Fighting in the heat

Nagoya has been unexpectedly hot this year. Everyday, temperature goes up over 96 Fahrenheit with high humidity. We even experienced a level-3 earthquake in Japanese scale; this is about when people start to feel a little fear.

In this extreme heat without AC, David changed net for a screen door.



From that, David got headache and backache. However, he taught a beautiful lesson on atonement from the gospel principle book in today's Family Home Evening.

Talking about FHE, I need to report my father's progress. Tonight was the first night that my father, who is not a member of the church, actually stayed and listened to the whole message about church doctrine. He just said "I think that was a good story," but it obviously made me happy.



My mother told me that my father always had no intention to live long life. However, he recently started to say that he may want to live a little longer. "I changed my mind by seeing David," dad says.

David, what did you do? How could you change his mind, which my mom kept failing for 20 some years?

Likewise, we are having great time.

My grandparents, father, mother, David and I went out to eat eel yesterday. Today was the day called dojo no hi, when the weather suppose to begun getting really hot. On dojo no hi, we eat eel nationwide to prepare for boiling summer days. We love eel and David likes it.




Eel about this size is $20on average. Yes, it is usually the same or more expensive than stake.


But David's almighty favorite are fried shrimp and spaghetti. With those, David can have a big smile even in the heat.

By the way, our reception was a big success. We will post some pictures later with others but here are some.

Fire flies

We went to 岩屋堂(Iwayado) to see fire flies. Mid June to early in July is the season for fire flies here in Nagoya area. Our friend was obviously a skilled driver who drove through a narrow pass which only fit one car at high speed.

It was actually a miracle to go see fire flies. Earlier that day, I finally got to see my friend from kindergarten. She was baptized after my mission but has been inactive in the church. She was avoiding members, but that day, she came to see me and we were just mentioning how beautiful fire flies were around this season. She was expressing her desire to see fire flies since she had not seen them this year. Neither had I.

Later that night, one random member from church called me and said that he was wondering if David and I were interested in going out to see fire flies, out of nowhere.

Thus, not only we got to see fire flies, but also my friend had a chance to see another member of the church that she had been hesitating to see. It was good.

Seeing fire flies is a part of wabi-sabi that is unique to Japanese culture. I can sit there and stare at fire flies all night, not getting bored. With a wabi-sabi feeling, I feel peace, calm, and in tune with nature. Similar yet different with being in the temple.

David asked why we came to see JUST fire flies. That's a good start to ponder about Japanese spirit, wabi-sabi.

七夕 - Star Festival

We celebrate Tanabata, Star Festival.

My family used to make a Tanabata tree when I was little. Tanabata tree is a bumboo tree and people hang papers in which we write our wishes. When Daivd and I went supermarket today, we realized big Tanabata tree by the entrance just like Christmas tree.

Now I wish I should have read some of the wishes hanged on the bamboo. However, we were so exhausted from all the translation job, in which we had been doing last 3 days. As a result, we were little blind with those cool staff but at least took some pictures...

Before going home from supermarket that was 10 minutes away, we needed some snack. This is what grows me into what I am now. It's called dango.

From now, David says that he wants to come to yakiniku restaurant.

When we came home, there were two star rice for David and me from my good neighbor.

Tanabata festival was bigger than what I remembered as a young girl.

Japanese Grave

June 11th

We visited my grandpa's grave yard. He passed away this January so it was my first time to visit as well. Here is a picture of my husband David, my dad, mom, grandma (mom's side), and grandpa's grave.

Prayer.

My father is not dead, but his name along with my uncles is behind the grave. When people donate to build a grave their names are posted behind the grave.

Update

I have been slacking my blog since we left to Kanagawa (grandma's house)-Tokyo-Okinawa. We came back on the 26th of June. It was a good long trip. From all the walking, sweating, and fun, David looks little thiner and I look little tanned. Right now, we are home and running errands for preparing reception and correcting things to bring home to U.S.

At first, I will post some pictures that I took way back (about 2-3 weeks ago) and see how fast I can catch up.

June 9th

Off course, David got fascinated with Japanese cell phones. Various choices and good quality are good enough to keep him in front of them easily for 30 minutes. He has been thinking how he could get the Japanese cell phone to work in the States. I wish there are chairs around cell phone displays.

Missionaries that I taught at the MTC is currently working in my home word. Elder Adachi and Elder Palmer. So, we invited them over for dinner. I hope my mother can go back to church soon…

June 10th

My home city is famous for cacti. However, it’s not like the one that you see in Arizona. Our cacti stay in Japanese size.

Japan is a nature-friendly country. This is the entrance for my local train station. Do you see a little construction area?

No, it is not a construction. Instead of moving the bird’s nest away, they block the area so nobody get birds’ poops. Those birds come back here every year around this season as long as I can remember as a little child.

This is David’s favorite snack, onigiri, rice bawl, that he gets at convenience stores. For us Japanese, this is popular lunch that we take replace of the sandwich in western countries. Onigiri is less risky to food poisoning in humid climate. Here, food poisoning is a big deal and we cannot take out leftover food from restaurants. When I bought a roll cake, the clerk told me the expiration date was just two hours away on the same day although it was baked on the same morning. We ate it two days later and were fine though.

Green Coke—pretty tasty. Don’t know why it's named “green.”