The Fox

 This morning I heard the pheasant making noise so I looked out my window and I saw this fox in my neighbor's field.  It was a good size and was also looking for the bird when it made its honking noise.  It is the first time seeing a fox in our area.  

Christmas and Birthday at Joe's house

The three sisters had a wonderful Christmas time opening gifts.  

Christin and Willow 

 The pink princess 

The purple princess. 

Matt came up for Willow's 2nd Birthday Party in January.  Below she is opening a big gift which turned out to be a basketball hoop.

 

Snow comes to Kobe

January 12 we had snow falling in the morning which accumulated about 1-2 inches and was about -4 C.  On our way to Ono I took some photos. 

This next two photos are actually the frozen creek below our house in Hatacho.  I don't recall it ever freezing before.  

Out the front door about 8:00 a.m. 

Snow was on top of the water on this river in Ono City, about 20 minutes from where we will live.  

These three are behind our house in Ono where our neighbor has a pit to burn debris.  It was still smoldering from Monday's burning so we added stuff to it like wood, some dried bamboo and the like.  

 

Progress on the Ono House

 The system bath installer is working on putting in the floor.  The tub is standing on the right side. 

The equipment needed.

Henry and Dan on ladders discussing the slanted ceiling in that part of the room.  They decided to make it straight across on the left side. 

 The tub is installed. 

 

Progress on the Ono house

These are January photos of the progress at the Ono house.  The first is the kitchen area with the floor covered with cardboard to protect the new flooring underneath.  

These that follow are the new system bath that was installed on 1/12, piece by piece.  Really nicer than I expected...

The entrance folds inward. 

There's room enough to stand and then get in the ofuro tub which would be filled with nice, hot water.  

 

Ono house inside and out

New stairs from the living room up to the second floor

The bath area ready for new concrete 

The old tub had to be cut out of the hole it was in.

House exterior on the left 

Around to the front door

To the right of the front door 

Going to the driveway 

Parked Fun Cargo 

The property goes back to beyond the white building on the right.  It is mostly garden out there. 

 

what to do with Trash?

 After drilling and chopping out the Ono house bathroom, we took the rocks, bricks, etc., to a local Recycle place that collects all kinds of stuff.  We had to pay about $100 for them to take the small truckload of stuff  which they will sell to someone for fill dirt.  Here are some photos. We backed the small truck to this space where employees shoveled it out.  There was also a fork-type machine that tried to push it off using tarps. That did not go too well because of the heaviness.  

Construction at Ono continues

Henry is adding new walls to the kitchen area in late November.

This is the kitchen that needs to be completely redone:  new walls, counters, sink, floor.  

That is a new closet to the bedroom area.  

Pastor Saeki came and helped to knock out the ofuro (bathtub) area so a new system bath can be installed.  It had cinder block, concrete, rock; generally a big, heavy mess.  

Dan Gardner came up for a week and helped alot.  He suggested changing the stairs to the second floor room which made them straight up and wider with a gentler slope.  

Mr. Fukumoto painted the kitchen with a first coat of white.  That corner had water stains in the ceiling.  

 

This is    Miss Murakami playing the trombone.  She graduates next year from the Bible School here.  

 

All Are Welcome

 All Are Welcome is this year's theme song at Kato Baptist Church, written by Ron Hamilton and translated into Japanese by Henry.  This is not the entire song because the file is too large to upload, but one verse.  

We had 18 at a recent service in November.  Recently several African people have been coming.  They work at local Japanese factories.  They come from Cameroon, Nigeria, and Jamaica.  We have an international church in the making with Japanese, American and Brazilian nationals attending.   The owner of the building still comes every Sunday morning, sometimes with his wife.  We are praying they will get saved soon.  

We found a new (to us) place to live in Ono City.

We have located a house to rent in Ono City, about 15 minutes from the new church in Kato City.  The owner said we could make improvements up to a certain amount and he gave us the money with which to do that.  We told him we could probably move in December, so next month will be spent making changes.  It has a tatami room, large room for our bedroom and my sewing area, plus a kitchen, bath, toilet and a room upstairs.    The owner is only charging 30,000 yen a month or about $300.  :-)  

This is the main room on the first floor and the largest room in the house I think.  

This is the tatami room at one end just inside the main entrance to the right and not in the picture.  This room does not need any renovation.

The kitchen will be completely redone probably.  A new sink and cabinets are needed as well as cabinets, plus we will probably replace the wood flooring with tile.

The ofuro/bath room will be completely redone as it is really old and small now.    More pictures coming as we progress with the renovation.