A trip to a Temple

Every year the wives of the Japanese officers invite OSC to do something fun, then we invite them to do something fun later. I've never been able to attend one of these outings, but this year I made it. The Japanese ladies took us to a Buddhist temple in downtown Sasebo. I actually had found this temple by accident on another occasion, but never been inside.

At the temple, we were told that Buddhists practice calligraphy, writing out sutras, as a way of meditating. We were given a sutra to trace out. The monk in charge of the temple suggested wishing blessings on our families as we wrote. It was very peaceful to sit there and hold Ela (who wanted to eat the paper), while everyone quietly concentrated on writing. It reminded me a little of monitoring tests when I was teaching.

Then one of the ladies finished and took Ela so I could write...

Finally, we were given a lesson in making balloon animals. One of the ladies is apparently very good at it and volunteered to teach us to make a Halloween wreath. It was a lot of fun. Ela fell asleep and not even the popping balloons (and believe me we popped a lot of them) could wake her up.

In case you're wondering, "What's with the rush of posts?" Ela is have a nice nap, so I'm trying to catch up on what has been a very busy month. In less than a week, I'll be on a plane back to the US, so I'm trying to get caught up before I go into total travel mode... Stay tuned!