O Canada!

I had the privilege of going to the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo today.  I finally gathered all my documents and pictures together, so I can get my passport renewed.  I have not been at the Canadian Embassy here in Tokyo, so I was excited to see what this Embassy looked like.  The building did have a certain Canadian flavor.  Here are some pictures I took while I was there. 

An interesting arc

The Embassy is on a fairly major thoroughfare.  As I walked from the Aoyama-Itchome station, you walk past this arc beside the sidewalk. 
In order to get into the building you have to go up this escalator. 

Looking down the escalator

The entrance

Provincial flags

After I went down, yes down to the 3rd floor, to drop off my application, payment, pictures and passport, to exit, you have to go back up to the entrance to exit the building.  Just outside of the entrance door, they have a large space with some art.  I took some pictures. 

Looks something like an Inukshuk

From the one end.

From the other end.

WAVE by Kantaroff Maryon

 I enjoyed my visit to the Canadian Embassy.  I love the art they have there.  There is a small gallery there as well.  I know each month I get an email with various exhibits.  I haven't gone to see any yet, but maybe I'll do that sometime soon. 
Afterwards, it was lunchtime, so I hopped on the train for one stop, and went to Wendy's for a burger. 

 By the way, Wendy's moved to a new location and they have made some changes to their menu.  One of the new things they offer are flavoured fries!  It was an interesting taste.  I can't remember, but I think I had butter and baked potato flavour. 

After lunch, I had a Kanto Plain Middle School Principal meeting.  It was a good meeting, lots of learning, gleaning ideas that maybe we can implement at CAJ. 

I came home still tired, even after doing what seemed to be less work, but it was still a productive day.  I am grateful that we have weekends at the end of a week. 

MS Track and Field Finals

Saturday May 2nd was the MS Track and Field Finals.  It was at Oi Futo Track, which is out near Haneda Airport.  It is about 40 kilometers one way to get from Higashi Kurume to Oi Futo track.  Bette has done this trip by bicycle before so I decided to go with her.  We started out at 5 am.

Just before Bette showed up. 

The sun had barely risen, but it was looking like it was going to be a beautiful day.  We were able to get to the field much quicker than we thought, taking us about 3 hours instead of 4 hours.  

CAJ settling in on the bleachers.

Running the 100 meter hurdles.

Students sitting down on track waiting for awards.

Students sitting down on track waiting for awards.

Giving out awards.

CAJ did a fine job in their events.  After the track meet, we rode back to Higashi Kurume. 
I was challenged to bicycle over the Ejima bridge near Matsue City, but that bridge is 758 km (471 miles) away.  I did ride on a bridge.  

Crossing some water.

It took us a bit longer going back, part of the reason is there is more traffic at that time of the day.  We also made a stop for dinner.  Bette and I noticed a little hole in the wall place on our way down to the track meet, called Baha Homemade Tacos.  You don't find too many places that sell authentic Mexican food.  We thought we'd try this little place, if we could find it back.  We did, although there were some doubts. 

It looked like a house in the middle of two tall buildings.  Half was this taco place the other half was a cleaners.

They even had a couple of seats inside.  We sat on a bench on the sidewalk.

I had a chicken burrito and it was delicious!  We also had a soft ice cream cone for dessert.  It's pretty authentic.  Now to remember where it is! 
Along the way, I noticed that the azalea's were coming out.  They were quite pretty. 

Azaleas

Here are a few more pictures as we were heading back.  I have to admit that these pictures were taken with my iPhone.  It isn't as easy taking photos as you're bicycling with an iPhone as with a camera. 

Someone must love aliens!

Bicycling past a bus station.

It was a long day, but the weather was very nice, maybe got a little too much sun, but a great day.  You would have thought with all those natural vitamins I acquired being outside all day, I would have been able to combat this cold. :)  I am thankful for the opportunity I had to bicycle to another place in the Tokyo area.

Personal Day

Today was supposed to be the day that I go down to the Canadian Embassy to hand in my passport so I can get a new one.  Sometimes the best laid plans fall flat.  So, what can you do?  Make the best of a personal day...

Dishes drying in the trays.

I have been meaning to do my dishes the last couple of days, but time just seemed to pass me by, so this morning, one of the first things I did was my huge pile of dishes. 
Another thing I did was take a walk with Woman's and Man's best friend, Hana along the river. 

Women's and Man's best friend, Hana!

Walking along the Yanesegawa.

I always find the walk along the river such a great opportunity to see God's handiwork, the beauty in creation.

Dogwood tree, British Columbia official flower.

Dandelions!  Weeds or flowers?  :)

Beautiful canopy.

The duck just woke up!

Another great reason to walk along the river, is it allows both Hana and I to wade into the water.  We have this one spot where we usually go to wade.  I wore the correct shoes today and was able to wade in with Hana. 

Doesn't she look happy?

After my walk with Hana, I went home to have some lunch and met up with a friend who has access to Yokota Air Force Base.  We went out to Yokota and just hung out and had some Dunkin' Donuts coffee.

For dinner we went to Chili's where I had some tacos, yum!  I am home now and getting my head around my school day tomorrow.  I am thankful for this day! 

Spring Cleaning

Yesterday they started putting up the scaffolding around Matsukawa Place.  They are scheduled to clean up the outside of Matsukawa Place.  What really is quite amazing is the way they have put all this scaffolding up in the last two days.  It's like a puzzle they have put together, all around the building.  They will be hanging the blue tarp from the top all the way down to the ground.  Once that is up, my view will definitely be affected. 

Looking to the right off of my balcony.

Looking to the left off of my balcony.

See the blue tarp?  This is looking up on the left.

Right in front of my balcony.

Looking down to the left. 

Once this cleaning is completed, I'm pretty sure Matsukawa Place will look pretty nice! 

Egg Drop and day 1 of Thrift Shop

Today was the first day of Thrift Shop at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ).  This day is usually a Friday, with a half day of school.  We follow a half day schedule, which means each of the classes are about 25 minutes, so we have the full slate of classes over the course of a half day. 
Sometimes these half days will allow for other activities such as Science project day or field day.  Today it was Egg Drop day.  Each of our Middle School students had to design a container that would be able to hold a raw egg.  The idea is to have their container with the egg, drop from CAJ's third floor balcony and hopefully the egg would not break.  Any eggs that survived, would be cooked up and they can eat it.  Here are some pictures of the egg drop. 

Grade 12 Science students helping out.

Third Floor balcony

Audience watching on the bleachers

Blue tarp to catch any messes.

See the black box?  That's one of the containers.

Phew the egg survived!

Can you see the egg drop container?

Recording the results.

Egg didn't survive this time.

Taken from the second floor.

This Thrift Shop the MS Band decided to prepare a Flash Mob.  Beginning at 12:15 pm, the first student began playing and others would continue to come and join.  It was fun to watch this happening.  There were a few cameras ready to video tape this, but I was up on the third floor balcony and video taped it.

It was a very busy day with lots of activity.  Saturday morning, I will be going to Thrift Shop to help out when the public is able to come and shop.  It'll be a busy four plus hours, but it will also be fun. 

A few pictures...

Camera isn't quite as good on the close ups.  It's starting to break out of the bud.

So, yesterday I decided to go and take Hana for a walk.  She's usually up for a walk.  I took my camera along to take any pictures of things as I went along.  Spring is starting to show up in various stages. 

Lots of buds still closed

See the egret? 

A little closer.

Blossoms!  There were still some buds on this tree.

Planted in a garden.

The sun was out, and as you can tell from the following pictures, there weren't too many blossoms out on these trees yet, but lots of buds in various stages. 

 There were a number of groups at the river, some families and some children just playing in the water.  There were a couple of fishermen too. 

He was busy reeling in a fish! 

Some were jumping into the water and some were just sitting on the edge.

There is a small festival by the river each year at about this time.  They were busy setting up their booths. 

After walking Hana, I went to Rogers.  It can carry some interesting items.  I found one item that made me think of WCA's History night cabin in the grade 5 classroom.  I was always looking for something that would resemble a fireplace.  Here I found something that could work!  Only part that doesn't work so well, is the whole distillery thing on top, but I think it could be removed.  :) 

That is a picture of a distillery, but I liked the way they made the flames look real. 

This week has been spring break.  Each morning, or so it seems, there is some group of young students that pass by my apartment.  I believe this is a yochien (kindergarten) group of students.  They are required to wear the same coloured caps.  They sometimes use a cart where students can stand as go on a field trip! 

They all had yellow caps.

There was a group of students walking, all holding hands before this cart, but I missed getting a picture of them.  It's quite cute to watch. 
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday.  I am privileged to be the lector reader for the 8:30 am service.  The passage I'll be reading is Psalm 118: 1 - 2, 19 - 29.  We are moving into the Passion Week, the week we remember Christ moving to his death on the cross, burial and Christ victory over death when he rose from the grave!