Faceboook

I'm quickly developing a love/hate relationship with Facebook. You can comment on things very quickly, but it somehow reminds me of my friends and acquaintences all getting together in one small room and talking all at once. It may well have its uses for good. We'll see.

Hot and Humid

The expression in Japanese is "mushi-atsui", (mushi = steamy, atsui = hot). Being from Florida, it's not that I don't know what hot humid weather is, but here the air conditioning is much more iffy - not every place has it, not every place has central units. Add to that the fact that I live a 15 minute walk from the Office and don't have or even drive a car in Japan. The result is that I sweat a lot here. Thank the Lord for orchestrating the creation of anti-persperant/deodorants. I still sit in church and sweat after my walk, so I fan myself and use a small towel to wipe the drips.
Fortunately the hot humid weather is only June and July with the "rainy season". In late July it switches to mainly hot through the middle of September.

Conference pictures

I've uploaded the pictures I took in Tagajo and Matsushima while at conference. As always, double click on one of the slideshows running at left and it should take you to my Picasa Albums. Click on an album to view the pictures.

OMF East Japan Conference

These are most of us, taken in the parking lot of the hotel in Tagajo where the conference was held. I love it when someone goes to the second floor and sits on the window ledge to get a group shot. No double chins in this picture! (Some of us can use all the help we can get.)

Our annual conference is a great time to see folks who work in the far reaches of our area or who do jobs where our paths don't often cross. We had an afternoon to sight see in the Matsushima area. Did a walking tour of a small island connected by a longish foot bridge with several others. Hit all the souvenir shops, of course and sampled pear ice cream, which in Japan is called La France for reasons I have not yet discovered, and a local specialty - Zunda - which turns out to be chopped, cooked, sweetened edamame. They use it in the same things they do sweet bean paste. It may be an acquired taste.

The Pie Lesson

Today, I had four Japanese women over to my place for a pie lesson. It all started with the apple pie I made for the Christmas dinner last year. One of the people at the party decided it would be great if I would give a lesson on how to make American Apple Pie. It's taken almost 6 months, but we finally did it yesterday. Wouldn't my mother have been amazed that I was teaching women in Japan to do what she taught me as a child?

There are also some pictures of my apartment here on the slide show. None of the kitchen or bath though, maybe later. To view the album with captions with the pictures, double click on the slide show. When your browser takes you to Picasa and my Albums, click on 'Georgia's Apple Dumpling', or view any of the other of my public albums by clicking on them.

Isogashkatta !

I am really busy this week. It's all the part time jobs I do, wanting to be more like full time ones.

Summer weather is definitely on its way and people are shifting to short sleeves a bit before the traditional change-over day of June 1st. Yikes! I need more summer clothes! I was so worried about not being warm enough I don't have enough cool things!

Must run. Rooms to clean, weekly prayer meeting, feed the cat. All sorts.

Middle of May

The first week of May (depending on the days of the week the holidays actually fall) in Japan is called Golden Week. There are 5 holidays and some people are able to take a few more days and add all that to the weekends to get a decent Spring Break. Most offices are closed and most stores are open. This year there was a special deal for those going by car on the major toll roads throughout the country so even more people than usual opted for car trips.

Rather than go somewhere and relax, most Japanese feel that if you go somewhere historic or famous, you need to run around as much as you can and see everything, and of course take pictures.

I went into Tokyo and visited an exhibit of antique Japanese fabrics and crafts one day, and went in the other direction to visit a big craft store for some findings for a bag I was making. Mostly I enjoyed having less people to share the trains with and having a couple days off work.

Now it is the middle of May and small signs of summer are appearing.