Merry Christmas with the Midtermers. From Sakudaira, Nagano, Japan!!!
Some of the staff got together to celebrate Christmas. It was wonderful to get together with everyone and reflect on the year past and the year coming. I was so encouraged by Ruth Ann. Mary and Aileen. I love learning about life and the Lord from other beautiful women. And seeing Keith was like a little homecoming because Mary, Keith and I went through training together. So having the trio together is always an adventure. It was a wonderful time and made the Holidays seem less lonely.
Ruth Ann (standing) provided us with amazing American type food and an abundance of Christmas goodies.
I may have eaten too much.
Mary and I met up with Mark and his sister Melissa for a time in Ueda, Nagano; snowboarding and visiting Norio. Once again, an amazing time. I thoroughly enjoyed snowboarding although I feel like I had lost some of my mad skills. Mark and I tried to time it right so that we were on the last lift up, to be the last ones down. But we accidently got left on top of one of the mountains and we couldn't get back... so the staff took us partially back to another area on SNOWMOBILE. It was SO great.
Perfect Day for snowboarding and the snow was FRESH so the conditions were AMAZING.
Nestled in the mountains, lies a little house where Norio's family lives. We had another amazing weekend with them.
We did motchisuki, which is making motchi. Motchi is mashed up rice that is amazingly delicious. Here is par of the process.
First you boil the rice on top of this litte furnace guy.
Mary takes a whack at the motchi while Norio's Dad looks on.
The rice has to get all mashed up.
Then you can either separate the motchi into little balls and form this dessert type dish,
covering the motchi in delicious things like walnut powder, anko, seasame powder or soy (believe me, it's WAY good!!!)
Or you can roll the motchi out and cut it into blocks that can be freezed and either made into dessert or a dinner type dish with nori (seaweed) around it. I am A HUGE fan of Japanese desserts so I absolutely love motchi.
Before we got on the train we took a group shot. (mark's sister) Melissa, Mark, Norio and his sister Musuzu, Jo, and Mary.
Back at home, Yaya was my pal for New Years.
Jin was a little tired of hearing the directions for our game. She just wanted to play. I love this look. She's hilarious.
Happy New Year everyone.
I may have eaten too much.
Mary and I met up with Mark and his sister Melissa for a time in Ueda, Nagano; snowboarding and visiting Norio. Once again, an amazing time. I thoroughly enjoyed snowboarding although I feel like I had lost some of my mad skills. Mark and I tried to time it right so that we were on the last lift up, to be the last ones down. But we accidently got left on top of one of the mountains and we couldn't get back... so the staff took us partially back to another area on SNOWMOBILE. It was SO great.
Perfect Day for snowboarding and the snow was FRESH so the conditions were AMAZING.
Nestled in the mountains, lies a little house where Norio's family lives. We had another amazing weekend with them.
We did motchisuki, which is making motchi. Motchi is mashed up rice that is amazingly delicious. Here is par of the process.First you boil the rice on top of this litte furnace guy.
Mary takes a whack at the motchi while Norio's Dad looks on.
The rice has to get all mashed up.
Then you can either separate the motchi into little balls and form this dessert type dish,covering the motchi in delicious things like walnut powder, anko, seasame powder or soy (believe me, it's WAY good!!!)
Or you can roll the motchi out and cut it into blocks that can be freezed and either made into dessert or a dinner type dish with nori (seaweed) around it. I am A HUGE fan of Japanese desserts so I absolutely love motchi.Before we got on the train we took a group shot. (mark's sister) Melissa, Mark, Norio and his sister Musuzu, Jo, and Mary.
Back at home, Yaya was my pal for New Years.
Jin was a little tired of hearing the directions for our game. She just wanted to play. I love this look. She's hilarious.
Happy New Year everyone.Enjoy 2007 and may God bless you.
1 comment:
happy new years jo! i love your pictures from your trip. it makes me miss you and japan so much. it looks like you spend new years in about the same position as last year. that is pretty awesome. we played games tonight too. girl i miss you like crazy. love ya.
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