osaka again 笑

hello all.. I'm doing quite well here in aridagawa. it's been getting quite hot recently. today it's 27℃ although it will be getting a lot hotter in the weeks to come. in osaka and tenri it's 30℃ today =＿= ｼﾝﾄﾞｲﾖ
 I am still having fun teaching the kids in aridagawa and my class in wakayama 3 thursdays a month. I may start another job a couple times a month. it would be tutoring high school kids at Machiko's friend's juku. ganbare! p(~ o~)q

last weekend i went to osaka again. there was an event at Konohana grand church so I went from the 22nd to the 24th to help and prepare for it. me, Machiko, and Robert (from the JEC in vancouver) stayed there 3 days and 2 nights. even though i'm not tenrikyo, tenrikyo people have always gone out of their way to help me, so i'm always happy to help them back :)

on the evening of the 22nd i went out to check out osaka station but all the shops were closed so i just strolled around for a bit. osaka station is on the opposite end of the city and it took me 30 minutes to get there from teradacho station near the church, where we were staying.

on the 23rd i actually had some free time in the afternoon so i walked from the church to tennoji station. it only takes about half an hour to walk there, but it was SO hot that i bought two whole bottles of tea (so over a litre i think) and downed them both... I could have gone for another, actually haha.
it reminds me of when we were in europe in 2001 and each of us bought a 2 litre bottle of water to drink every day! I like japan's tea better though. it's just plain green tea, no sweeteners or flavour. none of that "green tea with pear, peach and acai" or whatever they sell in canada!

here is a shop, a women's clothing store i found in a mall near tennoji... oh dear. note to all namers-of-shops: urbandictionary is your best friend.

sooo sunday the 24th was the actual event itself. the event was the retirement party for the current head of the women's association, Konohana branch (tenrikyo fujinkai konohana shibu). the new head of the women's association for Konohana will be the current reverend's wife. 13 songs of the tenrikyo service were performed and then a bunch of women made speeches. after that there was lunch, tea, and door prizes.

all in all there were nearly 900 prizes... including a tv, and a bluray player!

this is the Yuho church minister.

this is me and a girl called Yachiyo who was the MC.

went to osaka and kyoto too. also, cake.

On May 27th, Machiko, Mr. Nakaie and I went to Kyoto. we went to the aquarium, Kiyomizu Temple, and Kinkakuji the golden pavilion. I have linked to a picasa album of photos.

On May 20th I went to Osaka with my student Shiro-san. we were going to see the Tutankhamen exhibit but the wait was 4 hours--so we went to see the kaiyukan aquarium... which is enormous... too bad, I really wanted to see the exhibit. oh well.

that night we had a party and I made some cake. Machiko's sister in law, Yoriko, actually brought vegan brownies for me too. so i had brownies and cake! there was actually too much cake, and some of it went to waste :( I'll try to post the recipe later.