Winter Break

This past weekend was a long weekend for staff and students at Christian Academy in Japan.  It was our winter break.  The VanderHaak's invited me to come with them to the cabin up by Tagajo, near Sendai.  I do enjoy going to the cabin as it usually is a chance to relax.
It was pretty windy there when we arrived and stayed windy until yesterday, Monday evening.   There have been a lot of construction in the area, but the beach seems to change every time I come back to visit.  They have completed much of the berm, at least halfway down the beach. 

Lone seagull

Part of the beach still being worked on.

Completed berm, so far.

A close up of the berm.

Here they are taking the casings off of the cement jacks.  This is across the road from the beach.   On the beach they have used these cement jacks as barriers and a way to control the erosion.  
Each morning when I got us, I took Hana for a walk around Takayama Beach Company property.  Tuesday morning,  I took my camera along and took some pictures.   You can see that it was windy the last few days, lots of ripples in the sand.  There are some interesting rock formations.

Beach is calm today

Interesting combination of rocks

Distinctive layers

Ripples in the sand

Power plant towards Tagajo

On the last day, before we left to go back to Tokyo, we stopped at the look out, which gives you a 360ᵒ of the area.  At this look out there is a shrine.  I took a couple of pictures of this shrine, as well as taking a couple 360ᵒ videos.

You can see Shiogama through the trees

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Looking East

Here is the videos that I put together. 

I didn't get as much homework completed as I had hoped, but it was still a great time away from Tokyo.  Tomorrow, it's back to work, although I've had a couple of teachers text me, warning me about snow in the forecast.  😃 

Some videos

Over the last few months, I've been taking pictures and some video of some of the interesting machines, trucks and such around here in Japan.  Some are quite similar to what you would find in North America, some are a bit different.  I have some friends who have children that may find this little video interesting, so I put it together.  If you're interested, you're welcome to look at it.  The best part is the little firetruck you find in the back of the big firetrucks.  I couldn't get a video of one coming out of the big truck, but I did get pictures of the little truck in the back of the big firetruck.

It was fun to look for pictures or take advantage of videoing machines at work.
This past month, I decided to go with each of the homeroom classes on their Homeless Outreach.  We would meet at 5:45 a.m. at the Higashi Kurume station and go down to Ikebukuro to pass out lunches to the homeless who stay in the station during the night.  One of the mornings, I ended up staying at the wickets in the Ikebukuro station and took this time lapse video.

Here is a compilation of pictures and videos of our homeless outreach during the month of January. 

I have just begun our winter break.  I have been invited by the VanderHaak's to go with them to the cabin up by Shichigahama tomorrow.  I am looking forward to a time to catch up on my class's assignments, maybe even work ahead as well as spending time relaxing, listening to the sounds of the ocean and spending some quality time with the VanderHaak's, Gibson's and well, my walking partner, Hana.  :)   

DEARAW

Every couple of months or so, I have what I call a DEARAW (Drop Everything And Relax At Winnie's).  I am trying to provide a time and space for MS staff at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) to gather together in a different setting and for a purely social purpose.  Yesterday, Friday, January 23rd, was a staff work day; a day to prepare report cards for the semester.  I thought it may be a good opportunity for teachers to spend some relaxing time after the day at my apartment.  There was also a Senior Talent Show in the evening, so this time could provide a nice reprieve between working on report cards and attending the talent show. 
On the previous occasions, my theme tended to be anything with nuts, since CAJ's campus is nut free.  I made peanut butter cookies, had peanut M&M's, regular peanuts or almonds in a bowl, and other snack type things.  
This time however, I thought I would try something different.  Many of the staff are not familiar with some of my 1950's Dutch cultural heritage.  (My parents immigrated to Canada in 1952.)  This time I thought I would make oiliebollen, which is like a Dutch cake donut. 
Here's how they are made:  

Yeast and warm milk.

First you warm up some milk and add yeast and let it do its chemical reaction thing. 

Flour, salt, apples and raisin mixture.

Next mix together, flour, salt, raisins and cut up apples.  I knew there were some of the staff that do not like the fruit, so I made a separate batch that did not have apples and raisins. 

Eggs and milk mixture.

In another bowl, mix together eggs and milk and add the eggs and milk mixture to the flour mixture.  After that you add the milk and yeast mixture.  The batch I made was very large, so it took some arm power to mix it all well.  Once it is well mixed, you let it sit for an hour. 

First ones out of the deep fryer.

While the dough is rising, you do need to heat up the oil.  This is the part where my apartment gained its new oil fragrance, which remains the next few days.  I do not have a deep fryer and was able to borrow one from a friend.  Thanks, Rie! 
I was also able to borrow an ice cream scoop (Thanks, Martha!) and used that to scoop up the dough and deep fry them.  Just before you eat them, you sprinkle on icing sugar. 

There were some left over...

As people came through the door, I would deep fry whatever their preference was, with or without raisins and apples.  By the end of the evening, I still had a quite a bit of dough left.  You cannot store the dough, so I continued to deep fry more oiliebollen until the dough was gone.  I let them get cold and put them in ziplock bags to store in the freezer. 
Over all, I believe it was a success.  Those who tried them, said they were delicious.  I was so glad to be able to share a bit of my heritage with the CAJ staff.  I am very grateful for all the work they do for our students.  I am blessed to see how God uses these staff members to make an impact on CAJ's students.  I work in a great place!

My Sabbath

One thing I mentioned to the Middle School teachers this week, is to remember to have a sabbath this weekend.  It can become difficult sometimes in our busy lives.  I know as I'm writing this, there are a number of things I could/should be doing, but I am trying to rest from my labours.  This is what I did today.
This morning, I attended the 8:30 am service at Tokyo Union Church.  I was scheduled to be the lector reader.  The passage I had to read was 1 Samuel 3: 1 - 10 about God calling Samuel.  The New Testament reading was from John 1: 43 - 51, about Nathaniel's calling.  The sermon focused on our calling to invite others to, "Come and see." 
At the end of the service, we had an evacuation drill.  Probably a good thing to do when living in a place where earthquakes are quite possible.  I didn't take any pictures.
Once I reached home, I bicycled over to the VanderHaak's to take Hana for a walk.  I haven't walked with Hana for a couple of weeks, so it was about time I did that again.  I took some pictures as we walked down by the river.

I was surprised to see some families having a bar-b-que down by the river. 

 Here is the entrance to the park where Hana and I usually walk. There were a few people walking. 

 I saw some chickens who were seeking out food in the garden. 

This couple were busy doing exercises.  The man in the light blue jacket was actually doing what sumo wrestlers do before they begin their match.  He certainly didn't look the same size as the typical sumo wrestler.  The lady in the cream coloured jacket was stepping up and down on the curb. 

There's a nice little pond.

Can you see the ducks?  They were close. 

Our path from the park.

Right along the river. 

There is my walking partner, Hana and her shadow.

Hana and my shadow.

Japan tends to be quite conscientious about erosion.  Many of the hillsides and rivers have reinforcements so that there is minimal erosion.  See the various places where there are reinforcements placed so that they control the erosion.  

 Two ducks swimming on the river.

The sun was out today, it was a nice day. 

She's looking quite happy. 

Surprisingly she is ahead, much of the time she's stopped to sniff something.  

There is the photography club.

Most days that I walk along the river, there are people with cameras and long lenses taking pictures of wild life at the river.  

If you look closely, you can see the rope, that is how they define the parking spaces in the gravel parking lot.  Pretty clever, eh? 

Looking down river from the bridge that we cross to do our U-turn.

Want some firewood?  Ok, not sure it's up for grabs.

Here is a family that were flying a kite. 

Our route.

I have this app on my iPhone that tracks my walking/running routes.  I can listen to music, which I was listening to Kayte Grace's new album, but when you stop, you hear, "pausing workout," which happened quite regularly, since Hana wanted to stop to sniff.  We were moving at a fairly slow pace, 14.53 minutes per kilometer. 
By the time we arrived back, Brian and Bette invited me for lunch, which I couldn't refuse, since it was chicken fajitas.  It was delicious!
This upcoming Friday, I've invited the Middle School teachers over to my place.  I thought it may be fun for us to make oiliebollen (dutch donuts).  Since it is the first time I'm making them here in Japan, I thought I'd do a trial run this afternoon.

The dough with raisins and apples.

Deep frying them. 

Finished product.

 I am finishing the evening off by writing this blog post as I'm watching the movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel.  I plan to head to bed in the next hour or so. 
It has been a good day, starting with worship this morning, being in God's creation, spending time with friends and being able to do some things I normally don't do during the week.  I thank God for weekends and Sabbath days. 

Chanko restaurant

Today the VanderHaak's invited me for lunch to this restaurant that is owned by former sumo wrestlers, apparently they call them chanko restaurants.  This type of restaurant serves food typically eaten by sumo wrestlers.  There is actually a decent variety of choices and the food was quite good.  The seats in the waiting area were quite cute!  Chris did some modeling.  :)

The cow seat.

The pig seat.

Each table is in a little room. On the tables are gas burners which you can use for cooking, depending on what you order. 

The tables.

There's the pot cooking the food.

This was my plate, some deep fried fish and shrimp and well, not sure what the two things on the right were, but they were good.  The two sauces were ketchup and a mayonnaise based sauce.

The pot on the right with the lid was a broth/soup.

The food tasted good.  I appreciated the atmosphere they created.  The music was the typical music you hear when you attend sumo wrestling.  I'd recommend it, but remember that the table is low, so you do have to find a comfortable way to sit on the floor.  It was a great experience!  Thanks VanderHaak's, for inviting me!

Pottery

I am thankful for breaks.  Christmas break gives us an opportunity to remember Christ's first coming, a wonderful gift, whose purpose was to die on the cross and rise again so we can be saved!  Truthfully, I also appreciate Christmas break because it does give a chance to rejuvenate, regain some energy to begin again in January. 
Today was one of those days where I started out with nothing really on the agenda, but it still ended up being a nice day with some surprise activities. 
 This first activity was something I wasn't even thinking about.  You see, when I moved into Matsukawa Place, the curtains were already set up in the apartment.  I just left them hanging.  I had noticed that the curtains in the bedroom were just barely wide enough to cover the window.  Fortunately, there are also blinds, so not really a problem.  I got it into my head to see if any of the curtains I bought at Thrift Shop a couple of years ago would fit better.  Lo and behold, yup, there was a set.  Unfortunately the set was VERY WRINKLY!  So, I put them through the delicate cycle in the washing machine and then ironed them.  They were still damp when I hung them up, but should dry soon. 

Yes, they are still a bit damp on the bottom. 

While I was in the process of hanging the curtains, Bette V. texted me, and asked if I wanted to watch them do some horse hair pottery.  It is very interesting to watch how that all comes together.  Bette, David and Chris had already made pots, glazed and ready for the horse hair.  What Bette did was heat up the kiln with the ready made pots in it, to about 900℃.  Once the pots were hot enough, they took them out, and then put horse hair on the pot.  The hair burns and leaves a mark on the pot.  It was quite interesting to watch.  The horse hair isn't all that easy to control, so trying to create something specific is difficult.  After you are satisfied with how the pot looks, it needs to be cooled, washed or brushed clean, and then put some lotion on. I thought their pots turned out quite nice! 

See the smoke?  That's from the horse hair burning.  It isn't a great smell, if you've ever burned hair.

See the hair? 

One of David's pots.

Back in November, Bette offered the Middle School students an extra art class during Parent/Teacher conferences.  I asked if there was room yet for me to participate in one of the sessions, which there was.  She had planned to have the students work on the wheel.  It has been a very, very long time since I worked on the wheel, like way back to my undergrad Dordt days.  It was great to make those pots with help from Bette!  Today I finally was able to put the glaze on!

Yeah, I know, not very straight, but it was my first.

My second pot, looks better, but is thick.  I wasn't fully finished glazing yet.

It was a fun day, with a few surprises along the way.  I am blessed to be able to have these great experiences, planned or not.  God is good!  All the time!