday/Monday), so we hopped the train for Yonago and spent a kooky day with Tim & Zach Wiltshire, two buddies of mine from my days teaching English way back when. They're characters by any measure and not the sort you'd expect to come across in the middle of nowhere. We met them for lunch at my old favorite restaurant, Kashimir Darbar, where Hiroko-san still serves up delicious eats. Zach seems to have stepped out of a cartoon book and Tim holds his own. An old friend, Maki, joined us for lunch, too. After eating, we all piled into cars and headed for the local "studio," where we rented a room with a drum kit and made an enormous racket for a few hours. Tim & I used to play in a band, "Yobo-Yobo," and so I suppose this was a reunion of sorts. Rough around the edges but a blast just the same. There's now chatter about a party/gig at a gal named Miho's place in late June -- more on that if it ever materializes. After the musical freak-out, we picked up some beers and random snacks and trekked up the hill to the remains of the old Yonago castle to catch the sunset, and it was a stunner. You get a 360 degree view from up there and the sky tonight was crisp. As for the picture of Lori as a Japanese maiden, that's random waiting-for-the-train entertainment. As for the stuffed animals on the rattan chair, you would have to meet Tim & Zach to understand and I'm not sure any explanation I could offer would cut it. They have the most charming bunny rabbit, Nugget-Head (although they change its name daily), I've ever met; might have to get one of our own one day. It was a charmed day!