Collecting the Pieces...

Last week we went back to Hayama beach near the Emperor's Summer Residence with our friends Kathleen, Sydney and Julia, and Marion and Nora.

It was a beautiful warm, breezy day to let the kids play in the sand and water--although no swimming yet, it wasn't that warm.

And although the kids like to collect things in their buckets--shells, sea glass, and broken worn blue and white pottery pieces that wash up on shore--I was on a mission to stock up on the latter to fill a decorative glass I have. Despite my best efforts, my glass is not quite full. Which is ironically how I sometimes feel about the things left to do and see in Japan--only I'm running out of time to fill it up.

So...maybe every day that counts down, I'll try a new approach: being thankful that my proverbial glass is overflowing. If I have been collecting the pieces of my life while in Japan, I'd hardly say they were "broken" beforehand. Although I am leaving Japan with a more complete family--in number and in experience.

Coincidentally, I've finally figured out when to use "arigato gozaimashita." (Past tense, or "thank you for what you have done for me!")