Sakura Matsuri

This year's festival was quite splendid indeed. We enjoyed the festival atmosphere upon several occasions:

A very nice man offered to take our picture in front of this beautiful cherry tree, which is quite atonishing since most Japanese run from the nearest foreigner (unless they are junior highschoolers wanting to say hello, since all foreigners speak english!). Perhaps he was Chinese.

Instead of heaving through the vast crowds at Hirosaki Park, famous the country over for its cherry blossoms, we ventured to a smaller less crowded park to enjoy our second ohanami party.

And of course the bees were busy.

And here is a random picture of a flock of night herons making a pit stop during migration at a nearby temple ground. A simply amazing sight of God.

Sakura II

The cherry blossoms are in full bloom and the park is full once again. Although this season is rather chilly and damp the blossoms are as pretty as ever and the chocolate bananas are just as tasty.

We took some time out to enjoy an ohanami party with our dear friends. Previous to this we made a fresh start to the park at 6am to beat the crowds, but unfortunately this is not early enough. We did get in to see the castle grounds for free!!

Tomorrow adds to the excitement with a second ohanami party and BBQ.

Oh...Hirosaki...

The Elusive Kingdom

Instead of having an Easter party with English club like we wanted, we began "The Adventures of Big Red and Silver Bullet!"

Barbed Wired Temple?

In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Ephesians 3:12

Tokyo & Kyoto

Last week we took an adventure down to Tokyo and Kyoto. We had a three day conference with other missionaries in Japan. A great time was had by all at the conference. Testimonies and stories were told and encouragement poured out in the bucket loads.

While in Tokyo we spent time with several friends traveling about the enormous city. It was a sight to see all the many peoples gathered there.

We also made a trip to Kyoto where upon we forced three days of sightseeing into one. It was quite the excursion and most of the major sights were seen. But all in all this was the only temple worthwhile to us to see--Kinkakuji--The Golden Temple.

Thus concludes our first year in Japan.