November 25th 2014 More Wanderings and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hi all!  I meant to get to this last week but got hit with a flu bug so didn't get to it. Feeling fine now though so here we go!
I did some more exploring on a Saturday. Headed to Venus Fort down on Tokyo Bay. I remembered from a couple of years ago that they had great Christmas lights so decided to check them out. One thing I love about Venus Fort is how the ceiling looks like the sky and the lighting makes it change from day to night..very realistic!
                                                                   

          The fountain area was especially cool with the lighting synchronize to music!
                                                                       

The kids were having a good time!

Outside of Venus Fort there is a the largest Ferris wheel I've ever seen.

                            Here it is from a distance to kind of give you an idea of it's size.

I didn't go up because despite my adventurous ways...I'm afraid of heights!  Plus, I'd be afraid to go up and get stuck there in an earthquake!!! Eeeek!!!!

The weather was gorgeous so I did some wandering outside of the mall too.

                                                      Tokyo Bay is such a pretty area.

                                                        Even the free ways are pretty!

                                                   The cleanest docks around!

 There were a lot of people out enjoying the day!

After wandering around the mall and outside for a while and buying a few Christmas ornaments for the little tree at home  ...   (here it is) ...                                                        

I headed outside and over toward Diver City. Diver City is another mall in the Tokyo Bay area. Out front of it was this Giant Gundam! It's about 54 ft. tall! Super cool! (Yes, I'm a bit of a geek)                                                               

By then it was getting late, so I headed home. On the way I saw the Governor advertising some coffee.

I liked this picture of the clouds and buildings reflected off the side of the building.

             Finally, made it back to my own train station in Kichijoji...only a bus ride left to get home!

                                                     This is my neighborhood.

This week, of course, I'm getting ready for Thanksgiving Day! I managed to find a small turkey that will fit in our little oven. I'm excited because slow-cooker turkey last year was a disappointment, so hopefully it'll be better this year. I'm still lacking some Thanksgiving Day ingredients but if I don't find them we will make do with what we do find and have a nice little dinner none-the less!

Here's wishing all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving !!!!

November 12th 2014 Food, Fun and Visitors!

Hello! Well it's been a busy few weeks, mostly with church stuff and not running around! Since my last post we kicked into high gear for our 'Hallelujah Night'. I was in charge of decorations and had a terrible time being able to find anything here resembling decorations! I couldn't find streamers or anything! I finally found a pumpkin and some balloons. I could easily have found halloween-y stuff but I wanted more Autumn type decorations. For anyone who knows me, I'm terrible at any type of interior decorating 'artsy' stuff. Anyway, we handed out a lot of invitations and Gary advertised on social media and Craigslist as well, and it turned out GREAT! We had food, fun and visitors! the craigslist ad worked and we had a whole family of Peruvian/Japanese come from the Chiba area even! We also had a young lady who saw the invite on Instagram show up as well! Here's a few pics! 

                                                                          

                                                       Pop the Balloons game!

                                                               The Two Finalists!

                                                                  Apple on the string game!

                                                          Food and visiting!

There were conversations in English, Japanese,Tagalog and Spanish going on, with an occasional Swedish word thrown in on occassion! Gary said people were very fascinated by my Spanish speaking abilities ..lol!

                                                          Making new friends!

    

The next Friday night we had Evangelist Richard Brooks in town for a couple of days! Friday night service went really well!         

                                                                            

In between these activities I did take one afternoon off and headed to Shibuya! I've been there several times before but mostly just doing the touristy wandering around with other folks. I wanted to do a little exploring on my own, and check out the area. Mostly I just found some very expensive high market stores with signs that promised to exempt me from the sales tax if I spent $10,000!!!!  I window shopped but obviously didn't do any purchasing! After a bit I headed back to my own neighborhood and hit up the local 100 yen store (that's like a Dollar Store). 

Last year on Thanksgiving Day, Gary's dad passed away, so Christmas was obviously a very subdued affair and we didn't decorate or anything so we have no Christmas stuff. Gary ordered us a little tree this week and I picked up some decorations at the 100 yen store. Since our apartment is tiny we decided that we'd clear off my desk in the corner of the living/dining/kitchen area and make that the Christmas area with the tree on top of the desk. When we finish getting decorations for the tree I'll take a picture for you so you can see how it turns out!  I usually don't do the Christmas decorating until after Thanksgiving, but the Christmas season starts earlier here so we're going with it!

The weather is starting to get colder here, so my wandering will probably be curtailed to more indoor type exploring as I'm not a big fan of the cold. I will still be getting out and about though I'm sure, as it's my best distraction from missing my kids, especially during the holidays!  

Until next time!!

P.S.

A few food pics!

A Dutch baby!

                                                               Cochinita Pibil!

                                                          Enchiladas de Chile Guajillo

                                                                       Shirred Eggs