Cool spider

Japan has the coolest bugs here and the kids are not afraid of them. In fact, to our whole families surprise the kids play with them. The simmi (Circada) bugs are huge and they make this maddening buzzing noise. I saw two boys carrying them around and shaking them to make the noise. As much as I hate the bugs I actually felt sorry for the Circada. The pictures I got are from the internet. The Circada though are interesting as the live underground for up to 7 years and then they come up to the real world and they climb a tree shed a shell and then morph into a flying insect that makes a huge racket for all of about a week to 10 days they mate and then die. Surely that will preach about the brevity of life. The first gross picture is of the Circada killer wasp. These guys are bad. Don't mess with them. Nathan and I found one eating a stink typr beetle. We found this cool looking zebra spider hanging out in our stair way outside.

Grace Christian Fellowship Matsuri

Hello, we had a great Sunday as Mihoko was blessed to be able to translate Pastor Travis into Japanese as their translator Sho was stuck in bad weather in Hokkaido and the plane was delayed. There has been freeky weather here as Thunderstorms and major lightening everywhere. Then after CCT we jambed over to Grace Christian Fellowship where Pastor Jonathan Wilson hangs out. They have a nice facility that is about the size of a 3/4 gymnasium. They had their first Christian Matsuri for the community. They borrowed a pop corn maching, a cotton candy machine, a Kaki kori (Shaved ice) machine. and they had lots of great fesitval foods. One of those is the famous Tako yaki (octopus) balls. They also had yaki soba, and a suprise was the Oden. This is a dish of gobo fish cake and shoyu hardboiled eggs, with daikon and the famous kon yaku. I am not a big fan of Oden but it is good once in a while. Anyway, they had Christian matsuri music playing and everyone was wearing the Yukata clothes for the festival. I am wearing a Hapi which is more comfortable and they can double as pajamas (HA). They had tables with games on them for kids to play and all kinds of fun stuff to do. Some folks from the neighborhood came out and were blessed. Pray for relationships to be fostered and grown. The last picture is a Hapi with the Kanji of Christ on it. Carleton check that out. It was a fun time of fellowship. The event was marred by a down pour of rain but we were able to take it inside and enjoy more of the fun. One neat thing is that Pastor Jonathan's wife Rie is able to play a Shmisen stringed instrument. She played some Christian hymns it was beautiful. I included a picture of the Wilson's daughter Gracie who is also learning to play. She did play the song "Sakura". Great day and we have our first day of school tommorrow. There is a 3 to 4 hour opening ceremony/meet the teacher day. Pray for us as we are homeschooling but we have agreed to attend these functions and have a relationship with the school. We had to buy some white shoes and they gave us yellow hats. Nathan my 10 year old is just mortified in his charlie brown type ball cap. Later

Sayama History

well we went for a walk the other day and we went across the railroad tracks to a park in Sayama the next city. Known for silk worms and green tea they also housed the famous Johnson Airforce Base. This park used to be a track of homes with houses. The steps to the houses are still there. It is kind of eery as there are steps going nowhere. It reminded me of the Winchester house up the coast of California. That house Mrs Winchester was afraid of the ghosts of all who were killed by her husbands invention the rifle so she went crazy and had crews for many many years there building staircases that go no where. Doors in floors and doors that open to walls. So this park is just stairs where the homes used to be. They had a museum of Sayama but they couldn't just talk about their city history they went back to billions of years ago and hypothesized about evolution. It was exactly what Nathan is learning in Science so it was a great opportunity to explain the false belief they have. They even had a geological column which is the perfect way to explain away evolution as a myth. It is funny they had all this palaeoenviromental material and right in the middle there is this radical concept car of the future. It was funny to the kids as I explained one strand of DNA has more information than 1000 of those cars put together. I did like the Samurai warrior gear. Shhh I didn't flash when I took the picture but Miho later said I wasn't even supposed to take it at all. So enjoy. If you feel guilty looking at my illegal picture then you can send $1.50 to the Sayama Museum in Saitama Japan. That is the price of admission. Pray for the people of Japan because they are not taught any facts about evolution though the teachers/evolutionary prophets teach it as such. Evolution is the worlds greatest hoax and deception for all time next to the belief man doesn't need God. The Bible says all men are liars...well Japan doesn't have any proof of evolutionary history. Yet they have bought the lie. Pray that the truth will be unvailed.

The last picture is of a motor bike with water bottles around it. At first we thought this was a strange religious ritual that warded off evil spirits. But truth be know there is the belief that the water bottles will keep stray cats from urinating on your stuff. We have seen this in many places in Japan so we thought it was odd. Give it a try why not? If anything the water can be used to water your plants outside.

Something Old and Something New

Hello Today I am uploading our gifts from the Lord. Mihoko's friend Setsuko is a graduate student in Michigan and some 20 years ago when Mihoko moved to the US Setsuko inherited her coffee table and stereo. Well, we got it back the other day. Rachel likes to use it as a desk. Also the Takamiys's came by and took us out to the recycle shop and we found this dinning set for $50.00. What a blessing. Nathan was first to enjoy a bowl of Ramen on this prize. Then we ordered a $200.00 sofa on the internet. It looks great.

Tokorozawa Obon Outreach

For many Japanese it may be repulsive to do an outreach at a festival for the dead but the living are dead without Christ as well and this posed a great opportunity to network within the community and extend a hand to love our neighbors. Pastor Travis being Hawaiian made some yummy Kahlua Pork and Cabbage and sold it with some yummy sausages. Then Rich Rose taught me some fun ballooning and we blessed all the kids and some adults with some balloon creations. It was a blast. The organizers praised the church for ministering to the kids and the balloons were the free treat that the whole neighborhood was talking about. We were even teaching them how to make stuff and letting them pump and twist their own stuff. The committee in charge was very pleased. The fruit of the outreach is that the body of believers was strengthened to just go and love on others, and we gained favor within the leaders eyes, also on Sunday morning one lady showed up at church attributing her coming to seeing us all at the festival. Praise God. Next weekend Mihoko and I and the kids will help out at Grace Christian Fellowship's Obon celebration outreach next Sunday the 31st. Pray for that. Jonathan Wilson is back from Ch*n* and he is declaring the praises of God's faithfulness to the weakest of those earthquake victims. Pray for their continued work in the mainland. The last picture is of Pastor Travis's daughter Erika isn't she cute in the kimono.

BURGER WARS are here! I'm loving it

Hey we were at Sunshine and they had every burger joint there and we noticed that there was a Burger King in there and they are aggressively selling their burger the whopper at $4 something with a combo it is 7 to 8 dollars total. Well, MC Donald's Corp true to their American heritage just wants to crush and anilate the competition which is what they did in the 90's and BK pulled out of Japan to restrategize. Well here they are again with the famous Big Mac at a Whoppin $2. US. That is unheard of... The only problem is the Sunshine Mc D's used the funky Japanese deli mustard in the secret sauce and it tasted nasty. I was bummed. Mihoko made it up by getting us all frosty's. We went by an ice cream store called Dipper Dan which was a funny name and then we saw Cold Stone. But we settled for the good ole Mc D frosty. This was on Friday for last week we did this. Today is the 26th of August and it has been rainning for several days now and will rain for the rest of the week. We are learning to adjust to the volume of rain here.

Sunshine City

In Ikebukuro there is what used to be the tallest building in Tokyo called the Sunshine building. It is now dwarfed buy another in Shinjuku. But they have built a city/mall inside this place that is sprawling with many other buildings. They have the Namjatown. It is a kids place that is pricey and just ain't like Adventure city. But they have inside this Namjatown an Ice Cream museum. It too was pricey. I am a simple guy just give me a McD's Hot Fudge sundae for 200 yen and I am happy. So were the kids.

Routine Hospital visit

Hey just some picts to show the Hospital we are going to for check ups. It is near a city named Omiya. We had to take a train early in the morning to Ikebukuro and then transfer to Tabata and then take a bus and then get out and huff a walk into the middle of this obscure neighborhood where the Hospital was. It is crazy how they design stuff. I think of boy scout camp outs where we just found a good spot with no ants and plop went the tents. Some were small and some were the adventurer mondo delux mansion tents. That is exactly what we had with samll houses and then in the middle of the block there she is the Tokyo Women's medical University Hospital. It's blue and funny in design. We had a great time and the HTX folks are all like family. After the Doctor visit we went back to Ikebukuro which is a busy station in Japan. Shinjuku is the busiest with more than 1 million commuters passing through its station everyday. Someone said they thought it was two million people. Anyway, Ikebukuro has to be in the top 5 for busy. The people are like water flowing everywhere. We went to a place in Ikebukuro called Sunshine city it was grand that will be my next report. We stopped at a park on the way to let the kids burn off some energy.

More Picts from the CCT VBS

Hey yall, I just received some picts from a family that went with us to the VBS. So I just want you to know it was really hot and I was tired. I laid down on a bench with an ice-cream in one hand then Rachel had to go to the restroom so I held her icecream until she got back. Of course I couldn't let it drip all down my arm. I probably shouldn't post this picture because it looks bad. Anyway you can see we had fun. We went to a zoo in Kichijoji for kids and the first pict is from a kids museum in Shibuya. The last photo is me with Kenta Yokota he was just baptized in July and his wife in August so pray for the yokota's to grow well in the Lord. We have started home school and it is fun. It is taking us a while to prepare being green in the material. We almost needed to plan two weeks out for the whole semester. Anyway the kids are loving the special attention they get from their parents.

Not a traditional West Coast living experience

Hey again, I wanted to upload some picts of our building outside and also show you the sleeping deal with the kids. It is cool as they have these tatami rooms with straw type mats that have a good homey smell and then you put a mattress pad down and then a futon on top of that and then you have a sheet on that and you sleep with a cover over you. Summer it is usually nothing because of the heat but in winter the covers and get big and fluffy down stuff that traps you because they are so warm you don't want to leave it. Anyway, My kids are sleeping in one room together they don't mind so far and the other day Rachel was playing hide and seek in the closet and she fell asleep while hiding. This closet is where the bedding is all stored each day. You put it away in the morning and take it out at night. Well, I was thinking this would be a great bunk bed. Mihoko already said no way.

A little bit of home in Japan

Hey everyone we had a great dinner as Mihoko has been feverishly working to find the stores that have the best and freshest ingredients that are also cheap. Most stores have the first two but the cheap is very challenging unless you have a COOP store built into your apartment building Travis. You can go to a cheap store but if there is train fair or bus fair you have defeated the purpose of going there in the first place. Anyway, Mihoko is the warrior extrodinare who has found us great food and if on a personal mission to keep the meals below $2 a person. It is hard to do but it can be done. I may loose weight yet but today I discovered $2 Big Macs at the Maruhino department store. We ate well. Anyway, Mihoko made these timely California rolls for us and the Kids were so happy. Nothing was said during the feeding frenzy and then they were stuft. Thank you Miho the greatest wife in the world. We love you.

Evan Takamiya

Hey here are a couple of picts of the VBS where we are on a train going somewhere and Evan Takamiya who is a great kid full of life and can rock your world is getting tickled tortured by me. The other pict shows Erika Takamiya, Jane my daughter, Rinka, and Rich Rose. We had a lot of fun together.

VBS, Outreach, and Rock floping

Hello again, here are some pictures from Travis of the VBS. I was very serious that our Noah's Ark would win the race. And as we did finally work together our boat did win. Yea but we were almost beat out by Peter from CC Windward and his floating lounge chair. The little boy is Tsubasa and I am helping him decorate a VBS shirt. The photo of Travis playing guitar and me on the Cajon is in front of the Tokorozawa Train Station having an outreach. We passed out tracks and sang worship song and just had a great time meeting folks. The last pict is one of me in an amazing flying position on my way to the greatest belly flop in my entire life. It hurt but I am okay and will not do that again.