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.

Nikko

I went to Nikko this weekend with a couple friends. (Thanks to Ruth we got an excellent deal on travel and hotel.) The really famous thing about Nikko is the shrines and temple on the edge of town. It's a large grouping of buildings and even on a very rainy day there were plenty of people there.

On one of the buildings are carved various scenes including monkeys engaged in different activities. It is one section of this that contains "See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Speak No Evil". If you watch the slideshow or go to the album on Picasa (double click on the slideshow picture) you can easily see that the little carvings or other kinds of replicas we have seen most of our lives look very little like the real thing. What a shame, because in the original the characters have a liveliness and charm missing from the drab carvings I've seen most commonly.

In town I did see a wood carving in the window of an antiques store that was quite different, showing, again three monkeys - realistically carved - a mother covering the eye of one young one, while he in return had his hand on mother's mouth, a second youngster had one of his hands on his own ear. It was darling, well done, and incredibly expensive.

The other buildings in the complex have delicate, intricate carvings, paintings and gildings. Flowers, birds, angry looking elephants carved and painted on many surfaces. Inside the buildings are buddhas and sleeping cats and weeping dragons, priests making offerings. There are repairs and refinishing works going on all around. I'm sure the environment under the dark ancient forest is hard on the wood and metal, not to mention the steady stream of visitors.

Moving right along

The Cherry Blossoms are a thing of the past in Ichikawa. They were fading fast over the weekend and then we had a heavy rain followed by strong wind. So now we are enjoying tulips, primroses, pansies, and seeing the first show of purple on the fuji (wisteria) among many flowering trees and plants. In all the concrete and stone and asphalt and with the buildings unbelievably close (to American eyes) you can usually see some spot of color in it. Small flower boxes sit on front stoops. The tops of stone walls often are lined with plant pots with flowers blooming. It's a colorful time of year here.

He is Risen Indeed!

Was just reading an article from a British Newspaper, the point of which was that we Christians need to stop trivializing the Resurrection. I agree. One of the comments from a reader was that there was no proof of any resurrection. If you've studied the proof and the Book which records it, and you look into the probability of it's truth it makes you wonder what the reader would need to convince him.

Happy Easter to you all, because He DID Arise from the dead, and for no other reason.

Thank you for waiting!

A new slide show is running to the left. I took these photos on Wednesday as I walked to my friend Yasuko's house for a Quilting lesson.

I discovered something interesting the other day. If you double click on the slide show it should take you to my Albums on Picasa. You can then click on the albums and see the photos on full screen. Happy viewing.

Wish you were here with me sitting under the trees full of pink blossoms and raining petals down on us in the gentle breeze.

Hanna Yuki

Or is it Hanna no ame?

Anyway, pictures are coming soon of the cherry trees in bloom and some today that were losing their petals and therfore making either Flower Snow or Flower Rain. Can't remember. But it's pretty to see.

Keep watching this space!