Slotting back into life in Japan

Today we rode to church. It is only 1km away now. We save about $AU 6.40 a week by just being able to ride to church. Our church has no car park, only a bike park. So for four years we paid for parking. A slight disincentive to chatting afterwards? We had a brief time (18 months) in Sapporo where we rode to church, but not too often in my life have I ridden a bike wearing an ankle length skirt - or any skirt, to be honest. It didn't go too badly.

Of course the issue of wearing a helmet came up. We've always insisted our boys wear helmets, but adult just don't do it here. Unless they are in spandex on a racing or road bike. I asked David to wear a helmet last term when he rode 6 km to school, but I only got a helmet in the last year of our time here. I'm wearing it when we ride together as a family, but struggle to put it on when I'm on my own. I feel alien enough as it is without doing something that makes me even more weird looking.

This afternoon after things cooled a degree or too we went out and gave home-made biscuits (cookies) to our neighbours. This is a Japanese custom. That when you move into a new place you go and meet your neighbours (either side and over the street) and give them gifts. My missionary friend explains it in more detail here. It is a useful custom, but one that I don't feel very comfortable with either. Usually because I don't understand everything that they say to me and that can lead to awkwardness. Thankfully these times I have my trusty husband by my side. Unfortunately our boys were fairly crazy by this time in the afternoon and, though they were around, were trying to beat each other up with plastic baseball bats or tickle each other - lovely introduction to the neighbours. We only found 50% of our neighbours at home, so we'll have to go and have another try tomorrow.

The boys were so crazy that we didn't want to stuff them back into the house, so we gathered up some play equipment and wandered down to CAJ (Christian Academy in Japan). It is only 300m away! The boys played there for quite a while and I sat under a large shady sakura (cherry) tree. It wasn't too blistering hot, but still well into the mid 30s. Thankfully a slight breeze was blowing and it is quite cloudy. We're hoping for a storm.