Surprise visit by my Japanese friend

Last Saturday we had a surprise visit. My Japanese friend with her 5 year old son came over. They had specially come to see Richie. Richie was in the bedroom and almost asleep. Hearing new sounds, he became alert and excited. He started shouting aaa,gaaa, baaa,yeee.. Maybe he wanted to meet his guests. When he saw them, he first studied them and then went to them. Her little son was happy to see Richie and they started playing together.

He had made nice origami animals and gifted them to Richie. Origami is an art of paper folding (折り紙, Japanese 'ori', to fold, and 'kami', paper). And my friend got a melon for us. It was a nice re-union after a long time.

It is an interesting story of how I met my friend. I had joined Japanese classes in our ward-office soon after I came to Japan. After finishing the course we had a farewell party. We wore kimono and danced the traditional Japanese Obon (summer festival) dance. Now at that party, people who were studying English too were present. That is where we exchanged email-ids and started writing to each other.
I used to write whatever little Japanese I knew with English and she did the other way round. She also was the one who inspired me to join Karate. Our friendship has grown stronger over the years and we are the best of friends now.