Yesterday I went with my mother-in-law to Matsumoto. Our shop is part of the Hitachi Group, and they had a wives/female employee's benkyou-kai (study meeting). Basically the women of the shops go to the main Hitachi office and listen to people explain the new products coming out. They haven't had one in two years, so I wasn't the only new person (I wasn't the only foreigner either! Amazing! The other foreigner is Chinese, so she doesn't stand out in the looks department. The thing that really distinguishes her is her out-spoken personality. She lets everyone know whats on her mind. She was a breath of fresh air in a musty, quiet conference room.) There were about 15 people; I was probably the youngest... the oldest lady there is like in her 80s!
They brought out the new rice cooker and microwave. Our shop doesn't sell Hitachi rice cookers (we prefer Sanyo), so I didn't pay really close attention. I'm really excited about the new microwave though...especially since I convinced H to buy one for me to try out. Hehehe... I'll be able to make more than six cookies at a time! Yay!
The Hitachi people took us to this fancy French restaurant for lunch. It was like $20 a person, and the fresh bread was worth all 20 of those bucks. Mmmm. After lunch we listened (and dozed off) as another guy talked about solar panels and then another about LED light bulbs. We got home around 4 and took a little walk to see my apricot tree. I'm happy to report that it's very genki (doing well).