What to Report?

Since we last updated this blog, we haven't had all that much going on other than the "normal" everyday things: eating, sleeping, studying, reading, praying, cooking, cleaning, shopping, exercising. The biggest thing that has happened didn't even happen to us. A friend of ours from church and who lives is the building behind us, gave birth to her first child Friday. Today we were able to see the beautiful little girl. The clinic (click her for a few pictures) where the birth took place is something else. It reminded us of a resort.
One thing that was supposed to happen was that Andrea Crouch was going to be at our church from the 22nd through the 27th. If you are not familiar with who Andrae Crouch is, he is a major figure in the Gospel music scene. However, much to every one's disappointment, his time here had to be canceled due to him being admitted to the hospital on the 21st with severe pain in his feet. We are all hoping that he can reschedule and still make it in the near future. Andrea has visited our church before and his visit had been eagerly anticipated by everyone at the church.
Here is a video clip from our local park. This duck likes to hang out with people even when there isn't food around.

Sakura in Bloom

We have been having a great Spring so far. The cherry trees or sakura were beautiful and we had a number of opportunities to get out and enjoy them. Last Saturday we spent the day with Yoko's dad, her brother, and his family. We were celebrating Yoko's dad's retirement. We started at Shinjuku Gyoen enjoying the sakura along with half of the people in Tokyo (to see a bigger version of our spring slide show, click here). We ended the evening with a meal of traditional Japanese food, Yoko's dad's favorite.
We also recently took a 23 mile/37 km round trip bike ride to see the Tulip Matsuri. One down side to all of Spring's beauty is that Yoko's allergies are in full swing. She has itchy eyes, uses tissues by the fist full and is very good at sneezing.
Some of you may have heard that Erik has been looking/applying for a teaching job. So far nothing has come about. Since we are returning to Arizona in August, it is hard to find something that is short term. However, he continues to substitute teach for a language school when needed. Erik's Japanese language learning has changed from formal language school to a community program that meets 3 times a week and is free. Also, with Yoko, he is reviewing the book that he studied in language school. This is helping reinforce those things that he learned some time ago.
For Yoko, in addition to putting up with Erik, she continues to teach at a nearby cram school and work on her graphic design/web development.
Sunday we had a wonderful Easter service at church. It was an all day event. We left at 9:00 pm and even at that time it was still going strong. After the "normal" morning service (11:00 -2:00) we had lunch and then there was baptism. This was the first baptism that the church has had since we have been there. In total 58 people were baptised. It was a wonderful time celebrating the new life the comes through a relationship with Jesus because of His Resurrection. After the baptism there was a break for dinner and then from about 7:30 on (we don't know when they finally called it a night) was a time of worship and sharing.

"Grab a Bunch of Food"

The cherry blossoms are officially in full bloom, and people are marking off spots in parks all over Japan to take part in the cherry blossom viewing event called "hanami". We don't know if we will have a hanami this year, but we are enjoying the cherry blossoms.
Both of Yoko's parents retired last week from teaching JR high school after 35+ years of teaching. They both are really looking forward to what they will get to do now. Yoko's dad will be taking gardening classes at a community college, oil painting and working on ballroom dance (his hobbies). Yoko's mom will be helping a friend who is having a baby this month and working on getting her parents house sold.
The last day that Yoko's mom worked, the three of us went out to eat to celebrate. He had the buffet lunch at the California Restaurant at the Radisson Hotel. Now this is a nice hotel and the restaurant uses cloth napkins, the kind of place you wouldn't expect to hear from the waitress "grab a bunch of food". Much to our surprise that is what we heard. The buffet was closing and the waitress said to Erik in English (all three of us were at the table), "The buffet is ending in a few minutes, go ahead and grab a bunch of food." Erik didn't say anything back to her (partly because he was surprised by the choice of words and the fact that she spoke to him only) but looked at her like she had 5 heads. There was a moment of awkward silence then she repeated herself to Yoko and her mom in polite Japanese. Since then, we have enjoyed telling each other to "grab a bunch of food".