continued...

...continued from previous post...

Jim and Donna Larson arrived about two weeks ago from Minnesota.  They snowbird in Arizona in the same area that the Schulz's live and so they've become friends and the Larson's decided to join us for about 4 weeks working at KTC.  Jim and Dale have been working on an addition to 12, as well as doing drywall finishing in 5.  The ladies have been keeping the incinerator burning with leaves and sticks and construction waste, as well as doing some painting for me.

Amos and Emma Cole are missionary kids who where born and raised in Japan.  They came up from Tokyo for a couple of days to do some exterior painting for me and were able to finish 3 of the 4 sides of the language school so that we could tear down the scaffolding and have the place look nice for it's opening dedication last week.

Clemens is a man from Germany who has spent some time working here at KTC last year and has returned to help out again for 2 months this time.  He just arrived last week, understands English pretty well, and is a very willing worker to do anything that is asked.

I lose six of my workers in the next two weeks, but they will have put me in good shape to have things finished up before summer.

More updates to come soon.

Fresh Workers

It's been quite some time since I've last updated you all on the construction progress here.  I keep waiting for things to settle down, so I have some time to write, but things never seem to quiet down just enough.  That's life, ain't it?

Well the team from Oregon and Germany was able to finish the roof, get the windows that I ready installed, and start on the siding before they had to head back home.  They're a veteran team that has been here many times and are responsible much of the work done here at KTC over the years.


To prevent me from getting a break, or getting lonely, more workers came before the team even left.  Dale and Vivian Schulz, from Arizona arrived about 3 days before the team left during the last week of April.  They will be with us here until mid-June.  I've had Dale working mostly on a new bath and kitchen addition to cabin #12, with the occasional drywall work on #5 on rainy days.  Vivian has been doing yard cleanup burning leaves, sticks, and construction waste.

Also the same week, the Heisswolf family arrived for their Golden Week holiday with their three oldest ready to work.  They caulked the new hardi-plank siding on the language school and meeting room, and put rigid foam insulation underneath the floor of two existing cabins which required a lot of crawling and squirming in tight, dark, dirty, buggy areas.  Obviously, I'm very appreciative of their help for the week and a half they were here.


The Miyake's are still here, working away.  Edwin keeps putting out cabinets for kitchen after kitchen, as I keep feeding him drawings and supplies for more.  It's such a huge help and money saver to have them here.  Whenever I something comes up where I need a good finish carpenter, I turn to Edwin and am always impressed.  The Miyakes are also scheduled to leave mid-June.


As a write, I'm realizing how much has passed since my last construction update.  Much more has happened, but I'm going to stop now and write another post later, because no one wants to read a super long post, but I have 5 more workers to introduce to you....

The Samurai Marathon

The church I attend here in Japan starts at 2pm on Sunday afternoons.  This makes Sunday mornings the perfect time for hiking.  So, this morning, I went to one of my usual quiet hiking spots, where I rarely see another person on the trail, but was taken by surprise when I saw what I saw....

Apparently it's called the Samurai Marathon.  Over 500 participants this year dressed up as... more than samurai as you can see.  I watched the first person cross the finish line, then started hiking down the trail they were running up.  Definitely the most interesting hike I've ever been on.  Most are walking and exhausted by the time I saw them... I only hiked the last 3 of the 42km these guys trekked in full costume.  I think I saw most of the 500 runners during the 3 hours I was on the trail.

SNOW!

I mentioned snow in my last post.  On Friday we had a light snow all day that didn't really accumulate into anything, but then Friday night, it really started to come down, by 1am we had about 4 inches, then at 7 there was at least 9 inches, and it was fairly warm, so good packing snow.  I trudged over to camp at around 8 Saturday morning just to look around, not expecting to see anyone out and about, yet, to my suprize, behold, Miyake-san, my 70-something year old finish carpenter from Hawaii is out building a giant igloo all by himself!  So of course I was happy to have a friend to build a snow fort with and just had to help him.  So we built a 7 ft tall kamakura, or igloo.  Eventually others started coming out to join us and build a big snowman, and do a little bit of sledding.  So I had a lot of unexpected fun in the snow Saturday morning... and I hear it's been in the 80's back home?!

The Framing Crew Has Arrived!

Progress has really been flying with my framing crew here.  We started on Monday with nothing but the foundation, and by the end of  Thursday all interior and exterior walls were standing, and the rafters were cut and ready to go up.  
Friday morning we had some snow and decided it wasn't a good day to be building a roof, so I had some drywall that needed hung in cabin 5 that I put the crew on.  Hopefully Monday we'll be able to start back on the roof.

I think we've all been enjoying ourselves and the pictures show our progress better than I can explain it with words.  Don't forget to visit my Picasa Photo Album to see all of the pictures.

Prep for 14

In addition to taking a couple trips to Tokyo to get my visa, cleaning out storage areas here at camp, hauling garbage to the dump, getting projects ready for the finish carpenter who is here, and trying to make friends and settle in, I've been preparing for cabin 14 to be built by a crew who just arrived on Sunday (11th).
It is almost the same group I worked with last fall on the meeting room; a couple from Germany, and two couples from Oregon.  The men will be framing cabin 14, and the women will be decorating the new language school building that was built by Japanese carpenters.
There was a lot of prep work to put into 14 before the crew arrived so that I could keep them busy without delays.  So the old cabin 14, which has only been a skeleton frame for the past few years, needed torn down and cleared off site.  A new concrete pier foundation needed put in, blue-plans for the new cabin needed to be drawn up, and all the materials that would be required to frame, roof, and side the cabin needed to be gathered.  I had just enough time to get it all done the Friday before they arrived.

Things are moving very fast now that the crew is here, so I'll need to make time to write another update soon, but that's all for now.

Oh the paperwork.....

     Well, I've successfully acquired my visa, so I can legally stay in Japan for one year now.  It was really quite the process to get it though.  I had to fill out some forms back in the US in February and mailed them to the TEAM office in Tokyo.  They hand delivered them to the immigration office, and then we waited for the certificate of eligibility, saying that I was eligible for a visa.  That came in the middle of March after I was already in Karuizawa.  So I had to travel back to Tokyo, go to the immigration office, fill out a bunch more forms, and then they said, we'll mail you something in a few weeks when your visa is ready to pick up.  So back to Karuizawa I went, only to return to Tokyo this Monday to go to immigration fill out some more paperwork, and finally get the visa.
     Now, I'm working on getting my alien registration card here in Karuizawa, and once I get that, then I can open an account at the post office.... oh the work to move to another country.
     But thank the Lord that I was able to get my visa while already here in Japan.  In past years, one would have to get the visa before coming, or would have to leave the country, pick it up, and then return.  So being able to get it while already here was easier, faster, and cheaper.