Not Much for Friday

 This morning I finished the draft of a report for the Physics Department back home.  I did this because (1) I needed to get it done and (2) I have been invited by Hashilo [a professor in another department] to drive out of town a ways to see the fireflies.  There's a department meeting at 9 pm Japan time, 8 am Michigan time.  Seeing the fireflies has been suggested to me by several people, including students.

It's interesting because growing up in the Midwest we had fireflies in our yard.  We would go out at dusk and catch them.  Here it seems to be kind of a big deal to see them.  Even a moderately sized field can have hundreds of them, and it is very neat to watch them wink on and off.  It should be a nice excursion, provided the rain and wind lets up.  We'll see about that, though.

Susan sent me this picture from lunch yesterday.  She took this with her phone as sort of an "unposed and spontaneous shot."  You can see we all listened well.

 

I'm the one with the beard, in case you are having trouble.  Aside from Brooke to my left and Hanga to my right, my guess is Tami would be able to name the rest of the people.  I'm horrible at remembering names in the best of situations.  What with the masks, the partitions, and the language barrier, I am at a loss for names here.  As I said yesterday, the conversation was very nice.  I just don't recall anyone's name.  That isn't strictly true.  I'm pretty sure the gentleman on the back left is Sora-san.  The only reason I remember that is he said "like Solaia" the name of the restaurant.  Even to pull that up, though, I needed Google Maps.  I do recall the route we took to get there, so I was able to follow it until I came to the restaurant.

So, we'll see what happens tonight.  Fireflies or not, I will enjoy myself.