On Their Way to Akita

Carol and Becky left yesterday, so we had to grab a picture of them in front of our house. This is the last week that we will be living in it....just when it's starting to look all nice and plush!

Carol Sunde's Here!

This evening Carol Sunde and Becky Olson arrived from Fergus Falls, MN. Carol was born raised in Japan and has come back for a visit along with her friend, Becky. They both gave their testimony tonight at Bible Study and did a great job! Carol translated and did very well. After Bible study we came back to the house and stayed up for a while talking.
This is a picture of me, Dan, Becky (in blue), Carol, Yoshi (in gray) and Keimei. These two guys are a part of our small group Bible study that we have every Thursay. The story behind this picture is awesome. Years ago Carol gave this rocking chair to her sister-in-law, Sue Olson. Sue and her husband, Roger, used to live in this house and they couldn't take the chair with them, so it stayed in this house. The stone Carol is holding is a painted rock that Carol's mother painted YEARS ago when they lived in Japan and somehow that rock ended up here. Also, the footstool was one that Carol's mother painted a very long time ago. It made Carol feel right at home to come into our house and see all these things that were at one time or another a part of her family.

Apartment search

The search for an apartment has begun. We were able to tag along with Dean Bengtson and see some of the options for housing. He looked at four different houses/apartments, but hasn't made a decision yet. Hopefully we will know more by the end of the week!! Here we are out for lunch at a ramen shop, enjoying our lunch after a little house searching.

Grasshoppers?

What a better way to start off June....than to eat grasshoppers. I hope you are as grossed out as I was! Today, in English class, one of my students brought in dried grasshoppers that were covered in soy sause and brown suger. No matter how good those two ingredients sound together, they sound TERRIBLE when you add grasshopper into the mixture. UGH!!! Anyway, I was dared to try one, so I did. CRUNCH! Let's just say, I won't ever eat them again.

Chinese Gyoza

Today 5 of my students came over to my house to make chinese Gyoza. I have one chinese student, Cho-san, who is taking English from me, she speaks zero English. Right now I am teaching her the ABC's. We communicate through Japanese. Well, today she taught me and 4 of my more advanced English students how to make chinese Gyoza. It was really fun! Gyoza is something like pot-stickers, but they are boiled and very healthy!
This is one of my students Masayo and her son. He came with her and was able to make gyoza also. He had fun time, even though he was with all ladies!
Not everyone could stay to eat, but after we finished making the gyoza, we sat down at about 4 p.m. and tried them out. They were awesome! They were so soft and tasted delicious! The whole process took about 3 hours.

Freaked Out!

Today I was working out in the front garden, as I was cutting away at some leaves I looked down in the soil and saw something that didn't belong. I jabbed whatever it was with my clippers and it was SOFT, not hard, meaning it was alive! I totally freaked out, screamed and ran over to Dan while he was teaching. I ran in saying,"There's a HUGE head of a snake in my flowerbed!!!!" He and his boy student ran over to the house. They were asking, "Where is it? Where is it?" I pointed it out and Dan used a hoe to try and move it around. Welllll.....he did move it around and low and behold was a TOAD!! not the head of a snake. I was so worked up, I couldn't relax for over an hour! I am petrafied of snakes and apparently toads too. ;) Here's a picture of Dan and his student laughing at me and holding the toad.

Togata

Yesterday was our day off, so one of my students and our pastor's wife took Dan and I to Togata onsen (hot spring) near Zao Mountain, one of Miyagi's largest mountains. After about an hours drive through the tree covered moutains, we stopped at a resturant for some lunch. Dan and I both had Tempura. It was delicious! After that, we visited a gorgeous place that is a ski area in the winter and a flower-covered mountain in the spring. The ski slopes were covered with thousands of daffodils. We stayed there about a 1/2 hour then moved on to a cheese factory that makes yummy cream cheese, ice cream and milk. Of course we had to taste test everything! The last thing we did was to go to the onsen (hot springs). We enjoyed about an hour of relaxation then headed for home. I was so relaxed I slept the whole way home!

Flying Home

We just got out tickets for flying back to the states! We will be flying on August 14th from Narita, JP to New York. We will stay for a few days, drop off all our luggage and finally meet our new nephew, Kenny. After spending 3 days in New York, we will fly to Minnesota and arrive in Good ole Fergus Falls on Saturday August 18th. We will be in Fergus Falls for about 1 week, then head back out east where will be settling. Can't WAIT to see you all soon!!
(Taken out past Jewett Lake road)

Model Homes

Not a whole lot has been happening this week, so I haven't been blogging, but today, our Japanese teacher took us to see model homes. We haven't ever done something like this in the states or here, so it was really fun. I love looking at houses and drawing house plans for fun. It must run in my blood! (All the men in my family are carpenters) This is the first house we walked though and it turned out to be an American style house. We loved it! If we ever build, this is what we are building! In my dreams, of course! This place was awesome!!

Entry and Dining Room

Kitchen and Bathroom

Family room off the kitchen and Dining into the Living Room

Visitors!

Today the Bengtson's, Naoko, and David and JoAnn Thompson came from Akita to visit us. The Thompson's are over here visiting Dean and Linda for a few weeks. It was so fun to meet them! We had a great afternoon altogether.
Naoko is an old friend of mine. She is also friends with Dean and Linda. I met her when I was in Japan the first time. She is moving to Orgeon state in August to go to graduate school.

Tiger Festival

This Tiger Festival was held north of Sendai in a small city called Nakanitta. I was my first time to go there and the drive up there was beautiful. I am not sure what the whole reason for having this Tiger festival was for, but whatever the reason, it was interesting. Young boys were under the costumes doing all the acting. It was quite entertaining. There were crowds of people here!

Here are some of the drummers that were entertaining the crowds. The group picture on the right is of (from the right)me, Miyako, Sara (a girl I just recently met), Yumiko (my student) and Hans (Miyako's husband).

Saturday Movie

I've been a bit behind on what's been happening in the last few days because I have had a cold and have not been on the computer much. So, to back up a little bit...last Saturday afternoon Dan and I were invited to one of our church members' house. Each month the Hatsumoto's invite people over to watch a movie that has something to do with Christianity, then they talk about it. This month they showed the movie, Jacob. It was really good, I was pleasantly surprised. It was spoken in English with Japanese subtitles, so we were able to watch and enjoy. After the movie the hosts had invited Dan, me and our pastor to stay for dinner. We enjoyed a nice meal together.

Miho's Going Away Party

This morning we had a "Going Away"party for my student Miho. She is moving to Chiba, near Tokyo. Everyone came over to my house around 10:30 a.m. and we had a tea ceremony, given by one of my other students, whom you see in the picture. It was my first time having any kind of formal tea ceremony done in front of me. It was quite interesting! After the tea, we had some sweets and chatted. It was a really great morning and good way to send off Miho-san.

From the left: Tokuko, Junko, Masayo, Miho, Hiromi, Yoshie

Pizza party

Recently my Wednesday night high school/college age class has had some new students join, so on Wednesday night we had a pizza party instead of a formal class to welcome the new ones. We spoke lots of English and everyone enjoyed eating pizza. From the left is Manami, Kohei (the only guy), Sayaka, Rie and Kyoko.

Bus Tour

Yesterday was awesome! Dan, myself and five of our friends took a bus tour down to the next prefecture. The bus toured all over, to various tourist spots while driving though the mountains. We started out at 8:00 a.m. and were home at 7:30 p.m. It was a full day, but very memorable!

After a 3 hour bus ride we were dropped off at Aizu Wakamatsu train station. We took a scenic train tour that us to a famous straw roofed train station. I have never seen anything like it. On the inside there was a fire pit that continously burned to heat the station.

After seeing straw-roofed train station, we hopped back onto the bus, ate some lunch (good ole rice!), then headed to Ouuji. Ouuji is a town where all the houses have straw-roofs. It was pretty cool! The flags that you see flying in the picture are Koi fish flags that are hung every year for boys. May 5th is children's day in Japan and Koi fish are hung to encourage boys in strength and courage. In the spring koi fish swim up river and waterfalls, so parents hang koi outside to encourage boys to have strength and courage in life.

After visiting Ouuji, we went to this great place (I don't know the name) that had a suspension bridge that connected two mountain sides together. The water was aqua green and gorgeous. In the distance there was also a beautiful red bridge that you can see in the distance.

The last and MOST beautiful place we visited was Tsurugajo Castle. There were hundreds of cherry blossoms in full bloom and made this white castle look gorgeous. We walked around the grounds and looked at all cheery blossoms, we had ice cream and took our picture in kimono and samurai outfits. It was a wonderful day and is now ranked as one my most memorable trips.