Winter has been spectacular

The view from our house shows how much snow is on the mountains. It looks beautiful when the sun comes out.

Can you see the frozen waterfall? What a great view from the chair lift on Mount Gozaisho.

The icicles on the trees are magic. Yes, we are eating well but the chubby look is mostly from the many layers of clothing. Jan and Janienne are enjoying the snow.

Yes we gladly welcomed our friends from Beijing - Bruce and Janienne who stayed with us for 10 days had a great time. They didn't realise a lot of Japan is mountainous and countryside.

The view from our window looks different in every season. It is wonderful to be able to sit up in bed in the mornings with a cup of hot tea and look out over the snow covered ground and watch the snowflakes falling.

The only season we haven't experienced yet is Spring. On a trip down to Ise we visited the oldest Shinto shrine areas. It was snowing heavily and we had to cut our visit short. We were intrigued to see the visitors come to worship their ancestors. They clap their hands first to get the attention of the gods (their ancestors become gods) and then they bow and say a silent prayer.

We were not allowed to take pictures of the old shrine and the people saying their prayers.

End of Year Activities

Our house was filled with teenagers on Christmas Eve as we hosted the Sunday School Christmas party. Andrew and Felicity were very popular and the kids enjoyed practising their English.

Christmas Sunday was significant with a good time of worship, lunch together and a concert in the afternoon. Our English students had been practising to sing 'Joy to the world' for the adults and 'Away in a manger for the children. We have also had two lots of children practising for Homestay in American in March. They came for a sleepover at our house. The first time we had 5 girls and the second time we had 2 girls and 2 boys. They were to eat a typical westerm meal with us, practise their English, go through the usual routines of staying overnight and have breakfast together the next morning. Their parents arrived at 8.30 to pick them up with many bowings and gaizemus's.

New Year is a very big time of celebration in Japan. It is traditionally a time to visit the home town family shrine and temple. It is a time to eat soba (New year's Eve) and rice cake for New Year. Well, I guess we were on the edge of doing some of these traditional things.

On New Year's Eve we drove to Nara Park to show Andrew and Felicity some of the oldest shrines and temples. Surprisingly it wasn't as crowded as we expected it to be. I guess we were home before New Year's Eve got into full swing.

This is the largest Buddha housed in the largest wooden building. He is much more spectacular in reality than this picture shows.



We are back into teaching now after a week's break for New Year. We visited Tokyo on the shinkansen and saw Mt Fuji in passing. We also visited the MTW work in Chiba and saw the main sights that make Tokyo famous.

I don't often get a shot with Warren in it.

The east garden of the Emperor's palace was very orderly. Japanese gardens highlight the three elements of water, rock and stone.

Do you like my novel table decoration? Had nowhere to store the chinese cabbage that was given to us.

Soai Club Christmas Party

Its Cooking Time Again

They were all prepared to get their hands dirty! We are making rum balls and checking out what's in the trifle.

There were lots of aprons and checking of recipes - oh no the Japanese measuring cup is only 200 mls not our standard 250 mls. What is a ml anyway? There was great discussion.

Then we had to set the table - I think there were 15 of us.

We all enjoyed a great lunch and ate more than we should. There was a good atmosphere of ladies enjoying themselves.

The menu was rice and miso soup followed by Christmas fruit cake, mince pies, rum balls and trifle.

Jan was asked to tell the ladies how she became a Christian and Chiko - san did the interpreting.

November - December activities

The village of ancient Japanese houses in Takayama. Every scene is beautiful especially with the autumn leaves.

A view from the train on the way up.

A special day for these girls and their Mum.

This is the way to see the streets in style. It was raining and very cold.

Good parking skills are necessary just about anywhere in Japan. It was even closer on the other side. Aren't parking mirrors wonderful.

Our hotel picked us up in this beauty.

Somebody has a complex about big don't you think?

Ian and Pam

Early morning markets at Takayama. What a beautiful town this is, especially in Autumn.

You can't take him anywhere!

So it was cold and raining and Ian was hungry! Did he have to eat a whole fish on a stick? It was salted and he ate it head first, bones and all. the look on Jan and Pam's face says it all!

Heated toilet seats are the greatest!

Now that it is Winter weather here, I am really appreciating a heated toilet seat, especially in the middle of the night! In the shopping centres in the heat of Summer, I didn't think it was such a good idea, but now it is appreciated.

The toilet in our house has a remote control hand-piece on which the English translations have been written for our benefit. On two occasions now, when we have had Japanese visitors to our house, they come out baffled and say 'I have no idea how to flush your toilet'!

While on the subject of toilets, I am amazed at how well equipped toilets in shops and restaurants are. Every need is catered for. If you have a baby, there is a baby high chair in the corner, if you have a toddler, there is both a miniature toilet and a miniature urinal - sometimes all of these are in the adult cubicle so Mum can take care of the whole family. As well, of course there is the fold down change table, along with the disinfectant spray to wipe the seat and the hand dryer which really dries. Well done Japan!

Friends from Brisbane

Ian and Pam arrived on 2nd November to spend a few weeks visiting with us and seeing our corner of Japan.

There are plenty of wonderful sights at the moment with the Autumn leaves in full show. We spent a very nice day in Nara Park. We saw shinto shrines, a buddhist temple, beautiful forests and plenty of deer.

Ian had his fare share of pottery places to visit. At this particular shop, Pam found an iron treasure which she took back to Australia.

We spent three days visiting the Takayama area. It was about 2 1/2 hours north west by train. It is actually further north than Tokyo. The Autumn leaves were at their peak.

We thoroughtly enjoyed this village of very old Japanese houses.

Back at Yokkaichi, we visited more pottery places and a local museum.

These beautiful old wood kilns were being loaded for a firing. Our pots turned out to have great character!!!

This pottery place is quite close to out house - but out in the middle of rice paddies and off the road so that you would not know that it is there.


Now we settle back to life with just ourselves and the cold weather. We had some beautiful snow at the top of our local mountains.