Visiting Kushimoto and Kochi

Abbie and her friend Yuki - from a school exchange at Masterton Intermediate School. Fair to say we had a few years to catch up on. A special time together.  

Our Pasta Party with Jesus Family youth entailed some Twister fun. 

Abbie and Hachan - visiting Kushimoto

Fun times in stunning scenery! 

We had the privilege of making some local treats with Hachan's Grandmother  - such a dear lady. 

We stayed at a traditional Ryokan... including an amazing dinner! We literally had 13 plates each. Wow! 

An old couple we met at the Ryokan we stayed at. Too cute. 

Now this was a real treat! Japanese BBQ. Soooo good. (together  with Hachan's family and her brother's friends). 

We had some time to kill so hired some bikes.... but these are no ordinary bikes people! they have battery powered boosters! Amazing..... especially up hill. Loved it. 

Beach! 

Abbie went with her friend to a pottery class. She made these. 

Abbie and two of the kids she teaches once a week. 

Yoshi and Yukari just had their 3rd child - Ayuki. Tiny and very cute. 

Our language helper and great friend Yoshie treated us to a meal at a Brazilian BBQ restaurant. 

Jesus festival - selling lamb kebabs. 

The limousine bus we took to Kochi. It had 3 rows of individual seats. Crazy! But very comfortable. With inflight movie and free drinks bar. 

Arriving at Kochi we watched some dance performance. Here we are with the performers dressed up as famous samurai from Kochi. 

Kochi castle. 

Yukiko and her Mum, Abbie last saw her mum more than 10 years ago. 

Yukiko's wonderful family. 

It was a scorching hot day and we headed to a famous beach with a statue of the most famous samurai from the area. 

Beautiful beach.... unfortunately not allowed to swim there... so Tim pushed the limits and dipped his toes in :) 

An emotional goodbye. See you again sometime Yukiko. 

Our incredible gift... a new camera... and one very excited and overwhelmed Tim. 

A little journey around Japan

Recently we had Abbie's family come visit, we had a wonderful tie with them and even did a bit of the Japanese tourist thing ourselves, with visits to the old and current capital cities (Kyoto and Tokyo) and even went to a monkey park on our way home. So here's some pics to tell the story.

Abbie's family arrived with some NZ supplies for us,
that's right folks, we've got two unopened premium jars of Marmite!

The famous Japanese Cherry blossom in full bloom,
absolutely beautiful!

All the whanau, plus Yukiko and her niece Ami

We took the family in to Shinsaibashi,
one of the busier areas of Osaka.

Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, one of the more famous temples in Kyoto,.
Beautiful weather that day and heaps of people.

We tried to make sure they experienced all the necessary Japanese cuisine.
Here's us having Kaitenzushi (Sushi train)

This is a unique Japanese restaurant, where you order lots of small plates and share them all. And you sit on the floor with a space under the table for your legs.

Okonomiyaki - savoury cabbage pancake, very famous in Kansai! (the region that Osaka is in)

About to catch the Shinkansen (bullet train)

The crazy lights of Shinjuku on a rainy evening

Standing on the 43rd(ish) floor of the Tokyo Council Building

Tokyo stretched as far as the eye can see!

A little stop off at Tokyo Disneyland, quite fun

One of the highlights of the trip away, the Monkey park.
The pool is a natural outdoor hotpool, or Onsen, this one is for Monkeys only.

We got so close to them, was real fun.

A little bit of monkey business

On one of our restaurant trips we met some university students. We had fun together practising our Japanese. They asked us why we came to Japan, and Tim had a crack at explaining that we'd prayed and Jesus asked us to go to Japan. Cool opportunity to share our story.

Another restaurant on another night.

At Universal Studios Japan we met someone very famous!
Hello Kitty!

Visit to Mt Hope in Indonesia

So while we were on the island of borneo we headed across the boarder to Indonesia and went to see the good work being done at Mt Hope. 

After hearing so much about Mt Hope from our church in Wellington it was awesome to be there in the flesh and get a feel for the place. We loved it! Such a special place with so much hope,future, and potential. 

The highschoolers were practicing for the cheerleading comp and didn't let the tropical rain downpour stop them ! 

Tim helping out with some land surveying for the new buildings. 

The bakery and eating area for the students. 

School canteen. 

Abbie helped out each morning at the bakery - coconut buns in progress! 

Lovely time with Craig Pilcher. We loved hearing his heart for the place and getting a fantastic tour around. Tony and Malani are just great! and we enjoyed our time with some more kiwis - John and Dianne. 

Here's a short video of the buildings. 

\

And here Tim talks about our impressions of Mt Hope.