Tanabe Skies and Rainbow

No descriptions needed here - Pyar and I viewed the lovely sky from our apartment balcony.

Sweet Moment

Our Bansai seemed to be coming alive again with wonderful new shoots, we had hoped that the other Bonsai would follow, but unfortunately we were unable to maintain their beauty for long.

Tanabe Neighborhood

Our attempt at capturing a hummingbird on the butterfly bush in Sawabe's garden. The hummingbirds are absolutely enchanting to watch. The neighborhood was full of them in September and some of October.

Halloween 2009

We are ready to go trick or treating on Halloween.

We were invited to the local community center to enjoy some Halloween festivities with children in the neighborhood. We truly had a great time. The people who organized the event were wonderful and we had fun trick or treating and playing games in Japanese and English.

Tour of the Apartment

Here's our apartment! Watch this video!

Down the hill from our apartment

This is one of the mirrors along the road from our apartment. The mirrors are to help viewing the road ahead - though for me I still get nervous trying to determine what is to my right and what is to my left. This photo was taken just around the corner from our front door, about 5pm.

Wonderful Photos from Tanabe

Pyar and car in hand.

Our apartment is between the dead tree and the structure on the left -
you can just see our balcony.

A family walking down the street near our apartment.

Storefront close to apartment.

There are tiny alleys along streets that are lined with homes.
Two boys exiting their houses on bikes headed for the main road.

Fun Photos in Tanabe

Pyar taking pictures of flowers - liked it so much that I posted it twice.

At the end of the street is Toyo Junior High School -
one of my schools and very close to our apartment.

Neighborhood girls on bikes.

We are walking along the road here and this is a typical parking lot and housing area.

looking down the road just around the corner from our apartment

New Photos from Tanabe

Our apartment is on the road to the right, this is about halfway down our hill, looking at Sawabe's home and gardens on the left. Sawabe is our wonderful neighbor and friend.

Just down the road from our apartment.
Good scene to see how narrow most of our area roads really are!!

Pyar looking up at our apartment - cant see it in the photo but just up the hill.

Our apartment is just above Pyar and to the right. He is taking photos of some lovely wildflowers along the hill down our apartment.

Pyar and I starting out on our walk.

Bike Ride To Work

Don't watch if you easily get motion sick.

Video Update for Japan

Crackers and Cheese

Here is a video from our first real hiking trip together. This was during lunch.

Fun in Tanabe

Happy Happy starting out the trip to Hongu-Cho to see the Kumano Hongu Taisha Temples. We had a great visit. We swam in the river and visited the hot spring pools alongside the river.

Pyar navigating our trip using the GPS in the car

White Stallion - we named him Silver

Exploring our City

Pyar driving and reminding himself to ''stay on the left''

Used car lot
Look at the size of the cars. The roads here in our neighborhood are not all accessible by cars, but those that are are very small and thus a small car is required. We however, get around on our bikes or walking. The city of Tanabe is such that we do not have to have a car and thus only rented the one for our trip to Hongu.

We rented a car for the weekend and this is our first experience driving in Tanabe. This is one of our main grocery stores at O'City, we access it from the top of the hill where our apartment is located.

Tanabe Apartment Photos

Evening photo from our apartment balcony first week

Our wonderful friend and neighbor, Sawabe has a garden just below our apartment and gives us great vegetables almost every day. Pyar picking our edamame.

Our kitchen is rather large compared to my last apartment. We have a microwave/convection oven so this is our first pizzas in our new home together!

More Honeymoon Photos

Japanese Garden in Portland Oregon
We stopped at a Chinese Garden in Portland as well which was equally breathtaking. I really enjoyed how you can be in one spot of the garden and not see the entire space at one time. We were told that this garden in Portland closely resembles the traditional gardens of Japan. Pyar and I are eager to determine that fact for ourselves once in Japan.

Sunset on highway in Oregon

Celebration with Trinity Church

Pyar and our dear wonderful Ann Curry

Paulski the Co-Youth Leader Extraordinaire and our Ann "I can do everything" Curry. Celebrating with Trinity Church is an amazing memory for us. We are so grateful for our dear friends.

Blessings Abound

We celebrated with our family at Trinity Church. We were honored by prayer shawls, Sheila House (miniature reproduction of the church) and many hugs and prayers from the Congregation of Trinity. Pictured here, Reverend Enoch Hendry and Cynthia. We are honored that Enoch and the Congregation helped us to celebrate our union and our friendship with Trinity.

Blessings

Mary, Lewis, Paul, Cynthia, Pyar, Scott and Keith in Calgary, Canada.
We celebrated a wonderful couple of days in Canada the week before our wedding ceremony in Georgia. What a gift to have a wedding continue for two weeks with loved ones.

The Blessings Bestowed

Our Rings and Marriage Blessing with Sadu Ram, June 19th, in Calgary, Canada.

Family celebrating our Wedding Blessing, Calgary, Canada

We were honored to attend Satsungs at the Retreat in Calgary with Pyar's Parents and Choice Family, the McKlendins.

Our honeymoon fun

U turn on Highway 21 on the way to Mazama, Washington.
Pyar and I enjoyed an amazing week with family and friends on Tybee Island for our wedding. Saturday marked our wedding day - it was more special than I could have dreamed. Thank you. Sunday we braved the heat and mosquitoes and traveled to South Carolina for a canoe trip on the Edisto River, the longest undammed blackwater river in the U.S. The water was amazing and beautiful. Mark, Michelle, Maddie, MacKenzie, Drew, Mick, Belen, Tim, Lindsay, Jewel, Paul, Pyar and I camped at the treehouses along the way. Photos will be posted soon of this part of our adventure. The week following the wedding was full of packing and cleaning and time with friends and family. When the movers came on Monday, July 5 we were ready - filled with joy and sadness to leave our beloved Savannah. We stayed with the Hendry family and flew out to Oregon the next day.

Rehearsal Dinner at Cha Bella

Picture time after an amazing meal for our rehearsal dinner at Cha Bella. Friday June 26, marking the beginning of our wonderful wedding weekend. For more photos from that evening, see Jewel's photographs at www.jewelimaging.com/blog

Family Photographs from Wedding

Annie took this one right after the ceremony
Doug, Mark, Pyar, Cynthia, Leslie, Doug

Our Wedding - some photos by Annie White

We felt so excited here at this moment - hearing our words and Enoch's prayers for the ceremony was precious.

We are so happy looking at each other surrounded
by our family and friends we were giggling and crying

Our Wedding - some photos by Annie White

We have so many wonderful memories of our celebration together. The frozen flowers and Danielle wearing blue come to mind looking at this image. We are so grateful to each of you for your presence and all of your love.

Wedding Drawings

Here are some drawings from our nieces Emily and Maddie. It was a really sweet wedding. Thanks to everyone for coming and making it such a special day.