Only Because It's Spring!

It snowed today, but it can't fool me.  I can tell spring is coming to Tsuruoka.

I saw this grandma out in her garden as we drove by.  I told Ken I had to have a picture.  So we parked and walked back a couple of blocks, just so I could get a picture of her and her little garden cart.  I just love these pictures.

 It seems that everywhere we go, we see older people out working in their gardens.  We recently were hunting an address and Ken pulled over right by this gentleman's garden.  While Ken studied the map, I thoroughly enjoyed watching him oh, so slowly and  meticulously care for his garden. 

Remember this huge snow pile across the street from our apartment?  Boy, I do. 

A couple of weeks ago, it looked like this.

And now it looks like this!

These turtles were out sunning themselves

The swans were also enjoying the sun.

These cute children were out enjoying the spring.  Ken asked their mother if I could take their picture.

Through the entire winter, though, there has been one flower that never died.  In the very harshest blizzards, this little pink flower just kept blooming.  I've taken several pictures of them over the weeks.  They are everywhere in Tsuruoka:

In English, they are called Camelias

My favorite picture is this one of our neighbor.  I was just leaving to go out for a little walk the other day.  I heard singing coming from my neighbor's yard, so I stopped and watched her for a minute and listened to her merry tune.  She saw me and motioned for me to come.  I went up into her yard.  She proudly showed me her little cherry tree that she has in a pot by her door.  It was in full bloom.  She was happy with it and happy to share it with me.  Though we can't communicate in words at all, we definitely communicated our joy in spring to each other. 

We've made friends with this neighbor.  When we didn't know her name, we called her "You ain't seen nothin' yet."  She would walk by when Ken was shoveling snow, and with a big smile on her face, say in Japanese, basically, "You ain't seen nothin' yet!"  But we've since learned her name.  Ken shoveled her walk several times during the winter and we've exchanged gifts and always exchange pleasantries and greetings.  She is Ken's soulmate, as she loves gardening and she puts food out for the birds all through the winter. 

I've decided it takes a winter to really appreciate spring.  I am enjoying it more this year more than I ever have, I think.  Beware of future posts of sakura- the famous Japanese cherry blossoms.  There are cherry trees everywhere and the buds are beginning to swell.  I think our neighbor's tree is ahead because it is near her door and in a pot, but the rest will be out soon.  I'm sure I will be taking a million pictures and posting most of them!!

They Pray Over Their Food

Recently, we were at a local restaurant that we visit occasionally.  Ken overheard the proprietor/chef tell another customer, while pointing to us, "They pray over their food."  We don't think he knew that Ken could understand him.  Ken surprised them both by asking the customer, "Would you like me to say one for you?" They all had a good laugh.   I guess we're being watched.

Eikaiwa Easter Parties!

Happy Easter!!

We are in charge of holiday parties at English class.  We teach two sessions of English class- one in Tsuruoka on Wednesday evening and one in Sakata on Thursday evening.  We celebrate major American holidays with first, teaching them about the holiday in English, then dancing, games, and refreshments.  We included both #hallelujah videos in our party this year.  Generally, we don't teach the gospel at the English classes, but how do you teach Easter and not teach the gospel. 

The car is loaded and ready to go party.

And the refreshments all set up.

The Chicken Dance.  "Da Da Da Da Da Da Da . . . "

Sakata Party

The elders were on splits with the zone leaders, so we had Elder Erickson with us.  He is an impressive young man. 

Da da da da da da.   Da da da.  Da da da da da da.

Hop, hop, hop.  The Bunny Hop

Do you love your neighbor?

I told about Handel's oratorio "The Messiah" and then we showed them this video:

https://www.mormon.org/easter/virtual-hallelujah-choir 

And then we showed this one:

https://www.mormon.org/easter/hallelujah

I tried to load them on here, but it wouldn't work.  But go watch them.  They are wonderful!

Hallelujah!  and Happy Easter!

Visit to the Jelly Fish Aquarium

During each transfer (six week period,) it's tradition that the mission district you are in does a p-day activity together on one of the p-days during that transfer.  Our district is split between two cities: Tsuruoka (where we are) and Yamagata (11/2 hours away.)  Since they are so far away, we do split p-day activities with our city.  The four of us decided to go to the Tsuruoka Jelly Fish Aquarium.  It is quite a claim to fame for our city as it has the largest number of jelly fish in an aquarium in the world.  We had NO idea there were that many different species of jelly fish.  There were other fish, turtles, and a sea lion show as well, but the jelly fish were the stars of the show!  At noon each day, they feed minnows to black-tailed gulls.  Ken got some great shots of that.  So please enjoy our tour of the Jelly Fish Aquarium in Tsuruoka, Japan.

Elders Hansen, Myers, and Hinton

Sea Lion Show

Coming for food

I like this shot Ken took as it shows a feather in the sky that one of the birds just lost.

It was a holiday on Monday, so the place was absolutely packed with mostly families with children.

I thought this one was so beautiful and unusual

These were bright purple, but the picture didn't capture that very well.

These were the prettiest color of blue.

These would actually glow neon colors, but it was impossible to capture it with our cameras.

This octopus put on a show for us.

This is a squid.  Fried calamari anyone?

He posed for us.

We had to try the jelly fish ice cream.  It was just like regular ice cream with little pieces of jelly fish in it.  I won't be trying that again anytime soon.  But now I have a new thing to say when you play that game where you try to think of things you've done that no one else has.  I've eaten jelly fish ice cream.  You can see how very windy it was out there by the sea.

You could actually buy frozen jelly fish to take home and eat.  No, we did not.

After our visit to the aquarium, we went to lunch at our favorite Midori's restaurant.

Elder Myers got the fried chicken set.

Elder Hinton got curry rice.

Elder Hansen got the tempura.

And I got ramen soup- a favorite of many Japanese people.

It was a fun day and really the first day off we've taken since New Year's. 

The elders in their new jellyfish ties that they purchased at the aquarium.