Happy Holidays

Here in Japan Santa gets a carrot, two cookies, and a small bottle of yogurt (kefir).

 

Quilt

This pink quilt, here on my bed in Sasebo, was made by the ladies of the church that my father attended. The ladies made it as a wedding gift to him and his new bride. None of the stitches on this quilt were done by a machine. This is a quilt made by the labor of love. And it's beautiful.

 

  

Huis Ten Bosch

Today we went to a theme park on the other side of Sasebo called Huis Ten Bosch. This is a recreation of a village near the Hague that was one of the three houses for the Dutch royal family. Each museum, house, building and restaurant is built a few inches shorter than the original ones in the Netherlands so as not to offend the Dutch.

After touring the teddy bear museum we took a ride on a canal boat to the other side of the park. This is a huge theme park that includes one hotel inside the park and many others on the periphery of the park.

We went on the three story carousel. The grand girls wanted the top floor. I tried to get on one of the carousel horse but my left leg would  not cooperate. So I rode on a kiddy table that rotated. A 4 year old Japanese girl was already on it but she said I could join her. The dang kid kept the table spinning the entire time. To avoid dizziness I just looked down at the seat. 

We saw 4 or 5 shows during our 8 hour stay. The theme park Christmas tree can be seen in the background. This group of singers sang holiday songs but also the Flintstone theme song (We'll have a good time, a dabba do time, we'll have a Merry Christmas time."

After touring the glass museum and the flower museum we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant called Pinocchio's.

After dinner we came outside just in time to hear the Christmas concert and see the lighting of the Christmas tree. Our timing was lucky today. This theme park was much better than I expected. Huis Ten Bosch does  not have all the rides that Disneyland has but it has more art and culture and class.

 

Nagasaki

Just down from Peace Park is a sculpture garden. Various countries (20 plus) donated statues to Nagasaki to commemorate the bombing. I noticed quite a few of the statues featured women holding children.

This is the actual location where the bomb landed.

This is the Oura Catholic Cathedral which is the oldest Catholic church in Japan. The cathedral is dedicated to the 26 Catholics who were executed for being Catholic.

This fish pond with lanterns above it is the entrance to Glover Gardens. Despite it being the first day of winter there were a few flowers blooming; mostly pansies.

My grandgirls really enjoyed feeding the koi.

We stopped by the museum of performing arts. A holiday concert was going on. We also saw dragon parade costumes on display.

After a nice dinner at a cafe by the wharf, we drove to the Nagasaki Ropeway. This cable car took us to the top of Mount Inasa for a terrific view of the city all lit up at night. We got there around 7 p.m. Special lights in the city come on between 8 and 10 p.m. so we missed that but it was still a great view. The ride takes five minutes.

 

Peace Park

 Today we drove 90 minutes north to the town of Nagasaki. We stopped to visit Peace Park. The statue has the right arm extended upwards to where the bomb came from. The left arm is extended toward peace over the land. About 40 years ago I visited Hawaii. When we toured the Pearl Harbor Memorial I was surrounded by Japanese tourists. I felt awkward. Today I was visiting the epicenter of the atom bomb in Nagasaki and again I felt awkward.

 

 

River Walk

Yesterday evening the weather was warm so we took a stroll from the house down to the river. We saw a grey heron and at least a dozen Eurasian wigeons. We saw a couple Eurasian coots. We saw a small shorebird that was bigger than a sanderling but we couldn't quite figure out what it was.  We saw brown eared Bulbul and black kites. We saw a couple of little egrets (with yellow feet) and four Japanese cormorant.  All in all, it was a productive bird walk.

 

 

The Secret War Of Julia Child

 Diana R. Chambers is the author of The Secret War Of Julie Child. This is a historical accounting of Julia's life before she became a famous chef and before she married her husband. Julia, grown up wealthy in California, moved to Washington, D.C. as a file clerk. Later she worked as an espionage agent in India and China. She worked for the OSS (Office of Strategic Services). She got into some danger while abroad and reading those parts was quite thrilling. I really enjoyed this book about Julia Child.