Irrigation in Chiba?

On our walk we saw something that made me think of years ago in Idaho when I was a kid.
We had an orchard and dry weather so Dad bought some sprinklers and a pump with lots of pipes that could be taken apart and moved all over the 80 acres. Such hard nasty dirty work! I swore I would get an education and never marry a farmer! Above you can see the hoses going down into the creek. Below is the crick
The hoses are hooked up to a tractor pump and then hosed over to the sprinklers in their garden. This is the first time to see a sprinkler working here in Chiba. Usually Chiba gets enough rain. Below you can see the 2 sprinklers beyond the taro field.

Koji's singing

http://www.geocities.com/japanesechurch/music090718doublequartet.ram

Click on that link and you can hear/see the double quartet singing at the Japanese SDA Church in Loma Linda, California. Koji is the tall one with his back showing.

grapes

Grapes in our back yard. One of my favorite fruits is grapes and to save them I bought little bags from the 100 yen shop. I've now covered the best grapes and hopefully that will keep the butterflies out so we'll have great eating in August.

ceramic showing cont.

One of the pleasures of the showing is the chance to meet up with some of my old friends. Above is a lovely lady who I met 30 years ago in California when we were both young and had young boys. Now all 4 of our boys are grown and surprisingly her oldest son lives very near my oldest so maybe we'll get together in Kamakura?
These 2 lovely ladies are also from long back when I first came to Japan. The mother was one of my first English students and the daughter was an exchange student over in NY. Now her daughter is in medical school. Also the mother and her husband who passed away several years ago were our witnesses for our wedding in Tokyo Embassy 33 years ago. Here they are looking at my grandbaby brag photos.
2 of the Macha tea ceremony bowls up close. The one below had 2 people wanting to buy it.
Of course my favorite visitors are always my children.

More ceramics

These were designed for holding water for the tea ceremony. But when they don't sell I use for storing my brewers yeast, sugar, etc.


coffee and tea cup section

Rokuro Ceramic showing

Monday was the last day for Jack's showing at the Rokuro Gallery in Chiba City. Enjoy and I'll post more soon.

Pasta dinner

After the beach we went to a Pasta restaurant. It was really interesting with great ideas and good food. Above is the view of the restaurant with parking underneath. Below shows the interesting wood floor with little dents making it nice to not slip. Of course no shoes in this place.

Trees even grow inside. We ate in the tatami room at a low table as it was easier for Ripi and next door was the play room for kids with a window between too to keep a better eye on them.

Ripi at ocean cont.

When Ripi first went into the beach area, I suggested taking off his clothes as I knew he would get wet. Well, finally after he got wet, they decided he could play in just his shorts.

First trip to the ocean

This little boy, Ripi (nickname) is enjoying his first trip to the ocean. His mother was afraid he would be afraid, but he thoroughly enjoyed it. Here Andy and Waka are playing with him. Ripi is their classmates son.

Here he is standing with me waiting for the water to come up to him.
Here it comes and then out it goes--but I did get my butt wet so had to move!

Japan/USA

Nice to see the flags of my 2 countries flying together. This was at the Ikego entrance near Yukosuka. Ikego is the housing area of the Navy base and takes a special pass to get in
Was surprised to see the green algae like stuff I put into my fish pools bloom! Only lasted a day and now they are gone.
Our USA/Japanese mixed blood children are so precious. This little chap reminded me of years ago when my children were little. One problem I heard our children might face is that if they get leukemia they have an ice cubes chance in hell to find a donor. My son is considering spending the amount of money necessary to preserve part of their babies embilical cord that would give them the chance to donate to themselves.

ping pong fun

On a previous Sunday evening, we went to the Linkai Sports gym where our church had reserved a bunch of tables for ping pong fun. I was planning to watch, but when I saw the level of most of the people, I joined as I was at least in the middle. Below are DH and Mr. M who were unquestionably the best players there playing a doubles against a Chinese pair.


After playing we gathered at the church social room for dinner. It was delicious and fixed by the pastors wife and some other wonderful church ladies. Our church had invited the Chiba Kokusai Church young people, so there were many wonderful young people from several Asian countries there.

Medaka or Guppy?

In my pool I have 6 of these fish. No one can tell me for sure what they are. My student who is great with animals says they are not medeka as they are too big and not guppy as they are laying eggs and guppies do live birth.
Here you can see the eggs under the belly.

Below are the eggs. Many have hatched now and we have so many little ones about the size of an eyelash.

Atsugi golf again

Jack, Uncle N. and I went with Andy to play golf again at Atsugi. Andy had to work at the clinic there for a week so was convenient to play golf. Usually he is in Yukosuka where there is no base golf course. You can see the military planes in the background.

One of the great things about Atsugi is the food court where I can get Mexican Food. Taco Bell is one of my favorite fast food places. Subway, Baskin Robins and the others I can get off base.
The new base golf club house is still under construction. Hope it is done while Andy is still stationed where he can take us.