a little catching up. . .

Hallowe'en in Japan is a little different than at home -- I mean, you still see some stuff in stores, with the jack-o-lantern, ghost, witch motif, but the truth is that most people here really have no idea what the "holiday" is about. . . well, I guess when you really think about it, do we? It was a lot of fun to enjoy it with my kids, though, and especially to see them trek over to the pastor's house next door, and try to remember what they needed to say to get the candy! ;-)
On November 3rd, a "bus-load" (literally, they rented a micro-bus for the 20 of them) of people came to visit from Hirano church in Osaka. That's the church where the Kurokawas used to pastor. It was really neat to see people again (recognized a lot of faces, at least!) We went to a park nearby for a while in the afternoon (this is a huge "trampoline" play area), and the two jr. high students were my elementary students when I was teaching at that church. It was so cool to see them again! (Shuhei, boy on left, and Shio, girl on right, and Moe, my sister!)
The next day, I took a day trip with some students to Nara, a city pretty close to Osaka, and about 2 1/2 hours from here. It was a really great day! Two of the students planned out the whole day for my 2 Tuesday night classes.
Nara is famous for its deer -- and if you've been here before, you'll know that the deer pretty much rule the city. Kids run away screaming sometimes because they come right up, trying to get attention, but mostly food!

In front of the "Todaiji" -- people can put incense sticks into the ashes here -- I think it is part of a "purification" process before entering the temple.
"Todaiji" is the home of the largest Buddha statue in Japan (which, I found out on this trip, has to be clarified as the largest Buddha made by pouring metal, in this case bronze, into a mould. The eyes alone are 3 1/2 feet wide each!) The building was also amazing -- almost 200 feet wide and 160 tall -- it was made without using any nails, all pieced together by wood. Lunch was at a noodle shop, a famous one apparently -- Japanese people seem to love that sort of stuff! It was really good, though, and interesting to watch how they made everything -- there was a huge pot of boiling noodles, which they took out as people ordered and drained in a big bamboo sieve. (Sorry these pictures aren't rotated. :-s)

On our walk. . . I just love these kinds of traditional sights -- this was looking into the gateway of a temple (?) area.
At another temple in Nara -- once again, famous for housing both the oldest wooden structure in Japan, and the largest, 5-storied, pagoda. This is our whole group -- in the back, L-R, Junko, Kohey, Kazuko and front, Kimie and Kenji.
A view from one of the buildings on the grounds here. . . what a different world!