Winter travel

One night after Eikaiwa class we played three traditional Japanese games:  1.  Fukuwarai (literally: happy laughing) where a blindfolded person puts features on a paper face; 2. Kendama – a toy with a handle and a ball attached with a string.  You try to catch the ball with the handle.  There are four ways to catch it.  I surprised myself by catching the ball once (the easiest way); 3.  Hanetsuki – a little like badminton.  They were all quite fun.

Our ward Relief Society had a cooking class.  I was hoping to learn Japanese cooking--but they cooked Italian food!  It was still fun.

 

One Saturday we went to the Ueno Park Zoo.  It is a nice zoo.  The Pandas were quite entertaining and they munched on their bamboo.  But the little children were about the cutest things there!

 

 

We went on our first out-of-town trip and took the monorail (and two other trains) to the airport.  These pictures shows the old and the new buildings of Tokyo and some of the waterways.

 

We attended 2 days of zone conferences in Sapporo (on Hokkaido--the large northern island) and gave health training to the missionaries.  Our emphasis was on how to stay healthy and what to do it you get sick.  We really enjoyed being with the young missionaries.

Lunch was "donburi" which means "rice with something on it."

 

 Obihiro and Odori Zones

Sisters

 

 

Elders

 

We were privileged to also be in Sapporo during the "Yuki Matsuri" or Snow Festival.  There are snow sculptures and ice sculptures.  Some are as large as buildings.  People come from all over the world to see these sculptures.  They were pretty amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 Our favorite show sculpture below has a legend attached to it.

 

 

 This is an ice sculpture with colored lighting.

 

 After the Snow Festival we went to a "kaitenzushi" or sushi restaurant with a rotating belt that allowed different types of sushi to come by.  We could just take a plate and try it.  At the end they count the number of plates you have to figure your bill. 

 We never thought we would eat sushi (since we always tell the missionaries not to eat raw meat).  But it is a big part of the culture here, so we decided to try it.  We didn't get sick and we liked it!

 

Birthday missionaries.

 

The mission president and his wife with us.

 

 

 
 After the lunch the missionaries all sing to the cooks and then shake hands and greet each of them.

 

 

We love the missionaries!

 

 

Our favorite thing this month, however, happened in Wyoming with the addition of our 29th grandchild!  He joins 3 brothers and 6 sisters.