As I mentioned in the last post, Sachi and I used the Vernal Equinox to make a day trip back to her hometown in Nagano. Despite being in the way-out inaka, the Shinkansen (bullet train) stops relatively nearby, just a half-hour drive from her brother’s house. So we took the express train to Omiya just north of Tokyo, and switched to the Shinkansen there; Sachi’s stop is just one after Karuizawa, a popular Nagano resort town. Despite it being the first day of Spring, it was snowing in Karuizawa, which kind of surprised us even though it was cold and rainy elsewhere. It was snowing only a little less in the highlands of her parent’s home where the grave site is.

After the ohaka-mairi visit, we went back to Sachi’s brother’s place for some food and drink and company before heading back. Hard to ignore was the family dog, Ryu. A cute dog, except that he’s so damned ugly. He’s a seven-year-old dog but looks fifteen. The poor little guy has allergies all the way to Hades and back; he’s a mass of red rashes which cover the exposed skin of his belly, around his eyes, and often right through his fur. He is constantly scratching himself, and spent half the time we were there barfing on a cushion. I just had to take some photos of him. He had no problem with that, but did not seem to like the results–when I showed the picture of him to the canine directly, he peered at the camera through red, squinty eyes, and then started growling deep and low. He showed the same reaction only when the camera’s display, with his image on it, was turned toward him.