Christmas Now in the Philippines . . . then on to Towering Tokyo

Christmas starts NOW in the Philippines.  But so far, we have only seen one Christmas tree and no Christmas lights.  I'm sure it will get more Christmasy as the month goes on.

First . . . a few pictures from Cebu (along with a video of Filipinos singing O Holy Night).  Then on to towering Tokyo.  And later north to hilly, happy Hokkaido.

Early one morning we heard loud buzzing sounds -- like a million cicadas in chorus (if you can call buzz saws a chorus).  Turns out it was just the gardeners.  Usually they mow the grass with gas-powered weed whippers.  But today they are de-thatching the grass, again with weed whippers.  What a lot of work!  Can you imagine mowing (or de-thatching) with only weed whippers?

So fun to find rolled oats from the Canadian Prairies!  Yeah for Canadian farmers!

Very blurry picture of Elder Wong (white hair).  He's one of our Church leaders from the 1st Quorum of the Seventy.  He's from Hong Kong but has served in many places in the world, including as mission president in Vancouver B.C., and as Area President of the North America Central Area, which includes us in Alberta.  Elder Wong came to one of our Taber Stake Conferences but we were in Sweden on our mission at the time. 
It was great to shake hands with him and feel the great love that he has for the people of the Philippines.  Right now he serves as a counsellor in the Philippines Area.

Elder Torrie and Brother Lee enjoy visiting together.  Brother Lee's name is Wellington and he has brothers named Washington, Winston, and other historical W's, which I can't remember now.  He is one of about 15 siblings.  A Chinese Filipino with a very sharp mind for world history. He is also really into family history research.  He told us one of his family lines goes back to 600 BC!   Apparently the Chinese keep really good family records.

Out for Japanese food with our adopted children -- Suzette and Austin Cespon.  Yes, they're the ages of our children.  Such happy people with three great sons.  We have adopted many Filipinos as our children or grandchildren.

Some of you know I love art.  This huge art show in the Ayala Mall drew the crowds as local artists displayed their wares.  My kids will be glad to know that I was not tempted to buy anything!

Below you will discover how much Filipinos love Christmas.  They celebrate Christmas for 4+ months -- all the "ber" months, starting in September through December and even into January.  And they sing Christmas songs with gusto!  We invite anyone living in our building to come to our apartment every Thursday evening for singing.  So on Thursday, September 3rd, here they are singing "O Holy Night."

Now back to our Japan trip . . .  

From Shizuoka, we're on the Shinkansen (aka the bullet train) heading to Tokyo at up to 300 kph (200 mph).  Amazing that my phone took such good pictures out of the window.  Rice fields everywhere.  They eat a lot of rice in Japan!  Google says Japan is self-sufficient in rice.  That is a lot of acres or hectares or whatever the unit of land measure they use.  The price to farmers is supported by the government to ensure food self-sufficiency.

It takes a lot of water to keep the rice fields wet.  That's why we don't grow rice in Alberta.

Now LeRon's trying to find our hotel next to the train station.  Yes, it's in one of those very tall buildings.  City life is not for me.  Thank goodness I'm a country girl!

First stop on this (once again) very hot day is the LDS Tokyo Temple.  When LeRon was a missionary 52 years ago, there were no temples in Japan.  Now there are four, with one more coming.  Not as many as in the Philippines though.  Right now there are 6 operating temples in Philippines and when all of the announced temples are built, there will be 14.

Beautiful Tokyo Temple grounds -- and a stone lantern for LeRon to enjoy.

We're just in time to see a newly married couple exit the temple.  In the temple, couples are married not just for this life, but for forever.  We call it being sealed for eternity.  Sometimes LeRon tells people that we have been married for 51 years but we plan to be married for 51 million and more years.

Last look this afternoon at the beautiful Tokyo Temple.  But we'll see it again tomorrow because we will attend our church services there in the chapel next to the temple.

Another Torii Gate for this Torrie.  We are strolling toward the Meiji Shrine.  It was built in 1920 to honor the Emporer Meiji and his Empress after their passing.

Lots of colorful, but empty, wine barrels.  Japanese wine is known as sake (pronounced sock-ee).  The barrels are decorated and given to the shrine in honor of Emporer Meiji and his Empress. 

LeRon is ready to enter the great wooden Torii shrine gate.  It's the largest of its type in Japan and was modelled exactly after the original, which was destroyed in WW II.

The actual Meiji Shrine is flanked by two huge camphor trees.  We've seen so many shrines and taken so many pictures that I'm not including a close-up here.  We took some, but I'm not computer-literate enough to add them in the order I want, so I won't add them at all.

Trying to find a bit of shade.  Love the stone bridge and the green foliage.

Lovely, delicate, star-shaped leaves of the Japanese maple.  Reminded us of our Canadian flag.  But the leaves on the Japanese maple only have 6-8 points, while the Canadian maple leaf on our flag has 11.  Did you know that?  The number of points has no meaning except to look good while the flag waves proudly over the True North Strong and Free!

Trying to get a picture of the lovely Japanese black pines on the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.  Why can I get a good picture from a train going 300 kph and not from a taxi going 40 kph?

Here's a picture from the internet of the black pines.  Hmn . . . not much better than mine.  I was so impressed with their sculpted-like shapes.  Just asked AI, and they are definitely hand-sculpted.

Did you know that Kit Kat in Japan comes in different flavors?  I thought I would like the strawberry, but I actually liked the apple flavor better, probably because it was coated in chocolate and I love chocolate.  The apple flavor was nice and not too appley.  Those are the only two we tried.

Google says there are about 200 flavors!!  Who knew?

Now to Narnia and the North!  I mean to Hokkaido and the North!  We are excited to take the Shinkansen up to the northern island of Hokkaido.  We hoped it would be much cooler.  And yes, it was definitely much cooler, for which we were grateful.  Japan is a great country to visit, but maybe not in August unless that's the only time you can go.

Stay tuned for gorgeous flower farms, geothermal wonders (called Hell's Valley, of all things), volcanic lakes, and amazing music boxes.