Catch up....

The last few days have been extremely busy and we apologize for not posting...so here is catch up...we survived our first Typhoon, which in our area consisted of heavy wind and rain but not too far away it did spawn 3 tornadoes and some damage.

On Friday we awakened to the sun shining bright and very warm weather thanks to the southerly flow from the typhoon!!! Preya and I had a great vocational day. We visited a fairly new Children`s hospital and was lead on a tour by the head of pediatrics...quite a well known pediatrician in the Tokyo area. She spoke very good English and had spent some time in the US doing research some years ago. We were able to spend some time in the pediatric outpatient rehab unit which functioned very closely to the centre that I work at in Chatham. We had an "aha" moment when really trying to make sense of the AFO s (these are support devices that fit into a shoe) that the kids were wearing. They have their AFO s made with build in slippers (like a soft shoe) due to the cultural cutsom of removing their shoes and putting on slippers everywhere....

Tea ceremony

Kimonos at the shrine

Childrens Hospital

We were able to also tour an elementary school where we were met by the kids like rock stars....

On Saturday morning, we were hosted by Dustins host family at their kimono shop...we were allowed to try on kimonos, had our pictures professionally taken abd even visit the shrine in our kimonos to tak outdoor pictures. The Rotarians presented us with pictures at our send off party that are absolutley beautiful!

We also witnessed a traditional tea ceremony that was accompanied by the trickles of rain on the roof!!!! Very beautiful and sureal!!!

We have moved on to a new city. I am staying at a traditional onsen complete with hot springs at my disposal...this will be a different experience!!!! I am playing golf on Wednesday with the owner ( my host ) and 3 Rotarians ...please pray for rain!!!!