It seems like this humidity and heat will never be over! Our air conditioner seems to be having a hard time keeping up with it too. Our current place has one pane windows and not much insulation to protect from the outside, so it will be interesting to see how much cooler we are in our new place with two pane windows and better insulation. Speaking of the new place, we recruited Li-san, our Chinese friend, to help us last Saturday to get rid of some of the junk at the place. It was hot, but those two guys seemed to enjoy themselves--throwing old furniture out of second story windows and destroying some furniture so that it could be removed easier. We were traditional Japanese workers with our long towels hanging around our necks. I wet mine with ice water around my neck and it really helped to keep me more comfortable. I worked on unpacking the Japanese doll set and armor set that the man from the recycle shop said would not sell. It looks like I may have a bit of a museum in our attic in the new house! We were especially grateful for our "parents" next door. "Otosan" (Dad) saw them struggling with renches on some frames and came over with his proper tool and completed the task so easily. "Okasan" (Mom) supplied us with cool tea in the morning and crisp cool watermellon in the afternoon. I continue to marvel how God seems to have sort of "cloned" my parents in a few ways and made it His will to make them our new neighbors. We went for lunch and I was suprised to see a taco salad--you know--those fried tortilla shells that look like a crispy bowl? I had that--with a Japanese dresssing of course--and a quesadilla and it was delicious. We don't see much Mexican food here in Japan. That night we had Kan and Li-san for vegetable pancakes and had fun playing Akihiro's board game "Rich Dad Poor Dad". On other food notes, we ate recently at Subway and it was interesting to see the Japanese version--wasabi, shiso, sesame, etc. No rice, though!
Sunday we went to Tokyo church and were able to meet Bro. Bob and Sis. Rika Allen from Philadelphia. Rika is Japanese and they are here visiting family and friends.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that on Tuesday we had a short service for one of our elderly Shioda sisters who passed away last Sunday. They plan to wait for the funeral til September because they and their friends are very busy with peach harvest and they would like Bro. Willis to have the service, so they just asked for a short service before the cremation. Akihiro was a bit nervous about his first "funeral" service, but it went fine. Nearly everyone from the Shioda church came to support and sing. This was my second experience with a cremation service and it was much easier than the first. The place was very nice--out in the country with a view of the valley and mountains. We were the only group there, so we didn't have to listen to any Buddhist chanting, etc. We had a nice visit with the family over our cooked eel lunch boxes while we waited for the cremation to be complete. We are so thankful that the family agreed to have a Christian service for our sister. This is not the case in all circumstances. We pray that the scripture and prayers would comfort, yet convict her family as they are not yet Christian.