Magomusume (Grand daughter)

Hadley Jan born 7 March 2008, 6.94lbs and 20 inches.
Our first grandchild at 1 day old

They are building some apartments behind us. Before they start the actual construction, they had a Shinto blessing for the construction. First the Shinto priest did a ceremony in the tent and then he went to each corner and performed a special little ceremony (throwing salt to purify the ground, etc).

Trip to Saitama

Saturday I went on a small sightseeing trip with the Masudas to Saitama prefecture. We went to Oshi-jo, a castle in Gyoda formerly known as the floating castle. It got the name because after an attack in 1590 in which water was diverted to flood the castle, it still stood and was said to be floating above the water. After the castle visit we went to a very nice onsen in Gyoda. We tried all the different baths from hot to cold, although I only stayed a few seconds in the cold ones (1 was 16.8C, about 62F).