Week 51-January 20-26, 2014

This week was a slow week at honbu.  The president and assistants to the president (AP) were on a tour of the mission, so not as much action.  During one of the slow times Elder Koberstein took a picture of me at the office secretary desk.  I love the picture on the wall by my desk.  My area is shared with the AP's. Materials Supply Manager (MSM) and Recorder Elders.  The office shares the printer, fax machine and shredder that are also in my area of the office.

This is the office of Elder Koberstein where mission fiances are discussed.  He has his own separate office with a door.  It also has the microwave, refrigerator and a window to the outside in it.  This week he discovered one more thing, his own thermostat to control office temperature.  He will not have the freeze any more.

  Because it was slow Elder Koberstein and I decided to take a walk at the Botanical Gardens next the honbu and zoo(Fukuoka dobu-tsuen).  I liked this display of barrel cactus.  Cactus are plants that grow easily in California and some have such beautiful blossoms.

In the rain forest room there were beautiful displays of orchids in blossom.  We enjoyed looking at all the different types.

There were large and small orchids and all colors too.

This is a view of Fukuoka from a look out point in the Botanical Garden.

Another view from the Botanical Garden.  The garden, zoo and temple are all on a hill but the temple is lower than the other two.

We walked across the bridge between the zoo and garden and took the tram down to the zoo.

Looking down at the zoo.

 The temple as visible from the zoo.  We had a wonderful afternoon walk.

There is a ward member in the Fukuoka Ward that has an antique shop.  She imports antiques from England once a year.  We biked over an looked at all the beautiful dishes, things and furniture.

She had an old butter churn similar to the one that my uncle had when I was a child.  We had just talked about making butter at Eikaiwa (English class) recently as in the Little House in the Woods by Laura Ingles ma made butter.  We are reading and discussing this book

Saturday after our morning Japanese class we stopped by the Fukuoka City Museum.  They had an Impressionism Exhibition by European masters which was a collection on loan from over 40 museums in 8 countries including the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, USA; the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, France; and the Wallrat-Richartz-Museum in Cologne, Germany.

My favorite was the "Dance of Bougival" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  It was a huge painting that looked so real.  Pieces in the exibit were before the car.  They show horse and buggy days.  It was really a 1800's history lesson.

After our Sunday meetings we were invited to attend a special recital of the winners in a piano contest for grade school through eighth grade children.  The concert was held at the Fukuoka Symphony hall.  It was amazing to hear these talented young people play.

The Acros (Asian Cross Road Over the Sea) Fukuoka building it was held in was amazing.  This building was constructed in 1994.  It was a new solution for a common urban problem of developer's desire for a profitable use of a site and the public need for open green space.

The other side of the building looks like any office building.  The back side has a roof garden and park.  This building fulfills both needs.  We saved the hike to the top for another day though.

Scripture of the week

Genesis 1:27

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.