Daddies lil' girl

I was working late on Friday so Hiro went to get Father from the airport but it was great to rush home and meet him. He is very reserved and as long as we are not in public he allows me to give him a hug and I try not to wrinkle his suit. He is also very cautious about offering unnecessary comments or compliments but he did say to Hiro and me that he was proud of us. I looked at him and he sat there shaking his head. He said "The Earth is falling apart, bribery and corruption is everywhere and children no longer obey their parents, the end must soon be upon us."

I looked at Hiro and he looked at me, I didn't know what to say, this was very unlike Father. I offered that perhaps every generation had said the same thing? I had the uncomfortable feeling that somehow I had disappointed him but he looked at me and laughed heartily. It's not often I see him laugh either so this was very unfamiliar and I could see how unsure Hiro was too. My turn to laugh when he said he had actually quoted from a 5000 years old stone tablet from ancient Assyria and that perhaps what I had suggested my be true. He then opened up and told us some tales of himself as a boy and with his Father and how Grandfather had perhaps said the same. I love the moments he tells us of his stories but I am reminded of how teens act today and wonder, is it really the end of the world this time?
I'm sure not and as the years pass, they'll grow to complain about those as yet unborn.

Father had two reasons to visit us above just family visit. Firstly he is going to sign over ownership of the building to Hiro. This will be a lengthy process with the lawyers and the city authority. He has letters drawn up to inform the people who rent space on the ground floor that no change to contracts is proposed, just ownership. Secondly he had a business meeting in Kobe and asked me to attend.
Jazz faints!

Father is a very traditional man and while he has been the one to give me my roots with a loving and wonderful home. Because I'm a girl he was reluctant to give me wings to fly and practice all the lessons that he taught me. I fondly remember my first horse riding lessons, my first bicycle, my first shoes with heels and how he looked on with reluctance when these things became mine. I better not mention his look with my first sweetheart! He gladly took my brothers fishing but he never took me shopping and I will never say that was wrong of him because above else he loves me and protects me and gave me everything that I needed, if not what I wanted. He is a good man and he is my Father and I wouldn't change a thing about him if I could because despite his conservative reservation and public aloofness, one of life's little mysteries is that very often he pretended not to give me things but he made certain that things happened or a chain of events started to ensure that I eventually had what I wanted and suddenly while I think of this, perhaps the little tactics momma taught me to get things from him were not tactics at all, but just a test to see how much I wanted those things?
I'll think about that for a while.
But Father helped in so many ways and even ones I'm not supposed to know about. His blood is in my veins and I am not the blind daughter, I am just the one who silently observes and is silently and openly thankful for the things he gives to me without needing credit or thanks. He is the one to race with me but not so fast and allows me to win. He also picks me up if I fall down.

So while it was true that he had a meeting in Kobe with an American company and his English speaking is limited, it is also true that he has his own company interpreters and he wouldn't need me in that capacity.
But I won't ask him his reason why I was given this chance to attend the meeting. I like to think he wanted to spend some time with me and for that reason alone I gladly accompanied him and of course, I shall pretend that Father wouldn't know that Hitomi was in Kobe. I excitedly phoned her Sunday night to let her know I was coming.

Monday afternoon I sat in his meeting and verified anything my father was unsure of during the exchange of proposals and offers and counter offers. I was also the one to pour tea so dear Jazz was not so high powered as you may imagine. In the evening we shared dinner in our hotel and he shared with me many more things. So much so that I worried and when he saw that concern across my features he reached across the table and held my hand and told me that it was not a goodbye or a closure of any kind, he was simply letting me know that despite all that he has done for my brothers I am not left out. Silly me spoiled it all then by crying in public and he sent me to the bathroom to clean up. But when I returned I told him he has already given me so much that I need nothing more. Then I got the lecture about the difference between gifts and parental responsibilities and expectations.
After that I decided that my Father is one of the greatest gifts in my life.

On Tuesday morning he left in our car and I stayed behind and met Hitomi at Sannomiya Station. She was working last night and will be tonight again but the day was free. We offered special prayers and thanks at Ikuta Jinja shrine and then spent our morning out on Rokku island at the fashion museum and then had late lunch in harborland. It was lovely to share time together again and she was pleased about the decisions I have made about certain things. I'm happy when she's happy.


Hitomi has two more days here before her final dates in Okazaki and Fujinomiya and then home on the eighteenth. I have had the perfect few days with two of the most precious people in my life and it's for these things that I am truly thankful. I think I fool myself sometimes when I think that my father doesn't know my heart. I remember once when I was small and I felt rejected by my father, my Mother told me that I would never know the love a parent has in their heart until I became one. I don't think that is likely to happen now but I felt it this weekend and that was thoughtful of him and important to me. My Father is the best! Thank you Daddy!

Sorry to you all that I seem to have been away from my blog for a little while but don't worry, Jazzy returns. It's nice to know you missed me. Thank you.

I played with the 'html' and put my image up there in the address window so I can keep an eye on you all. Tee Hee!

What are you going to learn today?

People are not always as you perceive them. If you judge someone before you get to know them, you may miss out on something. Alternately, people that you think you know don't always turn out to be what you thought either. Look for the balance in life. In looking for that balance you have to see that life is full of ups and downs and is not always easy, it's not supposed to be! You either wallow in misery or find a way to change any bad stuff. Stop looking for happiness in other people or things and find it within yourself.

Read it carefully until you understand that.