Exciting Days

'I'm the king of the castle' - this is how one man celebrated New Year! It wasn't Warren - but what a beautiful spot he has chosen. This was taken up at Mt Gozaisho.

Bec has been brightening up our days. She has spent 5 weeks in Japan and is now on the way back to sunny Brisbane. Thanks for coming Bec - you were greatly appreciated!

Tim is settling in after almost 3 weeks on the job. He can now drive the car and has taken over quite a few of our lessons. The kids are responding well to him. He has already made a lot of friends.

The way ahead make look tricky but with hindsight we see the Masterplanner at work.

We spent a few days in Kyoto over Christmas. Here is Bec walking in the rain. We followed the Philosopher's Walk and it was magic.

Everyone is on the look out ofr Geishas in an old area of Gion in Kyoto. We were fortunate to see a few when we were there.

Who cares about the historical merits of Hikone castle when you can be entertained this guy!

- or be driven around in this rickshaw!

On Christmas Day we enjoyed fish and chips at an Irish Pub we found at JR station in Kyoto. In the mall next to it was a wonderfully clever water display.

The little girl in red just makes it complet.

This is part of the old water viaduct system in Kyoto - from the canal you saw along the philosopher's walk. Kyoto is a very old city which wasn't bombed in the war.

We have often joked about the resemblance! Whe I was taking this photo - a few Japanese ladies came along, took pictures and remarked on the resemblance. what a joke!

Now to the Ninja castle and demonstration of traditional Ninja skills. These men were originally espionage agents who were trained in stealth.

We had front row seats. A group from our English class went for the day - several of the children came too as it was a school holiday. It was freezing weather. I think the temp went from 4 to -4.

Monkey Business

Here is our lovely persimmon tree. The birds have been enjoying eating the over ripe fruit unti yesterday when the monkeys found it!

There are no more persimmons!!!

This is meant to be a video clip - so here are some more of our monkey pictures. We are standing at the upstairs bedroom window to take these.

Happy New Year

Here is Tim arriving at Kansai International airport on Tuesday 30th December. He had a great trip.

After a day of sightseeing in Kyoto, we drove back to Yokkaichi.
We were able to catch up with Makoto Takakuwa who we hadn't seen since his trip to Brisbane in August. His English is very good. Chiko-san very kindly baked a cake for us to celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary.
A beautiful lunch was prepared by folks of the church and we were offered octopus, raw salmon, green salad with large chunks of raw fish in it and various other delights. Tim was experiencing his first Japanese meal.
Everyone was enjoying being together on New year's Day.

Christmas, monkeys and Bec have arrived

Bec was put to work after one day's rest. Here she is listening to the Bible talk with the elementary students.

Kindergarten would not be complete without some action songs - today was left and right - so!!! what better than 'hokey pokey'.

and in and do the hokey pokey - the kids laughed and laughed!

It's all good fun. This class has 6 boys and one girl. Bec's help was much appreciated.

Sumisan is translating the Christmas story. She is our landlady - a very gracious friend.

Now, to Christmas Sunday service. We had a visit from the mayor of Yokkaichi with his wife.No - this is not the mayor - this is our pastor acting in the sunday school play - he is a grandfather - love the hairstyle.

A couple of colourful visitors to our children's thanksgiving festival held in November.

Where do the monkeys come in? We were warned that the monkeys were around. Keep your door closed and don't approach any monkeys. Well on Christmas sunday morning we were getting ready for church and listening to our CCC sermon for the day when we heard a gunshot and almost immediately saw a monkey right outside our upstairs office window. He was moving very quickly as our neighbour was on his trail. Apparently there were four monkeys sitting on our fence happily eating persimmons off our tree when the neighbour spied them and gave chase. The monkeys have been eating the farmers' vegetables and so they are not a welcome sight. We enjoyed the experience though.

Pastor Teruo Takakuwa preached an excellent Christmas message - showing the earthly geneology of Jesus showing the typical faults in many of his families as well as ours. He finished by showing the mercy and kindness of Jesus. We are blessed because of Jesus - not the merits or demerits of our family.

This is our encouragement and reminder to all who read this. Jesus is our only hope for this life and the next.

The beauty of Autumn!

At 1200 metres it looks more like Winter than Autumn.

Even dead leaves have their beauty!