Fun for All

Two weeks ago went took a pleasant trip to Anmon no Take which is a set of three waterfalls. We went along with our English Fellowship pastors and our friend Chris. It was a beautiful adventure with the leaves changing. We enjoyed it throughly.

Last weekend we went to a concert in Hirosaki. Two of our students played in it so we went to watch and support them.

It was a classical Japanese concert where they played traditional Japanese instruments. It was very interesting and fun to watch and we enjoyed seeing our students.

Yesterday was our Halloween party!! Our students got to experience first hand what Halloween is all about. We had the traditional Halloween edibles such as: pumpkin pie, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin bread, and orange frosted cookies!! Yum Yum--all made from scratch! (Yes, we mashed our own squash) They rarely have pumpkins here so we had to make do with squash.

We also had the traditional games of bobbing for apples....

and toilet paper mummy wrap.

And of course they carved pumpkins(squash).

picnics for everyone!

These last few weeks have been pretty busy, both at school and at home! On Friday we had no classes- the second years are on their class trips, the first years had emergency drill training, and the third years had a class picnic near the mountain! We got to go on the picnic with the third years, and oh, was it a picnic!

We took buses to the picnic site, and of course a bus ride would not be a bus ride w/o some karaoke over the announcer's mic!

There were about 300 students, and each class brought their own food for small groups within the class and man did they cook!

Our 33 and 34 classes made curry, chinese noodles, yaki-niku (meat), a korean dish, and this other meat/ramen dish that they dip in raw egg!!!

Then, on Saturday we decided to get out of Hirosaki for awhile, so we headed to the coast- Aomori, where we did some shopping, eating, and sight-seeing!

We went for a walk across the bridge..

Saw a taxi driver trying to catch pigeons..

so Angie of course thought she should try too.

We rented bikes and headed out to the pagoda and Japan's largest outdoor buddha.. .

as you can see this ginormus buddha is about as tall as 20 travis' or bigger, we don't really know, but it was HUGE!!!

and here we are amazed at just how big it is.. and we couldn't help but think at least mega churches are built so that people can fit in them, i mean really, what is the point of a buddha THIS big!

The pagoda and buddha are a memorial to the dead soldiers of WWII. There was also a walkway between the pagoda and the buddha, and in the woods there were pinwheels in the ground as a memorial for infants who have died in Japan.

Then today, we headed toward the mountains in Owani (the town next to Hirosaki) and had some worship in a cabin there..

and then headed outside to play some games and eat some meat!!!

It's been busy, and it's been fun!