Kabocha muffins

Clark’s International Night Thanksgiving Celebration –

We celebrated Thanksgiving a second time this year at the Clark’s International night December 5^th with many friends and students. We had a potluck style dinner and enjoyed many wonderful traditional American dishes including turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes,various pies as well as some new dishes like kabocha (Japanese pumpkin). This squash reminds me of sweet potatoes but even better. This may be my new favorite squash. I love it!

A great time was had by all  great time playing games, singing Christmas carols and hearing a brief message on the baby Jesus come to earth to save us. Mitsuki and Momo joined us for the celebration and stayed the night with our family. Always a fun time of laughter and games when they come for a visit.  

Decorating the Christmas tree

Friendly game of spoons

Christmas group photo

Reiko’s Birthday Puzzle Completed –

I told you about the great puzzle and frame Reiko gave Stephanie for her birthday recently. Here is a picture of them in Reiko’s bakery with the puzzle completed and framed. We really enjoy visiting her on our way to and from school and seeing her on Saturday when we buy bread from her bakery.

Completed  birthday puzzle from Reiko.

Roster Oven and Kabocha Muffins –

I am so grateful for this wonderful kitchen appliance and my newly found ability to bake! I usually bake a lot in the fall and did not realize how much I was missing the sweet smells of muffins, cookies and casseroles coming from my kitchen. I have been baking kabocha muffins, banana muffins and chicken, broccoli, rice casserole. I am one happy mama in my kitchen again with my roaster oven.

Who knew you could bake and roast in this wonderful portable oven.

The kabocha muffins are wonderful but take much more work than they would in the states. Pumpkin is outrageously expensive here and virtually impossible to find. Like $52.00 dollars for three cans if you try to buy it through the online Costco site. So, being determined to make pumpkin muffins, I bought a whole kabocha from Costco for 298 yen or roughly $3.00, cut, cleaned and baked my own in order to have kabocha puree to make muffins. They turned out great and though my family continues to encourage me to cook Japanese dishes, I think they were happy to see some familiar fall sweets in our kitchen again.

Kabocha - Japanese pumpkin

Much smaller and sweeter than our American pumpkin

Roasting to make puree for muffins

Banana holiday muffins

Update Regarding Stephanie’s biking injury –

Thank you so much for your prayers and e-mails of encouragement regarding Stephanie’s biking injury. She is now off her crutches and all stitches are out. She is walking slowly and we are still making weekly trips to the ER for followup care. Please continue to pray for no infection and a full recovery. She still has some discomfort and the injury sight is still healing slowly. We appreciate all your love, concern and prayers very much.

Stephanie won third price in the Bethany photo contest –

I wanted to share some fun and exciting news with you. Bethany International Ministries (BIM), our missionary sending organization in the states hosted a photo contest for missionaries abroad. They had three categories in the contest - people, scenery and ministry. Stephanie has been our photographer extraordinaire since arriving in Japan taking pictures of everyday things with a unique and fresh perspective. She has captured some amazing pictures and we submitted several to the BIM photo contest. The staff narrowed the entries down to a few in each category then staff, students and missionary families voted for their favorites.

Turns out Stephanie won third place in the scenery category for her photo "Forests of Japan". She will be receiving a $25 Amazon gift card for her third place prize. We are proud of her knack for taking everyday pictures and pointing out their amazing beauty. Congratulations Stephanie and thank you for pointing our the beauty around us every day!

Our Elf on the shelf Jane showed up -

Turns out Jane, our Elf on the shelf found us half way round the world and has been showing up in various places since December 11th. Well that is when we noticed her hiding in our little Christmas tree anyway. Since then she has helped her self to our Christmas cookie sprinkles and one half of a cherry candy cane. Alex is not thrilled to have her here and has threatened he will throw her out his window if she goes into his bedroom. 

Jane sampled our cookie sprinkles a couple of days ago

We had a couple of conversations that she knows our family would not tolerate the mischievous, naughty things we see other Elves doing at other people's houses. We guess that is why she has kept her misbehaving to a minimum at our house...

Many thanks for your faithful prayers and support. We are grateful to be here serving and investing in our community. May this season give us pause to remember the real reason we celebrate and what a gift we have been given in the birth of Jesus Christ.

God bless you all,

K. Chadduck

Hope Chapel Thanksgiving

Our 18^th Anniversary -

We celebrated our 18^th wedding anniversary on November 22, 2015 by going out for a quiet breakfast with real cappuccino at a restaurant not far from our house. We then wandered through a local farmers market where I purchased a beautiful cyclamen that sits in my kitchen window brightening up the room.

Especially at this time of year, I am thankful for all that I have been given. I am truly grateful for my family and wonderful husband. Words fall short to express how blessed I am to be doing life together with this funny and adventurous bunch I get to call family. Love you all so much and am so thankful to be sharing in this great adventure with you.

Family photo taken in October after my birthday dinner.

Stephanie’s Biking Accident -

I have not updated the blog in a couple of weeks and wanted to be sure and communicate with our prayer partners and supporters recent events. On November 19th Stephanie was sneaking a ride home on the back of my motorized bicycle and caught her heel in the spokes of the back wheel. It was a pretty traumatic injury resulting in a trip to the ER and 20 stitches/staples. 

Ikoma City Hospital, Nara Prefecture, Ikoma, Japan

She is doing much better this week, getting the remaining stiches/staples out and is off the crutches. We are praying for no infection and the skin to heal together fully. The past couple of weeks have been stressful including trips to the hospital regularly for her follow up care and coordinating that care with translators from our small group and fellow teachers at KCS.

Ikoma City Hospital entrance and waiting room.

God has been faithful, providing the help we need but it has been trying for all of us to be sure. We are grateful to God her Achilles tendon, nor nerves were damaged and it is just a bad cut per the doctor. Those of you who know Stephanie will appreciate her struggle to be on crutches for a little over two weeks. This has really slowed her down and caused her to rely upon all of us for even her most basic needs.

I cannot fully express how difficult it was in the ER to not understand the physician who is caring for your child. I have prayed a ton since her injury and relied upon God very heavily trusting He is looking out for my child like only He can. I am grateful to God her Achilles tendon is intact and was not severed. This has been a whole new level of trusting God with my baby and leaning on Him for comfort and peace.

We are still going to the hospital weekly for her follow up care and pray she will continue to heal quickly, without infection and return to full activity soon.

Hope English Thanksgiving Dinner -

Onto a much more enjoyable and fun topic - Thanksgiving Hope Chapel style. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday, November 28th with our Hope Chapel community. Since the Japanese do not celebrate Thanksgiving to speak of, and the Pilgrim’s do not hold much significance for them, we worked on Thursday and celebrated the holiday on Saturday.

Jonah, Betsie, Alex and Eddie at the Hope Chapel Thanksgiving Celebration.

Some of you may have heard me bemoaning the fact I miss my American oven terribly and not being able to bake muffins, bread or lasagnas this time of year. I love fall and all of the amazing pumpkin recipes available when the weather starts to cool. Well, my wonderful husband set about locating a reasonably priced roaster oven (I say reasonably priced because if you purchase it here in Japan it is a small fortune) and had it shipped to the house a few days before our Thanksgiving feast. So, kudos to my husband for locating the best deal and planning for its arrival in time to roast a turkey for our celebration.

Oh so grateful for this wonderful kitchen appliance.

Several Kansai Christian School students attended the fun evening of great food, laughter and fellowship. Hope you enjoy the fun pictures and beautiful turkey. You have no idea what it is like to pull off a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in Japan but we did it!

Let the turkey and pie eating begin!

Kansai Christian Students and Hope Chapel guests at the Thanksgiving celebration.

Thank you to all of our prayer partners and supporters. We have leaned heavily upon your faithful prayers the past couple of weeks and have been encouraged by your e-mails and many acts of kindness.

Many thanks and God bless you,

K. Chadduck

Kobe Quarter Marathon

Stephanie's Birthday -
We celebrated Stephanie's golden birthday this past week by going to her favorite "conveyor belt" restaurant in Oji . She ate seafood to her hearts content and enjoyed chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream when we returned home. KCS makes a big deal of birthdays so she has been sung to, gifted and wished happy birthday for the better part of the month.

Reiko, the kids' adopted Japanese grandmother, remembered Stephanie's birthday and gave her a Totoro puzzle and frame to mount it in once she puts the puzzle together. She also received e-mail, phone and Skype messages from friends in the states wishing her a happy birthday which let her know she was not forgotten.

Stephanie's golden birthday in Japan

Birthday cake and presents

Michiro and Yoko Nakashima -
We traveled to Kobe on Saturday and stayed with Michiro and Yoko Nakashima. They are long time family friends whom Bob had not seen since he was last in Japan about 25 years ago. We learned the story of how Yoko and Priscilla, Bob's late mother met in Virginia when they were both in married student hosing at the University of Virginia. Bob's father William and Michiro were both in medical school when Priscilla noticed the Nakashima's were new on campus and knocked on Yoko's door to introduce herself.

Yoko shared how she cared for the Chadduck children a couple days a week and how she and Priscilla shared a life long love of music and singing. Yoko still sings with her Kobe Women's University choral group and has done so for 50 years. We were treated to a brief choral performance when some of the women from Yoko's choral group showed up to talk with her.

Yoko Nakashima and some of her choral group members

I have corresponded with the Nakashima's for over fifteen years and last weekend was the first time meeting them face to face. We went to dinner and heard amazing stories of Michiro's experiences in mountain medicine and their travels abroad to the US and Nepal as well as many climbing adventures.

What and inspiration this couple is. They are in their early 80's and so full of life, adventure and have incredible stories of travels, achievements and life experiences. We had a delightful visit. Our children were amazed at the stories and adventures the couple has experienced and really enjoyed their time with them. What a great visit and we so appreciate their hospitality and good company.

Visit with Yoko and Michiro Nakashima and their son in-law in Kobe, Japan

Kobe Quarter Marathon -
We ran the Kobe quarter marathon this past weekend and had a great time. We did not train enough but managed to run the entire race. Fun to take part in a huge marathon and run through the streets of Kobe. This was my first time in Kobe and it was a very fun city to visit. Wish we had the whole weekend to take in the sights and visit more. We hope to return in the near future to see Yoko in one of her holiday choral performances.

Fun finishers towel, medal and sport shirt even for the quarter marathon finishers! Lucky us, woohoooo!

Kobe quarter marathon - Kobe, Japan

Even quarter marathon finishers received the cool towel, medal and shirt. Wooohooo!

Fun family trip to run the Kobe quarter marathon

Dinner with Haruka and Miko -
While in Kobe near Mukogawa Women's University, we caught up with Haruka and Miko. They were MFWI students in the states about eighteen months ago and this was the first time we have seen them in Japan.

Our visit was short but dinner and together was great.

Dinner and a brief  visit with Haruka and Miko in Kobe, Japan

Thank you to our friends, family and supporters who continue to pray for us and send us note and e-mails of encouragement. Your kind words let us know we are in your thoughts and missed. Receiving these communications has been wonderful around special days like birthdays when one might tend to get a little homesick. Your prayers and notes are really appreciated and mean a lot to us. So, thank you again for your kind gestures and messages.

In Christ,

K. Chadduck

The Pilgrim's Progress

Destruction Daily News Assignment -
This past week I gave the 11th and 12th grade English class an assignment regarding "The Pilgrim's Progress". I told my students they were newspaper reporters assigned to follow Christian's pilgrimage from the City of Destruction and report back to the citizens of his community.

I provided eight elements for them to include on the front page of the "Daily Destruction News":

• Interesting article(s) a minimum of 200 words
• Headlines for their articles
• Maps of Christian's journey
• Pictures of characters he met
• Captions for all pictures and/or maps
• Interview with Christian's wife, children and/or friends
• Advertisements
• Opinion article from current Destruction resident

What I received from the students for this assignment not only impressed me but was way beyond what I envisioned. I thought it would be a fun change from our weekly literary circles, vocabulary and grammar studies but they really go into this assignment. Each pair of students also had to present the front page "proof'" to their editor as part of their assignment.

The bottom right photo slides to display a before and after photo of Christian's family when he left Destruction

This newspaper is discolored by coffee to make it look weathered and aged

Some students pretended they were newscasters and radio hosts with reporters on location in the city of Destruction and acted out interviews with citizens of Destruction. They did an amazing job and I am so proud of them. I plan to hang their front page news in our classroom since they are works art. This turned out to be a really fun assignment and I wanted you to see their projects as well.

Visit with Marina -

We met with a former MFWI student this past weekend in Takatsuki. Marina was one of the very first students we hosted in the states and it has been almost exactly two years since we last saw her. We got to hangout with her for a while on Saturday, go to dinner and then attended the Clark's International night. It was great to see her and we made plans to have her and Kazuyo stay the with us in the near future.

She is studying to be an elementary school teacher and was amazed at how much the kids have grown since she last saw them. Alex is now taller than she is and was much shorter than her when she returned to Japan.

Dinner with Marina in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture Japan

Picture at the Clark's International Night November 2015

Hope Chapel Group Picture -
A couple in our church got engaged on Sunday and we all celebrated with a group photo and watched them exchange their engagement rings. The picture is of our congregation and represents a large church by Japanese standards. Presently Christians represent only about 1% of the population, so congregations of around forty are considered a large church.

We are glad to be a part of this group of believers and are blessed to have been welcomed into the group with open arms and kindness. Praise be to God for the "Church" wherever in the world she may be.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support. Please continue to pray God will open the hearts of those He brings across our paths so we may share His good news. In Christ.

The Chadducks

Making Okonomiyaki

Hiking Mount Ikoma -

We met up with a few families, friends and students last Saturday to hike Mount Ikoma. We set out at 10:15 and did not return home until shortly after 5:00 pm. It was a difficult hike taking about an hour to get half way up the front side of the mountain. We stopped at a small café for ice cream and water before we started for the summit.

Break at the little cafe about half way up Mount Ikoma, Japan

Boarder of Osaka Prefecture headed up Mt. Ikoma. Don't know this guy, he just really wanted a picture with us.

There is a large amusement park at the top of the mountain where we ate sack lunches, drank some hot ocha (tea) and the kids rode a few rides before we headed down the mountain again.

Pikacho at the amusement park

Log ride at the amusement park

This was a really steep hike in the country side overlooking well-manicured gardens, loaded kaki trees and bamboo forests. The view from the top was incredible. Looking back over our trek up the mountain we could see Ikoma and Heguri. The other direction was Osaka, Namba and eventually we could see the ocean beyond the sprawling city below. Incredible to actually see the shore since most of the time it does not feel like we live on an island. A great time and beautiful day hiking in the mountains.

Manicured garden on the way up Mount Ikoma

Trying my hand at Japanese cooking -

So we went to dinner last Thursday at some friend’s house and had Okonomiyaki (savory cabbage pancake). It was incredible and so tasty I am going to try to make it myself tonight. This dish looks like fried zucchini, but tastes WAY better. It consists of grated cabbage, fish broth, soy sauce, green onions, Nagaimo (long yam), Bonita flakes (dried fish flakes), Aonori (dried green seaweed), sliced bacon, mayo and Okonomiyaki sauce.

A fellow missionary here at KCS turned me on to Japanese cooking 101.com and I am studying this website for tips, tricks, recipes and oh yes, how to find ingredients to cook this dish here in Japan. Armed with my ingredients list in hand, (including the Japanese names of my ingredients) I set out last Friday to buy groceries. No kidding, I had to ask four different people where the flour, dashi, Okonomiyaki sauce and Nagaimo was. I generally think I am pretty outgoing but after asking the fourth person in the store where these items were I was frustrated and honestly annoyed.

Aonori (dried green seaweed), Okonomiyaki sauce, Dashi (fish broth),Nagaimo (long yam) in that order

This experience has given me a new appreciation of being able to walk into a grocery store and find what I need to make dinner.  It is one thing to be responsible for feeding your family and another completely different issue to not be able to find the items you need to make a meal. It is humbling I tell you, humbling. I am grateful the Japanese are so kind, gracious and willing to help. Every person I asked took me right to the correct aisle and showed me the item I needed.

Someone asked me recently what has been the hardest part of adjusting to Japan. I thought for a minute and said, "Not having my American oven and grocery shopping without a doubt." I guess maybe it is because I expected to miss friends, family and to struggle with the language. I expected to be stared at as a gaijen, (foreigner), I anticipated missing seasonal traditions our family enjoys like Greenbluff and watching Riverfront Park change in the fall. I had not anticipated the regular struggle to navigate the grocery store and to cook meals my family would both enjoy and I know how to cook.

The flip side of that is, I am sometimes shocked at how normal life feels in Japan. What I mean is, I still do laundry, still do dishes, make lunches in the morning, clean the house, parent and our humanness has followed us. We still get too busy, still have homework, struggles and victories daily. I think I knew it would be this way but doing life in a foreign country brings surprises when and where you do not expect them. Not good or bad, just different and it takes time to adjust.

I digress though, back to my cooking experience. It is Wednesday here and I am feeling adventurous again and ready to attempt cooking this amazing dish. I do not like Bonita or Aonori personally so my Okonomiyaki will be served without the fish flakes and dried seaweed. I will post a picture of it tonight after I make it and let you all know if it was a success or a flop. It is hard to say, sometimes I think it will be a hit and it flops.

Headed out for a fun now but thanks for listening to my ramblings of success and failures in Japan.

In Christ,

K. Chadduck

Checking back in with pictures of tonights Okonomiyaki (cabbage savory pancake).

Cabbage, onions, Dashi sauce 

Fried cabbage pancake with bacon! (Okonomiyaki)

Smells so good in our kitchen

Oishii! (Delicious) my first attempt at authentic Japanese cuisine. Success!

Glad all my effort was a success tonight and not a flop.

In Christ,

K. Chadduck

Rice Fields of Japan

Rice Fields of Japan -

Most of the rice fields around our region have been harvested now and the beautiful, flowing green fields heavy with rice are cut down. When they were green and heavy with rice, they reminded me of the wheat fields of Eastern Washington that turn golden before harvest.

There are many rice fields in our region and most are small plots of tiered land inaccessible to large machinery. Because of the tiered fields and smaller plots, they use smaller machinery than you would see in the US where huge fields are harvested by massive machines. We observed two methods of harvesting this fall, the old way where the stocks are cut and hung upside down in the fields to dry and the more modern way with a small machine that looks like a miniature Zamboni. The harvesting machine cuts the stocks at the ground, separating the rice from the chaff and gathers the rice into large bags. 

Beautiful tiered rice fields of our region - photo by Stephanie

This time of year when the rice has been harvested, the air frequently smells of smoke as the farmers are burning the chaff from the rice. We had a discussion with the kids this weekend about what a threshing floor would have been like in the Bible since we have witnessed several farmers threshing their rice, bagging it and generating large piles for distribution.

Rice fields ready for harvest - photo by Stephanie

I am going to miss the beautiful, flowing green fields and the bent stalks heavy with golden rice. Being this close to the production of food makes you appreciate the process when you dump cups of rice into your rice cooker. Something about watching your food grow, ripen and then enjoying it that is very satisfying.

A bountiful crop of rice, ready for harvest - photo by Stephanie

Harvested rice drying in the field

Rice drying the old fashioned way

Visit with Mitsuki and Momo -

Saturday evening we attended Hope Chapel English with Mitsuki and later met up with Momo at the Ikoma train station. They stayed the night with us Saturday and got to see our Japanese home for the first time. They spent most of Sunday with our family, playing badminton in our back yard, eating the yummy cheesecake Mitsuki brought, eating cream stew and visiting a local park with the kids.

Mitsuki and Stephanie with pumpkin cheesecake 

Mitsuki, Momo, Stephanie and Alex at our favorite Koi feeding spot

We had a great time with these girls and cannot wait to see them again at the Hope Chapel Thanksgiving Dinner in a couple of weeks. We practiced our Japanese phrases and they helped us understand a few of the electronic appliances in our house.

One last group picture before we sent then back home

They also went with us to the store and helped me purchase dehumidifiers for our closets. Yes, here in Japan you need to dehumidify your house or you are likely to have your clothes mold. I learned this first hand last month when I opened my coat closet to find two of our jackets with mold on them. Thankfully I caught it before it was too bad and a good washing seems to have taken care of the issue before it destroyed our winter coats.

Dehumidifier for your cloths closet

I was grateful for their help since there are countless types of these dehumidifiers available. They explained to me some products were not only to dehumidify your closet but had bug repellent as well as varying scents. There were about 25 options to chose from I kid you not.

Thank you for sharing in our many adventures and for your prayers. Please continue to pray for open hearts as we interact with neighbors and invite students to various outreach activities.

In Christ,

K. Chadduck