Ward Wanderings

Flight to Maryland

May 19, 2016, 7:50 a.m., Japan time.

I left home about 5:00 a.m. for Itami airport and caught the above flight to Narita airport in Tokyo. At 11:00 a.m. the direct flight to Dulles International in Virginia took off and landed there at 10:40 a.m. on May 19, EST--a 12 hour flight and I got to re-live Thursday. :-)

The flights themselves were smooth and uneventful which was nice. The first one was an hour and I got to sit in seat 6A--which would be business class. Here's a photo of my seat. Would have been nice if this was on the Tokyo flight, but it was not.

Seat 6A on ANA

Flying over Eastern Tokyo

The plane to DC was ANA and decorated in a Star Wars theme. The music as we boarded and landed was also Star Wars. Very nice plane, flight and cabin crew. 5***** for this airline.

Over Lake Michigan

Mid-West plains--flat forever

I got to DC about 30 minutes before the Johnson family from Aomori, Japan. They were coming back for their first furlough with three children in tow, oodles of baggage and Sara was pregnant with #4. Their family did not know she was expecting so it was a big surprise. That's little Ethan in the orange shirt helping push the cart with his uncle, Paul's brother, and mom Sarah in the back.

Sarah Johnson and her sister

White Dishes

Yamazaki Bread has an annual spring campaign. Buy their bread, collect the points (20 or 25) and receive a dish made by a French company. So for the past 18 years or so we have done that and there is a big collection of these simply beautiful plates.

The first set is the top left dessert dish. Each year is a variation of the previous one. Some edges are plain, some not, some are a deeper bowl, some not. These plates represent a lot of bread eaten over the years.

The 2016 plate is up front, a shallow bowl with a plain edge.

Bulbuls in the tree

These Bulbul birds literally ate all the multitude of berries off the tree these year, usually in teams of 8-10 flying in and out at a time. The one below got caught red-handed. Alas, not one for humans to taste.

Spring Garden

White and purple iris, although it turns up blue in photos.

White middle and yellow outer petals

Our neighbor did not get stuck while plowing his rice field. Planting in another week or so.

Japanese cherry tree known as sakuranbo, while fruit was just forming, about three weeks ago. Below was today and fruit is not quite ripe yet. However, the birds have nearly eaten all of it, so we won't be harvesting any this year.

This is on the slope below the tree where the birds have dropped hundreds of cherries. Sigh, I guess they needed feeding more than we did.

Spring flowers in My Yard

Iris of two-toned purple

Not sure what this ball-shaped star flower is, but it is pretty.

The frogs always find rest on the leaves

八王子　Hachioko or town of 8 princes

We went up north on Apr. 28th and saw these sites while visiting a Japanese church.

We saw several smaller-than-normal motor bikes. Looked like a little kid's toy.

Henry and Sara sang in the morning service at Kawagoe New Life Baptist Church

Pastor and Mrs. Usuda were gracious hosts.

Yoshi, Jun and Rei with Sara.

Engrish....:-)

This sporty car sped past--notice those wheel!

Another fancy restroom at a parking area.

button Wreath

My mom gave me a box of buttons decades ago and over the years I have collected more. How to use them? I bought a leaf wreath and then hot glued the buttons on in no particular order or color, then added a ribbon hanger. This is small, about 12 inches across. Simple and easy.

Bridge Collapse in Kobe

A 120 meter section of a new road being constructed near us that will relieve congestion on the main Chugoku Expressway, collapsed this afternoon. Could here sirens for an hour, but not knowing what it was all about. Hubby found out about it when he took the car to our mechanic to get a new battery about 6:00 pm

Bridge collapses in Kobe

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20160422_36/

Sara and I drove right under this section on Tuesday. I marveled at the way these elevated roads are constructed. The link above is to a short video, in English, taken about 6:30 pm. Very tragic.

Retaining walls

Japan is a small island nation with lots of mountains, as the saying goes. In order to build highways through these mountains, retaining walls are expertly constructed with cement and huge bolts. These are rather steep mountains.

More PRs along the way

The rest stops have the nicest powder rooms anywhere--rivaling expensive hotels. Here are some more photos.

Hand washing area

Each stall was dimly lighted, the center sink appears to be also lighted.

Outside the above rest stop was this vehicle:

The next stop two hours later

Boys' Day samurai helmet on the vending machines.

Entering City Limits signs along the road

During our travels to and from the Tokyo area, the highway had signs depicting the City Limits of the various places we traveled through. Each had a unique artwork for that place.