March 26 2014 Our first church service!

                                                                           Hey there!
So, after all of last weeks running around and trying to get things set up we managed to have enough set up to have our first official church service in Japan! We were quite pleased with the turn out as there were 10 of us present... that doesn't sound like much but for a first service it's pretty good. I remember that we also started in Mexico with 8 people and now that's a huge church with many church plants under it's belt!  Anyway, service went well and Mr. N, our resident atheist, enjoyed his first Christian service ever and said he'd be back next Sunday!
                                                                                  

 

 For a small church, we are pretty international, there are 4 countries represented in this photo. Japan, the United States, the Dominican Republic and the Philippines.  We are definitely aiming to produce a Japanese church but in some ways it's good for the Japanese folks to see how a Christian church worships and to get an inclusive international mind set.

 

On Monday, we took the day off and relaxed... in the evening we did this again:

 

Yesterday the weather was SO nice... it got up to 73 degrees! I couldn't help myself and I headed out exploring to kokubunji to find the famous Tonogayato Park! I forgot my camera, unfortunately, but I stole this picture from the "intraweb" to share. Part of the park was this nice bamboo grove. I loved just listening to the rustle of the bamboo leaves , very peaceful! When I went the path was lined with straw mats which was also pretty.

 

 I'm definitely going back in a few months when it's in full summer greenery, with the camera, to see it again!  The park also included a traditional tea house and a residence that was owned by the prominent family who owned the parks land and gardens originally. There was a small water fall, a small pond and koi as well...it was a  nice park! I'll definitely remember my camera next time!

After going to the park I went by the church and cleaned it and then I headed home after picking up some bento stuff for Gary.

 

When I got home Gary surprised me with a Starbucks gift card! Yay!

 

 

Gary also bought a new pair of scissors... I'm expecting big things from this pair of scissors with an Almighty Blade! I feel like I should be able to cut through the forces of evil with this pair of scissors!!!

 

 

Today, it's a little cooler, in the 60's and overcast, but still spring like and pleasant!

 

On to Food!!!

 

Not a whole lot to report this week on the food front, I have been cooking but mostly things you all have seen already!  I did make some Mexican Quezadillas one night though and they were so good, mainly because we haven't had any in so long!  This is making me hungry for them again, maybe I'll make some for dinner tonight pa' quitar el granito de la lengua!!!

 

 

That's it for today!

 

 

March 18th Deliveries, Irish Day and Stuff

                                                                 Greetings!

Ufda!!! Things have been pretty busy around here! Lot's of deliveries and work going on getting the church building ready.  Yesterday, Gary and I headed over with some of the light fixtures that have arrived. We're still waiting on the light bulbs, hopefully those will arrive soon.  The fixtures are for the track lighting, and since the ceiling is tall we also had to go buy a ladder!  How do you get a ladder when you haven't a truck to carry it in? You walk to a store, buy it and carry it back to the church between the two of you!
Sometimes I really miss church helpers and children!  Gary and I are neither svelte nor young for some of this stuff!                                                                      

Yesterday was also St. Patrick's Day. Here it is being celebrated Japanese Style!

Today, the chairs arrived!  Yay!!! Gary spent a long time online trying to find the best deal for the chairs. In the end he managed to get 60 chairs for the price of 50! 

I'm stealing this picture from Gary's instagram post!

The weather has been in the 60's the last couple of days which has been really nice. It's supposed to cool down again into the lower 50's, but it definitely looks like Spring is on the way!

My mother-in-law put in a request for some Fu. Fu is a dried baked wheat gluten that is used in soups. I found some pretty cherry blossom ones to send her. I made the post office lady laugh though when she asked what I was mailing and I told her Fu. I guess that wasn't what she expected a foreigner to be mailing! 

On to food!!!

Divorciados!!!! Huevos that is!!! The other day Gary was late to the breakfast table so I yelled, "Divorciados!!!" (Divorced!!!) And he replied, "Just for being late?!" 

Huevos divorciados are fried eggs on fried corn tortillas with green salsa on one half and red salsa on the other half. Thanks to the delivery of some maseca I've been able to cook a few Mexican dishes and corn tortillas! Making the tortillas has been tricky since I left my tortilla press in the States but where there's a will there's a way and I've got it figured out!

I've made mole de olla , molotes and huevos divorciados so far! Yummy!!!

Huevos Divorciados!

                                                                     

Molotes

We ate the mole de olla before I could take a picture but here is a picture of some earlier mole de olla that I made to give you an idea. I was able to make the mole de olla because somebody brought me some chile guajillos! Yay!

March 12th 2014 30 Years!

                                                                Howdy Folks!
          So the biggest news  is that I have spent the last 30 years with this wonderful dude!
                                                           

We have certainly packed a lot of living into those 30 years! We have lived in small villages with no running water or electricity, sleeping on the floor on a straw mat under a mosquito net and washing our clothes on a rock in a river. We also lived in small and mid-size cities and mega-tropolises! I'm looking forward to seeing what the next 30 years have in store for us!  

Since we had just spent the last week visiting with Hopie and working on getting the church building ready for it's grand opening , we have decided to put off any "big" celebrating for a few months.  We did have an enjoyable day and ordered in some pizza too which was quite nice! 

Hopie headed back State-side on Sunday. The house is quiet again and we miss her! We certainly enjoyed her visit though and in true Hopie fashion she managed to run around on her own and make friends in one week and get lots of going away presents from them! 

Gary and I took Hopie to the famous Ghibli museum near our house.  We got to see some cool things!

Cute school children visiting the museum!

Yesterday, we were at the church doing some work when we decided to take one of the city buses that is in front of the building to see where it went. We knew it was headed to Chofu but we wanted to ride the bus and time the trip since we are working with a lady from that area and also to see what route it takes. It's a good way to learn different areas of the city by taking public transport to new areas of town.  We arrived and looked around a bit and then we saw a return bus that would take us to Kichijoji so we rode that one back . We stopped for dinner while we were there and then came home. Tokyo is so big it's ridiculous, we spent a couple hours traveling around and only saw a very small portion of the city.

On to Food!!!

While Hopie was here I had wanted to take her to a yakiniku (grilled meat) place to eat but we didn't get around to it. Instead, one night I decided to pull out an old favorite of ours...Maangchi!!! Maangchi is a Korean lady that posts recipes on you tube, my girls and I used to watch and make her recipes when we lived in Panama. I decided to do her recipe for  Samgyeopsal-gui!

Here's a picture of how ours turned out.

I love Korean food... it's like Mexican-Asian cooking with all it's chile and garlic!

That's it for now! Later folks!

                                                                 

March 4th 2014 We're in the building And Hopie is visiting!!!

So, if you read the title of this blog and just wanted the short version you can stop reading now! For the LONG version you may continue reading!

Gary signed the contract for the church building and picked up the key!  I can't even remember how many buildings were looked at to finally get to this point! Now Gary is busy ordering chairs, pulpit and light bulbs so we can have our grand opening!

It looks like Spring is finally arriving in Tokyo! We've had some warmer weather the last few days, into the 50's and some sunshine too!  Soon we will get to enjoy cherry blossom time again! I hope to visit some of the good parks with blossoms this year. Last year we were too busy to do more than a cursory visit to Fuchu's cherry blossom street because we were all the time looking for an apartment. One thing though about all the running around looking at buildings and apartments we have gotten to know a lot of different areas in Tokyo!  Even with that, it's such a massive city that like when we lived in Mexico City, even after 7 years, we hadn't seen it all!

Hopie arrived! We have been enjoying our visit with her.
Yesterday Hopie and I went to Ueno and Asakusa. It was a fun day exploring and wandering around Tokyo!

In Ueno, we went to a large park and saw some temples. we also saw this cute frog fountain . Here, Hopie and I ended up taking a picture of each other taking a picture !

Hopie aka Nozomichan!

We also saw this on one of the buildings, I think it kind of looks like a chicken from mexico!

We also saw some of the CUTEST ducks ever! I call them penguin ducks.

                                 Then we got back on the subway and headed to Asakusa! In the hallway headed to the train we saw this sign, I had been just getting ready to run and  lay down and sell stuff before seeing this...

In Asakusa we saw more temples and did some souvenir shopping in nearby market stalls.

(I have no idea who the lady on the far right is..lol!)

                Hopie and random people under the big red thing..sorry, don't know what it's called!

                           
                                  I gotta wonder if these didn't inspire the invention of hot air balloons...

Many people line up to pray here. Legend says that praying at this particular temple will grant you a successful life so there are always people here praying.  I had to stop and pray for them.

Today, is Daddy and daughter day. I think they are headed to Shibuya! 

On to Food!!!!

When we first arrived in Asakusa we were wandering around and we found a Taiyaki shop!

Taiyaki is a Japanese fish-shape cake. The most common filling is sweet red bean paste. The shop we were at offered other flavors as well. There was strawberries and cream, custard, cheese and chocolate as well as a few other flavors.

The taiyaki is made using waffle batter that is poured into a fish-shaped mold for each side. The filling is then put on one side and the mold is closed, it's then cooked till golden brown and delicious!

 I had a custard filled Taiyaki, it was HOT and delicious!