March

 One day in Ueno Park we met this artist (Daiun Aoyagi).  Each couple inour group bought a picture from him and he graciously gave us each one free too!

 We live across a very narrow street from a wedding reception center.  We often see people dressed up for weddings arriving or leaving.  These ladies looked so beautiful in their kimonos that I asked to take their picture.  My favorite part of the kimono, however, is the way the obi is tied in the back.  I'm sorry you can see that here.

This is one of the missionaries we visited in the hostpial.  He had just had surgery.  Sister Budge (mission president's wife) took us to see Elder Fry.

This is Elder Cardoso from the Kobe mission.  He came to Tokyo to see a hand specialist here because of an accident he had been in.  We took him and his companion to "Denny's" for lunch.  We thought it would be famliar because the sign looked just like the Denny's restaurants in the U.S.  However, as you can see from this "hamburger" pictured above, the food is entirely different and all very Japanese.

 Elder and Sister Rich are completing their mission.  The office planned a farewell party for them and it was pretty funny.  It was all around the "Super Mario" theme.  Elder Rich had to rescue his princess.  The Riches have served in Japan for a lot of years.  He as been the DTA and recently the executive secretary, in addition to prior work in his career here in Japan.

 Brother and Sister Watabe took us to dinner at a "Shabu Shabu" restaurtant.  Sister Watabe is the Area President's secretary and helps me when I work in the office.  Her husband is a patriarch here.  Shabu Shabu is where you cook your food at your table in boiling water--a little like fondue parties we used to have.  You can eat all you want for 90 minutes then you have to leave.  They bring you meat and you can choose various vegetables to cook along with it.  There is a heated spot on the table that keeps the water boiling.  After the dinner we went by the "Hatchiko" statue.  Hatchiko was a dog that was so faithful he used to come to this train station every day to meet his master.  When the master died, the dog didn't understand and came faithfully to the station every day for years to wait for his master.  We are standing by his statue.

 The senior couples took an outing to a restaurant near Mt. Takao called "Ukai-Toriyama." It is built like a traditional Japanese village.  It is set in a lovely Japanese garden with many different little houses where groups can dine.  Our group was large, so we were in an upstairs large room at tables and chairs, but most of the other houses have tables where you sit on the floor, dangling your feet into a heated pit under the table.  The food was served by Japanese girls in traditional clothes—jumpsuits—a little different than the kimonos.  There were several courses of food.  Each was interesting and very different from American food.  The main course was either steak (which they brought in cooked) or chicken, which you cooked along with vegetables over a little brazier (?)  in the middle of the table. 

 After the meal we wandered in the beautiful Japanese garden and took lots of pictures.

 Then some of us went hiking up Mt. Takao.  We didn't have time to get to the top, but saw some interesting things like this monument.  It appeared to be a type of grave.  I am told when they decorate the statues with red that means it has to do with children. We thought the little men near the top looked much like the Seven Dwarfs!

      Clair hiking up the mountain. It was refreshing to be out of the city and enjoying nature.  Spring is coming!