The rains have finally come to an end and there is glorious sunshine and blue skies today. After almost 4 days of continuous rain, the nicer weather has come. Flooding in many parts of Western Japan caused deaths, evacuations and lots of repairs and cleaning. Our neighborhood was spared except for an embankment of a reservoir as you can see in the photo below. City employees quickly laid the tarp to hold the land and prevent more sliding.
Yesterday I took care of errands, helping friends and us haul more unwanted items up to the Minoh Clean Recycling Center. They were not charging for dumping until yesterday due to the recent earthquake. I was happy to clear out the garage and back garden.
It felt good to get outside on my bicycle. My friend Ilan and I went 36 kilometers along the Yodo River and through Takatski, 10 kilometers west of Minoh where the epicenter of last month’s earthquake took place. We didn’t see any major damage. In the afternoon I made zucchini lasagna which you can see on my YouTube channel. In the evening, we took Ocean out for ice cream and suica (watermelon). Oliver spent the afternoon with his friend from school and Owen is still in Iowa, so it was quiet in the house.
We went for sushi on Saturday evening at the Nigiri Chojiro restaurant in our suburb of Minoh. It is really good sushi and nice atmosphere on a rainy evening.
Today is my last day in the office and I am looking forward to getting a much-needed break from school.
Bill's Blog 
Bill I enjoyed your blog post. That was a crazy rain. Thanks for helping John get rid of our things. It was such a help. BTW, Takatsuki is spelled like this. And suika is spelled like this. Hee hee.