Ward Wanderings

Autumn in Kobe

Beautiful weather lately; crisp mornings, clear skies, colorful trees.


ginko tree

Japanese cherry tree or sakura


This is what a street near us looked like after the city crews came and pruned the trees.


Notice all the beautiful leaves and branches now on the ground and just a wisp of leaves left on the trees. Takes all the color away for this year. I guess the city won't need to prune again for 5 years or so. Lastly, here is a photo of a van parked in a driveway where this pruning was being done. Just saying... :-)

Is now history, or at least combining itself with Typhoon 28 in the Pacific north of Hokkaido. Would not want to be in the midst of that wind storm and it's good that it is out in the open sea.

Anyway, here are some photos of the rain-swelled creeks and yard around our building.

The parking lot becomes a lake in heavy rains; one can watch it grow...

My new garden is a bit flooded

Standing water under the back deck

This little guy sought shelter outside our window

The Emperor Dahlia now has buds and will bloom, hopefully in November.

Music notes

Here is a recent musical special between Sara on the piano and Mrs. Wakimasu on the ocarina.

Beautiful skies after the storm

Wednesday, October 9 -- we got the fringe of typhoon 23, which was going up the Japan Sea side of the island. There was a good amount of rain and some wind. Not bad. About 5:00 p.m. I took these photos of the most marvelous cloud formation running from the West to the East--essentially across the main island of Japan where we are. I love clouds--and with the sun shining on them, it was so clear and sharp. God is an excellent sky-painter, yes?

Panorama going West to East in front of our house

This one was taken in Nishinomiya on Monday evening:

Lastly, these little birds visit us frequently during the day. They are atop the electric pole in our back yard that exclusively goes directly to our house.

Another Victory

October 6 -- We had our second butsudan-burning this year. That's the family altar to a deceased loved one that is kept in the home. Mrs. Matsunaga received one from her husband's family at some time in the past. The previous Friday she gave it to Henry after her Bible study in order for it to be burned. It is not a common thing in Japan to burn one's butsudan.

After the morning service Henry prepared the thing for demise. He said a short prayer then lit it (it was doused with kerosene for ease of burning). The entire church membership (about 14 or so) watched it burn. It was such a good thing to happen.

Mrs. Matsunaga and Miss Noseh

The End - Praise the Lord!

Fall pics 2013

September has now gone and October is upon us. It has been cooler than usual here with little rain, a big difference from a rather wet August. Here are some photos from around the house.

After the rice harvest, these rice-stalk teepees were put up.

An amazing blue sky and wispy clouds.

I forgot what these purplish flowers are, but they are beautiful.

One of our fat garden friends that will someday become a flying creature.

This red-legged spider was walking across the floor one day. I opened the door and told it to go outside and it promptly turned and walked out over the threshold.

When it got outside on the mat (to the left on the black line), it was met by a smaller brown spider, saying, "Nice to meet you; hope you like it out here." I then shut the door on both of them.

These are a couple of happy pinwheels I found at the local 100 yen store.

On October 1st, I opened the rainwater holding tank (our former septic tank) to discover this drowned critter. It was not there last I opened it on the previous Friday. Before this, I only found drowned June bugs, but this was the first mouse. The water only comes from off the gutters, so it must have crawled through the downspouts, through the pipes, and ended up in here with no way to escape. It got promptly buried on the back slope.

I saw this moth out the kitchen window in the next field. It was clinging to a long grass stem and not moving much at all. It was still alive the next morning so I moved it to one of my flower beds to see what comes of it.
Update 10/1--it was gone from the spot I put it, so I don't know where it ended up. :-(

Another beautiful sunset here in Kita Kobe.

Mrs. Matsuda's funeral

The coffin surrounded by flowers

Henry made a short presentation of recent photos of Mrs. Matsuda and friends

All the flowers were cut and then everyone placed them into the simple coffin. This is a Japanese tradition.

The funeral began at 11:00 a.m. and went about 70 minutes. Afterward, the family went to the crematorium. They ate lunch in a special room there for the family while they waited. About 4:00 p.m. Mrs. Tanaka and her sons and families returned to the church.

Mrs. Matsuda gets promoted

You may remember Mrs. Matsuda, 88, who got saved last year and baptized a few months later. Earlier this year we burned her idol shelf and butsudan. (see my post of 2//8/13) She had been having physical difficulties that come with age for several months. About two weeks ago, her daughter was able to place her mom into a nursing home in Sanda where the daughter lives. She came to church on the 18th with a wheelchair. She was as genki as ever, smiling and talking and asking about Joe.

This past Sunday, it rained hard all morning, so Mrs. Tanaka did not bring her mom to church. Monday Mrs. T. took mom to the doctor to check her foot. About a month ago Mrs. Matsuda fell in her home and while she did not break the foot, it was severely bruised and swollen. Last I saw it the color was normal, but still swollen. Anyway, Mrs. Tanaka returned to her home and left mom to go to sleep probably about 9:30 or 10:00 p.m.

Sometime around 11:00 p.m. we got a call from Mrs. Tanaka saying that her mom had died suddenly. Her heart just stopped beating. Henry went up to Sanda and was back about 1:15 a.m. I could not sleep. Well, as is the custom in Japan since they do not embalm bodies here, they have to cremate in the next day or two. A hearse brought Mrs. Matsuda's body here to the church. The two sons of Mrs. Tanaka and their wives were here also, and about 1:30 a.m., the Christian funeral company came and started preparation. They placed the body in a simple pine box, lined with a white lace and packed the body with dry ice and cloths. After discussing costs, etc., it seems everyone left about 4:00 a.m. I think I was already asleep.

Tuesday afternoon the funeral company came back to decorate for the funeral services. So many flowers and the smell was overwhelming, but still looked beautiful. The "wake" was at 7:00 pm with mostly family members and church folks attending. The funeral itself is Wednesday at 11:00 a.m.

Monday night /Tuesday morning about 2:30 a.m. preparation for burial.

The black cloth-covered coffin has Mrs. Matsuda's bible on it.


Photo of Mrs. Matsuda

Rainstorm

This past Tuesday, August 6 there was one terrific downpour in the afternoon. The parking lot was a lake and water poured off our neighbor's field into the lower one next to ours. Great for the plants. Thank you, Lord, for the rain!

From the upstairs window looking at the parking lot entrance. Notice the water running into the lower field.

A river of water flowed from the upper field and into the lower one, flooding it pretty well. The storm was over in about 20 minutes.

Drum roll.......

While we were at Costco today for our monthly stock-up trip, as I turned a corner to go down one of the last aisles toward the front of the store, lo and behold! right there, a sight for sore eyes ....genuine General Mills' Honey Nut Cherrios in Super Size and two boxes per purchase! They are each 1.4 kg and about $7 a box each. Snoopy Dancing here!

Now, for those of you not familiar with Japanese cereal choices, we have plain corn flakes, chocolate flakes, sugar flakes, an occasional granola, and sometimes crispy rice (but not the real Rice Krispies). There's a bunch of cereals from the Middle East similar to the previous-mentioned cereal choices, but, still, not a big variety from which to choose.

We shall see how long this is stocked. Many items have gone the way of Crisco shortening and tomato paste which were available for a short time, then never seen again. However, we shall enjoy it as long as we can.

Costco has been in Japan for over 10 years and this is the first time Cherrios has been sold. Yippee! The packages are in English and French, and are a product of the USA, but produced in Ontario, Canada; but, hey, wherever they came from, we are having Cheerios for breakfast in the morning! God is good and He does answer prayers! Really, I did pray we get this cereal sometime earlier this year. :-)

Hair cut time

Decided to get the hair cut and donate the ponytail to Locks of Love . I think this took about four years to grow. They will accept gray hair but cannot use it. Instead they sell it to another company to offset their costs. This was the third ponytail I have donated over the last 10 years, probably the last one, but you never know.