DEFINITELY JANUARY

This is definitely January.  Last week I reported on the latest snowfall here and just as that was starting to melt, we woke up to six inches more this morning!  But it was beautiful and the skies were blue today so much of it has already melted.

And because it is cold, we find that most of our activities are indoors.  I decided to try doing some games at our children's English class because I think they are tired of crafts.  So we took the sister missionaries and they helped me with some games.  We did a beanbag toss, some relays, and even a donut eating contest.  And the winner?  Well, those little tubes of plastic bubbles with small straws.  They LOVED blowing bubbles:

Ping Pong Night

And always a hit on Friday nights is ping pong night.  I was amazed when I think 14 people showed up and they all loved playing ping pong.  Who knew?  Not me!  (I made some cinnamon rolls and donuts and that made it all the sweeter!).  Even the branch president (on the left) and his two sons came:

And Elder Sakamoto was supposed to be in the finals but they quit before he got to show his real prowess:

Activities at the Church

On Saturday we happened in on a Primary activity and an art class at the Church.  The Primary activity was that the kids made hamburgers!  But unless you think out of the bun you have the wrong picture.  They wanted hamburgers with NO buns and YES to rice and salad!:

And the painting class I thought was incredible.  They were painting fruits and veggies on postcard-size paper.  One of the members is an art teacher at a junior high (I think) and she was teaching everyone to draw (for obvious reasons I wasn't invited:  I could not more make an orange look like an orange than fly to the moon!)  But here are some of their results, incredible!:

Nabe:  Yum!

And today at Church we had our linger longer meal after the meetings.  The MEN were in charge and made "nabe."  The word "nabe" means "pot" in Japanese and so they make a meal in a pot.  I have to say, I really like nabe and we haven't really had it since we came to Japan.  So I was really excited for this and I wasn't disappointed.  Basically it means a little liquid (soup) and a little meat and lots of veggies and even noodles cooked in one pan.  The different veggies and meats are not really mixed together (although they do get mixed a little in the process) so you can kind of just pick and choose what you want to eat when it is all done.  This photo is of our branch president and counselor:

The big pot cooking in the kitchen:

And Brother Kawatsuna inspecting the veggies:

And some of the branch members enjoying nabe:

Pretty impressive for the men.  None of the food was pre-cooked; our Church ends at 1:00 p.m. and we were eating by 1:30!


Food for Thought

So today in Relief Society we had the lesson on President Uchtdorf's conference talk on regrets and resolutions.  The three regrets he mentioned were:  1) I wish I had spent more time with the people I love; 2) I wish I had lived up to my potential; and 3) I wish I had let myself be happier.  So what often happens in these lessons is that then we divide into groups and each group discusses one of the topics.  That happened.  But then we had a few extra minutes at the end of our group discussion and a couple of people started talking about food and maybe we would regret not having tasted more (different) foods!  Since my Japanese isn't all that great I didn't understand the whole conversation but it got me thinking in my own realm.

I realize that almost every week I talk about a food experience.  What is it about food that is so appealing?  I look back at my life and I can tell you several good food experiences:  New Orleans (no need to say more!), eating escargot in Paris, going on a cruise (although by the end I was more than happy to eat at Subway!), eating in Japan, eating in China, my favorite Mexican food restaurant, my favorite BBQ place, etc. 

Does food actually bring happiness or is it the people we experience it with (I doubt that because I can eat by myself and enjoy it--or maybe I just enjoy my OWN company)?  What draws people to food?

I actually think of myself as a "take it or leave" kind of person when it comes to food MOST of the time.  But I, too, am drawn to food even if it is just to look at it and drool.  I think that is why I like to cook:  I like to please others. 

I don't have any answers for these questions.  Just some random wonderings.  Is this blog making you hungry?  Me?--I'm on a diet!