Week 36: October 7-13, 2013, Serving in Kumamoto Japan

Our week started out with a fun bike trip to Suizenji Joju-en Garden.

Here is the history of this very ancient garden.

They call the water of the pond, "affluent" but it is better termed artesian since the waters shed off oso volcanic mountains flow in pervious rock and sand and come up from the ground at various places, one of which is this park. The water is very clear and pure, by all we are told.

They have lots of Koi in the pond.

This park has a replica of Mt. Fuji as seen in this picture.

 

 

 

I am always impressed with the large gates they have in Japan.

Here is a fascinating basin of the artesian water with dippers for drawing the water.  I love the bamboo piping and the stone basin.

This is the Kokin-Denju-no-Ma teahouse is apparently under development, there are two figures in the window being set up for a display.  Recently our Japanese teacher at the International Center got two complimentary tickets to a traditional tea ceremony that was going to be held at the International Center.  We would have to insist on drinking Mugicha (barley tea) instead of regular tea.  This, summer cold drink is served at almost all church activities.  Unfortunately it was on Sunday and we had to reluctantly turn it down.

There is the beautiful Izumi Shrine in the park.

Cats are popular in Japanese displays like this one.

Statues of key historical figures associated with this garden.  Hosokawa Tadatoshi on the right

The rest of the week followed our regular schedule.  On Friday we stopped at a retail grocery store to buy tomato's for making BLT sandwiches.  We were amazed at the cost of 380 yen.  The conversion for yen is cost to 1$ so each tomato cost about $1.90.  Fresh fruits and vegetables can be very expensive in Japan.

It is always amazing living in Japan.