Early Summer Trip to Our Homeland

Jonathan had a conference in the U.S., and we were able to arrive a little early, so that we could take the opportunity to visit our former Japanese teacher (from DC) who now lives in California with her husband. It was such a wonderful visit to see her doing so well & worship with her on Sunday in a strong Bible teaching & discipling church, that "happens" to be 5 minutes from her new home.

These are great friends of Jonathan's from his college days. You may recognize the husband, as he was a groomsman & led worship in our wedding. We were able to meet up with them the afternoon that the conference ended, before heading to the airport. This was our last time together as just "2 couples" because they welcomed their son into the world in July! Congratulations & welcome, sweet little one!!


The week leading up to Kendra's youngest brother Dan`s wedding, we spent with her parents in their new home in Georgia. We were able to visit with the groom-to-be the Sunday before the wedding & had brunch together.

We also were able to catch Dan & his beautiful bride-to-be Leigh together once more on Memorial Day.

Enjoying a nice sunset with Mom & Dad at the Pier.
















As you can see, there was a beautiful beach nearby which we enjoyed & got a few swims in as well as some sun before heading to Atlanta for the wedding!


We started the wedding weekend festivities with Kendra enjoying a Bridemaids luncheon with Leigh, Kendra`s sister-in-law Allison, Kendra & the other 11 bridesmaids (13 total). The whole weekend Leigh & Dan were surrounded by friends and family that love them and were able to celebrate the time with them.

This is Kendra`s grandparents on her Dad`s side, who were the longest ones married at the wedding. They will have been married 55 years this coming October! What a heritage by which we have been blessed!

Here are Kendra`s parents agian, indulging us with another photo while hosting the Rehearsal Dinner.
Understandably, it was hard to catch the bride & groom during the pre-wedding activities, but we do have a picture of the 3 Caputo Siblings - Kendra, Andy & Dan.











Here`s Andy, helping his oldest son, Isaac, one of the Ring-Bearers, into his mini-tuxedo. Isaac did a GREAT JOB, following the lead of Leigh`s nephew Owen, who acted like a loving Big-brother to Isaac.







Kendra with Andy`s lovely wife, Allison.

















Pre-wedding photos with the Groomsmen.






No offense to the groom, but since this is our blog.....I can`t resist titling this picture; The Most Handsome Man in the World! My dear husband :-)




Introducing......Mr. & Mrs. Daniel Caputo!! We love you both!



























Kendra`s Brother Andy & his wife of over 6 years now, Allison. We were able to enjoy breakfast together before going our separate ways Sunday after the wedding.


Last, but not least, little Luke Daniel, Andy`s youngest, who didn`t join in much of the festivities. So his aunt & uncle had to maximize their time hanging-out with him Sunday morning.

"Golden Week" Holiday

Jonathan was surprised one Saturday night to find our main street in the neighborhood BLOCKED OFF from traffic. On top of the asphalt, sod had been laid and a huge flower exhibit was going on - right there on the street! See the close up of mostly tulip petals, their stems & something that looked like "hickory chips" for the brownish colors. It was amazing to see all the designs and to see that each one was made of fresh flower petals. It was also fun to walk up the street on the sod, rather than the usual cement.
"What is Golden Week?" you ask. Well, at the end of April & the very beginning of May there are about 3 national holidays in the one week. Many people will take a couple extra days off to maximize their holiday time and many take advantage of travelling or enjoy spring activities.
We didn't go too far from home that week, as Jonathan worked to save his personal vacation days. However, we did do a few fun things around town & took a little day trip.
One of the days off, we got onto the train & headed out into the rice paddies. For us, much of the fun is getting there, as we love to ride the trains. It was also relaxing to get away from the city & observe the slower pace in the countryside. However, we realized, if we were the rice farmers, this would not be a slower pace.... they seemed quite busy with their work.
We went all the way to an old town called Sasayama and walked around some castle grounds. They had beautiful azaelas, with the hedges making a wall around the grounds.
Jonathan wants to come back to the area possibly, as they seemed to have many restaurants specializing in a local favorite, wild boar. Kendra wasn't sure about trying wild boar this trip, but has been told, "It's just like pork," so she's considering going for it sometime in the future. We'll let you know how it goes :-)
Back home at the ranch, Jonathan did what he enjoys during baseball season.... grilling! He is perfecting his art at grilling brats, chicken & a variety of vegetables. Fortunately, our place has a patio big enough for grilling on an American-sized grill, which comes in handy when we have guests.
Jonathan's specialty (that makes for such a grand presentation) is vegetables on the skewers. It was quite a treat for Kendra to not cook and the barbecued taste can't be beat!

Celebrating Friendships in Springtime

In March, we had the pleasure of hosting our pastor's family from Rockville, Maryland. They are serving with a C&MA church and have a community center to reach out to the Japanese in the area. Jonathan has met so many doctors here in Japan who had stints at the NIH, in the DC/Rockville area, and is convinced their church & center are strategically placed. We were so blessed by their friendship while we were in the DC area and continue to be challenged with their bold steps of faith to further God's kingdom! We're so thankful that we get to see them sometimes here in Japan and continue our partnership in the Gospel!
These are our Japanese language teachers, who are just wonderful. We are so thankful for each of them, as they are more like friends helping us delve into all sorts of topics in Japanese. Here we are celebrating a farewell dinner for one of Jonathan's teachers, who is taking a leave from work to have her first baby, a little girl. We miss her, but are very happy for her family and were able to give her a bilingual children's Bible as a gift.

Just after baseball's opening day, Jonathan broke out the barbecue grill & we had a going away party for a friend headed to Christ for the Nations Bible school in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. Here are some of the well-wishers.



After eating, several from the group performed for everyone, sharing their gifts & talents. Here are some of the ladies doing hula worship, which is quite popular in our church. I don't think hula is originally from Japan, but our church has a close relationship with a Hawaiian church and many of our members have enjoyed bringing the concept of hula worship here to Japan.

After all that, it's nice to just kick-back & relax! We are very blessed to have a place that can be relaxing & refreshing to many. We are so thankful for the location & ease people have to come, as we love to have guests!



This is Kendra with her conversation partner. She & Kendra exchange Japanese & English conversation about once a week. We are fortunate to live nearby each other & have really been made to feel at home here in Kobe, thanks to her friendship! In April we celebrated her birthday together over lunch at a nearby crepe restaurant.



This is a family that we are friends with from church. Kendra & the mom were studying a book on prayer together for awhile. We enjoyed a picnic together in Kobe's herb park. Here they are overlooking the city.


After our picnic, the girls especially enjoyed walking in the grass barefoot & rolling down the hill...."goro-goro" it's called :-) Many homes in the city & suburbs don't have much lawn to speak of, so the park is a welcome place of green!



These are friends that go "way back" to when Kendra was here as a single, English teacher. They have become family friends visiting the States and they were even at our wedding. We were able to meet up for an evening this spring & share a meal together. They continue to be like family in Japan!



This is another couple from church in our couples Bible study. It happened that our study fell the day before the wife's birthday, and we were able to have some birthday cake to celebrate!

Surprising Singapore

We arrived late Friday night and woke up and went to breakfast in this beautiful room. We took the photo particularly for our moms, who we knew would appreciate the flowers - including Bells of Ireland - and the window painted on the wall :-)
After breakfast, we headed to the main shopping street to see what we could see. We had success - finding some fun summer dresses for my brother's wedding festivities in June. We also enjoyed spending some time in Borders Bookstore, a favorite spot of ours for a date in the States, and there was one here in Singapore!
Jonathan was thrilled to try some food from a local vendor in Chinatown. Sweet & spicy noodles with shrimp & lots of veggies! Kendra was tentative (as she usually is in these situations), but managed well after we "washed" our hands with anti-bacterial hand wipes and proceeded to eat :-)
This is just a picture next to a tall orchid, in the regular part of the gardens. Pictures can't do this expansive Botanical Garden justice and we were so caught up it ourselves, we didn't take many photos. We walked through all sorts of exotic plants and gorgeous flowers. Just before sunset, when it cooled down slightly, we strolled through lush green and rolling hills, with ponds spotted throughout. Families were having picnics and others jogged through the trails - all but the special orchid garden were totally free to the public.
Jonathan, the engineer in the family, was intrigued at this sight - a marble ball spinning, suspended only by water!

St. Patrick's Day Kobe Kohl Style

Being St. Patrick's Day, we stopped by an Irish looking pub nearby - Maggie's by Shenanigan :-) Unfortunately, the menu had nothing very Irish looking on it (certainly no "Jiggs Dinner" with corned beef,) and since we didn't want a beer, we just took the photo op.
We decided to go for Cabbage in our favorite Japanese style - OKONOMIYAKI!! These are the cabbage pizza/pancakes with meat, fish or whatever toppings you want. That's literally the translation of name of the dish "grilled whatever you like." We chose the "Mixed Modern Yaki" with cabbage, noodles, pork, shrimp & squid. Delicious!
Walking home, we went through Kobe's small China Town and each had "Goma Dango" for dessert. These are sweet, sticky rice balls (mochi) with red bean paste inside & coated with sesame seeds. We like these so much we joke that we could become Goma Dango!
Lastly, the night view of Kobe's Harbor. Prominent in the picture are Kobe Tower, the Hotel Okura (where we stayed the first month when we moved here & where many stay when they come from Lilly for business) and the Oriental Hotel. It was a crisp, cold night, but nice to walk around.

Business Trip to the "Big T"

We live outside Osaka, which is Japan's second largerst city. Although Lilly's main headquarters in Japan is in Kobe, much of Japan's business takes place in Tokyo and travel there is pretty much inevitable. Jonathan goes up a few times a month - either via a 3 hour Shinkansen (Bullet Train) ride, or sometimes via a 1 hour flight. Since the ride is smooth, Jonathan likes to make the most of the train ride to get some work done on his computer. They ask you to refrain from using cell phones, out of courtesy to keep a quiet atmosphere for all the passengers, but it's usually good computer time.
So we don't have to be apart, Jonathan is usually able to fenagle going up-and-back in the course of a long day. However, sometimes his meetings are scheduled too late in the evening & he can't make the last train or flight home. On these occasions, Kendra is sometimes able to join him and do some exploring or visiting old friends while Jonathan works. Among others, several of Kendra's Japanese friends from her days at Honda in Ohio have now moved back to Japan and are living in the Tokyo area. This weekend in March, Kendra joined Jonathan & we were able to go to the Outback restaurant, outside of Tokyo. This is a treat, as there's not one in Kobe. We didn't get steak (it's actually Australian beef, which just "tastes different,") but shared are favorite, "Alice Spring's Chicken." Interestingly, we felt a little odd sharing one meal, as in the States sometimes we feel like we're "cheating" our server out of a better tip by sharing. However, since Japan is generally not a "tipping" country, they tend to find U.S. sized portions as "way too big," & "doggie bags" are not usually encouraged here...no one seemed to think our meal odd at all.
In the morning, we hit a chain that became a favoirite while we lived in the D.C. area - Dean & Deluca. They also, are only in the Tokyo area & have a bakery with German-style soft pretzels & pretzel-croissants. We had a nice, relaxing morning before Jonathan had to head to his symposium and Kendra to meet her friend.
On the way home, we had the most interesting weather. As you may know, Japan is about as long as California. However, between Tokyo & Kobe, we stay pretty centrally located on Japan's main island. Usually, the weather is fairly consistent on the Pacific Ocean side (our side) between the two places. However, on this day, when we left the Tokyo area it was raining. Then, just before the area of Mt. Fuji, the weather cleared. We were able to see & capture this spectacular view from the train as it sped along. (Just the day before, the weather was mostly clear, however when we reached this same spot, Mt. Fuji was covered from view by a giant cloud. Jonathan maybe gets to see Mt. Fuji half the times he travels by it. Kendra has only seen it probably 4 ot 5 times this clearly.) Then, north of Kyoto, it was actually snowing! Less than 30 minutes south of there, when we arrived home in Kobe, it was cloudy but no precipitation. When we arrive back in Kobe, we are always SUPER THANKFUL to be living here, as it feels like "home" and is much less intense/busy than Tokyo.