Kimono

Jeff and I were invited to a special lady's house. Cho-me San is from our church here and she is the gaurdian of the Japanese culture. She teaches Japanese calligraphy, dance and flower arranging--besides being one of the cutest Japanese ladies around. She invited us to try on kimonos in her Japanese dance studio when the spring flowers were in bloom. That fell last week, so we joined her and a few other ladies for a special spring lunch. The bamboo we ate was baby bamboo right from her garden!

The kimonos were amazing. Perhaps I should rephrase that to say--what Cho-me San was able to DO with the silk was absolutely amazing. What seemed a shapeless pile of cloth took form into something really amazing.

Ohanami

"Hana" is blossom.
"Mi" is derived from the verb "to look".

This last week has been the season of sakura, or the cherry blossom. With Jeff's love for macrophotography, three great Ohanami opportunities and the patience of our hosts--we bring you a taste of spring in Japan.

(We have also been requested multiple times that these pictures be sent to our friends and family in America. Our Japanese friends are very proud of their cherry blossoms and would also like you to take note of the gift of the blossoms to America over a hundred years ago--now showing at the Potomac, Maryland....)

ps. For the record, after the night time ohanami view of the afore-mentioned slide, Mary Ellen gives it a bit of a thumbs up.

Time March-es on

Well, March has come and gone without much attempt to blogify it. So here is a summary of our March highlights.






Don and Rumiko had a beautful wedding day and soon after moved to the States.


































The 'church's' newest baby is growing big enough to crawl up the center aisle at church and embarass her father when he is trying to lead song service.



















Our students are faithfully energetic, challenging and VERY entertaining!












We torched a cake in honor of Teishi's birthday...okay, not really but we did make it all a suprise.











We attended our first Japanese elementary graduation ceremony.

There are no words to describe the sound of a couple hundred sniffling parents, children singing sorrowful sayanoras and weeping young boys.
Okay, maybe in Japanese there is ONE word to describe it.


We were able to make two very fun trips to Kagoshima to visit our friends there. This time included an exciting game of Bible pictionary. In fact, you can see the excitement on Jerry's beaming face.




Last, but not least ;), Jeff found a great new slide! It's great fun, very noisy and has a great view, but the warehouse rollway construction is much kinder to boxes than to bottoms. Mary Ellen voted a thumbs down.

social invitation

Last Friday Jeff was invited to go to Ibuski with a student/friend and enjoy the sand baths. He would leave at 10 a.m.
Meanwhile, I was attending our monthly tea party, starting at 9:00 a.m.

9:55 a.m- Jeff pops into the tea party to say hello and goodbye. We continue to chat for another hour and a half until it is announced that there is a special lunch after the tea party. Various and asundry transportation plans are made and everyone leaves for an hour, only to reconvene shortly for lunch.

12:30-1:00 Jeff arrives in Ibuski where he and Mr. Itokazu enjoy a lunch of Japanese Soba noodles before they head to the sandbaths.

1:00 pm- I arrive at the restaurant with a group of ladies. We sit and talk for nearly an hour before the rest of the group arrives for lunch. We are then served in courses, topped by dessert. Did I mention that we ate banana cake and snacks at the tea party just hours ago?

2:30 pm- Jeff has recovered from the scalding hot sand bath by enjoying a Japanese Onsen. Conversation fills the 2 1/2 hour ride back.

3:00 pm- I am now at the house of a student/friend and her family. She has kindly invited home half of the people that went to lunch and is serving us tea and snacks while we watch a classic Japanese animated film. Some of us watch, some of us munch and some of us sleep.

6:00 pm-Jeff and Mr. Itokasu made a stop at the 100 yen store and are now enjoying a sushi dinner. Each of them finish off 6-7 plates of sushi.

7:00 pm-The movie ended and I caught a ride back to the apartment with our director. I was exhausted from lack of sleep and my back found all the sitting intolerable. Funny though, my stomach is growling again. And the party roars on...a number of people remain at Shizuko's house for dinner.

8:00 pm- Roughly 10 hours later, Jeff arrives home bearing a invaluable CD holder he was able to find at the 100 yen store. We sit and share our days for an hour or so before lapsing into a tired silence.

9:45 pm- We pull out the futons and enjoy an early bedtime. All that eating and socializing just took it out of us.