Benkyosuru, Hataraku & Kaimonosuru

For those of you who don't understand romanized Japanese, the title to today's post is: Study, Work, and Shop. That's what this week has consited of so far. Shopping and preparing for Christmas, working at the cram school, and studying Japanese for end of term tests.
We added more pictures to our Fall Colors album. We have enjoyed taking pictures and sharing them with you. Fall in Japan has been beautiful.

Glad We Had a Camera

How often does it happend where you see something that is picture worthy, and you don't have a camera. We might have had that moment the other day, but we happend to have a camera with us. Isn't this picture something. They look so innocent, but if they had opposable thumbs, who knows what kind of mischief they would be getting into.
Our past week was a rather "normal' one. We still are using Japanese 95% of the time, but our conversations are not that deep at times.
We are thankful for the fitness club (the site is only in Japanese, but you can still see what is available to us) we belong to as this week was rainy at times.
We got out an took some more Fall pictures. Check back in a few days for those to be added to the existing ones. We have enjoyed Fall a lot as the weather has been good, and the colors were great.

Shocking! Oh so very shocking!

Sunday morning Yoko decided that she would only speak Japanese with Erik. This sudden inspiration came about after she had gotten together with a Japanese friend of hers who helped her American husband learn Japanese by not speaking English with him. This is good for Erik, however, it came as a great shock to his system. It was so sudden and without warning. As a result he came down with a headache (don't you feel sorry for him, or maybe you should feel sorry for Yoko having to put up with Erik). A half an hour before going to bed and a half an hour in the morning is reserved for English; this is to make sure we know what the other really needs to communicate.
At church on Sunday we were blessed to have Linda McCrary visiting. She is a singer from California who has a wonderful voice and a tremendous story. Recently we have had several guests musicians visit and touch our hearts with their music. Kirk Whalum, who plays the sax, and Airick Arqese, a rapper in the group Chrstiside Souljahs were here a few weeks ago. The church/cafe has been celebrating its 4 year anniversary at the current location with guest musicians.
The church/cafe is hosting a couples' Christmas dinner on the 23rd. We will be attending it with some friends from church. Christmas here is a time for couples. The couple aspect is so strong that single people often say that they will be doing something with a "date" when they are not.

We're All Out of Wisdom

For most people, with age comes wisdom. However, in our case, we are becoming less wise as we become older. Saturday, Yoko had the last of her wisdom teeth pulled. Erik's were taken out some time ago. Now don't go jumping to any conclusions : ) Thankfully the Bible tells us that we can ask for wisdom, and the Lord will give it to us. Now, either Yoko is the toughest woman ever or she found the best dentist ever, because she had anesthetic and teeth pulled in a half an hour without swelling or pain. She even had lunch right after the operation. If only all our trips to the dentist could go this well.
We are glad that you have been enjoying the pictures of the fall colors. We added some more, so be sure to check those out.
We are trying to get in the Christmas mood, but it is taking some time. Around where we live there are Christmas lights, but not like what we are used to. If we were planning on staying here a while, we would buy decorations to put up, but we don't want to leave Yoko's mom a bunch of stuff to store. We did bring our Christmas music which starting to sound throughout our apartment. Nothing like Mannheim Steamroller and Trans Siberian Orchestra to get one in the Christmas spirit.

Fall Colors

Here's the link to see bigger versions of the Fall Colors slideshow

What, no turkey?

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the U.S. No turkey for us this year. One of Yoko's relatives is married to an American, and they had a Thanksgiving party on Sunday, but we weren't able to go. That will be the closest we get to turkey.
All is going well. Things have been pretty quiet since our last posting. Yoko is back on the job search since a big source of income, taking care of Grandma, is now gone. We sure miss having her around. She was a joy to be with, and a good source of Japanese practice for Erik.
The last posting had a link to sumo. If you weren't able to watch the matches, we have provided a link to the last bout of the most recent tournament. It was a winner-take-all match and quite a match it was. The Grand Champion vs an up-and-comer. Earlier in the tournament the up-and-comer beat the Grand Champion.
Check out what and were we have eaten recently (to the right). We are blessed with a variety of good food. Needless to say, we are not going hungry.

A Hard Week

Since our last blog post Yoko's grandma passed away. Last Wednesday morning , 11/12, she had a heart attack around 6:30 am and passed away around 8:00 am. She was 88. We are thankful that she did not have a time of prolonged suffering, but we are sad that we only had one week with her living with us. Since her death we have been helping Yoko's mom with all that surrounds a person's death here in Japan. The funeral was yesterday.
This was Erik's first funeral in Japan, and it was quite a cultural experience for him. Upon grandma dying, she was taken to her home where she remained until Tuesday afternoon. She was at home so friends and family could come by and see her. Tuesday she was taken to the funeral home, and there was a ceremony and dinner that evening. Wednesday morning, there was another ceremony. After the ceremony, she was taken to a crematorium. While she was being cremated, all those in attendance had lunch. Once the cremation was finished, in pairs using long chopsticks, we picked up a bone fragment and placed it in a ceramic jar. The jar was then filled with the remaining bones and ashes. It is kept for 49 days, at that time another ceremony will take place where the jar is placed in the grave site.
The ceremonies Tuesday night and Wednesday morning were basically the same. A Buddhist priest chanted for about 40 minutes. While he chanted, those in attendance came forward and burned incense for Grandma. Instead of burning incense, we placed white flowers demonstrating that we are not Buddhist. At Wednesday's ceremony, Yoko's mom talked about Grandma, but she was the only one who got to say anything. It is definitely a solemn time. The only funerals Erik has been to were for family in the States, and they had an element of joy to them knowing that the family member was with the Lord. In all, it was quite an experience for Erik.