First, I do apologize for taking so long to respond to the notes you have sent. I just began to work at the local college every day,. and I am so tired when I get home that all I can do is go to bed. However, I set aside some time today (Sunday) to reply to comments in some of the letters from Sendai.

Reiko: I don't remember the names of the Kabuki play(s) we saw. I was too caught up in reacting to the stylized performances, and the sound of the Japanese musical instruments. A year or so later, the Kabuki came to the Kennedy Center in Washington DC not far from where I was living in Maryland and I went to see it again. Although the sound of the instruments, and the oriental style of music were strange to me at first, as I began to listen to it I became quite fond of it. I really enjoy going to a Japanese restaurant for sushi (I'm a CONSERVATIVE sushi fan-that means I don't try too many things that are strange to me), I like the ones that are playing the Japanese music in the background. I find it very relaxing and have bought a couple of CDs with that music.

Reiji: You asked about the digital divide over here. I read something in the paper recently saying that now more than 50% of our citizens have PCs, although the number who are on the internet is smaller. There is a great effort here to have computers in all the classrooms of schools, and most libraries have PCs available for people to use. You also commented in an earlier letter that in Japan a man who is controlled by his wife is said to be a victim of "petticoat government". The phrase most usually used, however, is that the man is "henpecked".

Kazumi: In one of your letters you spoke of the problem you are having in Sendai of losing your green space because of the rapid city development. We have the same problem in many areas of the United States. Where I live, in Fredericksburg VA, there is a lot of feeling about people who move out of the city hoping to find a more rural, relaxed environment down here.

Although that may have been possible for the first folks who moved down here, Fredericksburg is rapidly becoming just as suburban and crowded-with a sprawl of development as the areas these people came from. And frequently the people who complain the loudest about over-development are the frist ones who moved down here from the city (Washington DC).

> I think this longer than it's supposed to be, and I still have responses to other letters. However, I'll end this one, and write another one later.

Best wishes, Jean L.