Sunday, June 2, 2013

JUNE?!!

You mean to tell me it is JUNE?!  I guess I have to quit thinking of Utah weather and start thinking Ishinomaki.  This past week we thought it was downright warm when it reached 74 degrees but today it was probably barely 60 degrees.  AND we were informed that in two weeks RAINY SEASON would begin!  But I will admit around here you really don't want it past 75 degrees because the humidity is a killer.

This past week wasn't particularly eventful photo-wise but I thought I captured a few goodies.  First, one of our members named Hitoshi who struggles a little mentally but is such a sweetheart.  We were eating nachos at single adult family home evening:


Bet you didn't know you could eat nachos with chopsticks!


Moving

One of our investigators moved yesterday from her apartment back to her REAL house from before the tsunami.  She asked that the missionaries come and help her.  We get so little exercise that it was a treat to help her move!:


And this is the moving truck (really small) and that big thing in the truck covered with a blanket is the fridge!:


All of her earthly possessions didn't even fill the truck.  I think there was a coffee table, one chair, a flatscreen TV and stand, a couple of beanbag chairs, a small bookshelf, along with the fridge that made up the larger items.  Then a few boxes to make it quite a small load.  Her house was huge compared to that!


Senior Missionaries

A few of us senior missionaries got together yesterday which turned out to be great!  It was Elder Noonchester's (he and his wife work in the mission home office) birthday so we decided to celebrate.  They came to Ishinomaki and we went to our favorite 100 yen ($1 a plate) sushi place. 


That is a photo of Sister and Elder Noonchester with all of their empty plates.  Elder Wright (on the right, of course) is using the touchscreen to order sushi.  And then if you look closely you can see the plates of sushi on a conveyor belt going around (just below Elder Wright's hand) which you can select if you don't want to be bothered with ordering!  (That's me in back of the Noonchesters.)

And here are Sister Kakuda (from California) and Sister Rollins (from Utah) with all of the plates at our table:


At the end of the meal you press a button and the waitress magically appears and counts your stacked plates to tell you what the damage is.  I also had some soup (black bowl) and the sisters had some ice cream parfaits.  Everything on the plates is 105 yen ($1.05) and some of the other things are priced a little more.  The gold plates mean that the sushi has wasabi and is spicier than the sushi on the white plates but then you can get your own wasabi to go with soy sauce and make it as spicy as you want anyway.  Most plates have two pieces of sushi on them.  I guess I should take some photos of the sushi some time!  Anyway, we probably averaged $10-$15 apiece.

Checking out the Park

Afterwards, we all went to the park above the city and around the hardest hit tsunami areas.  The park is really nice right now with tons of trees everywhere.  Here are the sisters:


And the elders didn't want to outdone so they posed for a photo also:


We went around the tsunami disaster areas which are still pretty bad.  After more than two years there are still plenty of reminders although there have been great strides to rebuild.

Once back at the Church, we celebrated Elder Noonchester's birthday in style with cake and ice cream and a rendition of "Happy Birthday to You."
Sister Wright makes a great chocolate cake!


So Japanese

When we went out to eat with the senior missionaries, Sister Wright and I spotted this car that we had to take pictures of.  We just hoped no one (especially the owner) was watching us!  This is a little over the top for the Japanese but actually not that far off:



Sorry the second photo has some reflections in it but you probably get the idea--like pink and black zebra seats with Hello Kitty everywhere.  And don't miss the sheet black scalloped curtains!


And Lastly

A while back I talked about the rice fields which have popped up everywhere.  We were at a park this past week and saw some gorgeous views of the valley and especially the rice fields:

It's like the whole valley is under water with these small fields of rice!

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