Dinner with Kaneda-sensei and family...

Tonight, Kaneda-sensei invited us to dinner with his family; his wife, two daughters, and his grandson. We went to a sushi restaurant and had a lot of very good food. My highlight of the evening (besides talking with his daughters who spoke great English) was the grandson... he will be 2 in February, and he was hilarious! He was very curious and always running around, dancing, talking, or getting into something. I feel for his mom- his dad is a surgeon and is traveling right now, so she is alone with the little guy. It is definitely a full time job! He is adorable, and very entertaining! I believe I scared the crap out of him, though. We were sitting at the dinner table when the rest of the family arrived, and he was the first one in the door. When I waved at him, he freaked out and started walking backwards away from me as fast as his little legs could take him! I doubt he's seen many people as pale as I am before. :) Throughout the night, he got up the courage to come to my side of the table and hand me various things. He was still pretty shy, though, but I bet if we had more time together, he would start getting used to me. I think he could probably teach me Japanese- he definitely knows more than I do! He enjoyed the game where he would pick up random things off of the table and throw them. He started playing with Dr. Kaneda and was laughing this big belly laugh that had me rolling for awhile... I don't remember hearing a little kid laugh so hard! He also cracked me up when he took one of the wooden serving dishes from the table and threw it, but he accidentally threw it up in the air and it came down and bumped him on the head. He immediately started walking backwards (I think it startled him) and he fell on his butt! Luckily he didn't start crying. He had Kaneda-sensei and I cracking up. My favorite thing was at the end of the evening- when we were saying goodbye, he bowed! That was probably one of the cutest things I have seen a little kid do here. He ran around quite a bit, so I think he won't have much trouble sleeping tonight. (I hope not, for his mom's sake!) I realize how much I miss working with kids, but it also reminds me why I want to wait a few more years before we think about having any. :)
I guess that's about it for the day. Other than that, I have been working, and knitting quite a bit. I have several scarves that I would like to make before I leave so I can give them as gifts. I have gotten over half-way on one in the last 2 days, so I think that in my 49 remaining days in Japan, I can probably find time to finish all of my projects. My work will start picking up soon, too, so hopefully I'll be able to get everything done and still enjoy Japan as much as possible. Casey and I are planning to go to the zoo on Sunday, which should be fun. More pictures to come, of course. :)

-Ash