Home in Japan

Here I am with the group of us that lined up a fun song by changing the words to HOME ON THE RANGE  to HOME IN JAPAN.   The guy was our guitarist and kept us together.  The rest of us sang.  M made illustrations that she held up to emphasize our words.  At a future date I will get those illustrations and then type the words we sang. 

Cabaret

Here the Cabaret dancing queens did a song from Mama Mia.  These ladies were also the organizational committee.  They did a wonderful job of making an unforgetable weekend.

Art showing

Five members of our AFWJ group had a showing near the hotel where we had our convention.

Each had a different style and medium.  All came from different countries too.

Below were photographs.



Here a group of us were looking and enjoying their art work.

AFWJ convention

Hospitality snack in the tatami room.  As you can see it was hard to resist the western yummies.

Some of us took a walking tour downtown on Sat. morning.  Here we are at the Chiba City Museum of Science.   Above we are in the mirror room, wishing we were this thin!
Here I get the feeling of walking on the moon.  So many hands on stuff and very little time to do it.  So only did a few things.  I would love to go back someday when I have all day.
This is our group.  The seats recline so we could watch the dome above our head showing the stars.  Some of us drifted off to sleep.

spread finished

Finished my Star Spread and it is now on our bed.

Soon I'll be putting up photos and stuff about the wonderful AFWJ convention, I attended this last weekend.

Sunrise Golf with Hitomi

Tuesday, Hitomi and I went to Sunrise Golf, short course.  We enjoyed such  beautiful weather and a fun hard short course.  Above I am tee-ing off through a narrow side hill, that means if I don't hit really straight the ball will hit a tree and come back or roll down to a course below!  One time the ball came back and lit at my feet!  Because there were no people behind us pushing us we teed off until we got close or on the green!

Hitomi and I posing for a timed shot.  We wonder if that castle like structure in the background is a kindergarten or a love hotel?

Lots of waterways to lose balls in.  The course if very nice as they give ladies 3 free balls on entering.  I lose more than 3 balls each time I do this course but I also usually find a couple more.

Atsugi golf cont.

Oh, how to get these photos in the right order?  I tried dragging them around but they seem impossible to move.  Anyway this should be at the very bottom!
Above is your's truly putting.  Below is pitching.  If I could get those down pat, I could really improve my score!  My pitching is probably my weakest point.   Either I overshoot and have to pitch  again from the other side, or I chip under and it goes only a few feet!  This one I usually just putt and forget pitching.

This was a fun place.  Atsugi is basically flat but just before this river canal, there was a steep hill to tee off of.  It was too far for anyone to get on the green but the goal was to get down the hill and then over this canal to the green.  You can see how close Jack came to losing his ball in the canal.  Here he is deciding how to get it up on the green.  Lucky me on this one I also go across the canal with all my balls!  The first photo shows Jack and Andy watching where it lands.

Atsugi golf

Andy made us a golf reservation Sunday at the Navy base of Atsugi.  His classmate joined us and we had a wonderful afternoon enjoying golf on this long many 5 par course.Below Andy tees off and above he watches to see where it lands.

The name of the golf place was Whispering Pines.  Above is the way each hole was labeled.

Cat Jail

Our neighbors have 4 cats who bothered another neighbor, so this neighbor decided to keep his cats home by building a jail for them.  Occasionally I see them outside, but not for long.  We also have a cat but somehow she stays home and if she wanders it isn't over to the cat hating neighbor.

ostriches and pup

On our way back from  the beach we stopped to see the ostrich farm.  We didn't pay to get closer as we just wanted to see where it was and maybe go back there later.  This ostrich was running to get to some visitors who had food for them.

We also stopped at a used car dealer and I just couldn't resist loving this little 1 month old mutt.  I didn't offer to take it home as after the death of our Echo (St. Bernard) we just decided never to have another dog as shots get expensive and we are gone alot plus the boys are gone.

Eating styles

We had a great time eating lunch at Siho a Chinese Restaurant owned by Jack's cousin.  Jack ordered ramen and is eating the egg.  
Andy is doing the typical Japanese bend over slurp.

Waka would rather bring the bowl up to her mouth!Japanese tend to not take the last of anything on the plate.  That doesn't stop Jon!  He did do the typical American polite question of, "Anybody else want this? No, Okay, can't let it go to waste".
Leepy enjoyed his tastes from everyone.  His mom kept his little dish with some yummies for him.  His name is not Leepy but that is what we call him.  I was telling his parents that I can easily remember his name since my father is Lee and Pee is kind of easy to remember!  They said then I should call him Lee chan.  But then I told them that Leepy is kind of nice as it also means someone who can jump high as they are running!  He is a treasure of a kid and I'm proud to call him another grandchild.  His parents are classmates of Andy and Waka.

impossible to sleep

Poor Waka was trying to get a beauty rest on the floor in front of the heater, but how could she when Andy decided to use her as a pillow, then Leepy decided to use her as a mountain?


Finally he went to sleep!

walk shots

The house above is one of our close neighbors, but not a member of our neighborhood group as they only live here part time and don't want to join.  We watched this house being built and thought it would be a great little log house, but we have also watched how it has been a patchwork of gardening and landscaping kind of in a half hazzard way.  Oh, to take it and make it a doll house!

Below is how some other neighbors manage to keep their orange trees from freezing.  However we have almost never had ice on our pond this winter.

plum blossoms

Here is our own tree of plum blossoms.  I think this is kind of early for them to be blooming.  Last year we harvested them and made plum pickles (sweet not sour).  We have enough to last for years so this year's havest MIL can make her sour pickles!  Below is a neighbor's tree in bloom.  Japanese call them Ume but the translation can be either plum or apricot.  Actually not like either in my history!

Nami again!

Our pastors wife e-mailed me this precious photo of me and my granddaughter.  Had to share it with you.

Lazy

Sorry, I've been lazy the last few days and haven't been blogging.  Mainly because I've run out of photos to post.  There are alot of things I want to post about like my operation, another grandchild, another exciting English class, getting a new car, & losing weight, however those topics just can't be added yet or aren't true!  Hopefully I'll get some photos and get back in the blogging mood.