Visiting Japanese Friends (July 2007)

Some of the best experiences were visiting the people in their homes to see what life is really like in Japan. You can see the kitchen table on the left side of the picture. Adalei is sitting on the couch. This is a very small living room/family room. The three women are members. Nate taught the daughter of Sugimoto-san, the woman in the gray shirt. She was so excited to see us. She bought a suitcase full of toys for Adalei and gave Misty a skirt that still had a 7000 yen price tag on it. The people are so generous. We were served a Mexican meal at this home - burritos.




Here are two missionaries - one from California and the other Flagstaff, Arizona. The missionary on the left was very helpful to give us information about places to eat and things to see.
















This is the Fukuda family. He is a dentist in Osaka. Nate visited his dental office and found the differences in Japanese vs. American dentistry very interesting. We brought them some tootsie rolls so they got out a big bag of Japanese candy and shared. It was just like Halloween. Of course, they thought Japanese candy was the best! They fed us a great Japanese dinner followed by fresh peaches for dessert. A herbal tea is also served after dinner to help the digestion. It was a wheat tea - I drank it as fast as I could as the taste was a little bitter.




Adalei having fun playing the piano as we went to leave. Everyone thought she was so cute.












This is the Fukuda family with the mother who lives with them. Notice how thin the people are. Also, this family appeared to be wealthy as they had a "Western" house - much like the U.S. This was the picture of the formal dining room which was more spacious than the other homes. We ate in the family room area. The rooms were separated by curtains instead of doors.






This is the Kochiyama family in Kobe. The father and mother both served missions in Japan. Shortly after they were married, he was called to be the bishop and served for approximately 4 years. He is now 32 yrs old. He is an engineer at Proctor and Gamble and works approximately 10 hours each day. They have 3 boys. Their home is new with 3 floors - childrens' bedrooms, living area, and master bedroom. The amount of square feet is very small. He moved to Kobe to be close to his parents. Being the oldest and a son, he is responsible for taking care of his parents in their aging years. (He only has one sister.) It took 18 months to find property to build their home.

This couple fed us delicious Japanese pancakes. They cooked the pancakes right in the middle of the table while we talked and ate around the table. As each pancake was ready, they cut it into pizza type slices and we shared pancakes until we were full. This was one of my favorite meals as I LOVE the plum sauce on the pancakes. This was lunch for us. They live in a condo that is very much like our apartment/condo housing in the U.S. Nate taught and baptized the husband. He was so thrilled to see Nate - it brought tears to my eyes. His wife is a returned missionary from a different part of Japan. They met at a singles conference. The husband is a lineman with a power company and she works part-time at a pharmacy.

At 10 pm one night we knocked on the door of this man. He opened the door in his pajamas but wasn't too happy that I took a picture. He is 59 yrs old and a single member having been divorced for 25 years. In Japan, after you get divorced, you don't remarry. We stopped to make an appointment to come back and visit with him. In Kobe, the city map shows the names of who owns the property so it was easy for Nate to find him.

Nate taught and baptized him 10 yrs ago. His 10th anniversary of his baptism was the week after we were there. This is a picture of him when we came back on the following Sunday for a visit. He spoke and read English very proficiently. I was very impressed.

Adalei had a great time.... We were sitting on the floor on cushion around this table. The room was too small to have chairs around the table.

This is another one of Nate's converts. We had dinner with this man on his birthday. He followed Nate everywhere at church and was just thrilled to see him. He wanted Nate to make me and Misty talk Japanese but we weren't very cooperative.

Monkeys in Japan, Koyto (July 2007)

In Kyoto, we climbed to the top of a mountain where approximately 200 monkeys lived. The little baby monkeys were the cutest!

This was a place that Nate visited on his mission.










It was a little intimidating to have so many monkeys walking around you and you walking around them.

















One friendly fellow......














To feed the monkeys, we had to go inside a house and feed them through the fence to be safe. We purchased peanuts and apple slices to feed to the monkeys.












The monkeys seemed starved. However, they had just been fed right before we arrived.

















I just had to capture this cute pose!

















When we arrived at this sign, we knew that our hike up the mountain was almost at an end. It was hot and we were sweaty and ready for a break.











Adalei loved the monkeys and was also a little afraid of them. She cried a couple of times.













I even got a turn at feeding the monkeys. I have to admit it was fun!











This is what you call a picture of love. The monkey is picking something out of the other monkey. They were at this for quite awhile. Behind the monkeys, you can see the view of Kyoto below.











What a cute picture of Nate, Misty, Adalei and one monkey resting by a pond with Kyoto in the background.










This was the smallest monkey and I thought he was the cutest! He could really move fast so it took quite awhile to find him sitting still.












What a cute little family!













Can you believe all these monkeys in the wilds? It was like being behind the wire fence at the zoo.


















What a cute little monkey.....












This baby monkey was clinging to the mama monkey. Interestingly, the mama monkey ate all the food without sharing.

















What a great picture of Misty! The monkeys just loved her too!

Food in Japan (July 2007) Yum! Yum!

This was dinner in Kobe one evening. Adalei spilled her miso soup on the table and the floor. What a mess! We had udon and soba noodles. I tried both and preferred the soba noodles. This was the place we had yakisoba.










This was dinner in Kyoto - soup. We had a hard time finding a restaurant open this day. The festival began in the evening so we assumed they were preparing for the festival instead of preparing lunch. (The festival is like our fairs with a parade.)










I loved the bakeries in Japan! They were the best pastries I've had in the world. The bread was unbelievably soft. There was a lot of green tea in the food - green tea candy, green tea ice cream, green tea pastries (upper left), etc. Many pastries contained sweet red bean, cheese and meat, scrambled egg and cheese, etc. in addition to the regular sweet pastries. My favorites were the ones with coconut, cranberries, and chocolate.




When you go to the bakery, you get a tray and tongs. We had breakfast every morning but three at the bakery. The more we went the more we purchased! We started out spending almost $10 for the four of us for breakfast; on the last day breakfast was over $15. See one of the pastries that looks like a hot dog in a bun with some ketchup. It was good. When you purchase your pastries, they use the same tongs to put the pastries each in a separate bag.






Misty ordered some shrimp at this restaurant in Kobe. It was the best meal she had in Japan. We all liked it a lot. I had shrimp tempura on a little shredded cabbage for dinner.










This is a picture of the most expensive peaches I have ever bought. These peaches were purchased in Tokyo but the prices were the same everywhere. These peaches were 350 yen each or three for 800 yen. (This is the equivalent of $3.50 and $8.00, respectively.) I was really hesitant to buy such expensive peaches. Misty pointed out that we had no problem buying an ice cream cone for the same amount of money but hesitated on the healthy fruit since we are used to rather inexpensive produce in comparison. These peaches were very juicing and very delicious with no bruises.



This was the only fast food restaurant we ate at. It is a Japanese fast food place. We had hamburgers that were actually very good. Nate ordered a blackberry shake but it was more like blackberry flavored ice water so that was disappointing.









Most of the restaurants had their meals on display. We would stop and look in the windows to decide where we wanted to eat and what we wanted to order.

















Another restaurant with many selections.....













This is one of the restaurants that Nate ate at while he was in Japan on his mission. He ordered the same tofu dish that was very delicious. The longer we were in Japan, the more He remembered about where he had been, etc. This trip was great to jog his memory.










These pies are so creative, original, beautiful, and mouth-watering! I was so impressed. This was a bakery on display in the train station in Kyoto. I took individual pictures of each pie.











This is a picture of a beautiful cake with fruit from one of the bakeries.

Den-Den, Japan (Homeless / Electronics area) July 2007

This man was pulling a cart that he was using to collect cardboard. Nate said that the homeless collect cardboard there like homeless collect cans in the U.S.












This is the housing where the homeless live. It was plywood with the blue tarp for a roof. There was a dog at one unit.












This homeless housing was in Kyoto but I am including it here to show the similarity with the homeless in the Den-Den area of Osaka. In the bottom middle of the picture you will notice old car batteries being used to keep the tarps down. This housing is underneath a bridge so it is protected from the rain somewhat.








Entering the Den-Den area, this Buddha gets your attention. People rub the Buddha where they need healing and then they rub themselves in the same area believing that they will be healed.
















This is the view looking down the street at all the electronics shops.


















This was the store that sold Nikon so we tried to get something for Jason from his wish list. Unfortunately we weren't successful. The electronic models in Japan are different than in the U.S. I hope Jason will be able to go with Nate sometime and be able to shop - I'm sure he'd have a great time.













The loving family in Den-Den.... Misty, Adalei and Nate.















Leaving Den-Den with Adalei leading the way.

Tokyo LDS Temple and Kobe, Japan (Mission Home) July 2007