Pottery Studio

After going to the coffee/pottery shop last week, one of my students heard about about my goal and asked me if I wanted to visit a potter and his studio near my city. I said absolutely! Here are some pictures I snapped of Karo-san and his pottery. He had just finished a show, so I was really lucky to be able to see all of his best work. I have never seen such perfect work. His technique was down pact after 20 years of making pottery. He studied under a master potter in Kyoto for 5 years, then moved to Sendai to begin making a name for himself. Now he does shows and sells his work. The picture of the small lantern you see, he sells for more than $500.00. It's about 10 inches high and is detailed with precision. It was my favorite piece of his. He was incredibly inspiring to talk to him and hear his story. I had translation of course!!

I saw my Dream in REAL LIFE

This afternoon we stopped at this place that was supposed to be just a pottery gallery that turned out to be WAY better!!! As some of you may know I am an artist and my specialty is in pottery, well my goal in life is to someday own my own studio, teach classes and have a coffee shop attached. I have worked in a coffee shop for a lot of my working life so far and LOVE waking up at 6 a.m. to brew coffee and open up shop. More than that, I love teaching and making pottery, so why not combine the two. Well, today, we visited my DREAM in person. It was awesome and inspiring, just what I needed to keep my goal in mind.

One side is the gallery and the other is the coffee shop, connected with wooden pillars. VERY cozy!

Church BBQ

Today, Sunday, was full of stuff going on. This morning after the church service we had a church BBQ. It was really fun! There were lots of people and cute kids running around and enjoying the food.

After the BBQ we scooted off to congratulate on of our friends/pastor/English student and his new bride at their church reception. Dan and I attend two churches on a regular basis, alternating weeks, so we can keep up good relationships with both places we teach at. Anyhow, this reception was at the second church we attend. Our friends are Kouki and Keiko Zenniya. They were married yesterday near Tokyo and rushed back this morning to have another celebration with Kouki's home congregation (P.S. He's the assistant pastor).

Alpha Day!

On Saturday we had Alpha Day. Usually a weekend away is held during the 12 week course of Alpha, but it didn't work for our church to do that, so we had an Alpha Day instead. It was filled with lots of fun, encouraging talks and fellowship. The place we went to was awesome! Near Sendai there is a place called Akiu and you can rent cabins along the river there to camp or have retreats like we did. It was a great location and very rustic. There were all kinds of trails and paths, a foot pool, parks, a coffee shop and pottery store. All around, it was a wonderful day!

Here's the cabin we had and the view of the river out the front door.

Dan and Manami, one of the church members, watched all the kids of those attending Alpha Day. They kept them busy with lots of frog searching (encouaged by Dan, of course!) and playing while the adults watched and participated in the Alpha sessions.

The adults were able to use the upstairs room to watch the videos and have some disscussion time with the kids used the main floor to run in and out of.

Here we are all together at lunch.

House Warming Party

Last evening we had some friends over for a house warming party. Our American friend, Maya came too which was nice. All the ladies in this picture (except the young one in the back right) are my English students; they brought along their husbands. We ate lots of food like pizza and garlic toast.

Yesterday I got to try on my silk kimono for the first time. The kimono was given to me by one of my former student. I didn't know how to put in on (and still don't) because there are so many steps.

Soaked to the Bone!!

Well it is rainy season here in Japan! I guess I needed to be reminded of that today because the weather has been so beautiful during the day and raining only at night. Well I (Dan) got my reminder in a big way today.

We have a day off today, so some of Christine's students set up a fun party that is kind of a first going away party/ Dress Christine up in her new Kimono party. Since we both had the day off i was invited too. Christine was out at the doctor this morning to get checked out so we were going to meet a few towns over. So, it was my job to get her Kimono among other things to bring over and take a train to where we are to meet.

Well the train staition is about a mile away, it is pouring and of course I have no car. So i get the Kimono in a big plastic bag to keep it dry, and throw on sandals and a hat (my rain gear) since I don't want to ruin any shoes in the rain (of course no umbrella or rain coat, why would i bring those???) anyway I hopped on my bike and rode off to the station. Within seconds I was all wet, but it was nothing compared to what was to come. Riding my bike around a corner I see a car coming from the other direction and before I know it, the car drives through a huge puddle and I got hit by a WAVE of water. I felt like I was in the ocean. It hit me from head to toe, nowhere on my body was spared. Being a trooper I decide I will just tough it out and go to the station. We as I go to cross the train tracks on my way there another train was coming into the station so I was stopped at the tracks... needless to say this caused me to miss my train. I didn't have the phone number to call people to let them know i wasn't going to be there on time so:

I turned around and went home, tail between my legs. The rainy season had defeated me.

Jane!

This is my younger sister Jane at Bethel church, my home church in Fergus Falls. She got to meet my pastor's wife, Junko (on the right) and Manami, a really good friend of ours (on the left). Jane is 5'9 and she is towering over them. I think it's kinda funny. I don't realize how tall I am over here anymore because I am so used to being around shorter people. It was soooo fun to see Jane!!

IGUANA needs temporary home

Anyone out there possibly interested in temporarily taking care of our Iguana? This past year a friend of Dan's has been kind enough to take care of our Iguana, but not he is moving to a different place and can't take him with him. We are coming home August 18th, so we're hoping to find someone who could keep him for about 7 weeks. He's very low maintence and can stay in his cage the whole summer. He just needs to be fed and watered. I thought I would put a note out there and see if anyone might be able to help us out. If you can, let us know, we would REALLY appreciate it!!

1 yr. Wedding Anniversary

Today was our One Year Wedding Anniversary, June 23rd! We are so thankful that this year has been good to us. We have learned a whole bunch about each other and feel like this year in Japan has really been healthy for our marriage. To celebrate, we made reservations last night at 8 p.m (June 22nd) and went out to this great Mexican restaurant called Pepe Gonzales. The food was awesome and the atmosphere was just want we were in the mood for. It's not very typical to go out for Mexican for your first anniversary, but we didn't care, we're in Japan and were craving Mexican! There was this great Mariachi band playing and they even sang two special songs for us. The first one was "Fools Rush In" and the second was a Mexican tune called Besa me mucho! Dan speaks Spanish, so he translated this for me. For those of you that speak Spanish, you'll know that it means, "Kiss me, ALOT!" Dan loved this song and so did I!! It was perfect.


Pepe Gonzales Restaurant
This was the same dress that I wore for our wedding/rehearsal dinner one year ago. It fit even better than it did last year, I was thrilled!
The Mariachi band
These were some people that came in while we were there. They were so funny, putting on the sombreros, we had to get a picture!


So today (June 23rd) we exchanged gifts and went out for some Starbuck's frappicino's.

Dan bought for me, Birkenstock sandles.

He also got me this awesome handbag! I had been wanting one of these for quite some time. He picked this out on his own. Sweet taste!

The last thing that he gave me were some Japanese Sori and Tabi that are worn with a Kimono. I was given a silk kimono last month by one of my former students. Now I will be able to wear an entire outfit.

I gave Dan a new Seiko watch. He had a watch already, but it had a leather band and he wanted one with a metal band, so I thought he'd like a different style. Besides, this one won't be so hot with all the humid weather we have here. He really likes it!

At first I bought Dan a new leather baseball glove and got a cheap one for myself so we could play catch in Japan. Also he loves baseball and softball and cannot wait to get back to playing in the USA. But, the Japanese size glove was too small for Dan's hand, so we have to return it. We decided to buy the watch that he wanted instead.

Reunited in Japan

Six years ago I moved to Northern Japan to teach English. When I was there I made to really great friends, Amanda Barnes and Sara Talsness. This past week Sara came back to Japan for 40 days to do some "gap" teaching for two of the churches in Akita. While one teacher is on the way home and the other one is on the way here, the program needs a fill-in occassionally. This year that "gap" teacher is Sara. So, on her way to Akita, Sara, got to stop for a night in Sendai and see us. It was really fun to be in the same country again where we really became friends. She was only here for abut 12 hours, but we were able to snap some photos.

Here is Sara the night she arrived. We ate dinner at 1 a.m. in the morning because of all the mix-up with trains and late airplanes. By 2 a.m. we were all konked out.

Here is the two of us in front of the Sendai church on the morning of her departure to Akita.

ZAO Mountain

This past weekend our friend, Yoshi-san, took the two of us to Zao Mountain. It was one of the last places that we wanted to visit in Miyagi Prefecture (Miyagi State) before returning to America. IT WAS GORGEOUS! We saw mountains that went on for miles, waterfalls and lots of green trees. It was my (Christine's) first time to ever be at the top of a mountain. Why has it taken me this long? NO IDEA! It was the most beautiful site I have seen, next the the Fjords in Norway. I was literally breathless at a few places.

This was one of the waterfalls that we stopped by to see on the way up the mountain.

We were so glad that we had such sunny and clear day!

This is one of the many beautiful sites you can catch in Japan if you are traveling. It was absolutely gorgeous! We could see for miles and see six different mountain ranges.

This is the site we had been waiting to see. This lake is at the top of mount Zao and was the remains of a volcanic eruption years ago. This site is quite famous in Japan and lots of tourist visit it everyday. We even ran into tourists from Taiwan there. They spoke English to us too!


Here are the three of us at the top of Mount Zao. Thanks Yoshi-san for taking us there!

This was the last waterfall we stopped to see as we were making our way back down the mountain.

We stopped at a little park area and Dan found lots of interesting bugs to play with. Right up his alley.

We stopped at this delicious Japanese resturant after coming down the mountain and ate soba and udon with tempura. SOOO Good!

The last place we stopped was Shiroishi Castle. "Shiro" means White and "Ishi" means stone. We went up to the top and got to overlook the city.

Welcome to our NEW place!

Welcome to our new place! We thought it would be nice to give you all a tour of our new apartment. This is our entryway! Under the staircase there is a nice storage area for suitcases and extra bedding linens. And as you walk in you will notice that we always take off our shoes. To the left of the door there is a large shoe/slippers closet. It's great!

Once you've reached the top of the staircase, you can go left, right or straight. First I will take you to the right. You can see a closed door on your left, that's the toilet room (Only a toilet, nothing else!)

At the end of the hall you walk into a small bedroom. Right now we have a semi-double bed in there. It Japanese size, sort of like a full-size bed in America, just a bit smaller.

From the top of the staircase, if you turn left, you walk into our master bedroom.

Here is our bedroom. We can't really decorate because we can't put holes in the walls. SAD!

If you are standing at the top of the staircase and head straight you walk right into our dining room. Off to the left you can partially see a door. That's our laundry/handwashing sink/shower room. In the far back left is our kitchen and off to the right (what you can't see) are some double doors that open into our living room.

Here is the laundry/handwashing sink/shower room off of the dining room

Here is the kitchen. It comfortably fits one person, but two is a tight squeeze. P. S There's our beautiful new fridge!!

Left side of the Living Room

Right side of the Living Room