September 26th 2013 Country Time!

Most of my readers may know the more recent me, in my initial post I talked about the last almost 30 years of my life and of the places I traveled and saw, but before those days I lived for 19 years growing up.
I think some folks think that being called into the ministry or to the mission field is something impossible for them to do because their background isn't one of jet setting or money but I'm here to tell you my background wasn't either.  While I was an AirForce brat and lived in New York, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Japan that was only until I was about 6 years old. After that, my Dad retired from the military and we moved to Eau Claire,Wi. for a couple of years and then we moved to Cleghorn, Wi.  a town so small it was unincorporated and literally had more cows than people!
                                                       
                                                        

 I grew up in this old farm house with 6 brothers and 1 sister. We had some dogs, cats and at different times we also had chickens, rabbits, pigs a duck and a pony! I spent my days playing Army in the woods with my brothers,climbing trees, or picking wild berries and asparagus.  In the winter we built massive snow forts and tobaggoned down the hills on our property. We also ice skated on the creeks or down at the ice rink  next to the grade school "in town".  The last thing I ever imagined was that God could take somebody like me and throw her all over the world into different countries and major cities! I won't lie and say I don't miss the country life because I do, I'm a country girl at heart and probably always will be, but I also love serving God and meeting different people all over the place!

When Gary and I got married it was at the little country church I was attending.

This church was originally Pleasant Valley town hall and school. Eventually, the land it was on was bought by a farmer and he started a Bible Study and eventually it grew and we got a Pastor  and Pleasant Valley Bible Church was started. (Cleghorn is in Pleasant Valley township)    There was no indoor plumbing only an outhouse but it was where I spent my first years as a new Christian and I have very fond memories of our little church and the people that were in it!  Unfortunately, as the years passed many of the older members passed away and the younger ones moved on to bigger churches in the city. Recently though, the building was donated as an historical site by the family who owned it, to the township of Pleasant Valley and they moved it to where Cleghorn Elementary  School  used to be, to be a part of the new Cleghorn Park. I found this link to a video of the move. As far as I know, Gary and I were the only couple married there. I have been asked to send them some wedding pictures but haven't gotten around to it yet.
http://vimeo.com/49176071

Here's a few pics from where my old grade school was and is now the town park. Yes, I had a Huge playground, including a hill for sledding and an ice skating rink. Recesses rocked there! You can see the old church where I was married in the background since they moved it.

 

 

Farmers like their tractors!

                          You know you're a farming community when you see the competitions for Harvest Fest!

                                                         

                                      Anyway, there you have it, my country girl past!   On to food!!!!
I've been trying some new recipes out lately.  I tried this recipe  by Maria on youtube. She's from Ecuador and it's her pollo seco recipe!  It's super easy!

 

I didn't have any achiote or saffron (though I think it was turmeric she substituted) and I decided to add some sliced mushrooms just because I love mushrooms! Here's mine.
                                        
                                           

I was still feeling Lantina so then I made arroz con pollo with calabacitas on the side!

I thought I'd better do something Japanese so I made these little pork tsukune patties.

I got the recipe from here: https://en.cookpad.com/recipe/2190300 This site used to be only in Japanese but is now in English as well, I love it and it has LOTS of new recipes to try! Like today's chicken wings and Daikon radish recipe! 
                                                                   

 

 

 

                                          Anyway, that's it for now! Until next time!

September 21st Ghosts of Birthday's Past

    The hardest thing for me about living in a foreign country isn't the new language or different foods, it's being away from family. Especially, being far from my children. Especially being far from my children on their birthdays! Impossible though it seemed when they were growing up and our home was a cacophony of noise and action, my children have all grown up and moved out on their own. The house is quiet and Gary and I putter around like a couple of old people and while some of it is quite nice the other part of it isn't so much. We were never people who looked forward to school starting up again so we could send the kids off and get them out of our hair because we never considered our kids to be a burden. We homeschooled them all and were with them 24/7. They were our joy to have around and show the world to and we dragged them to different countries and cities with us and had a blast!  Today is my youngest son's birthday, this is the first birthday in his life that we have missed being a part of. From the day his Daddy delivered him at home in Mexico, until now, we have always celebrated his birthday with him.   Here he is celebrating a birthday in Pueblo, Colorado.
                          
                                           
                                                                         His very first Gameboy!

                                       

                                                     
                                                              Here's one from his 13th Birthday in Panama
                                                     
                                                     

                              

                                                     And finally,last year's birthday in Las Vegas, N.M.
                                                  
                                                     Gary imitating the picture of his 1 yr. Birthday
                                                 
                                                             
                                                                                   Pizza Party! 
                                      
                                             

 

  

 

 

                      Here's wishing I could be there with him to celebrate his 19th birthday and ride a hippo with him again!                                        
                                                           

                                  

                                                        

 

 Happy Birthday Son! I Love You!

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 15th Festival Day Part 2

So here's Part 2.
In the afternoon we had an appointment with our realtor guy. He's been trying very hard to find us a building to rent but it's very difficult to find a place willing to rent to a church so we need LOTS of prayers about that!  However, he did find this place in Shibuya for us to see so off we headed! Though Shibuya is a ways from our house it's not hard to get there because there's a direct train from the Kichijoji station, so we just take our Mu bus there and hop on the train.  Unfortunately, due to festivities and traffic our Mu bus was late! Me and this lady started chatting after Gary and I shared our umbrella with her when it was raining some.  It was funny because we understood only a few words between us but even when the bus arrived she kept chatting with me as I sat next to her and laughing!

Also while I was standing there, the only Gaijin in sight, these two ladies pulled up on bicycles, one gets off and speaks to me in English and gives me a Watch Tower magazine in English! I got outreached by a JW! LOL! I remember when Gary and I lived in Caleta de Campos in Mexico, there was no running water or electricity but the Atalaya's (JW's) and Mormons had beaten the Evangelicals to that village! Shame on us!
So anyway, the bus arrived and we headed to Shibuya finally!
Here's the building we were looking at.
                                                It's the space on the ground floor.

 It has nice big windows and I like the face Gary is making at me! lol  It's also got a bathroom and small kitchenette with a single burner.

 

 We are still looking at a couple other properties this week I think (unless the owners change their minds about renting to a church) so hopefully we'll get something soon!

After we looked at the building, Gary and I decided to explore the neighborhood. It was busy celebrating festival too so we also managed to pick up a treat! Gary had grilled squid and I chose a strawberry sucker. The real fruit is dipped in the melted sucker sauce and as it cools it hardens so you eat the sucker and then have tasty fruit in the middle!

 

Here's a few more pics from the area.

This little girl was fishing out little plastic figurines , so many to choose from but she was only picking her favorite Doraemon!

 
This man was really cool, he shaped candy into Pokémon suckers! He was an artist!

                                                                I choose you Pikachu!

 

This guy is cooking Okonomiaki !

                                      Lot's of folks out celebrating and wearing Kimonos!

 

When we got back to Shibuya Station we heard music and saw these dancers.

 

 

And this guy playing and singing too!

 

 

I'm not sure what this instrument is but he was rock'in it!

 

After that we caught our train and headed home! Our feet were sore from all the walking but it was worth it! 

 

Sept. 15th 2013 Festival Day Part 1

Been out and about the last few days. Friday, I headed over to the Walmart (Seiyu) to buy a new fan as our old one kicked the bucket! As summer is ending they were on sale so I was able to pick one up reasonably priced enough! I picked up a few other things as well, I needed some more baby powder but haven't been able to find any in the pharmacies so I checked at Walmart in the diaper section and they had little round  plastic jars of powder.  I assumed there would be a powder puff in the jar but nope.. just powder.  Guess  I'll have to see if the puffs are sold separately, in the mean time I'll just fling powder at myself!
On the way home I stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken. They are all over the place here but we've never actually eaten at one yet. The fact that they don't have mashed potatoes on the menu has always stopped us. This time though I decided to give it a try. The chicken was good, the cole slaw was good, but not as sweet. The donut shaped biscuit was unimpressive but the desert custard tart was quite nice! All in all, I didn't have to cook dinner and it was alright!
While I was in Kichijoji ,(or Joji town as the cool hip call it), I saw some festival activities being set up and I remembered having read that this weekend was festival weekend and Monday is Respect the Elderly day, a national holiday (how nice is that?!). I determined to get up early the next day and try to catch the parade. I think it's part a religious festival and part secular too, since everything here is intertwined (no separation of church and state stuff here) it's hard to tell where one thing ends sometimes and another begins. The parade carrying the shrine from the temple is obvious, the traveling drums in the truck is less so.
Saturday, I was up and out the door headed to Kichijoji. I first went to the Walmart as there is a large temple across the street. I found a bunch of shrine carrier folks waiting around. The guy in green was telling these ladies to stop playing with the toy dispensing machines and go wait elsewhere! lol!

                                   Almost every person was carrying a matching man bag.

  The split toe shoes were part of the matching outfit, some of the shoes were up past the ankle and a few people had some up to their calves.

 This group had a token Gaijin guy in the bunch....of course he HAD to go in shorts because he doesn't stand out enough already...

After a little speech, everybody clapped and started heading out to somewhere else, I became a stalker and followed them to see where they were headed. Turns out they were going to this other temple a few blocks away.
It reminded me of the Catholic Kermes in Mexico, people were milling about and food stalls were being set up.

                                        
                                        This vender was planning on using a lot of cabbage!

 
The parade began with this guy riding a horse, I like the horses hat, it covers his ears too! (Note the pooper scooper guy in the yellow shirt walking behind the horse)

                                            
                                                     Sign spinners have nothing on this guy!

 

 

 

                                        
                                    Then some older gentlemen come carrying lanterns.

                                    

And then some ladies with lanterns.

 

And then some drums, flute playing and ladies dancing.

 

  
                           And then even bigger lanterns being carried on long poles.
                                    


Finally the shrine is carried to the other temple. It's quite large and heavy and takes many people to carry. There are extra people ready to step in and take turns on the way.

 

After this passed me by I headed back toward my bus stop.  On the way, I saw these cute little girls who allowed me to take their picture. Many folks were out and about in traditional kimonos and festival clothes.

                             
                                     I ran across the drum, flute dancing ladies again too.

By now I was ready to head home and  stopped at Mr. Donut to pick up this bucket of goodness!

I was almost to the bus stop when I heard big drums in the distance so I followed my ears and found the traveling drums!                They were very good!

 

I really did head home after that. Gary and I enjoyed some coffee and donuts and got ready to head to Shibuya as we had a meeting with our Realtor Agent to see a building for the church. That will have to wait for Part 2 though as this blog is already quite long!

To be continued....

Sept. 9th 2013

I had kind of a random day today. Took care of laundry, did some light house cleaning and finished reading a murder mystery that I picked up at the library last week.  Gary had his Japanese lesson this morning so I didn't bother with breakfast, just made myself some coffee and putzed around! I made some Mexican Spaghetti for dinner -basically spaghetti that is cooked and has ham, onion and salsa. (I also add cream cheese to it as it makes it smoother and tastier.)  Of course my Mexican spaghetti is never as good or as HOT as my daughter Katie's! It had been quite a while since we'd had any though so it was nice!

On to other things....
I was walking home from the store the other day and found this cicada shell. You can see where the back split open to let the cicada escape!

I love the sound of Cicadas, maybe it's a throw back to my childhood when we would catch them and watch them molt from their shells.  Whatever it is, I find the sound of them pleasant.
A couple of weeks ago I found some cute little bath toys, what made them interesting is that they are ceramic and they float! (And they are cute!) I bought a goldfish, a koi and a turtle!

On Saturday, we had to stay home until the inspectors came through our apartment to test all of the fire/carbon monoxide alarms. The notice had said any time between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. but they didn't arrive until 1:30p.m.! Afterwards, Gary and I went to Kichijoji to take care of some shopping. and for dinner. We had a nice dinner at Ootoya.  Ootoya is just a popular, mid range restaurant here but as you can see from their U.S. site it's a bit fancier in the States!
http://www.ootoya.us/

The other day I bought a packaged noodle dinner. 

 

There are SO MANY different types and flavors here that I thought I'd occasionally try one and see how it is.  It was alright for an emergency, but nothing I'd like to eat daily! (Yes, that's mayonnaise on top... mayo is very popular on noodles and stuff here!)
                                                         


I also picked up a packaged desert that made BIG promises!

 

While tasty, it didn't quite live up to it's advertised dream promises!

 

That's it for today!

September Already!

Hard to believe the summer is gone and fall is at our doorstep! The heat has been intense this past month and we hear that September continues hot but still...autumn is on the way! I'm generally a summer person myself, but even I admit to looking forward to a little cooler weather!

Had another dentist appointment today... this makes EIGHT so far! Good news is I'm finally seeing the end of the tunnel on this! Should only have about 4 appointments left and 3/4's of my mouth has all new dental in it and is looking great! On my way home I passed this cemetery.  Interesting thing is that it's in the middle of a very crowded shopping area as is the temple that is next to it. I guess the shopping area just got built up around them. Some of the graves I saw looked quite old.

Gary had his weekly Japanese class yesterday, later I hopped the Mu bus and went to Mitaka to meet him. This is the street where he has his class.

After we met up it was On to food!  We stopped for some lunch at a salaryman café, (that's what I call the cafes where you buy a ticket at the door to get your meal). I tried a new hamburger dish they had advertised.  The hamburger had a tomato/garlic sauce going on with a soft boiled egg on the side. It was alright but almost too garlicky for me which is hard to believe because I'm a very big fan of garlic!

Gary and I sat at a table together but many diners just gather around a large center table.

Earlier in the week I had decided to make a Korean dish. When we lived in Panama, my girls and I got interested in cooking Korean food. One of our favorite dishes was yachaejeon. It has julienned zucchini,green onions, and shrimp.( Sometimes I also add scallops if I have them on hand.) I sure miss cooking with my girls!

 It's really a very simple recipe and tastes great with rice and a dipping sauce! Here is the video so you can learn to make it too!

Maangchi, the lady who does these cooking videos has become moderately famous now but when we were watching her she was just starting out. Check out some of her other videos, the recipes are very tasty!

Yesterday, was Labor Day for you guys. I don't have a grill so I couldn't do the whole grill out thing, but I did do some good old fried chicken and my mother-in-laws delicious potato salad recipe!

Hope all my American readers had an enjoyable Labor Day...and the rest of you an enjoyable regular day!