Miriam & Alim's Honeymoon Blog

It is Asian pear season here. Kiyo-san, Ayu’s grandmother, has a sister who has a small orchard, and we get the benefits of the ‘seconds’. Miriam is in pear heaven! Alim has eaten his fill if he can get to them before Miriam eats them all. Softball anyone?

We took the bus into Tokushima today to go shopping. When we got to the central bus station, there was a line of women holding signs, and we thought at first it was a strike. Then we realized all of the banners were blue and gold, and they were raising money for Ukraine. We gave them a donation and they gave us this little Origami spinner. The banner says: "May the winds of peace blow."

 Soon after we arrived in Japan, we were told that we had a date for this evening to go to dinner at Udai's parents who were looking forward to meeting us. Udai is Ayu's brother-in-law. Of course we were honored that they wanted to host us, but we had no idea how honored we would be! The beautiful, warm family. The Japanese always remove their shoes inside homes. We have never eaten as well as we are eating in Japan, and this spread far exceeded all. "...and a hug around the neck." Our seats at the table. Our wonderful hosts,Yudai's mom, Rurika, and dad, Masaue. And the grande dame of the home, Isako, Masaue's mother, 94. They went out of their way to accommodate the vegetarian. Miriam had devoured more than half her meal before remembering to take a picture. Room temp noodles that one dips in a warm broth are a real favorite (already gone). Much of the other food Ayu and Yui brought from Yamaguchi Insyoku, the family run restaurant that specializes in healthy...

For starters, we are all safe and sound after having come through the worst typhoon Japan has ever had in recorded history. (Can we say climate change at this juncture?!?) They have coined a new category for this monster: "psycho-typhoon." Having battened down the hatches, brought all critters in to safety, the news updates checked regularly, and emergency bag ready in case we had to move to higher ground, we felt ready. The townhomes where we are, are relatively new and built to withstand typhoons. This is a governmental requirement for all new homes in Japan. How smart! As the storm approached, we watched the lotus farmer’s greenhouse across the street behind us have the heavy mil plastic covering ripped off and tumble down the road in huge segments. We experienced no damage with the exception of the pepper plants out back being flattened to the ground from wind and rain; they will probably survive with a bit of staking and TLC. Kamiyama seems to have escaped with only mino...

Another typhoon is coming, and we're getting ready. Unlike the last one where we caught only outer fringes, this one is supposed to make a direct hit on southern Japan - that's us. We have spoken of being in the mountains but just learned that our elevation here is less than 500'. The mountains afford some protection, but apparently this one is such a monster that people here are taking it very seriously. In preparation, we went to the market to get last-minute groceries, and we were not the only ones! There were scores of quick moving people packed into the tiny market, so we mostly watched from the edges. Micah shopped and Aza did her 9 year old thing choosing treats - most of which Papa nixed And we got some new pics. Here's the ice cream case again that we posted a few days ago now with new flavors: Japanese plum in addition to the pickled plum, chocolate and chocolate chips, sudachi and yuzu miilk. Yuzu is a citrus used mostly for flavoring. Unfortunately, it was...