Monday, November 18, 2013

Week 41 - November 12-18, 2013

On the way to the mission office from the APA hotel we passed this group of children.  They are very young and all dressed alike including the staff with yellow hats.  They were very cute.
This sculpture is a land mark as we drove to the mission offices from our hotel.  When we passed this dove sculpture the next street was our turn. 
The mission president and his wife were at a mission presidents conference this past week and the mission home carpet was replaced while they were gone.  The carpet was ordered from the United States.  The picture is the pile of carpet that was removed.
 Men busy at work.  They new carpet was an exact replacement.
At Eikiwai on Wednesday night one of our students was really excited about Paul McCartney coming to Fukuoka and doing a concert.  We just happened to see the Paul McCarthney van pull in to town.  Paul McCartney is one of the Beetles from the days of our youth.  Amazing that he is still doing concerts.
This week we said goodbye to the office couple going home.  On Friday evening we went out to eat with them at a fun place where you cook your own meal over a charcoal fire pit.  It was a different experience.  We had chicken and beef with some vegetables.  The grill is about a foot across in size and set in the center of the table.
Saturday we drove to Costo and we saw the ocean on the way.  It looked like a beautiful place to go for a bike ride, weather permitting.
This is the view out our living room window and balcony in our new apartment.  You can see guest parking and the green thing is the place that we take the garbage bags to be picked up.  Monday and Thursday is burnables, 3rd Wednesday is non-burnable garbage and 1st Monday is soft drink, liquor, and soy sauce PET bottles bearing the logo and glass containers.  Garbage is paid for by buying bags at the local super markets and stores.  You can also see the road in front.  We live a steep hill.  I am not sure I will ever learn to bike up it but the walk is not far.
This is the view from our front door.  It is on the opposite side of the apartment.  It look like a beautiful home and another apartment building.  
The office couple left use beautiful pansies and
spider plants on the patio.  They also left a bag of fertilizer.  I may be able to learn how to be a more successful gardener in Kumamoto.  I knew I needed fertilizer but did not know what to buy.  It is hard not having all the language skills you would like.  
More pansies from the patio.

Our bikes arrived this week.  The bike company had a hard time finding them.  We had to have the Kumamoto Zone Leaders help them.  We are not sure if they were moved by the apartment facility person or not as we parked then in the bike parking lot and found out through the zone leaders that one must pay to park bikes there.  We wonder if that is the case here at our apartment building.  I think we will find out soon. 

Sunday we took our first bike ride in Fukuoka.  We walked from our apartment to the mission offices.  It took about 45 minutes and then biked back in about 20 minutes.  The trip is about 1.6 miles.  It was a fun activity for a Sunday afternoon.  We walked up stairs and on paths that would be impossible to drive or bike and come in behind the mission offices by the park.  Terry is getting really good at navigation with his ipod touch here in Japan for which I am very glad for.
It is raining today but we decided to bike to the mission offices.  We made it in 20 minutes and it had some up hill.  It did not rain on the way to the office but we were not so lucky on the way home.  The ride home was great.  Mostly down hill but it was raining lightly.  My bike is the white bike with the helmet.   
This is our study.  We both have computer desks and are loving it.  Terry does not regret giving up the kitchen table in Kumamoto.  We needed a desk chair for one of the desks.  Saturday we found the empty blue chair by my desk at a second hand store for 2100 yen.  The second hand store is just up the street.  I was so happy. 

Scripture of the Week
And he saith unto them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.
Mathew 4:19-20







1 comment:

Delirious said...

That Japanese home by your apartment is beautiful! And the food looks delicious!