Changing Times

When I was in college, many long years ago, one of my mottoes was "Nothing's Quite As Sure As Change" I have in subsequent times discovered that God never changes, but stuff having to do do with human beings often does.

This week and next I re-experience the role of Ichikawa OMF Guest Home Manager while the Aylings are in Hokkaido.  Yes, I have subbed for them before, but this time they are preparing for their imminent departure from Japan. When they go I will be in charge for real. True, I did run the Guest Home myself from 2000 to 2002, but then I was younger, the Guest Home was new, and not so many people knew about it.

So, now, I relearn the rhythms of cleaning, and greeting, and laundry, and bookings, and accounting, and shopping, and finding time off for myself. While this is going on there are still a few things I need to do in the Serve Japan Office from time to time. 

I'm praying that I can pace myself to run well in the race that is set before me.

Kyoto trip May 2011

 Just click on the photo!

For the quilt lovers in the crowd

Last month I visited a small quilt exhibit at a community center in Yawata (part of Ichikawa City) I think this is the same quilting group that exhibited last year around the same time of year. I thought the pieces in general showed that the students had begun to branch out a bit in their ideas and work.  Let me know what you think. The rest of the pictures are on my Picasa Web Site.

May, 2011 Quilting Class Outing

 Click on this picture for the rest of the collection!

At Long Last!

The first group of photos that have been languishing on my computer have been successfully uploaded to Picasa.  They go with the Post from "April 11 More Sakura," and are mostly taken on the stroll with my Quilting buddies in Ichikawa City.  There are 94 pictures in the group and if you go to my Picasa space and look at the May 2011 album, I have captioned some of the photos. You can leave comments if you like. As always, if you want to know more, just let me know. Hopefully I will be able to load them as a slide show to the right.

Watch this space!

Well, maybe not constantly, but soon, very soon, I will be doing a spree of updating.  I am currently on a long planned holiday in Kyoto and will return to Tokyo on the overnight bus tonight.  I have something like 379 pictures on my camera at the moment that have not been uploaded to the web, so anticipate a Japanese overload. 

Actually I am experiencing a Japanese overload of my own with all of the "culture" here. So, talk to you soon with pictures and everything!

24 hours in Kimitsu

I walked to church today, even though it would have been possible to ride the bike. During my wee jaunt to the Boso Peninsula yesterday I rode trains and in a car the whole visit. So I figured I needed  the exercise.

The city of Kimitsu is quite a bit more hilly than Ichikawa, and since I was not driving, I continually felt I had no idea where I was geographically nor any sense if which way to go to get anywhere. During my stay I sampled Chinese, Australian, American and Japanese cuisines.

The coverage of the Royal Wedding by Japanese television was interesting in where they decided to cut to commercials. You kind of got the notion that they felt that since they were all speaking English it didn't much matter if they cut away mid-sentence from the Scripture reading or the homily.

I loved the Queen in yellow, but thought poor Phillip looked like he was being swallowed by the collar of his uniform jacket. And Fergie's girls - well if you can't say anything nice... Loved the trees in Westminster. It looked like they were getting married in a formal garden. On reflection it probably would have been nice to manage the bride's train another way than to make her sister run around to straighten it out every little whipstitch.

I'm still wondering why there are so many shops I've not seen before in Kimitsu. I am also wondering when I'll be able to return to see the things I've missed.