what's been happening these days

So I couldn't resist -- the cherry blossoms are amazing!! I think they're "officially over" now, though, since it rained yesterday.
One of my students took me to this gorgeous "sakura-lined" road. . . walking under the veil of pink-flushed blossoms, and being showered on by the petals. It looked just like snow!
On Saturday I took a day trip with some students (my 2 Tuesday night classes). In Fall, we went to see some temples in Nara, and this time we headed out to Kyoto. This is a picture of us in front of the Byoudoin bridge, on the front of the Japanese 10 yen coin (see below).


So, for those of you who have seen "Sayuri" or heard of a Geisha, this is the young version (teenage girls), called "Maiko-san". The woman in front of the shop (where they do kimono dyeing) told us that we could have our picture taken with a "real Maiko". (I didn't really believe her, but after seeing the Maiko's wig, one of my students told me that the real ones always use their own hair -- obviously this is just some girl's part-time job!! :-b But, whatever, it's still pretty fun I think!)
And this was probably one of, if not the coolest part of the day -- we got to take a boat ride down the river. The area we went to is called "Arashiyama" and famous for the beautiful mountainsides and colours in Autumn. Being Spring, we didn't see any of the Fall leaves, but the mountains were still pretty with the bright green and little dashes of pink everywhere!
This is what we looked like!! :-D (ok, I don't even feel like it was real looking at this picture now.)
I'm still here until July just in case any of you have changed your minds about coming to visit! ;-)
The five of us -- me, Kimie, Kenji, Kohey (sorry :-s), and Junko.
I thought this was such a pretty scene that incorporates so many uniquely Japanese things. . . the tiles lining the edges of the rock garden, neatly raked rows of pebbles, the larger rocks and finely manicured pine trees set in to symbolize moutains and a mini "nature scene", and then bamboo and even a cherry blossom tree in the background.
We walked down a few streets from the river to find this bamboo trail. . .
It was kind of funny, because there were actually a lot of people on the trail, but there was kind of an unspoken "let's stop and take pictures" moment, where I got this shot! :-)
And, after all that walking. . . we took some time out at the "foot bath". It felt really good. . . kind of weird when you think about it, a bunch of people just start taking off their socks and shoes, sit down on the benches, and plunge their feet in to soak. But, a good custom none-the-less (a little less intimidating than the full body perhaps?!)
There is one other thing that I've wanted to share with all of you. I've mentioned about Kinuyo in several of my previous posts (we went for a picnic together a couple of weeks ago). Well, recently she came to the seminar that we had at church, and it seemed like there was something that really resonated with her inside (the Holy Spirit, no doubt), and since then she has been really interested in learning more about the Bible. It's something that has been a great encouragement to me, not that I've done anything, but about how God is maybe just reminding me to trust that He knows what He's doing. May God be glorified!!!
I will fill you in more next time I send out a letter to all of you. Have a lovely day!