On Friday night after we arrived at our Ryokan in Nara City, we headed out into the shopping district to buy some dinner. While walking through the outdoor mall we were accosted by the woman in this picture who was so stricken by Callan that she could not help but invite us all to her house for dinner. Her name is Matsuo, and she was impressed that I could speak Japanese and as I found out on the car ride to her house, she had other reasons for inviting us. She explained that her son had married a woman from Ireland and the two of them were visiting for new years and that her Irish daughter in law did not speak any Japanese. Her son was out visiting old friends for the evening and she wanted to communicate with her daughter in law and was hoping that I could translate. I told I would be happy to and that is exactly what we did. Matsuo called ahead to let her husband know she was bringing guests and when we arrived, she fixed dinner for us while we talked with Martha, her Irish daughter in law. One of the first things that Matsuo wanted me to tell Martha was that she was very worried because her son had gained a lot of weight since getting married, and Matsuo told me that she was sure it was the foreign diet that Martha had been feeding him. In the nicest way possible I explained to Marthat that her mother-in-law thought she was making her son fat, and to my surprise Martha agreed. At least with the fact that her husband had gained a lot of weight. She refused however to take the blame for it, insisting that she cooks lots of veggitables and very little meat, and NO sweets. This news was a shock and a relief to Matsuo was was visibly conscerned about her sons health. And, Martha went on to explain that the real problem was that her husband worked long hours and ate out alot. "He likes Melon Bread," she told me. "One melon bread has six hundred calories."