Last days with Takumi and Julieta

Sunday was our last day with Takumi and Julieta.  They went off for a couple hours so that Takumi could introduce Julieta-san to his school friends,

Takumi and friends all came back for an hour at the house and we had a good time chatting.  It is so nice to see these young men that I knew when they were still grade school boys.  A lot of the conversation revolved around who had gotten married, (both guys are married) how many kids so-and-so has (the one friend has a son that I will see next year everyday at the crosswalk).

 

I wanted to take Takumi and Julieta to a special Japanese restaurant and we'd made reservations there.  In the restaurant we walked down a long corridor with separate rooms for each party.  The waitresses dressed in kimono slid in and out on their knees serving the tiny morsels of traditional food.

Again, Julieta-san is able to eat almost everything and she had no problem with all the things that we couldn't really recognize.

Actually, Takumi fooled us and HE treated us to lunch.

 A small inner garden at the restaurant to enjoy.

We did a bit of shopping and on the way home stopped to see our good friends the Yamadas because I wanted to introduce Julieta to them.  They were busy preparing for an event at their community center but we stood around for a few minutes chatting.

The next morning we took the two of them to the station before 7:00 so that they could catch the bullet train for the northern island of Hokkaido.  They are really loaded down!

The two of them had traveled south in Japan on their last visit and they wanted to see Northern Japan this visit.  They had a seven hour trip ahead of them this day.

 Good-bye!  Good-bye!  It was fun having you.

Such a good guy!  Have a great time!
 

Aftermath of the typhoon

Japan's typhoons wreak such havoc but the next day everything is calm and beautiful and nature acts as if it never had a problem a few hours before.  Typhoon 19 (they are numbered in Japan, not named) was mostly rain and not that much wind.

Even so, the chestnut trees in front of our house got a major shaking and the road was blanketed in leaves and chestnut balls.

The sky had a few remaining clouds over the mountains.

The fence between our road and the yuba (a type of tofu) factory had sections that blew down (in the distance there also) and Tetsu and a neighbor took the waving slats down and alerted the factory owner that he'd need to do some repairs.

Typhoons bring deep colors and fresh air.

In the distance there was a rainbow starting over the forest.

Along our walk we came upon a fire truck and firemen consulting about what to do about a flooded road.

John and I aren't going to be able to wade through that!

This nice "lake" isn't really supposed to be there.  It is part of the forest and there isn't even a river or stream nearby.  I guess the water just didn't have anywhere to drain to and it formed a lovely marsh...  It will take a day or two for it to go away.

This was the only tree in our neighborhood that I found blown over.  It was reported that there were a few trees down in the woods but this was the only one I saw along the road.

Heading back home...  The farmer didn't get his whole rice field harvested before the typhoon struck.  Normally rice fields are only flooded at planting season not when it is ready to be harvested so maybe the farmer lost the rest of his ripe crop... 

Actually I took these last two photos when we took Julieta and Takumi to the station in the next city on Monday.  It had been reported that the river near the station had overflowed and yes the streets were muddy and people were dragging furniture and damaged goods from their homes and businesses.

We were really surprised how much of the city became submerged in the short hours that the typhoon struck.

Okay...  Tomorrow more Takumi and Julieta photos.  They DID manage to have a good time in Nikko despite the weather.

Typhoon

We had made it safely from Haneda to the Onsen and had a good night there. 

The onsen was old but they had two or three nice baths, two that looked out onto the surrounding mountains.

We lounged around until nearly noon-time when the rain began to come down in earnest.

Good-bye to the onsen.

We made a short stop home to put aside backpacks and to show Takumi and Julieta-san Tony and Leiya's wedding album.

It's so nice that Julieta-san is an animal lover.

We needed to pick up John from the vets at 4:00 and though the rain was getting stronger we headed into the city to do a little shopping.  HOWEVER because of the typhoon the city was like a ghost town!  We had already heard that all flights into Japan had been cancelled and that the Bullet train and local trains weren't running.  We went to the large mall in the city but the parking lots were roped closed and everything was tightly shut and dark.  The 24 hour convenience stores were closed with sand bags in front of the doors, even most of the gasoline stations had signs that said they were out of gas!

We did find a department store that was open but it turned out that only the supermarket section was open and the rest of the store's shops were roped off and closed for the day.  NO clerks in the shops one in the aisles! 

The escalators were running so we went upstairs to see if anything was open there but nope, it was all roped off.  We all commented how open and trusting Japanese department stores must be to have just these flimsy lines across their open shop entrances and how no one just leans over and takes anything. 

It was true that we seemed to be the only people on the second floor but you would think that the department store would have barred off the escalators or shut them down preventing people from going into un-patrolled areas...  We met a lone guard man on the second floor and he didn't seem to be too concerned about us.

We picked up John who got into a tiz with new people in the house and then we hunkered down for the night of typhoon weather.  Later I heard that friends' husbands had hammered plywood over all their houses windows and that many homeowners had taped their windows to prevent splintering glass.  We got out candles and flashlights and recharged all our phones in case of emergency and Tetsu being head of the Home Owners Association sat next to his phone with emergency numbers in hand in case evacuation measures were needed to be relayed to residents.

The following three photos are pictures I took of photos in our local newspaper.

And it is true, throughout the night the loudspeakers in the neighborhood and all our phones kept blaring out red alerts telling us to be ready to evacuate at any moment.  Of course with all the wind and rain it is hard to tell if it is more dangerous to be outside trying to get to an evacuation shelter than it is just to stay in a small room upstairs in one's own house.  It was rather an iffy situation which had Tetsu tense and calling people til the early hours of the morning.  Julieta was a bit worried about living through her first typhoon but Takumi and I weren't too concerned... meaning that we generally think it is better to take the emergency when it comes rather than get too prepared for it.  That actually may be a very foolish attitude but we did get through this weekend.

By about 3:00 am, the typhoon had passed us and we all were able to relax into sound sleep finally.  Though our neighborhood had little damage, other parts of Japan, some very near to us, were devastated. 

The river had flooded over in the next city sending large areas of the city under a few feet of water.  Really scary for some people!

Arriving at Haneda Airport

Sorry to be gone so long but we packed a lot of memories into three days and we will be returning to our normally sedate, not very interesting lifestyle.  We have had Takumi and Julieta's visit on our calendar since early this year and have been looking forward to a fun time before winter sets in.  We didn't quite expect the weather situation but all went well.

And yes, we did manage to get through the horrendous typhoon that landed in Japan on Saturday and the damage was light in our area but was terrible in other parts of Japan not even so far away.  It is always a rather thin margin as to which homes are going to be affected by the storms that hit and this time around the city was on high alert, (the highest I've ever known) but in our immediate neighborhood we were comparatively untouched.

But for today I want to tell about Takumi and Julieta's visit.

Takumi and Julieta were only scheduled to be in Nikko for three days, and thus Tetsu thought that we should go and pick them up at the airport.  But they were arriving at Haneda Airport which is on the other side of Tokyo.  I had been wanting give Julieta-san the experience of staying at a Japanese hot spring and Tetsu made us reservations for the evening that Takumi and Julieta arrived.  The plan was for us to get to Haneda by 2:30, Takumi and Julieta would hopefully be through customs and immigration by 3:30, and we could all drive home and get to the onsen by 7:00.  HAH!

Problem one.  The typhoon was approaching Japan.  This meant that a lot of people were trying to move around before the typhoon struck.

Problem two.  It was a three day weekend.  Monday was also a holiday so many people probably had been planning trips during the holiday (though of course much was having to be cancelled because of the typhoon).

Problem three.  We would be headed back through one of the world's busiest metropolises on a Friday evening...  Traffic jams!

But even before all that...

Tetsu and I left home around 10:00 am.  Cat-sitters had been arranged, John had gone to the vets the night before.  The drive TO Haneda wasn't too bad (got lost only once... even with the GPS).

 Haneda International Airport is celebrating Halloween.

I found this cute stand for taking timer photos with your Smartphone.  The little rectangle on top allows for the Smartphone to be slipped in and held steady.  No need for a tripod.

 And here we are getting our picture taken with the Smartphone stand...

 But the main purpose was to wait for Takumi and Julieta and we did.

And waited and waited and waited.

There were delays on the side of the airlines, customs AND because Takumi lost his wallet!

But here they are!  3:30.

The wallet situation was a headache as they couldn't figure out WHERE it had been lost.  At LAX?  In the airplane?  Takumi had gone back to the plane before going through immigration to look but of course he wasn't let back on the plane and the cabin attendant who checked said there was no wallet.  Between leaving the plane and meeting us Takumi and Julieta had already contacted their bank to cancel their credit cards and ask for a driver's license replacement.

Julieta:  "It will be okay.  Don't worry about it Takumi.  Everything has been cancelled, we can't let the loss ruin our whole trip.  Forget it."

Actually it didn't seem like Takumi was too upset about the loss though I could imagine me sobbing into my backpack if it had happened to me.  Tetsu said to me,

"Takumi better hang onto Julieta!  What a great attitude she has!"

We weren't ready to leave Haneda yet as the two of them had to get Wi-fi for at least one phone and then get their Japan National Railway passes which allows them to travel for a week anywhere in Japan for a set fee.

The Wi-fi was easy but picking up the travel passes took some time.  The reservations to pick up the tickets at Haneda had been made from Los Angeles but what a line of foreigners were at the office, all waiting to pick up their passes.  We were still waiting an hour later.  4:30.

Finally the passes were in hand and we headed to the parking tower, got backpacks loaded, buckled our seatbelts when Takumi says,

"Where's my SmartPhone?"

No phone.  Pull things out of the backpacks.  Maybe he'd left it at the Japan Railway counter?  Off he went to check.  Julieta was a bit surprised because she said usually Takumi's the one to keep track of things.  Losing his wallet and now his phone?  While we waited for Takumi to come back Julieta's phone rings and it's the airlines saying they've found his wallet in the airplane!  As we'd been so held up at the railway, they managed to catch us still in the airport and Julieta said she'd go back to the airlines to get the wallet.  Partway out of the car, Takumi came back to report no phone at the railway counter.

"But your wallet was found and is at the airlines counter!  Let's go!"  Off Takumi and Julieta went.

Tetsu and I continued to search the backpacks (of course calling Takumi's phone hoping it would vibrate or that someone would pick up.)  No phone.... BUT!!!!  A glint of metal from under the car seat?  YES!!!!  Takumi's phone!!!!!  It must have fallen from his pocket when he got in the car.  (Later Julieta says, "Takumi!  Get rid of those pants that let things fall out of the pockets!  Go back to wearing your jeans!)  Tetsu now went off to the airline's counter to tell Julieta and Takumi that we had Takumi's phone now too.  Everything was good again!

So by the time we got out of the Haneda Airport it was after 5:00.

The next obstacle was getting through Tokyo and back to our prefecture and to the onsen which we already knew wasn't going to happen by 7:00.  Tetsu had called the onsen once from the airport saying we were running late.  He called again on route as the traffic was packed solid.  We FINALLY arrived at the onsen at nearly 10:00 at night!

But we were all still game for a late night hot bath so off we went in our cotton kimonos to the baths.  We will either sleep well this night because we were exhausted (Tetsu with all the day's driving) or not so great because of jet lag.  (Takumi and Julieta.)

It was about then that the rain started...  How much more excitement do we need?

More tomorrow?

Busy!

I’m trying to blog on my iPhone today just to let you know I’m away and busy for a couple more days.  Takumi and Julieta are coming to visit and Tetsu and I are headed for the airport now.  (4 hours away!)

Japan is worried about a typhoon that is heading our way so it may be a busy weekend just keeping the house together.  More later!

Continue

Not too much to report on this week but I've done a bit of spot sewing getting things crossed off a To-do list.

Once a year towards the end of December, I choose One Word for prayer, making it my focus to meditate upon when reading the Bible.  I guess I've done this for four years and in the past I have chosen the words, WALK, REACH and CHOOSE.  (I don't really remember what year was what word but I can go back and check on my Thoughts pages...)  And each year I've made up a Wonky Word block to just keep on my design wall to remind me of my focus...  ANYWAY, this year my word has been CONTINUE as in continue to hold fast to faith, continue to pray for people, continue to think good thoughts, continue to try new things or whatever...  In order to CONTINUE my custom having a Wonky Word on the design wall you would think I would have gotten in gear to sew the word block but alas, I realized it is already October and I haven't sewn a Wonky Word yet!  It's not that I hadn't thought about doing it but CONTINUE is such a long word.  Why hadn't I chosen a short word like JOY or BE or something?

This weekend I put aside all thoughts of starting something new (there are more things on my To-do list) and got to work on CONTINUE.  I'm not real happy with the wonkiness.  One of the Ns is off balance somehow...  But that is the attraction of Wonky, what turns out turns out.  I chose not to go back and make another N.

Four years of words, FINALLY four Wonky Words on my design wall.  I'm just in time to start thinking about NEXT year's One Word.

Miscellaneous picture day again

I seem to have a lot of miscellaneous photos so I guess today is a miscellaneous day.

I took this last week when John and I were out on a late afternoon walk.  I love seeing fog and mist over the countryside, maybe because in dry California I didn't see much of it as a child.

And this was taken a short while later when we were heading home.  The sun was setting over what I think is a buckwheat field.

Speaking of John, he jumped up into my lap one morning which was a first.  I was taking a video of him and suddenly he was up in my lap.  On the video I've got very discombobulated images as I nearly dropped my phone and also my very surprised voice saying to Tetsu, "What'd I do?! What'd I do?!"  John sat with me for about five minutes.  He's never done it again so I don't know what he was thinking.

Last weekend we had "clean the neighborhood" day which happens maybe four times a year.  Here is Tetsu whacking weeds at one corner...

 ...while a couple ladies work at gathering up the already cut weeds.

The talk of the closest neighbors was about that huge wasp's nest that is hanging from the eaves of one of the houses on our street.  I don't know what they are going to do about that but it keeps getting bigger and bigger....  I'm sure there are exterminators that can be called to deal with the problem (maybe after the weather cools a bit more) but in the meantime I don't walk down this street much these days.  I remember a few years ago the Homeowner's Association chairman got the job of getting rid a wasp nest in the forest...  And this year Tetsu is the Homeowner's Association chairman!  I sure hope wasp busting isn't on the list of chairman duties...

Oh my, now we're really getting into miscellaneous photos!  John and I take our evening walk everyday at the cemetery across the street from us.  Most families have stone graves (all ancestors' ashes are interred together) in one family plot but there is a small section of this cemetery that is marked off for communal internment and I see a space is being prepared!  One does NOT walk on this grassy area!  Heaven forbid (literally) that a person walk over someone's grave, but anyway, this little square has been allotted for an individual urn and later the sod will be replaced.  It is the least expensive way for ashes to be kept and there is a small plaque nearby that can have names added to a grid corresponding to this grassy area.

 More mist... this is from early morning when I went out alone.

In Japanese these are called Kibana, "yellow flowers".  That seems pretty accurate.  I love how they all face the rising sun!

 And this is the end of the spider lilies.  They are beginning to droop and turn brown at the edges.

 A close-up of a spider lily still in its prime.

 Mist and weeds.

 The glow of the morning sun lit up the mist over the soybean field giving it a pink tinge.