Osaka Japan

Our travels seem to go on and on. Today I am in Osaka, Japan. We have a rehearsal for a show in the Bridges for Peace Festival that is being presented by the Japanese office. The festival begins tomorrow and will be presented in several cities across Japan during the next two weeks. Meanwhile, the view from my hotel window is incredible. The castle of the 16th century Shogun is across the street. I went for a walk there yesterday.



The crane was gracious enough to allow me to take a picture as she stood with her friend the turtle. That small pond is inside the grounds of the inner keep of the castle. There are two complete moats that surround the castle.

A couple more of my favorite pictures from Maui. This is a Hawaiian fire dancer. They said he was a three time champion. I keep wondering why we never see championship fire dancing one Eurosport TV.


Right up there with the fire dancer is my own spark of delight.


One of my favorite scenes on our drive around the west side of the island was this wonderful church in a valley, on the beach, between two enormous cliffs.

Maui Vacation

I know... It's been a while since I posted. I have excuses. Nobody wants to hear excuses though. How about some pictures?



Do I look exhausted? This was taken at the end of my sixth dive, yesterday. I took a course in scuba and I am now qualified as an open water diver. That's entry level but for me it's a really good accomplishment. I feel like I have a whole new world to explore.

My instructor, Drew, gave very clear lessons and a lot of, "on the spot" tests. In the picture he was having me check his gear and identify each step.


Of course, we didn't spend all of our time with the dive course though. We took an incredible drive around the west end of Maui. Most of it is a one lane road around tight turns on cliffs. That is, with two way traffic. Let me just add one word here... interesting!

When the Tour Guide takes a break...

I finished my last tour of the season. Now I have a little bit of a break. To help pass the time (And maybe because I was listening to God) I decided to sell my apartment. That led to making small repairs before I sell it. That led to noticing the deck chairs on the patio have seriously deteriorated over the past year. Since I paid over 1000 shekels for them, I didn't want to just throw them away. Then a funny idea went through my head...
Maybe I can save them!


They were made from plastic strips woven like rattan. What if I took the old strips away and replaced it with ropes? So, I went off to the hardware store and purchased a quantity of right ropes. Then I re-rolled the rope into balls of about 20 meters each. I figured that would be what I needed to be able to work my way through the bars of the frames. I have finished a chair and started the two seater. So far, it seems to be working.

Now to go ahead and sell the apartment... (We are only asking 1,5000,000 shekels.)

Incredible Africa!

Africa is fantastic! Everyone knows that anyway, right? On our first day, we went straight to a large national park where they tell me I might be able to see, "The Big Five." That is, elephant, rhino, water buffalo, lion and leopard. I didn't do that well though. We saw several giraffe, several elephants, lots of bucks, a few zebras, a family of warthogs, a herd of wildebeast and an assortment of other animals.



Oh, there was one or two other interesting characters lying about. This monitor lizard was easily 2 meters long.

Today I said Goodbye...

We have gotten used to loading the bus by now. The staff at the holiday village somehow didn't write down the time for the bellboys to bring the luggage. No problem, before they could get to the rooms to correct the error almost all of the group had brought their own.

We visited Akko, Haifa and Caesaria on the way to the airport. Several of the group were anxious because of timing for their departure so they wanted to hurry through the incredible archaeology of Caesaria. I got sort of tickled when I looked back and noticed that some were still in the theater taking pictures when I had gotten all the way to the marble pieces near the gate to the palace.

Galilee and the Borders

The shoreline of the Galilee was lovely again this morning. My true love called me just after dawn to wish me a wonderful day on our anniversary. What could I do but go out to the dock and wish she were there with me. Happy anniversary dear friend!


But the life of the Israeli tour guide is not a convenient one. I gathered the group together and off we went to the Syrian border. We looked at the UN camp on the border and one of the men told me that he had served there. I related a story of a young Canadian soldier who had visited us at our home on leave from that compound.



One of the most incredible tank battles of all time was fought in the "Valley of Tears" just north of the UN camp.

Just one more

We went back to the Memorial park for the Australian Soldiers in BeerSheva this morning. The tour group wanted one more picture, as a group, at the memorial.

Beersheva Memorial and the Charge of the Lighthorse

I'm out with a bunch of guys who talk knowledgeably about shooting German Mausers with accuracy at the 400 meter range. I didn't bother to tell them about my skills with the 38 featherweight.
We spent some time this morning walking part of the battlefield from the charge of the Light Horseman (October 31, 1917 Beersheva).


It just seemed like the right place to encourage them to tell stories so we stood in a circle and listened to the old warriors, their sons and their heirs.



One of the main reasons many of them came was the dedication and unveiling of a new park and memorial in the center of Beersheva.





The statue is one of the most powerful war memorials I've ever seen...

Tanks and other powerful forces

Somebody posted a message on my message board that Aish HaTorah was building near the Kotel (Western Wall) Here is what I saw today.

Just below the expansion project is a large archaeology dig that is nearly ready for tourists.



My tour group is a bunch or Aussies who are here to celebrate the opening of the Anzac memorial. Naturally they are interested in all things military. So... I took them to the armor corp museum today.

I had to post a picture of the Merkava IV for Neil. I told you they had better stuff!

Taking a look at Jerusalem

We didn't spend all of our time at memorial services. We also visited the scenes of several battles and even some biblical sites.

This one is the group standing on top of Nabi Samwill. This was one of the tough battles alongside the British forces that brought about the conquest of Jerusalem by General Allenby. It also overlooks the valley of Gibbea where Joshua began the battle which ended after Joshua asked God to cause the sun to stand still.


What tour would be complete without a group photo on the Mount of Olives. They weren't quite ready yet in this photo because they were waiting for instructions from the professional photographer and not paying attention to the tour guide. (Good choice occasionally.)

Anzac Memorial day

It was a very early morning for me. I needed to arrive at the hotel in time to take the group to the British Cemetery on Mt. Scopus before 6 AM. The sunrise service was very moving and it was attended by several members of the diplomatic corp in Israel including the Australian Ambassador as well as the US Ambassador.

Anzacs remembered

The Australia New Zealand Corps fought side by side with the forces of General Allenby in the early 1900s. It has been 90 years since that heroic struggle against the Turkish Empire. Some of their relatives and friends are here to celebrate the anniversary and I will be leading them through the land. This picture was taken moments after they arrived. They are sitting under a tree in the gardens of Naot Qedumin.

Mom!

But Mom, you know I'd walk a mile for you!

This one is for Clay

I just wanted Clay to see that I had lunch with mutual friends yesterday.

I am currently guiding one bus of a larger group than I usually guide. Altogether there are nine buses but we are not exactly together. One of the other guides is pictured here. He met me at the door to my bus this morning to show me a bible that Dr. David Lewis had given to him in 1978. He considers it to be one of his treasured possessions. He sends greetings to the Lewis family.

Churches are interesting places and I've been to some that were anything but silent. In fact, I always thought that making noise was part of the plan. Evidently not at the Church of All Nations at Gethsemane.

This one really got me to thinking about some sermons I've heard. Are there pastors out there who have taken this commandment to heart? Surely not!