I lived in Japan for almost 16 years as the daughter of missionaries.
I grew up in Shizuoka where I actually attended Japanese school for 3 years.
Then, a small missionary school was developed where I went until it was time to go to high school in Tokyo. The American School in Japan. that's where I met my future husband, Dave Jastram, who was a missionary kid from Niigata.
We had returned to Japan for a visit in 1982 and now here it was 2018
and we were finally going back for a long overdo visit.
Our only question was: why did we wait so long??
Here are some etegami painted after the visit. Great memories!!
In Shizuoka, we were treated to a very fancy meal at the location of
the last Shogun's summer residence: Tokugawa Shogun.
It was probably the fanciest meal I've ever had in Japan.
Translation: "Shizuoka Specialties. I don't know what I was eating but it was delicious!"
In Niigata, we stayed with my husband's high school friends.
They had an old fashioned pit in their tatami living room
and the gracious host put on a tea ceremony for us.
Translation "OK. Let's have some tea.
this quiet tea ceremony calms us"
There is an endangered species of bird called crested Asian ibis in the Niigata area which nest across the water in Russian territory. The two countries are working together to bring it back from close to extinction. These are little clay dolls representing the birds.
Daruma are usually round dolls but in Niigata they are a most interesting shape!
We went to the great Salmon museum near Niigata.
"The urge to return to your roots is strong,
and one of the joys of our lives."
The first attempts at salmon conservation and management occurred her
way back in the 1700s. Awesome!
Dave and his brother had a hankering for their favorite "sasadango".
.
The fish market was amazing!!
But kind of sad to see all these little fish in perpetual shock!
When our host asked us what we would like for lunch,
I quickly chimed in "sushi!".
Truth is, we'd been in Japan 1.5 weeks and hadn't had any sushi yet.
Our host took us to a wonderful sushi restaurant
where we ate the best I've ever had.
And too much of it for sure :)
I had my son Andrew in mind when I painted this.
No need to ask him where he wants to eat out!
Wow, that was a LOT of sushi!!
Every summer, we went up to Nojiriko (Lake Nojiri)
to escape the heat of the Kanto Plains.
For many of us, it holds our dearest memories.
So wonderful to go back there and find it relatively untouched by time.
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