"Sounds like summer"

Cicadas hold a special significance in Japan. Cicadas and summer are almost synonymous. Even though it is hot and humid during the rainy season, summer is not officially started until the sounds of cicadas start. They are a noisy lot especially when you walk by a tree that is loaded.  Fred keeps saying, "It sounds like summer."

March of the molted cicada skins

We opened an apartment in Omihachiman which is near the largest lake in Japan. We drove over to Lake Biwa. It was very beautiful with a Shinto Shrine by the lake. There was also several crevice caves where the people had created a mini-shrines.

On Monday, we went on a "food tour". We went downtown to Sannomiya. Then wandered from shop to shop. We would buy a small food item and then share it.  We had pork steamed buns, beef croquette, cream pan (cream filled roll), and gourmet mochi with 6 different flavors. We won't mention the chocolate croissant that we bought since that is French.🙊 So fun!!

I was listening to Russell M. Nelson talk "Now Is the Time to Prepare". He quoted a poem by Henry Van Dyke that is found on a sundial at the Wells College in New York.

The shadow by my finger cast

Divides the future from the past:

Before it, sleeps the unborn hour,

In darkness, and beyond thy power; 

Behind its unreturning line,

The vanished hour, no longer thine;

One hour alone is in they hands,--

The NOW on which the shadow stands.