lloydnalex's blog - a new life in Peru

Sunday, December 01, 2013

12. PART 2 - A LARGE CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

Continued...

Junko and Alex

Alex and Ai

Mari, Alex and Kanako in shipping

Stacey and Jason, Bethelites from the Patterson US in Japan to work with graphics on fonts. Coincidentally, we met these guys in the New York Metropolitan Museum in 2009... Small world.

Some of the gardeners. Notice the work boots?

Cool.

After WWII, the work was reinvigorated by many Gillead missionaries, many of whom are still serving today, now in Bethel. Sister Molly from Australia is almost 100 years of age.

Sister Anne and Sister Noreen, also missionaries.

Sister Else

Printers Office being exposed to Vegemite

Tetsuro and Mikako

Far left: Kohei; next to Alex: Ichiguro

Front: Kei and Yuko and on the right, Isamu and his wife. Part of the Japanese Sign Language Transalation team. We are doing the sign for "Australia"... It's a kangaroo....

More friends from the Sign Language team. Right: Keisuke, Aki.

Clockwise from front left: Ryotaro, Tomo, Lloyd, Alex, Jun, Jun, Kenta, Tsutomu, Takashi and Yuji (Johnny)

"Would you agree that the food in Japan branch is second to none brothers?"

Clockwise from front left: Lloyd, Alex, Junko, Miwako, Ken, Yasushi, Maki, Tomo, Aki and Hajime

Table 66, clockwise from front left: Mokoto, Seiko, Alex, Lloyd, Tatsuke, Kensaku, Yuki, Naoko, Tomohiro and Shohei

Seiko and Makoto

Haruka and Yoshie (KHCD)

Akihiko and Tomoko

Taro and Hannah

Our lovely housekeeper Merai and her husband Mitsuto.

Mayumi and Masa (KHCD)

Takashi and Sanae

Lloyd and Junya from the kitchen (Tetsuro smiling behind)

Chan (Kosuke) and Katsuhiko

Iain, Lena, Alex, Lloyd, Jim and Aileen

Back: Shunsuke, Tadashi, Tetsunori, Kosuke (Chan) and Tsukasa (Danny)

Front: Kenta, Lloyd, Alex, Naoko, Yuki;

Natsuko and Tom

Miwako and Ken

Sally and Ron

Yasushi and Maki

Kenji, Hiroko, us, Patter the bear and Blair

Shinsuke and Maho in a garden.

Seiji and Kyoko at Yokahama harbour.

Us with Shohei, Nozomu, Kazuya and Hajime

Us with Aki and Hajime

We are so glad to be part of such a beautiful circle of friends from all nations. The truth is, there are many more friends that we have not even mentioned, mostly beause we do not have photos of you. Sorry about that. Our experience here in Japan reminds us of one of our favorite scriptures; “‘And I will shake all the nations, and the precious things of all the nations will come in; and I will fill this house with glory,’ says Jehovah of armies. (Haggai 2:7)

Lloydnalex

12. PART 1 - A LARGE CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

October and November, 2013

Finally... Free wifi... At Onomichi train station

Our 7 week work assignment at the Japan Bethel has come to an end. To be honest, it feels more like 7 months since we arrived in Japan. So much has happened. Along the way we have made many many new friends. Let us introduce you to just a few of them.

Alex, Raelynn, Jane, Lena, Kei (waving) and Seiko

Some of the crew that we came with from Australia REO at Sushi 100. Iain, Steve, Jane and Lena

Lloyd and Blair discussing chopstick philosophy.

International Volunteers Raelynn and Peter from Australia were in Japan branch a few months before we arrived, gathering information about the buildings in preparation for our visit. Do you see the look of fear in Peters eyes? He has never eaten sushi before...

But here he goes...

(No caption required)

"What do you think Peter? Not entirely convinced I see..."

"Mmmmmm, I'd prefer it deep fried with batter and served with chips

Lloyd and Alex, Iain and Lena, Blair, Peter and Ralynn, Steve and Jane. The BC arranged for us to have our own Monday night Watchtower study rather than sit through the Japanese language one.

We knew that Iain loved pipes, we just never knew how much.

Jane and Steve.

Yuki and Naoko, in Bethel on a 3 month assignment coordinating a seismic study of some older buildings.

Kazuo, Lena, Alex, Raelynn, Satomi and Kiyomi.

Here is Jun interpreting between Yukio and Ian. Of the dozens of meetings and many hundreds of conversations we had in the corse of our work, most required interpreting to some degree...