Last Saturday I took the day off from my sorting at the "new" house and went sightseeing with Doris Fischer who was here for business. It was great to talk to another girl in English all day! We enjoyed checking out a new garden--Kiyosumi Gardens. My guide service still isn't the greatest! I got out at the station and figured that the big long line of people must be going to the gardens, so we followed them. Well, when I asked somebody, he said they were on an 8km walk around this part of Tokyo! Good thing I asked! Anyway, we found the gardens and had a nice time there.
The wisteria are just beautful!
And so were the iris!
We also went to Asakusa Temple. Note the beautiful azaleas--they are just lining the streets these days!
These ladies let us take their picture! Aren't they charming!
This upcoming week is Golden Week here in Japan which means lots of holidays in a row, days off work, celebrations, and traffic jams! In honor of Children's Day (I think anyway), there are some hanging fabric carp (koi nobori) hanging over our river. It is quite a site!
As requested, here are some pictures of the inside of our house. I have lots of good helpers--Jana and Andrew and family, Marie, and my newly adopted Japanese mom (my new neighbor). She is so kind and helpful! She is always giving me lots of information about how to sort my recycling things and what is the best way to get rid of things. She has even offered to transfer the plants from our yard to her garden when they tear the house down! There are lots of nice plants and she enjoyed telling me what each one of them is and how to care for it--too bad I couldn't understand much of it! There is a nice bleeding heart plant, rose, camelia, flowering vines, small kumquat fruit tree, etc. She said she really likes gardening and sewing. I told her she is just like my Mom! I am so grateful that God has provided such a wonderful neighbor to me! She even gave me some sweet potato tempura one day and banana bread the other day--delicious! She also lets me use her water faucet and her bathroom since I don't have water or lights at our house! It is a tremendous blessing!
Here is a picture of the kitchen. I am pretty well done going through the stuff there.
Here is the living room and even though it looks a mess, it is pretty well gone through. The big mountain of clear bags in the middle is just a start of the clothes that I am saving for the clothing drive!
Here are the three rooms upstairs. If anyone is interested in any Japanese kimonos or traditional Japanese clothes, just let me know--I may have some for you! If you'll cover the cost of cleaning, I'll bring them home when I come on May 27th! I have some children's sizes and some adult sizes.
I forgot to take pictures of the office and storage areas, but they aren't so very exciting.
Speaking of coming home, as I said, I will come by myself on the 27th to help Mom and Dad move to Chestnut Place. Akihiro will leave June 4th with his parents and his grandpa. They will go to Washington D.C. and then to New York City to visit Akihiro's brother and then come to Tremont on June 9th.