Strawberries and Gomi

Recently the English class coordinator for the city Volunteer Center invited us (six missionaries) to go with her to pick strawberries.  We were so surprised.  It’s winter, we’ve had a little snow, where would we find strawberries? We carpooled with a group of people from our English class, drove for about an hour, went up into the mountains, and by some farms.  We arrived at a beautiful farm with rows of green houses, full of strawberries.  The owner did an orientation, and let us sample their berries.  They were some of the sweetest berries we had ever tasted.  He handed us little baskets, little scissors for cutting the berries, and let us choose the berries we wanted.  The berries were easy to find, because they were hanging off the side of the growing racks, with all the varieties labeled.  We took our filled baskets to their store/office, they weighed the berries, we each paid for our berries, then headed the hour drive back to town.  I don’t want to make that drive very often, but the berries and the good friends made it well worth the drive.

 

 

“Gomi” is a cute Japanese name for garbage. Garbage is a complicated thing in Japan.  Everything has to be rinsed, sorted, tied, or bagged in transparent plastic bags.  You take something out each of the five week days. Each day is a different group, since they sort into several categories for recycling—burnable (kitchen scraps/yard scraps), plastics, newspapers, etc. etc. We receive a “garbage” calendar, which helps to remember what to take out each day.  It is all in Japanese/kanji, but luckily we have an English translation paper for the categories.  Each evening before going to bed we get the gomi ready to take out the next morning.  We try to stay on top of it so we don’t have garbage build up.  There are gomi drop-off points on every block.  They have a green net to cover the gomi so the crows don’t get to it.  It is all very neat and organized. 

 

 

The garbage trucks are neat, clean, and kind of cute.

 

This is the neighborhood drop point, every couple of blocks.

 

This is an extra big pile before the New Year's break.

 

 

 

 

 

A Week of Miracles

We came to Japan with International Drivers Licenses but are legally required to get Japanese licenses within a couple of months, if staying for an extended time.  We had been putting off getting them because we understood it was very hard and very expensive.  After gathering up all of our legal papers and previous licenses we made a couple of trips to the DMV testing center about fifty minutes away from our home in another town.  We found the testing and processing people to be very helpful, friendly, and kind.  We are so blessed to be able to say we got our drivers licenses.  Now we can focus on other things that need to be done, like learning Japanese. 

 

 

The test range.

 

The miracle licenses. 

 

We have also met a lot of wonderful new friends.  Many have started coming to church and to our dance exercise classes.  The members and our friends seem to love the exercise class and say they want to come every week.   We had thirty people come to the class this past week.  People in their twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties have been coming.  It makes this sixty-five year old instructor feel pretty good.  We get a chance to share a short gospel message at the end which they also seem to enjoy.  We love sharing these good things.

Apartment Inspections

One of the things we get to do every six weeks is drive around our zone and visit the apartments of all of the missionaries.  There are eight apartments in our zone.  It takes us several days to see them all since five of the eight are an hour to two hours away.  We drive through some beautiful mountains to get to the most distant areas, so other than the stress of driving in Japan, it is enjoyable to see the countryside.  And the missionaries are awesome.  They are so focused and working so hard, come rain or shine, snow, sleet or hail, heat, or volcanic ash, they are out trying to find people with whom they can share the message of the gospel.  When we visit their apartments we try to see if there are things in their apartments that need replacing or broken, and encourage them to keep them well organized and clean.  You gotta love them!  We have had refrigerators go out, washers causing problems, and broken desk chairs and light switches, etc.  The missionaries do a wonderful job and they treat us so well when we come too.  We always try to bring them some kind of fruit or treat for doing a good job, but some have insisted on fixing a lunch for us.  Along the way we see some interesting things. 

 

Most missionaries sleep on the floor in futons. 

 

Their kitchens are fairly simple. 

 

A small washer is often in bathroom and shower area.

 

Some of them live in fairly tall five or six story buildings.

 

 

Cutting the sides of hills and mountains is so methodically and artistically done here. 

 

Sometimes the roads are foggy. 

 

One of the messages hanging in a missionary apartment to encourage them in their labors.

 

The ever present 7-11.  Actually has an ATM where we can withdraw money from home.

 

Some apartments are a little lower.  They are to air out their futons often by hanging them outside.

 

Yes, we also see missionaries on their bikes with their white helmets.

Yes mom, that is how wide the roads are that they are riding on! 

 

Road construction flag man.  Can you tell which is real and which is mechanical?

 

New Year's 2015 in Japan

Happy New Year!  Can you believe it’s already January 2, 2015?  Sometimes the days seem long, but the weeks and months seem so short. 

New Year’s is interesting in Japan.  Japan is basically a Buddhist and Shinto country with a few Christians and other religions.  It was interesting that Christmas decorations starting going up after Halloween.  They don’t trick-or-treat but the stores decorate with pumpkins and Fall colors.  So for two months we enjoyed Christmas music and decorations around town.  Within a day after Christmas all of those decorations were replaced by New Year’s decorations.  Businesses and government buildings are closed on the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd.  Stores have now started opening on New Year’s day to compete for shoppers.  The families have special meals with food only served at New Year’s.  “Hatsuihinode” (viewing the first sunrise) is the first activity of the New Year.  They also have the first writing, Kakizome, the first food, and other things.  It’s quite a time for family gatherings.  They go together to visit the shrines to remember their ancestors and say prayers for good fortune and health in the new year.  It’s a fun time to be in Japan.  This is our fourth New Year’s together in Japan, and each time it has been fun to watch.  What a great place to live and what great people! 

 

 

 

First sunrise, blocked by the rain and snow.

 

 

Some of the New Year's decorations, the braided straw ropes over the doors to bless the homes and buildings, and those who enter.  It's the "year of the sheep". 

 

 

Crowds gathering at the shrines on January 1st to pay respect.

 

 

Oseichi special foods for New Year's week. 

 

First snow of the new year--it was a cold, wet day here.  

Holiday Season

We have really enjoyed the past few weeks from Thanksgiving leading up to Christmas.  There are so many more opportunities to share the message of the birth, life and mission of the Savior during this time.  Christmas can be seen all over in the stores and on the streets, and in many homes and apartments with trees, lots of lights, and Santa and his little elves everywhere.  The music in the stores and on the streets is a mixture of the songs of the Savior’s birth that we love and often sing in Church, along with the usual Santa Claus songs.  But crèche’s, nativities, and manger scenes are not to be found anywhere.  We have loved sharing that side of the Christmas message as we visit with people, teach, and visit senior citizen centers.  The Church members here also planned and carried out a very nice Christmas open house on the Tuesday before Christmas, since it is a national holiday (the Emperor’s birthday). 

On Christmas Eve we had our weekly English class which only had a few people, but was a lot of fun as we talked about Christmas symbols and two of our young missionaries dressed up in Santa Claus outfits and we all went out and walked around the streets singing Christmas songs with a ukulele, shaking hands, waving at people, and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.  People seemed to love it and loved having their pictures taken with the two Santa’s—there were only a few Scrooges on the streets.  Our English class students were very brave and patient to be seen with us.  We came home that evening and found we had been given a “heart attack” on our front door by some anonymous friends from the church (that’s where they tape hearts and love notes on your door).  We were so touched.  They are so kind and give so much and we feel like we have so little to give them with our limited language and other skills. 

People have been so generous giving us all kinds of fruit and things.  The kaki (persimmon) is one of the most frequent things we get, especially from our good friends down street who run the little mom and pop grocery store you saw in an earlier picture.  This past week they also had kinkan (cumquats) which was a Deja vous for someone from California.  I have good memories of Sue, Honey, Lori, Rich, and I eating cumquats on a sunny afternoon.  When I bit into that cute little cumquat, it took me back to my childhood.  We also love all the mikans (mandarin oranges) and ringo (apples) and dragon fruits that seem to be so abundant.  There are some fruits that seem to be unique to the islands here and we have a hard time learning their names in Japanese or English.

There has been some snow here on the hills and on the volcano and although the temperatures are not too low the humidity makes the cool air seem quite cold, especially since central heating and air conditioning aren’t used here.  When its 40 degrees here the chill factor puts the “feels like” temperature at like 30 degrees. 

Our grandchildren have been so good to send us cute pictures and notes for both Thanksgiving and Christmas and we have loved sharing them with our friends here. 

This next week we move into the big holiday for Japan, New Years or Oshogatsu where everything seems to shut down.  We are excited to watch the traditions. 

 

 

Snow on the volcano.  Brrr!

 

Cumquats, mikans, etc.  Yummmm!  Nice gifts!

 

We love the grandchildren's little love notes and cards. 

 

Our surprise Christmas "Heart Attack" from anonymous Church friends.

 

A box of Christmas surprises from our Church friends.  How fun!

 

This luscious cake was part of the gifts from our Church friends--wow! 

 

English class night with the elders playing Santa Claus on the streets of Kagoshima. 

The people loved having their pictures taken with them!

 

Some of the beautiful decorations on the streets. 

 

Amazing delicate lightings. 

 

Santa had to leave quickly Christmas Eve to go on his runs around the world. 

 

Winter Has Arrived

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week with some activities with so many friends from English class and from the Church.  While it wasn’t turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy, it was close—chicken and rice and gravy.  We had some fun games and shared a film on the Savior’s birth, since this is the opening of the Christmas season.  They loved it. 

While we are in a tropical land of palm trees and volcanoes, and it is warmer than other parts of Japan, we also faced the reality this past week that it can also get quite cold and may even be icy and we may even see snow here. 

We have enjoyed sharing the tradition of decorating our Christmas tree here, and other family Christmas traditions with our friends here.  In the absence of grandchildren to do those things with we enjoyed an evening with enchiladas, Christmas music, and an old BYU Motion Picture film “The Gift” on the spirit of Christmas giving.  Thanks to these friends we are feeling at home while still far away from home. 

This week we also got to attend a special meeting in Fukuoka with about 200 other young missionaries, and a few older couples like us.  Wow, what amazing strength, faith, and dedication to the Lord these young people have.  Many of them rode buses or trains for several hours to be there and to return the same day, and then also for nearly five hours they were riveted on the messages and the instruction they were receiving on how to be better servants of our Heavenly Father during this special season.  They are great examples to us.  While this isn’t necessarily an easy experience here, it is a great soul stretching experience for us.  We are blessed in so many ways. 

 

 

Decorating our Christmas tree with our friends. 

Didn’t they do a great job?! Thanks you two!

 

 

We stopped at a rest area in the mountains on our way to inspect missionary apartments about an hour away from us, and saw this somewhat ominous sign warning drivers about driving near snow removal trucks.  What does that mean?

We were a little surprised to see these bags of snow melt on the hilly road near our home.  What does that mean?

 

Yes, that is snow on the top of the volcano.

What does that mean?

Ohara Matsuri Time!

Monday was our preparation day and was also a national holiday and the day of the big local Fall festival with parades of folk dancers and booths with traditional foods.  The smells were wonderful.  We walked down the mountain to the downtown area instead of driving, in case we couldn’t find parking, and watched the parades.  Many people were very kind and came up and greeted us.  So many different groups join in the matsuri parade dancing to traditional music and march up and down the street for hours.  There was even a wheelchair group and some "foreigners and their friends" who formed a group and participated.  Such a wonderful historical and cultural heritage can be found here.  They are very proud of their southern Kyushu contribution to the ancient history of Japan.  Our church members here are amazing too with all that they do for each other and the community.  This congregation has been here for about forty years. 

Even the pizza delivery people are traditional folk dancers.

Traditional dancers

The elderly and handicapped join the parade.

Traditional folk dancers. 

Taiko drummers were amazing.

Ahh the smell of yaki tori.