kds kupboard: Week 78 - July 28

Tuesday was transfer calls for missionaries. We had no changes in the Kumamoto and Nagamine area. There were some changes in the Shimizu and Tsuboi area. On Thursday we had the opportunity to pick up luggage in the rain for sisters in Shimizu, Tsuboi and Beppu area. It is always fun to meet the new missionaries as they arrive in a new area.

Friday we headed to Beppu on a very rainy day. The storm was the effects of typhoon 12, Rammasun, on Japan. In the Philippines, where it came on shore, twelve people were killed. We were very glad to only have lots of rain.

The rain turned into fog before we arrived in Beppu. We were exited off the toll way early and sent through the winding mountain road by the city of Yufuin. We were very glad when we arrived safely in Beppu.

While we were looking in the OFF HOUSE for furniture for the Beppu Sisters apartment I found a bonus. It is the six inch tall Kokeshi type wooden doll pictured above. Kokeshi dolls are famous in Japan. They are very beautifully painted wooden dolls and can be very expensive. This doll is not signed by the artist but I liked it and the price was right. We also found a microwave stand, a kitchen unit to hold the toaster oven, rice cooker etc. with storage, a dresser and four chairs for the kitchen table. The price was in our apartment opening budge from honbu. We were so happy!

Beppu has a Friday evening Eikaiwa. They were having an welcoming party for the new shimi. It was a dinner and social. We were invited but had a hard time finding parking by the church so decided to go to our Toyoka Inn in Oita where we were staying for the evening. We got there in time for the 2014 Tanabata Festival which was right outside the hotel.

We walked over in the rain and had to hunt for a place where there were not to many umbrella's to look between, over or under.

There were many groups dancing and pulling big float like objects. Each group danced to the same music using the same dance step but the costumes and floats were different for each.

We enjoyed watching for a while and then we bought dinner from a venter on the street and watched some more of the parade.

This is a picture of one of the groups of dancers with their float.

This picture was taking from a bridge near the shimi apartment in Beppu. I thought it was a beautiful way to use a river bed for water and beauty. Saturday we picked up some last minute items for the apartment and took the shimi grocery shopping, and to Oita to a bike shop to buy a "Giant" bike for one of them.