(We pause for a moment as my Japanophone followers issue a collective groan … )

For the second weekend in a row, I set out before noon on Saturday to deliver an unagi bentoh to our housebound friend. I had two surprises waiting in store for me when I arrived, though.

The first was the road in front of his house being blocked for construction. As I worked my way around adjacent streets, I soon realized that the construction vehicles were parked right in front of his house. After a brief conference with the baton-waver, we agreed that if I dismounted I could squeeze through the passage they’d left for pedestrians, and I was soon parking Dionysus in his drive.

The second surprise was waiting inside: Nana’s mother had been there since 7 a.m., cleaning house in preparation for my arrival. She fussed at him that he just sat mum, watching the high school baseball championships, but I just laughed and said to let him enjoy it.

I stayed about 45 minutes, enjoying a cold glass of barley tea and chatting with Nana’s mother, before setting out on the return trip. I’d forgotten about having set my home as a destination on Garmie, and instead employed to same trick as last week to find my way back. To my surprise, the route differed near the end and I found myself racing through the Nakano Sakaue crossing at right angles to my expected route. It is actually more direct than the way I wished to go, but at the tradeoff of being somewhat more tricky in terms of avoiding getting run over by a large delivery van.