A holiday in honor of the older people

**Okay...so...this post is actually from yesterday (Monday)...last night,as I was downloading some pictures onto (into?) my Picasa account we experienced a major &*#$^&#&$ and all was lost. ~~sigh~~ Now will go to Picasa and see if anything can be salvaged!! **





Today, the third Monday of September, is 敬老の日, Keirō no hi, or Respect for the Aged Day. Until 1966, it was called "Old Folks Day"....I guess it didn't sound honorific enough for the people of that time, so they changed it. If you want to read about this holiday, I found a pretty good article from one of the newspapers here....click on this link right here and it will take you to that article...it's short but gives you some really good information. (If you have any questions, just ask. Okay? Okay.)





So....today being the day to honor the older people around us, I was curious as to what age was "old" among the people that I know....I questioned a few (of varying ages) and here is what I found:


*the elementary school kids I asked thought that 40 was pretty old. (I know. What the hell do they know, right??)


*the ones who were in the 27-35 age bracket (like I actually made a chart to go with this...!!) were smart enough to say that 65 was what they considered to be "old". That is the age that you can start receiving the monthly pension....what will probably be depleted by the time I am able to get it.





After that....it was interesting....for those that were over the age of 50 that I asked, it was pretty much a given to add 10-15 years to that person's age. For example, one friend (age 53) said that she thought that 68 was 'old'. Another (age 64) said that 75 was 'old'. One friend (age 84) said that she was old. :-D (She added another element to this experiment.)





Japan is an "aging society". I mentioned the pensions that many have paid into for most of their lives, (me--since I've been here!).....because so many of the young people in this society today are choosing NOT to go into full-time positions, but instead choosing to be freeters, or freelance workers (when I first heard this term I thought they were saying "fritters", as in frittering their time away doing nothing...my definition might actually work better !!)...which means they are working part-time or for cash only...and not paying into the pension system. What many are afraid of is that in X-number of years, that money is going to be gone and those of us who are younger who have been paying into the system may NOT be given the money we thought we would.



Wow!! That wasn't a "losing a train of thought", that was a total derailment!! Sorry about that!!



Anwhoooo....so what did the Kuroiwa Family do on Monday? Well....the boys got up and made some cards....one each for Grandma K. (K-man's mom) and for a couple that we have adopted (and they us)....they are like grandparents for me...and great-grandparents for the boys. She is 85 and he is 90...and we love them dearly!!!

The handmade cards.....making use of crayons, colored pens, stickers and those pearly things look mighty familiar...wonder where they found them?!?

After the cards were made, we went to our favorite cake and sweet shop and bought some really good puddings and small cheese cakes (Oh, so very yummiful!!) and had them wrapped up with pretty paper and a bow.

Because the weather wasn't so good (rainy and a bit cool), all three older people refused our invitation to join us in our outing. We took the boys to the Penguin-Aquarium....Koji had never been and it was a perfect day to go.

So.....here you go....our day at the Penguin-Aquarium...in a slide show....enjoy!!!



It was a great day.....the perfect end to a three-day weekend.

Tuesday (today) was back-to-normal...and it's time to get the boys into bed....I have hidden out long enough back here in my little corner of the house....time to put my "Super Mommy" cape on and get to work!!!

Have a great day!