Summer Festivals / Ward Party

On Monday, we were invited to the home of a member family (Sacomoto).  They host a party every year at their home.  It was a bit of a drive to get there.  We rode with Pres. and Sis. Smith.  Our bishop is the gentleman in the white jacket.

They made pizzas in this huge outdoor oven.

They invite all the neighbors to come too.

Sis Sacomoto is telling the Smiths her conversion story and about her family.

For this activity, they put up this big bamboo chute.  There is a water bottle at the top and a basket at the bottom.  They put cooked noodles at the top and you try and catch the noodles before they land in the basket.  (With chopsticks!)

Sister S is passing the pizza around

The boys were having a watermelon seed contest

And how about this shirt!  Utah State (Salt Lake City?)  What about Logan??

They cooked yams in this big oven.  There was also rice and green beans.  And they started cooking some chicken as we were leaving.  They were planning to wait for the fireflies to come out!

How about these beautiful flowers?

Part of their garden.  We had a lovely time!

On Wednesday, we had our English class.  The elders played a little game about listening (while blindfolded).  The object was to see which team could get their player to the candy at the front of the room.  Our two little boys "might" have peeked beneath their blindfolds (the elders' ties)!

On Saturday, we and the Taylors went into the city of Sendai.  We wanted to see the main train station and the "Sun Mall" which is an open door type mall that goes for several blocks near the station.

Of course, in the mall, what do you expect to find?  McDonald's of course.

But we did not expect to find Uncle Sam!

He has to be the tallest Japanese man in town!

We went to our favorite sushi place for Sister Kakuda's last dinner.  Then we were going to stay in for the evening, but we heard some music coming from the park up the street, so we went to check it out.

Lots of traditional costumes!  We also met a lady from our neighborhood who likes to come to the Family Home Evenings every month.  She asked if it is OK if she comes on Monday.  Of course!  She told us that this is an annual event for Summer Festival.  They had traditional music and lots of food booths and fun.