Reverend Yoshida and his wife now live in a town called Tono. It's about 30 minutes from here. On Easter Sunday (one week ago today), Steph and I went to the church that he and his wife will be attending from now on. It was the second time for us to go there since Rev. Yoshida retired. We plan on going to their new church every other week until we leave Japan. We have to because we would just miss them too much!
Mrs Yoshida baked a homemade cheesecake for Steph... It was delicious!
Mrs. Yoshida made a handbag for Steph BY HAND! And, without a sewing machine! This is actually the third beautiful handbag that she has made for Steph. She lined the inside of this bag with material from a dress that was her mother's.
Mrs. Yoshida is explaining a traditional Japanese game that she also gave Steph
Mrs. Yoshida, Teresa and Steph
Me and Rev. Yoshida talked about theology for about two hours. I love to talk to him.
Hello Kitty Birthday Cake made by Mutsuko
Steph's Angels on Earth
Marinated Salmon Sashimi with Veggies and Cashew and Walnut Cream Cheese
On Saturday, April 15th, Steph's very close friends from her women's English conversation circles threw her a birthday party! It was really amazing! These women love Steph so much and have treated her like a queen over the past 2 and a half years.
They threw the party at Kayo's home/restaurant ---Kayo is one of the ladies who studies English with Steph ...her home and restaurant is a really cool place. In the inside there are all kinds of books and art and always cool music playing in the background. Kayo is an amazing woman too (she is a jazz lover/singer, stained-glass artist and chef).
Mutsuko, Stephanie's dearest friend and our mother here in Japan, baked a chocolate and Hello Kitty cake fror Steph (just what Steph would want). And everyone brought delicious homemade dishes...sooooo good! You can see a pic of marinated sashimi salmon wrapped arounnd fresh vegetables with cashew and walnut cream cheese. There was so much food!
Naoko, one of Steph's friends that is a professional calligrapher made her beautiful signs and a card with a poem (She even made one for me too)!
All of Steph's friends wrote poems and sang songs for her...then they performed this crazy martian-themed dance for her as a grand finale---check out the costumes they made by hand!
Steph (and myself) were so overwhelmed! These wonderful ladies you see here have been and are angels to us!
Gabe
The Sunday before last we went to a new church. Rev. Yoshida, the man on the left, retired recently and he and his wife moved from our church parsonage to another town and are now attending a different church not too far away. So, we went with them for their first time (in 40 years) to attend church as memebers and not leaders.
Afterwards, Rev. Yoshida treated us to miso ramen(pronounced "rahmen"). It was a huge bowl of miso soup with lots of noodles and veggies...soooooo good!
We are going to attend the Yoshida's new church every other Sunday and we'll be going this Easter Sunday. we are invited to their new house afterward so maybe I post some pics later...
We picked these chocolates up at the grocery store today...
...the temptation was too strong.
We had our Graduation on March 3rd. In Japan they always play "Auld Lang Syne" (the song we sing at midnight on New Year's Eve in America) Anyway, the top picture is of the song on a handout and the bottom is of me actually writing the song out in only simple Japanese hiragana characters so that I could read it. Just thought you might be interested to see a sample of my bad Japanese. Steph can write all these too by the way!
Steph and the ladies at church made Udon Noodles back in February. I forgot to post the pictures...enjoy!
