The Suzuki Cattle Farm in our city sends forth a very pungent smell about 4:30 every afternoon. Even though we’re several kilometers away from the farm, the smell literally reeks (emits a strong offensive smell) in our neighborhood. The farm raises Black Angus cattle and sends them to the slaughterhouse when they mature. I can imagine what it’s like […]

Last Sunday morning when it was time to print the weekly bulletin, I had a very hard time trying to decide what picture to use on the front page. Since it’s spring, I thought a nice budding flower or some cherry blossoms would be nice, but I just couldn’t decide what to do.  As I […]

Spring in Japan is the beginning of the “Wedding Season.” From February through May I will have performed somewhere in the area of about 60 weddings, the most being as many as 4 or 5 in a day. The wonderful thing about this is that probably 95 percent of the people who attend the ceremonies in […]

Can you remember any graces you memorized as a kid and said at the dinner table? I can. It was probably in the first or second grade that we learned it and all the kids in class said it in unison just before devouring our lunches:  “Bless this food of which we take, and make […]

I just read in the news that Western Union, the company that began in the mid-1840’s has stopped sending telegrams. Hard to imagine no more telegrams to announce the birth of a baby, the death of a family member or an “I love you!” on Valentine’s Day from a lover. In their day, telegrams expressed the […]

In Japan, New Years is the most celebrated time of year. Hope you enjoy this weekend’s glance at Japan. Japan’s population is some 127 million. It is estimated that over 100 million people in Japan visited Shinto shrines the first three days of this New Year. It is a tradition in Japanese homes to visit […]

I had the chance to minister in the Aishin Junior College chapel service on December 6. What a thrill it was for me ⎯ and for the students who gathered for the last chapel service just before final exams. I do the English chapel service twice a month (bilingually). The message for that day was given to […]

See the little orange guys hanging on strings from a bamboo pole behind Mr. Koso Okada and the clothes pole in his yard? Those are persimmons drying in the fall sunlight. Mr. Okada is holding some that are called hoshi gaki (dried persimmons). Hoshi gaki are made from shibu gaki (astringent, that is having a harsh, biting quality). When […]

Had a call this morning from a brother in the church whose father had died very early this morning at 3:06 AM, in the middle of the night, but in fact, the darkest hour of the day. Today has been a day of busyness getting ready to make a two-hour trip to the wake tonight. The wake […]

This weekend the rice harvest will be about complete here in Japan. About two weeks ago I was driving by this field full of ripe rice when I noticed these scarecrows. Just like a little kid, I pointed out the window of the car and said to Andrea, “Look, look . . . scarecrows!” I stopped […]