Fall BBQ

Last Sunday, Ayako went up north to a river to meet our friend, Keiji, and some of his friends:
We had a good BBQ and then went swimming in the river. The water was crystal clear and cool so I drove right in. I found though that Japanese aren't use to the cooler water as much and took much longer to get in.
Eventually people got in the water and had a fun time:
I also wanted to show the stained glass that my father made for Ayako and me. It's a maple leaf and chrysanthemum (Canadian & Japanese image) together. I found it looks nice on our kitchen window looking out to the lake:
Now that it's fall time, the farmers in the area are harvesting their crops and burning things near by. Below is a picture of a very kind neighbour who was hard at work. I definitely feel that the older people in my area work the hardest.

New phone line

Even though it was a long weekend, we stayed at home most of the time, mainly due to it raining off and on. We were able to finish unpacking the boxes in the living room, although there are still some to do in the bedroom. On Friday, we had a telephone line put in...very exciting. And so, here is Ayako making the first call on the line...to the internet company. We'll get internet in a week's time.

Wildlife photos near the house

Since Ayako and I have been having trouble unpacking the last of our boxes due insufficient space for stuff, we went and bought a tall bookcase and file cabinet to hopefully get the rest of the moving boxes out of the living room.

While I was happy we could do some cleaning up, it doesn't make for wonderful photos on a blog. And so for your enjoyment, or at least my enjoyment, I'm going to post some of the wildlife I've seen near the house recently. I'm finding it's much easier to go birdwatching when large birds are flying by your front window that faces the lake, than when you are living in an apartment downtown. Anyways, here's some of the pics:




Finally, here's a shot of the moon when it was just coming up over the water one night:

Beach party / camping

Last Saturday, some fellow teachers and friends went out to a beach in Fukuroi for a BBQ. We got there in the late afternoon, so some of us could go swimming. Most of the people there were more interested in food.


Many people stayed late into the night, when we had a big bonfire from all the washed up logs on the beach. About 8 of us stayed overnight, camping on the beach. Overall, another fun time at the beach.