Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Spring has sprung!

We haven't been having any blackouts because the weather has been warm, but they are saying the summer could be rough because we have such hot weather and people are using AC so much. We'll see, I guess.

No news on any homestay people yet. It looks like they may be building some temporary housing in an empty lot not too far from our house. I don't know, but wonder if it might not be for the refugees.

Akihiro's work took him to a town on the oceanfront the other day. He saw lots of earthquake damage there and said that the ground is soggy because the town was made on reclaimed land (where they make new land in the ocean by using garbage). The roads were quite rough, he said.

There are a few rations still on things, but otherwise, everything as usual. Akihiro told me that they are saying it will take 6-9 months for the nuclear situation to become stable. We aren't having radiation exposure in our area or in our water at this time.

The spring has been beautiful.

Tomoki has become enthralled with equipment--rota tillers, diggers, etc. He can't stop "talking" (motioning with his hands) about the digger he saw on our walk. Here he is checking out my gardening book and studying all the tiller pictures.
He loves bike rides now--doesn't fight his helmet anymore because he knows what it means--he gets to go for a ride!
My little helper is pointing to an airplane or a helicopter flying overhead. It is a major ordeal! Even if he hears one while he is inside, he feels it is an urgent matter that we exit immediately and find that. Then he will "talk" about it for the next several hours. He is slowly starting to say a few words...juice, dark.
"Smelling" the tulips and the pansies. The yellow flowers are what happens if you let Chinese cabbage go to seed--I must say I have enjoyed them more than I enjoyed cleaning off the bugs and eating the cabbage!
Here's my Japanese mom and Tomoki hanging out on our front step. He loves both her and her husband. Tomoki calls him "Ji" (a shortened form of the Japanese word for grandpa) which makes him pretty proud!
In Yamanashi, going for a walk after church. The peach blossoms were just starting to bloom.

A weeping cherry near our home.
This same tree is where I took a picture of Mom and Dad this time of year in 2008. I have the picture on my refrigerator and Tomoki likes to look at it. It is beautiful, but I like to think of them in an even more beautiful place--heaven! The picture isn't good because it is a picture of a picture.


The beautiful Tamagoryo bridge near our home--cherry blossoms in the back.
See that cute little boy in the hat walking under the cherry blossoms. He and Akihiro had fun throwing the cherry blossom petals up in the air a few days after this picture was taken. The wind had taken the petals down and they were in big heaps--like snow.

This is Naomi A. and her little boy. She and her husband were married in America two years ago. They came to see Whitney Stieglitz who was visiting us.