Once upon a time...

Hirosaki Castle

Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival

(with lack of cherry blossoms at the moment!)

Easter fun time with Marc and Dinah!

There was a 28th birthday in there somewhere!
(which called for some crab and tomato spaghetti celebrated with Steph)

Some things....

that made me happy today...

(They seriously need a "rainbow" button for text font colors...come on Steph/Jenn...gurls, I'm waiting for you to invent it!)

1. the sun shining thru the clouds this morning...God said "good morning, sunshine"
2. the Yakult-selling office lady had my favorite lemon yougurt drink
3. I studied Spanish and read a book for most of the day...and tried not to bust out laughing in my relatively quite office about a Mexican white meringue treat that is nicknamed a "nun's fart"
4. I got an email from my mum
5. My supervisor skipped and danced around the office on random occasions
6. A few of the office workers were humming "high, ho, high, ho...it's off to work we go". I thought about chimming in with the English but decided against it.
7. On my walk I saw the old man that smokes a cigarette while "walking his dog" on his bike that always says "konnichiwa" to me, he has the small Japanese dog. I also saw the man that walks his dog w/ his K-truck, he has 2 very large Clifford type dogs. And then I saw one of the younger dog walkers, he has a small type dog and we politely give a little nod of a bow.
8. I saw the apple trees begin to have buds. I touched the pussywillow branches that grow wildly along the waterway.
9. 2 ducks flew up and quacked at me
10. the 8 o'clock jingle is playing over the city intercom and I've made and eaten a lovely dinner
(diced chicken, steamed veggies, and soba noodles...with my favorite wasabi/seaweed/sesame seed sprinkle topping)
11. and now I'm gonna have a bit of quite time with God and knit some more on my scarf...

Let the planting begin!

My friend Tomomi now lives with her in-laws, the Takahashi family. So she not only gets to live in a HUGE, new house; she also lives on a farm of sorts! A Japanese rice farm. Please note that she is a city gurl, and so when I came to visit her new place I insisted on getting the full tour...which happened to be the first time she explored her own backyard. I harvested rice back in the early autumn last year...so this spring I wanted to also learn the basics of planting rice. Here is where it begins!!

The greenhouses are being prepared for the seedlings. The soil trays are ready to have the seeds planted. Those maggot-looking things are the rice seeds that are being heated in an "incubator" to expedite their ripening. They are planting 3 types of rice this year, hence the 3 different colored bags. Can you imagine how many seedlings will come from 60 bags of that size?? No...well me either, but time will tell!!

And this is one of the BIGGEST doggies I've ever seen. You realllly can't tell by the pictures, but Hana-chan ("little flower") is a "REALLY BIG flower" dog.

"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor." ~1 Corinthians 3:6-8

Baby Showers, an American thing

Last weekend I threw a little baby shower for my friend Yuko. Little did I know this is mainly an American custom and doesn't extend much into Asia or even Europe at that! Her baby is a gurl and is due in early July. When she's told Japanese people that she's "5 months along", they have stared in shock at her size....saying "You're too BIG!" She only just realized that this is because the Japanese follow something to do with the lunar calendar for counting months...so she's actually "7 months along" to Japanese people, BUT either way...she's really due in July and she's looks so sweet with her little bundle. We joke that the size must be because Emma Grace, the little soon-to-be-seen one, is part Canadianish and other part Japanese. We are hoping that Emma Grace won't have the same layer of fat on her head when she is born...Yuko recounted that at birth her head was layered with a thick fat and her family believes it was because they used to eat fatty meat such as bear and whale quite regularly. She likes Mexican food (as much as me) and we both have a heart for the Midwest as she lived in Oklahoma during high school. I wish I could be around to be a part of Emma ちゃん's life, but I must be content with photos, stories, and emails that I will hear throughout the years....and the prayers that I can send from across the waters. I have been so blessed to have met Yuko through her husband, Luke, a fellow English teacher and missionary kid from Japan. One last comment- Yuko's grandmother makes the smashingest, tastiest, sourest plums around. If you're really nice, I might let you try a nibble from my stock ^_^ !!

(I can't remember what face we are supposed to be making...maybe Luke will remind me?)