Dad's 76th Birthday

Friday, June twenty ninth, two thousand and seven

I decided to write my English diary everyday at the beginning of this year as a new year's resolution, but my recent health condition doesn't allow me to do that. My job really has worn me out lately. That's why I was absent from this blog space for a few days. Besides, I've been suffering from a terrible backache as I mentioned it the other day. It's been one of those days! Frankly speaking, I can't help but feel that I'm no spring chicken. (^^;

Taking of "one of those days", one of my American friends taught me the phrase while he was in Japan. It is used to say that everything seems to be going wrong, according to my English-English dictionary. Whenever I use the phrase in English conversation, it reminds me of his face and nice memories. Nostalgic... (^^;

Anyway, today is my father's 76th birthday. My family already had a party with my brother's family last Saturday, which combined with my third son's birthday party. Next year we'll have to hold a big party for him. He's going to be 77 years old on the same day next year, which means that he's going to reach "喜寿(kiju)", one of special birthdays for Japanese people. Those who reaches 77 years old are mostly celebrated by their families for having the long life. The Chinese character "喜" used to be written with three "七"s in Japan, "七" means "seven" in Japanese, and also "寿" is a formal word to describe happy things... maybe. That's the reason 77 years old is also called "喜寿" in Japan. Even though "喜" used to be written with three "七"s, "喜寿" doesn't mean 777 years old. (^^; It's impossible for anyone to have such a long life as you know!