Picturesque!

Who are these two people?

What a beautiful specimen! The iris that is.

Today was the day we visited Kamayama Park to see the amazing and wonderfully coloured irises. The Japanese people really know how to grow flowers!!!

We were not the only ones there. Here we are looking for tadpoles!

Our two guides drove us with great care. One was a good driver and the other was a good navigator.

We had lunch at a wonderful Japanese restaurant.

Then we went to the shrine at Suzuka which was set in a beautiful very old forest.

We had a lot of fun seeing God's wonderful creation and talking to very interesting people.

Can you tell what my favorite colour flower is?

Suru!

We were quietly driving home from class on Wednesday in the early afternoon when we spied suru! - yes monkeys!

This is less than one km from our house and it is our street. There were probably several groups of monkey families - many small ones. They were very shy and turned their backs quickly and climbed into the dense forest trees. Sometimes they are hard to see, but we were impressed.

The local farmers are not impressed. Of course the monkeys forage on the forest floor for berries and fruits but they also invade the farmers' vegie patches.

Just as well as Warren had his camera with him and there wasn't much traffic!

My birthday and the beginning of the rainy season hit!

Here is Jan teaching Mai on Friday evenings. Although Mai is only in Junior High, she has a good grasp of English and what I especially enjoy is her ability to make jokes in English. In this photo, I am attemtping to teach enough vocab to explain the bridge illustration - the way in which God has made it possible for man to restore a relationship with Him.

You can see that although we live in the country we are not deprived! Our neightbour has installed a coke machine!














It could not be kept a secret! Jan had a birthday on Sunday. There is a tradition of going out to the front at church and being sung and clapped to 'Happy Birthday' in English. The pastor then gives a brightly coloured origami necklace.


Jan was given some beautiful gifts.

I don't know what happened to these guys but they took a brief holiday to the U.S. - something about route 66 and the grand canyon - any way they are back now with american accents. These are Warren's English students from a town called Kasugai - they travel for a 3 hour class once a week. They hope to improve their English so that they can minister in Japan through their local Baptist church and promote the Bible view of creation. There are not many Japanese who know about or believe in the existence of a Creator God.

It is bead-making time. Jan has been teaching the 'wordless book' for the past 5 weeks to the children in Bible time each day. Now they are threading the colours - gold for the streets of heaven, black for our sinful hearts, red for the cleansing blood when Jesus died for us, white - our clean hearts before God, green for our need to grow and blue for eternal life with God forever.

Nothing like tradition!

The front gate is open ready to receive our morning English students who are coming to share in a tea ceremony and then enjoy devonshire tea together.


Here are Yoko-san and Yachio-san ready to get to work in preparation.



We have opened up the loungeroom big wooden double doors. it is a beautiful Spring day and we want to enjoy the cool breeze.



In the kitchen there is much preparation going on.


Many beautiful pieces are pottery were put out in preparation for the tea ceremony. The sweet rice cakes were beautifully presented. Yachio-san made the green tea - you can see some in the brown piece of pottery.



Now, for the surprise, Yachio-san has brought two of her own kimonos and plans to dress up Jan. So Asaka-san, Yachio-san and Jan head off upstairs.


What a new experience for me!

There are many layers involved and it is quite hot. The dresses were exquisite!

We enjoyed each other's company very much.

Now for the pink kimono! What a beautiful colour.

Time to say goodbye.

But it is hard to say goodbye.

See you next time.

Kyoto

This is a picture of the golden temple in Kyoto which is set in beautiful gardens. Picture postcard stuff.

The gardens are very colourful with Spring blooms and new green growth

There were beautiful pink and white dogwoods all around in Kyoto.

Next we visited an old part of the city called Gion. There is a small brook with many bridges crossing it. One of these bridges was used in the famous movie about the Geisha. Here are some random shots around that area.

I'll finish with a shrine just for the colour.