Snow:)

Always something new when I come home. This time; a garage and SNOW!

Inger enjoying the sight of the snow from the kitchen-window.

No one can enter our garden un-noticed these days. Whose foot-steps are these?

View from our garden. Unusual to see the little islands covered in snow.

Our nearest beach, covered in snow.

Fun patterns in the sea:)

The place where we usually go swimming. Fancy a swim?

Big changes from last time I was here (July) and today. A beautiful place, both summer and winter!

Christmas 2010

Home for Christmas:) This is the view I woke up to Christmas morning. I have the best view from my bedroom back home at mum and dad´s place. And look; white Christmas this year!!!

I celebrated Christmas together with 4 of my siblings. All in all 12 of us. Nieces and nephew, sister- and brother in law and mum and dad. My oldest brother and his family was not with us on Christmas Eve, so only the 5 youngest in this photo. (Me, Gunnar, Inger, Einar and Sofie)

My godchild and nephew; Daniel(6) read the Christmas Story for us. Luke 2.

Our Christmas Tree, decorated with Norwegian flags:)

Martine, my youngest niece, ready for her 2nd Christmas.

The bigger, the better?

I think I got the tiniest one...A home-made Christmas decoration from my sweet niece Hannah (7).

Daniel got new skis, and Kamilla and Martine new dolls. Nothing much has changed since I was their age. Same wishes, same joy. Good to be back after 2 Christmases away from home. (2008: Philippines, 2009: Japan)

Goodbye Japan!

After 3 good years in Japan it was time to say goodbye  to friends and colleagues. Just a few images here of some of my friends. Here with a new Finnish Missionary, Varpu. She  made this for me. A painting with  a greeting from Psalm 121:8; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.


The lovely Sigurdsson family (Iceland/Japan).  

Johanna (Finland)... I´ll miss you!!! 

The Youth-group in Church arranged a picnic in a Botanical Garden in Okayama as a Farewell Gift for me. A good end to a good year together!  Thank you for lots of good memories:) 

Saying goodbye to pastor Tsukuda and his wife; Midori was hard. I have no words to explain how much they have meant to me over the last year.  They were always there for me. A beautiful couple with hearts of gold:) 

Tom Cruise, Motoko and I

Visiting Mt. Shosha, the film-location of the Hollywood movie ´The Last Samurai´, has been on my ´have-to-visit´-list since I came to Japan 3 years ago. Mt. Shosha can easily be reached, both from Kobe and Okayama, and thanks to a good friend I made it here today.  

Motoko acted as my guide for the day. This was her first time visiting this place, but she did a great job answering all my questions.  

Motoko usually works as a teacher at a Secondary School in Okayama. Today was supposed to be her day off, but I am afraid she had another ´student´ to take care of today. After arriving the montain by cable-car, we sat down for a bit to enjoy Motoko´s home-made lunch. What a great chef she is! 

Sunny, temperatures around 20C and a beautiful location. Love picnics - thanks Motoko:) 

Autumn is here! 

All these colours... 

Yellow leaves and blue sky; beautiful! 

Momiji, Japanese Maple Tree, at its best! Love how you can see green, yellow and red in one tree. 

One of the houses we passed on our way to the main-temples. 

Engyoji Temple. This temple has been an important place for pilgrims since it was opened by Shoko Shonin in 966.  

Love the background here. Nature and traditional Japanese houses. What a beautiful place this is! 

More autumn colours... 

Red and yellow, green and brown... 

And finally; the location where they filmed many of the scenes from ´The Last Samurai´. 

OK, this photo is not taken by me... But I did enter this house and this area. The ones sitting here today were a group of Secondary School students. Work-experience. My dream-job as a 14 year old was to work in a Primary School, so I got to try that for a week. The students today had chosen a week in the Temple. When we came there they were busy writing Chinese Characters (Kanjis). So no Tom Cruise today... But I met many other interesting people. Among them a Danish couple, a man playing the flute for us, I had to act as a translator for an American who had some questions for the people working in the temple etc. 

Just some photos here to show you some images from Mt. Shosha. A great location for the movie; The Last Samurai. If you are in the area; please visit! If you are not; watch the movie. Recommended.

...these are a few of my favorite things...

Sayo, Yoshiko and Chie wanted to treat me with a fun day out before leaving. And the tour started with lunch and my favorite Japanese meal: Sushi. 

They took me to a fish-market south of Okayama City and we ended up at this sushi-restaurant. Oishi! 

Sushi is art, both in taste and visual. Love the little boat they come in:) 

We came across a candy-shop in the middle of the fish-market, and I got to buy candies in big bulks to bring back home.  

After a good meal and some shopping we were heading south. The girls had planned the whole day to be a surprise, so all I had to do was to sit in the car and wait and see where we would end up. And these girls seem to know what my favorite things are; sushi, sea-breeze, sun, a day out in the nature, a good laugh and good friends.   

I don´t have sea-view from my 11th floor apartment, but I can easily drive to places where I can be close to the sea. Like this place! 

Look at the smiling rock! It has a beautiful view from where it stands, so all reasons to have a big smile on his face:)

The smiling rock´s view (the small rock to the left in the photo). 

Chie; be careful!!! I was a bit scared of the heights here and did not pass behind this point.  

But Chie and Yoshiko did:) Here looking over to Shikoku. 

Me and Sayo, enjoying the view from a safe place. 

From here I could see the beach I went to this summer.

Tiger??? We are in the year of the tiger now, and it would be perfect if it really was one. But I am afraid it was only a cat in a tigers´s clothes. 

What a great day out! I hope to treat you girls one day in Norway:)