Too much to write

Good morning everyone! I hope that morning has dawned fair for you! I pray that you have already seen, and continue to see God's blessings throughout your new day.I feel like so much has happened since Nikko! Two weeks seems like a long time! The pictures in this post are from Kyoto.
As you can see, it is rather photo heavy... The first photo is me, in front of an old style Japanese home. The Second picture is the VERY famous Golden Temple. (I did get several pictures of me in front of it.) Third, you can see the famous two dragons in one of the temples we visited... They covered the entire ceiling of one of the temples! It was really amazing to crane my neck as far back as I could, and still hardly be able to see the whole thing... We visited that temple on the day that it rained... We also got to see the rock gardens that day, and sit on the tatami mats and enjoy them... You can see the picture of Hinako and me with the ninja and Japanese lady too. I was watching the ninja show, and Hinako got scared. So she went out and met these two, so she ran back in and brought me out too. :) The picture of the flower is there just because I thought it was pretty. :) Last but not least, is a picture of Hinako that I took. It is better than any other picture I have of her, so I decided to include it as well.

We ate lots of noodles in Kyoto. I got pretty good at eating noodles with hashi. :) I also learned that it was acceptable (and even polite) to slurp while eating noodles! I just don't want to get into the habit... :)

I also enjoyed my four days in Chiba. It was nice to again be around people who speak English! I found out that I had something in common with my hosts. They own most all of the Dr. Who seasons I've seen!!! It was GREAT! I watched an entire season while I was there! :) On Saturday I helped around the house all day, and we went to church on Sunday. While I was there I also read all but the last 2 chapters of Elsie Dinsmore. It was fun to hear in my head the well known and well worn tapes I have as I re-read the pages. I remembered lying in my room one day when I was 8 years old as I listened to the book on tape for the very first time! I also had the first ham sandwich I've had in the last 3 months while I was there! It was SO good!

When I got back to Tsukishima on Monday (after navigating four train stations on my own) I was greeted with hugs from Eastin and Abi, a gasp and a smile from Aidan, and a shy grin from Coen! It was great to be welcomed back so warmly!

Yesterday life started back with staff meeting here. I took the boys to the park during it. Thankfully there was a light breeze most of the time. Today I had an English lesson with Hinako and Eastin. I thought it went really well. I tried something that I had not done before, and it worked better than expected. Perhaps in my next post I can explain my new teaching technique. :) But this post is already pretty long...

All my love,

Hannah