Smile!

My love and I !!!

Korean Restaurant

After church this evening we went with a total of 10 people to a Korean restaurant. It was our second time and the food is amazing! We should go more often and try different dishes.

Mansur ordered a Japanese sake, which is served with a small dish underneath the glass so that the sake that overflows can be poured into the glass after you take the first sip. It was delicious!

I am trying to hold a menu, though it is hardly visible.

Today we met Kim and Mark (on the left). They got married in the US and just moved to Japan. This was their frist Sunday at church, but it was great to go out and get them hooked up with some of us. Though it is sad to see friends leave, it is always a blessing to welcome new people. Benjamin (on the right) joined us after a 3-week absence. He had gone home this summer and is now back for another year!

Kaori (left) and Yoko (right) share a spicy dish!

Left to right: Leah, Frazer and Hideki

Hitomi's Birthday!

Our dear friend, Hitomi, celebrated her birthday last Wednesday, August 16 at a popular Italian restaurant in Kobe. We all had a great meal, chatting and laughing for hours. It was awesome!

This is the whole group!

On the left (front to back): Takashima, Hamid holding Kurosh, Hitomi, Andrew, Kathleen, and Rika

On the right (front to back): Ryo-chan, me, Mansur, Ali and Fahimeh(she is not really in the picture), and Tomoko

Happy Birthday!

We surprised Hitomi with a few hanabis!

We were both dressed in blue, although we did not exactly plan to do so.

This was a gift from Hamid, a beautiful watch! I think Hitomi was so excited she needed help to open it!

Summer!

This summer we decided to stay in Japan for a variety of reasons... August is so humid that it sometimes made me dream of a better place to be at this time, but we were able to do a few fun things to enjoy the heat!

Very close to Kobe is an island called Awaji. That was were the earthquake stroke in 1995. From Awaji, you can get a 10 min. boat ride to a small island called Nushima. There seems to be around 700 people living there today. For the very first time, we visited Nushima. It had a lot of fishing boats and tons of tourists who went to enjoy this tiny beach, which is much cleaner than the ones in Kobe. The day trip was great. We even had a picnic on the sand. Below are a few shots!

Mansur in the water with a few high school students we met!!!

Mansur and Hamid try to teach Abi how to swim... I think all he did was swallow a whole lot of water!

I think Mansur came out of the water only to eat, drink or go to the bathroom. He LOVES the sea!

The girls were having fun too!

This is a shot of us eating at a terrace of an onsen! The Akashi bridge behind us is the one that links Kobe to Awaji island. The moon can also be seen on the top right! It was a beautiful night...

1, 2, 3, JUMP!

Growing fruits and vegetables!

Last year we tried growing a few fruits and vegetables in planters! Believe it or not, we succeeded. This spring/summer we are doing it again! It is a lot of fun to see them grow and then pick and serve them at home! Below are some of the things we have outside!

Hanabi!

There are some things about Japan than will just never change...One of them is summer's collection of firework festivals! They are absolutely great. I remember that in Brazil, on every New Year's Eve, we would watch Rio's fireworks on TV. It was an amazing sight. However, I can now see the same thing live in various Japanese cities in the month of August. In Kobe, since it is a smaller city, the show lasts for 50 minutes. In other places there are longer exhibitions with even better quality.

This is part of our group, sitting on the floor, having a picnic and enjoying the fireworks. The two girls in yuukatas on the left, the lady straight behind me in white and the girl on the far right are students from one of my English conversation classes. Kokoro (in red), Akiko (in blue), Hiroko (behind me) and Shiho (far right)!!! The lady in balck is Hiroko's friend (Junko) and the girl beside Shiho is her friend (Yuki, I think)!

I love to walk around the city on a firework day! Young people wear their yuukatas, or Japanese summer kimonos! It is such a colorful sight. It finally looks like I am in Japan. Other than the extremely hot weather, there is not much to complain about this spectacular time of the year!

This is a couple from Osaka, who got married a few months ago. Their wedding was performed by Mansur and they came to see us in Kobe for the fireworks!

I have no idea why Japanese love crowds. If you ever come to Japan you will soon notice how they run to crowded places, go out in rush hours and line up when another 100 people are already there. And, if you join a hanabi festival, you will see that they leave as soon as its over, meaning the thousands of people walk towards a single station at the same time. A walk that usually takes 5 minutes can turn out to be a 30-40 min. walk. All of this to say that when the fireworks were over, most of us stayed where we were and finished our food and beer, while the rest of Kobe struggled to go back home.