Mount Zao

On Monday, my visiting teachers came to visit us (myself and Sister Smith).  We had a very nice discussion about Christ as the Bread of Life.  It's very interesting to hear the perspective of our sisters who were raised as Buddists.  They knew about God, but did not know Jesus Christ.  It made me realize how much we take for granted from growing up in the gospel.  But how sweet to hear the testimonies of those who have come to know the Savior.

Monday afternoon we had to go to the main train station in Sendai to exchange some train tickets for Pres and Sis Smith.  It was quite the place.  They had about 8 windows open helping people with tickets.

The Japanese people are very organized and patient about waiting in lines.  No pushing or shoving here.

They started putting the house together this week.  We've been watching the progress for several months.  This week they really got busy.  They had the first floor finished by Tuesday.

The walls are lifted by the crane into place.  They already have the windows and doors installed.  It took eight pieces for the exterior walls.  They then installed the pre-fab interior pieces and then second story floor was put in place.  The floor had about eight pieces also.  Just had to put them together.

They had to take a day off on Wednesday because it rained all day.  But by Thursday evening, they were starting to put the roof on.

The third floor is slanted.  The black marks are the different sections.  The outside should be done this next week.

No children came to our English group this week.  And we had to leave a bit early to pick up the Smith's from the train station.

On Thursday we made it back out to Kakuda to the Wal-bro factory.  One of my students gave me a Halloween gift.

On Saturday we woke up to a beautiful sunshiny day.  We decided to go visit Mount Zao.  It is an "active" volcano.  Luckily, it was not active the day we showed up.  But it is the highest point in the northern part of Japan.  We were above the clouds.

It was a very windy road coming up, but very beautiful.  This view is looking towards east.

There is a lake inside the crater.  My DH tells me this was in one of the old James Bond movies.  "You Only Live Twice"  This was the volcano lake that had a retractable roof.

There were lots of people out enjoying the beautiful day.

There were some serious hikers prepared for a long hike.

There is a little shrine up on one side of the area.

Gives a different perspective.

This is the view towards west.  I think you can see the Sea of Japan from here.  But it is hard to tell.

And a bear warning.  Just in case.

This is looking back at the little shrine.  We did a little bit of hiking.

Then we took a ride down the hill.

And back up.  There's a parking lot down there and a little gift shop.

After a couple of hours, we started back down the mountain.  We had passed some beautiful fall colors on the trees so I tried to get a few photos from the car.  But it doesn't do it justice.

The hills out this side were beautiful.  We just don't get it like this in Tucson.

We were looking for our friend's famly restaurant and came upon this little farmer's market.  With a real Japanese farmer with overalls and a cowboy hat.  Too cute.

We also found a "Cheese Cabin".  A little place the tour busses stop.  We were hoping to find some cheese.  But they mostly had cream cheese in lots of different flavors to try on saltine crackers.  They did have some pretty good ice cream though.  Not quite like the Cache Valley cheese factories we're used to.

On Sunday we had a big group of YM and YW come from all over the place to meet in Tagajo.  I think it's about triple our usual attendance.  They sang a musical number and several of the youth spoke.  We saw our friends Sis Chapman and her daughter.  The boy that said the closing prayer said he was glad he could come on the bullet train!  And the Tagajo sisters made lunch!