Wednesday, October 15, 2008

LESS WHINY



Yes, less whiny, but still exhausted, and still definitely missing my boys! I am certainly NOT cut out to be a world traveler.

But I got to feel less a traveler and more at home this past week as we ventured down south from Tokyo to the area of Kyushu, Japan. Kyushu is where I spent a year teaching with the JET program after I graduated from college in the mid-90's (now if saying, "Mid-90's," when referring to an era, not a temperature, doesn't make you whiny, I don't know what will!).

Our first stop in Kyushu was to the city of Hakata/Fukuoka. We walked and walked and walked and walked, and saw lots of temples and shrines. Kind of like what we did when we were in Tokyo, only with fewer crowds.

Then we left the crowds all together and headed for the countryside.




Here we met up with my dear old friend Okamoto-sensei, with whom I worked at the Bungo Takada Junior High School in a decade long, long ago. The picture doesn't show it, but we were hugging and crying and hugging some more for quite some time after she came to pick us up at the Yanagigaura station (yeah, that's a tongue twister of a name!). It was pretty darn happy, and a bit louder, I'm sure, than the normal Japanese greeting at that station!

Okamoto-sensei took us to her home, where I found a painting of this beautiful geisha-girl that Okamoto-sensei had painted after I went home to America. Flattered, flabbergasted, flummoxed...I can't even begin to find a word that describes how it feels to be the subject of some body's artistry!



We spent the day hugging and laughing, sharing pictures and stories, and visiting some great sites. Usa shrine was first,



then the 500 stone Buddhas,



topped off with an evening trip to BungoTakada later that night. There we visited my old apartment building, the new "Showa Era" museum, and more friends, the Takakura family (for whatever reason, those pictures won't load onto the computer just yet...).

Sunday I got to visit my friends at church in the tiny little Nakatsu Branch, population 6. Our six visitors doubled the "congregation!" It touched my heart and strengthened my own testimony and desire to follow Christ, getting to see these beautiful, dedicated people coming to church week after week, year after year, despite their meager numbers.

It was all so very wonderful. Pretty much worth becoming a world traveller after all.

3 comments:

Tasharoo said...

Keri~
That is so awesome! I am so excited for you and love to hear about your world travels!
Keri and the word "whiny" do not belong together! I don't think you could even try to be whiny. You are the happiest, most beautiful person I know! (I adore the painting of you!) I almost started crying!
Go have some more fun! And update us again soon!
Tash

SladeMomma said...

Yippee! I recognized the big orange entrance to the temple and the 500 stone Buddhas and Okamoto-sensei. Tell her that she looks exactly the same, no older. How wonderful that she painted you. I like it! I am so glad that you got to spend time there in Bungotakada. Lucky, lucky you.

Colin said...

i've seen keri whiny... :P

i love japan. i want to go back again someday too. guess i'll have to settle for china in may. :D