This year, we celebrated Mia and Noah’s birthdays and Thanksgiving. Mia’s was celebrated on the actual day and Noah’s was celebrated along with Thanksgiving with turkey and cake.

Birthday for Noah

Now at Kim and Rod’s where we will spend the next 3 weeks doing our homestay program, visiting family and friends.

The weather here is so much nicer than in Kyoto, Japan, where it is hot and humid. Looking forward to spending warm days and cool nights in sunny southern California!

The Camarillo Grade

Summer has arrived. But for us, summer isn’t really until we have stepped on California soil and have begun the homestay program.

Just over two more weeks to go!

Anyone, friend or family, in America, please come visit us while we are there in California. We’d love to see you and spend time with you before we head back to Japan, way across the Pacific.

Tags: shukugawa, sakura, website work

The weather was extreme!

However, it was a lot of fun braving the elements. We didn’t quite finish our lunches because a huge cloud dumped snow and sleet on our picnic. After being pelted with and ingesting so much frozen moisture, we finally called it quits and decided to move the party/picnic to our house, which was only a few minutes away.

I hope everyone else attending the hanami celebration had as much fun as we did!

Mia and Noah played catch, wrestled, played soccer and rolled down the hill just under the cherry blossom trees…and no one got hurt today! Praise God!

It was a beautiful day!

It seems everytime Noah gets hurt it involves his head.

Today, while swinging from a branch in a tree, Noah slipped off and hit his head on another cement gutter. This time he only needed one stitch not a staple. But the scratches he got from the accident are far worse than the previous ones.

Because the accident happened at the neighborhood park a lady there called the ambulance and they took Noah to the hospital to get a CT scan and x-rays.

The pictures showed no brain injuries so he should heal up fine. However, he still needs prayers for healing. His neck is all scratched up, along with his ear and forehead.

Pray also that from now on his injuries get fewer and less damaging. And while at it include the rest of the family.

The first jumprope challenge was to jump as a team as many times in two minutes. Mia’s team had a hard time because the rope turners didn’t do a good job. They didn’t advance.

The next challenge was to jump rope as a team but they had to one at a time run through the jumprope and do it as many times as they could in two minutes. They did well the first time and perfect the second.

Unfortunately, I do not know the rules so I have no idea how they did in the competition even though they did well.

Now the kids are playing with their friends while Denise and I sit in the car eating our lunch bentos Denise made this morning.

I feel like I am camping!

We had a nice little Christmas party at church last Saturday, and then on this past Wednesday night we went to the Underwoods’ house for another one. That will be the last time we will have a Christmas party at their house! I can’t believe it!

It sounds bad, but it wasn’t. It was a great little party. But unfortunately they will be moving away to another country next summer, so Christmas at their house next year will be out of the question.

On another note, Grandma Joyce is here with us this Christmas. She was here last year for two months, but could only come for one month this time. Her friend, Eileen, is also here with us staying for two weeks. They and Denise have been going out and about around Kyoto and Osaka seeing the sites and eating.

Having them here for Christmas and New Year’s is such a blessing for us. The kids are enjoying their time with Grandma and so are we…although, Denise gets to spend more time with Joyce than I do, mostly because I have been working.

However you are spending Christmas and New Year’s Day, we hope you have a fun, safe time. Praise God, we have gotten through another year in one piece and now are about to go into 2010. Pray we continue to do God’s will in Japan and grow closer to Him on a daily basis. We hope and pray you do, too. God Bless!

In Him in 2010!

A few people planning to join us on the trek through the north eastern part of Kyoto called to see if we were still planning to go. I assured them we would still go and that the weather was most likely going to be fine by noon.

All of my information was based on the agency’s report.

Most weather reports are not reliable. However, my experience with the JMA is they are almost always correct in their predictions.

I ususally use their six-day forecast and then check out the radar map. From there I can discern what the weather will be like in the next few hours.

Saturday turned out to a picture-perfect day. The weather began clearing up right around noon and by the time we all met up at Gion-Shijo station at 1pm, the weather was perfect. The temperature was cool and there was a nice breeze. Most of us had light jackets and didn’t really need them. I walked around most of the day in just my short-sleeved shirt.

The only thing that would have made it a better day would have been for Denise to have been there. She had to go to singing practice for worship service on Sunday. So she couldn’t make it.