Here are the two works of my husband.  He spent hours putting on the detailed designs.

Shinkaijusha

My husband belongs to an artist group called Shinkaijusha.  This group had a showing in Ryopungi this month.  Jack was one of the judges.  They give awards for several catagories.  In the past he has gotten awards from this group too.  He has also introduced several new members to this group.

National Gallery

My husband and a group he is a member of had a showing in this new National Gallery in Ryopungi.  In future postings I'll show the work.  The showing is over now as I'm usually behind in posting stuff!

Water freezing uphill?

Can you believe that a dripping faucet could produce an icecycle that grows up hill?  Here is the photo I took to prove to my Father that it could happen.  It won't happen again because the faucet is fixed!

Back to golf

I'm finished blogging about the convention now as it has almost been a month ago.  Wonderful memories.  But for the final shot I chose this one of V and I on the golf course.  Notice the large green round mound on our right.  That is a mountain, not the famous tree like in Hawaii.   

Three precious babies attended the AFWJ (Association of Foreign Wives of Japanese) convention.  Only nursing babies who are not yet walking are welcome at these fun filled weekends.  These three (2 girls and 1 boy) were so precious and all within 1 month of each other in birth dates.

miso factory

Here we are jammed into the display room of the miso (soybean paste for making soup, etc) factory.  I have never liked miso but decided to try to free samples.  Hey, this isn't bad, I thought after trying the miso candy.  I bought a few bags to bring back to Chiba to let my students try.  Then I decided to try the paste itself.  There were two kinds and I could tell no difference and again I had to admit it was quite good.  Almost a cheezy taste.  So I decided to buy some.  Well they had a 1 kilo bag for 900 yen and  a 3 kilo bag for 1,000 yen.  So da--who would buy the 1 kilo?  Taste was the same, made in the same factory by the same techinque.  I asked the man why we could pay 100 yen more and get 3 times the amount?  He said it was because the soybeans to make the miso from the cheaper per kilo bag came from China.  I noticed I was the only one buying the 3 kilo bag.  I know at this time everyone is worried because of the problem with Chinese gyoza, but hey, nothing else seems to have been tainted and soybeans are in a pod so I figured they would be safe.  We have been enjoying this miso now for over 3 weeks with no problem so I think I made the right decision.

outdoor onsen

Oh, this felt so good!  Kind of hard though to set the camera, push the timer and get back into the onsen without getting a porno pose!

Kyushu is full of natural hot springs.

Potato relay

 A fun relay race was the potato race.  We had to sit on the potato and then carry it in our bum to the bucket where we were to drop it.  Our team won!

Convention song

Our song for the Cabaret.  I changed the words to Petula Clark's old song DOWNTOWN to make it CONVENTION.   There were alot of cool acts and Cabaret time is always a highlight of the convention.

Foot bath

Inspite of the rain we enjoyed a foot hot spring.  There are hot springs all over Kyushu and little foot baths are quite common for no charge.  

Barbie Dolls

Here one of the ladies brought her Barbie Doll collection complete with Ken and many outfits.  Many of the ladies enjoyed reliving their youth.  I never had a Barbie Doll as I grew up in a family of boys.  My 2 dolls had  terrible fates--one was operated on by my brother playing doctor and the other was scalped and hanged on a tree by the same brother playing Indian.  Wonder what he would have done to a Barbie?

Geta Tab dancing

Here we are--the Geta Dancers.  Wearing geta we were taught some simple steps.  Yet too difficult for me so I dropped out in the afternoon class so didn't perform in the cabaret.  So fun though as we needed exercise after all the buffet style meals.

This is the great Kyushu ladies who made us feel so welcome.

80 plus women who are married, engaged or have been married to Japanese men met for our annual convention in Kyushu.  Here is our Chiba group.  Title of convention was "Back to Basics" so we are all wearing black and white.  

Here VH and I are early to our AFWJ convention.  We wanted to take advantage of this great course.  Had a great time.  Fantastic weather and about the same speed.  However she was the winner and I was happy as I did better than my usual double par!

Back from Kagoshima

Here is how the place looks this morning after I returned last night.  But luckily I got to return.  The flight from Kagoshima to Hanada was canceled due to the heavy snow in Hanada.  Well we got to the airport and found out we could get on an earlier flight that  was leaving so they held up the plane to get a bunch of us on it so the later flight could have more space.  So got to Hanada early!  But then the Aqualine bridge was closed so KF and her baby and I had to take the bus around the bay to Chiba Station and then get back home by train.  Jack was waiting at the station for us.  Sure was a great weekend and tomorrow I should have everything sorted out and start posting Convention photos.