Jane is an amazing girl

Jane loves to play pretend. I caught her the other day on our patio using our laundry rack for drying clothes as a counter for take out chicken. I think she was hankering for some chicken strips or something. She was making a lot of noise so I snuck up and took her picture. When she discovered me she started to throw chicken at me (plastic clips for holding clothes). She is one of our emotional ones who with the elequence of an 8 year old will tell you what is exactly on her mind. She is only 4 but will ask you a hundred questions. Travis and Michael the other day teamed up on her and asked her too many questions and she couldn't respond but all they did was teach her how to ask more questions in a different and nagging way. She'll just watch me make my coffee in the morning and say why do you have to have two creams and two sugars? Isn't one enough? Why do you need sugar at all? Mom says it'll make you fat. It is challenging to wake up with the enemy using your kids as a missile into your heart. So I had to create a rule of no questions until Daddy has had at least one cup of coffee.

Mando Matsuri

Well the Mando Matsuri came here to Iruma and it was a blast. The sights sounds and smells were greatly over stimulating to the gaijin senses. The people were excited and the food was great. I ate some Carne Asada beef ka-bob it was awesome. I wished I had bought more. The drummers were many and the Mikoshi arks were all decorated and ready for the parade and the Dashi floats were gased up and ready to be pulled with the live bands playing traditional Japanese Matsuri Music. The Oni (Demon) guys were out scaring away evil and dancing up on the Dashi. It was a cultural delight as I have never see one up close. Mihoko doesn't care for the festivals for her personal reasons. She was with Rachel in the hospital and I was free for a couple of hours to shower and walk around the town before going back to spend the night at the Hospital. I was supposed to help out at the "Plaza De Amigos Del Mundo" Stage making announcements in English. But in light of Rachel and my voice almost gone I saw this as God saying not this year. My voice was so raspy and course it was hard to talk and harder for others to understand. Guess what the very next day my voice came back. So I know who is in control here. God has plans for us here and it isn't being a celebrity. The Ladies in Kimono's were all decked out for the parade dancing. It is hundreds of ladies all from different groups or societies wearing costumes and dancing in unison. The drummers on the taiko drums practice their art form of drumming in unison together and hammer out tribal type songs. There were a dozen or so troops of Taiko drummers. There were 3 main stages with a talent show on one and rock bands on another, and then the Plaza was the main stage where our new mayor spoke and the beger meister from Germany Iruma's sister city also spoke. I was more fascinated with the Japanese translator speaking fluent German with an accent than anything else. I lived in Germany for two years so I realized I have forgotten all of my German. I understood how some American Japanese guys feel when they come to Japan and don't speak any Japanese. I am of German descent and "Ich Spreken zi kine Deutch". Even that don't sound right? Anyway, Next week is the Iruma Air show. The Blue Impulse Jets were flying overhead Today practicing their maneuvers. It is wonderful to watch. They fly with such precision.

Rachel's Doing fine

Well I visited Rachel in the Hospital and she is doing 100% better. They are keeping her one more night to have her Pediatric Cardiologist check her out in the morning. Rachel was sick for more than a week with Fevers off and on in the low range and she had a bad croupy cough. Then two days ago on Sunday her fever spiked in the mid 39's Celsius 103 around and she wasn't eating and she wasn't going to the bathroom. So on Monday, they felt she was dehydrating and they had us come into the hospital and hook her up with an IV drip to get fluids and give her some antibiotics. After a 24 hour period she is totally responsive and looking great and feeling so much better. She still has that cough but we know she will come home tomorrow. Thank you all for praying and we keep pressing forward. The last picture I am not sure but I think the spelling isn't right but it just caught my eye and I was trying to figure it out. The view of Tokyo is from her 5th floor room. This Hospital is right in the middle of a residential area. As you can see the front doors of the apartments down below. But Tokyo is a huge megalopolis with sprawling buildings and twisty roads for hours and days man. The kicker in the head is very few streets have names. For a ex-garage doorman map reading pro like me this is a nightmare. But actually once you understand a little of the madness you can usually get with in rock throwing distance of where you want to be and then good ole asking questions gets you there. Come and visit us anytime we'd love to get lost with you.

DJ Dan rides again

Hey I just wanted to get these out to show you the radio station and me at the helm of the control board. It is so much fun. I have been making many mistakes and yet God is good. It is volunteer work so they are just happy to have an English speaker speaking. You can see their website at http://www.fmchappy.jp/cm/radiocm.html. Careful of some of the Dj's stuff like their blogs. Not very clean. This is a public city owned radio station and the DJ's have quite a rep with doing commercials or CM's as they say here sounds like shiems. So I just plug away making city announcements like pay your city tax and festivals coming. I announced this week about a free concert by a local orchestra playing Mozart and also about low income housing units available but the people have to jump through some very difficult hoops. Anyway, I played some switchfoot and Jeremy Camp and Barlow Girl songs. I have been keeping it up beat for the most part. I am looking for more Christian artists to play the Library at the station stopped in the mid 90s and budget cuts meant no more new English titles. But of course they are no Christian artists unless you consider Elvis sings Hymns to be in that Category? I am out on a limb here. So I have a few of those WOW CDs and a X2003 Compilation of Christian rock but other than that I have nothing else to play. So we are coming back to the states November 6th through the 20th for Rachel's Biopsy and I am hoping to get some more music. If you have burned out on your repertoire of music and like to donate to the cause let me know. I don't think I'll play your Larry Norman or Daniel Amos stuff but contemporary "FISH" or "Air One" type music will be cool. I am going to begin to play Christmas stuff in two weeks so this should be fun. But again I am praying that this is God's will and not a distraction of the enemy.

Duty to God and to country

Well it arrived and I have voted. It is anti-climatic. Even though I made choices I am not satisfied with the options. It's like going to an all you can eat sushi place and they only have three kinds and two are not edible. Hmm, as I pray and vote I know that God has an end times schedule to keep; kind of like Santa has a list and he's checking it twice. God has a plan and there is no checking it's all good and it's all going to happen and he will have the right people in office to implement his plan. I still vote for the greater good which I am not sure what that was for this election. The propositions are all in the billions of dollars and I have a bad taste in my mouth over the AIG executives who went on a hunting trip billing the company $86,000 for it they day after they received millions of dollars of bail out money. I can't help see that this is just the status quo of all executives and politicians. So as I see these propositions I wonder gee what pork is in this thing that we have no idea. We need a bullet train but it is over 10 billion. The LA rail system started out with x number of billions and over ran into the hundreds of billions with corruption at every turn. I can't wait until Jesus returns to this earth. Oh how wonderful it will be when true righteousness rules the land and the Judge Jesus sees into the hearts and minds of men and can judge the motives behind everything. Won't that cause a legislator to think twice before he submits a bill in the committee. Jesus won't need a line item veto because they won't add anything. He'll be the law maker and giver and enforcer. Amen.

Hey don't eat the sticker

Not only are there intelligence challenged American's but the Japanese are also dealing with the phenomenon. The stickers say in Japanese: Shiru wa taberaremasen. That means the seal is not edible. Hmm, do Japanese think the tomatoes are like the botan candy wrapped in rice paper that you can eat? Do they think saran wrap is a big fruit roll of rice paper. Hmm

Nathan's School

Hello everyone, I am posting today about Nathan's school for family and friends interested. We get up every morning (in theory) at 7am (8ish) and have breakfast and clean up the house and make the long commute to the back bedroom for school by 8 sometimes 9ish. We begin with Language, reading, spelling, math, history, science, and other stuff. I have to somewhere cram in some P.E. which could include a bike ride to the store for mom. Nathan's Japanese and fear of speaking is getting so improved he likes to have the autonomy to go to the store by himself and be responsible to make purchases in a foreign language. I am proud of him. Rachel has been loosing her teeth and the four across the top are gone. The big chicklets up front are coming down but it is taking a long time. She was so angry at the hard time she had eating corn on the cob. We kind of thought it was funny.

A Visit from home

Hey everyone, we had special visitors today. Maria Naito and her daughter Esther and Mrs Kainuma San. It was a sweet time of fellowship. Maria's husband went to be with the Lord last year after a fight with cancer and she is moving on and ministering the best way she can. Her daughter is in Shin Saitama I believe near Ikebukuro teaching English. Mrs Kainuma also lost her husband a while ago and she is living very near Mihoko's aunt in Ogikubo. It was great fellowship and just to be with good friends from home. A slice of heaven. Kainuma san knew Mihoko and I back 18 years ago in California. We were living in LaHabra after our wedding and she was living in Fullerton Hills. We visited their house and had fellwoship. So it was good to have some tea and time together.
Another note is Mihoko just celebrated her <*O*> birthday and it was a time of experienmentation as we have been trying to make things in our Toaster/Convection oven. Cornbread was okay and the other day it was cake mix. It turned out great. We can now make B-day cakes and other stuff and not burn or blow it up.

Pray for Rachel as happy as she seems in the picture she is now down with a fever and cough like the rest of the family. We have medicine and instructions to follow but we just want her to be healed.

I am only half creapy now with my coffee

Well, I had to show you one of the examples of our English that sells a product but has a double meaning. Creap is the same pronunciation as Creep. A Creep is a guy your sister doesn't want to date anymore or some wierd guy that gives you the hiby jibies. A Creap is a Non-Dairy Creamer product or a cream-powder or just creap. But I thought it funny that this one is only 1/2 Creapy and I think I resemble that in many ways. Come on over and we'll have a cup of joe and be 1/2 creapy together. Now don't ask me about that Skip Jack with Curry? That scares me a little and is even more creapy than the Creap itself.

Nathan's Rock Concert

Hey it's a rainy day and the family is experiencing some pretty bad colds so what's bored kid to do? Dress up like a nerd and make a Lego Rock Concert. Modeled after the band P.O.D. (Nathan likes them) he was able to make an impressive show. We got a kick out of his creativity. I got a kick out of his silly outfit. But sadly he is dressing like me. I am a nerd let's face it I am uncool so the nut doesn't fall far from the tree.

We Go Eigo

I was able to go down to the We Go Eigo school in Fuchu today. Rich and Candice Rose are from Hawaii and they are helping Travis with Calvary Chapel Tokorozawa. Rich and Candice love kids and God has given them a bunch to take care of. Rich is so excited to talk about his kids and they are all his at least he treats them that way. When they started they lived up in Tokorozawa. They would take about a 45 minutes each way using 4 different trains and a good walk. But when George and Josie Austin from CC La Habra returned to the states the Lord opened up and opportunity for Rich and Candice to step in. They moved down into the city of Fuchu and they have been so blessed ever since. They still commute several times a week back up to CCT at 3.50 to 5.00 a pop per person each way. They have between the morning Yochien and afternoon classes about 40 students. It is so much fun. They have recently started a Friday night Bible Study and it has grown with one family who move into their city just to be close to the school and Bible Study. Lately Rich has had some Guys that speak Portugese come to the fellowship and bless them. One guy is not saved but he is bringing his friends saying you have got to hear this man. God is good and will build his church his way. Mihoko and I are praying about the timing of opening a school in Iruma out of our home. We will go to the states in a few weeks and when we come back we will being the teaching process. The kids were so cute today.