We had the wonderful pleasure of a visit from one of our dear Mongolian friends--Tamira Ilch. We knew her and her family very well in Mongolia. It was fun to see if we could remember any Mongolian too. Some of it did come back, but fortunately she spoke some Japanese and some English.
I met this little girl and her friend and their mothers in the park one morning after "Radio Exercises." We took turns with my jump rope. They were fun to meet and try to talk to.
Those children were excited when I showed them this "upside down" rainbow! I have never seen this before...
Spring flowers are beautiful in Tokyo. This is in the park by our house. Lately we have seen magnificent azaleas in bloom.
One Saturday we visited the Tsukiju Fish Market. It
is the largest fish market in the world. They andled 2,888 tons of marine products a day in 1993 (450 kinds of fish). There were lots of little shops around the market which sell food products and cooking utensils, etc. used with the fish products. There are restaurants where you can eat sushi.
Inside the market itself we saw people cutting fish, selling fish, driving carts and trucks, etc. It was a very busy place and we had to watch out for moving traffic. There were all kinds of fish—and more kinds than you can imagine. People were deshelling clams and sorting eels, etc.
.
Removing clams from the shells
Octopus
After we got home we got together with Sister Maetani who showed us how to make makizushi and temakisushi and we made some for lunch. Temakisushi (sushi rolled by hand) is fun to do with a group because each person chooses what they want to put in theirs and simply puts it on a small piece of nori (seaweed) and rolls it up like a cone or a taco shape.The rice is actually the “sushi” and is flavored with vinegar and sugar
There are large carp and turtles in this pond. The children in this picture tie bread to a string. When a turtle bites the bread, they try to pull the turtle up.
Beautiful azaleas in bloom.
A Day in a Kimono
I was invited along with several other women to a special day for women at the Aoyagi's home.
They
greeted us warmly and were all very respectful and kind. We went
into a room and choose a kimono and an obi to go with it. Then they dressed us in the kimonos. I don’t know how they can possibly dress
themselves, but sometimes they do. They
say it takes a long time to do it by yourself.
There are many layers to a kimono including several pads and ties around
you just above the waist (under the obi).
They tie everything tight. I felt
rather like I was wearing a back brace!
While
two of us were dressing the others were learning to play the koto. Then we switched places. The koto is a long instrument with 13 strings. You wear “picks” on your thumb and first two
fingers. As you play, you press down,
rather than plucking up. We learned to
play “Sakura” a very common traditional Japanese song.
Here we all are in our kimonos.
Lunch was a very elegant "bento box" with
little dishes of various things—lotus root, tempura, a
pork dish, some ham and cheese rolled in kamaboka(fish cake), some sweet egg
chunks, something with tofu, other vegetables that I didn’t know, etc. It was all traditional Japanese food and very
good. After the meal, she showed us some
beautiful “sweets” and had us pick one to be used for us in the tea ceremony.
These dear sisters taught us how to do a traditional tea ceremony. There was a tea room in their home so we had a "tea" ceremony (with a special herbal tea for us non-tea drinkers). It is a very peaceful time--no talking. It is also very ritualistic. It was very interesting and was a fun experience.
Our host and hostess
Clair got to meet my little jump rope friends. They were excited to jump with him.
Here are the missionaries that we teach English with. We have a lot of fun and are making many Japanese friends among our students.
On a holiday we had a picnic with our English students. Everyone brought their own "bento" for lunch. We had games and had a good time. The weather was perfect!
We are getting to know these wonderful people and their customs better. We can see the difference the restored gospel makes in their lives. We have an important message to share!
