The Big 200!

Wow! This is my 200th post! That's a lot of writing! Of course it took me 3 1/2 years to get here, but hey! I made it!

Anyway, today was a great day. I was able to go to the prayer meeting after missing a couple of weeks. That was nice. Then I had lunch with a couple of friends. We laughed so much the shop workers were a bit worried I think. Then I went to Trash Box Jam's live! It was great!

I had one student and three friends come. (it's great, because I have a point card, and if I get 30 points I get a prize. I have 10 now, one for me, and one for each friend. It's great. I think I have the most points so far!)

Among the other bands was this one girl I had met two lives back. Of course it was pretty easy for her to remember me and pick me out of the crowd. I was looking forward to hearing her again, because the first time had impressed me. I bought her CD this time. So she decided that she had to take a picture with me and will put it up on her blog! How embarrassing! Haha. So my student also took a picture of the two of us together and then sent it. So this is Remi and me. She has a really awesome voice!

I also got a "present" from my friend Jenae. She has this thing where she likes to buy me really big, gaudy hearts to put on my cell phone. And because I'm a good sport, I use them. Haha. So here is the latest huge heart for my cell phone. This time it's really red and fuzzy. I've already gotten lot's of compliments for it (and I just got it today.) Haha. It's a great conversation starter! Thanks Jenae!

Anyway, it was a good night. I really like going to lives. They are really exciting and fun. Tomorrow will be a "normal" day. Church, Bible Study and then watch the band. After that I have a whole week off! Enjoy the 200th post pictures!

Shinjuku.

Last Monday I went to Shinjuku (a really busy part of Tokyo. There are business areas and shopping too. Very exciting.) with a friend. We went to eat at one of the few decent Mexican food restaurants in Japan. (she ate Mexican food, I improvised my own meal. Haha) It was a nice time. It's been a while since I'd been in Shinjuku. I like the place. Monday was really nice weather too, and I took some pictures of the buildings and the sky. It's kinda fun. So I decided to share.

Two pictures are of the first Krispy Kreme's in Japan. It's really popular, and it always has huge lines. Can you imagine, standing in line for over 40 minutes for donuts? It's the minimum wait time there I think. Somehow, I just don't think they are worth it. haha. When it first opened, the lines were even longer. Over 2 hours!

Gingerbread House

Last weekend was Gingerbread House. This is one of my Children's Outreach events. They come on a Saturday and play games, have some snacks, and then they hear a Bible story. I want them to get some exposure to the Bible, and have good memories of being at a church. Jenae, one of the missionaries who lives in Tokyo, came and helped out. She's really good with kids. And Fumi took some pictures for me. I do this event at least twice a year now. Here are some pictures!

いい天気だよね！

Wow, today is one of those really nice, beautiful days, that make you happy to be alive. It's wonderful.

Today I went to my student's house. His wife makes crafts from old kimono. She's really good, and today she was having a gallery of sorts at her home. So I went with another student from the class to go see it. It was nice. Afterwards we went to lunch.

On the drive, we saw many beautiful flowers and it was just a beautiful day in general. The temp is just perfect! I saw a beautiful walkway lined with blooming dogwoods that I woud like to go back and walk along sometime. Unfortunately, starting tomorrow it's going to be rainy for a while. Maybe I'll be able to make it next week.

So my first class today is a class of gardeners. We talked about flowers the whole time. We saw some beautiful pictures and heard good stories. One student brought me some bluebonnet plants. I had given seeds last year as souviners from Texas. They are just starting to bloom, so now I have my own bluebonnet plants for in front of my house! Horray!

After class we went out to my house to check out the flowers there. I don't actually garden at all, one of the church members who likes to garden, but lives in an apartment takes care of it for me. It's a happy situation for both of us! We spent about half an hour of our Bible study time looking at flowers. But it was really good. When we went back inside, instead of reading our scheduled text (we are in 2 Samuel, David, war, etc) I decided to change it up. (the change was just too big!) So we read Psalm 19 instead. I really love the description of God's handiwork and the beauty and awe it inspires. It was a good way to share a different aspect of God's character.

Then I walked to get my "lunch". It was such a nice day, I ate cold ramen for the first time this year! Horray! I also bought some little ice cream snacks to eat. Ahhh... such a nice day... I'm happy.

These are pictures of flowers around my house and church.

Pictures!

Well, here are the pictures from my trip to America. I finally finished editing all of them and uploaded them to the web so I can post the slideshow now.



In other news, I just got back today from my second visit to the dentist. The good news is that I haven't had to had anesthesia either time and neither time hurt. This time was even cheaper than last time. I am so far satisfied with my trips to the dentist. I still don't know exactly what my problem is, but the dentist took out my filling (the problem was in a tooth that was already filled) and then somehow applied medication to the tooth. Then put in temporary fillings. He put in more medicine today. It looks like I'll have one more visit next week for medication, and then the week after that should end up with a permanent filling put back in. That's a whole month of dentist visits! wow!

Moving on to more interesting things... Work is going well. I have 23 classes this year (plus 5 Bible studies) and 63 students (plus 8 or so who only come to Sunday Bible class, the number changes every week though.) I'm a little busier than last year, but I don't have to go to meetings in Tokyo anymore, so that helps out a bit. And this week I was able to start studying the Bible again with my pastor. We do it in English and Japanese, so it's a good chance for me to study Japanese a bit more, and learn some of those "Christian words" in Japanese. During the fall it's just too busy to do it, but spring is a little more relaxed.

This weekend I went to a birthday party for two girls I know. It was quite the event. We went to an Arabian themed restaurant. It was really elaborate. I wish I had pictures, but my camera was out of batteries. There were 12 or 13 people in the end. It was fun. I got to walk home with Sensei too. We had a nice conversation. Speaking of Sensei... It's been really exciting lately. One of the members of my church here has become a fan of the band, and she made friends with Sensei. It's been really good. She even brought him to church week before last! As we were walking home he told me he is going to come back to church. (he draws people's faces, and he did that for the Sunday School Kids, and I think he's going to come back and do it again maybe. But then afterwards, he stays for church.) I wasn't sure what he thought of church, but he said it was interesting and not bad. So I'm glad he didn't have a bad experience. And some of the church members recognized him from when he played with the band. This is really super exciting for me! God is good.

It finally feels like spring is here. It's great. Not just weather wise, but in general. I feel like a lot of relationships that had been in "winter mode" are now in "spring mode", growing and opening up again. It's wonderful how God uses seasons of our life.

I'm learning more and more how to deal with tiredness and such in my life. Hopefully soon I'll be able to do more with my time (like keeping my house clean, and e-mailing more people.)

Well, I think this is good for today. Hopefully soon I'll try to put up the pictures I took on my trip to Hakone. Those are some fun pictures too.

Finally done with travel

Wow. It was a bit of a crazy spring break for me. Two trips packed into a small space. But it was good. I am back safely from my trip to America. I meant to post sooner, but as soon as I got back, I was busy again. I was so busy in fact that the jet lag couldn't even kick in until Monday. Haha.

The big news is how much God continues to bless and provide for me. I am now the proud owner of a new laptop. Not only that, it's another VAIO, which I love. My wonderful church in America, who so generously supports me, raised enough money to replace my poor dying laptop with a new one. Buying it was quite the adventure, but now everything seems to be fine again. I am always so blessed by that church and everyone there. I am so thankful for all the support.

So now, I have no excuse for not updating as often. I have to figure out a bit of the fun things you can do with the new Vista, and finish transferring some files, but hopefully I'll be back at 100% in no time. Of course, that's assuming I have time. Haha. My teaching schedule went up again this year. I am now the proud teacher of 23 classes a week, and 63 students.

Hmmm... Anyway, my trip to Hakone, Odawara and Yokohama with Aya went really well. I'll put up some pictures once I get them on this computer. It was a really great time. I think it was the first time I have ever been on a "road trip" with a friend. We were a good match. We both like very similar things (like samurai and ninjas...) and she was very patient with my inability to communicate past the level of an intelligent 5 year old. haha. But she's good with kids, so that probably had a lot to do with it. Haha.

My trip to Texas was also good. By that time I was pretty exhausted from travel and work, but I did manage to get some sleep in there. The biggest shock for me was to go from living alone to sharing a house with six other people! My brother came down with his family to visit while I was there. I had the unique problem of having jet lag, waking up every night, and not being able to move from my bed because I had two sleeping children (very cute sleeping children I might add) in my room, and my brother and his wife were in the living room. Next time it might be better for me to sleep in the living room so I can at least get up and move around during the night. hahaha.
There wasn't nearly enough time though. I just barely missed one of my friends who made it back to Texas the day I left. But I was totally a bum and I didn't contact anyone else. Sorry! I was super tired and there just wasn't a lot of time.

Well, I think that is all for this update. Today I have to go to the dentist again. fun. It seems there is something wrong with one of my teeth. I have no idea what the problem is as the name of the condition was given to me in Japanese and it's not in any dictionary I have access to for now. I think I might be having a root canal, but I'm not sure. I think the root, or nerve or something inside my tooth is dying, and leaking out or something. Anyway, he has to drill and remove it, but I guess it's gonna take three visits to get it done. Not happy about that. Actually, I just really hate the local anesthesia. And I have to teach with that stuff in my mouth! Fun stuff. Ah the joys of medical problems in a foreign language. You learn a lot of trust. haha. At least the insurance is good.

Well, ok, because I need to go to the dentist, I need to stop writing now and get ready to go. I will try to put up some more pictures soon. The first two pictures are on my way to America, sunrise in the plane and a beautiful sunset that God blessed me with once I got home. The last two are from the bus I was riding home in Tokyo.

Keeping up

So, turned out the cold I had was much worse than I thought it was. Last week, I ended up loosing my voice for a whole day, and in danger of loosing it for most of the week. Very sad. Even now, I'm still wating for my voice to get back to normal. I'd like to be able to sing again!

In random news, I found out from a student a theory of why medicine is so weak in Japan. Apparently the government is very strict about what kind of medicications they allow into Japan. If there are even small side effects, it's not likely to be allowed in. So, much of the medicine is weak. That, and difference in physique.

So the good news is that I'm finished with all my classes but one. I still teach this Friday. This means, since today is Monday, I don't have class for three days, and then I come back to teach one day. This left me with a really strange spring vacation. The solution? A short trip with one of my friends. Starting tomorrow, I'm going on a three day trip with a Japanese friend. This will be fun and exciting for me. This might be my first "road trip" with a friend. And it might be my longest time spent only in Japanese. We'll see how long I manage to last! Haha. Please look forward to the awesome pictures I'm sure to take!

This spring break, like most spring breaks, looks like it's going to stay pretty busy. This week is my mini-trip. Then come back, teach for one day, then Easter, one day off (probably spent packing) then it's off to America for a quick trip. There's a lot I need to pack into that trip too. I just hope I get some time to rest in there too. Travel can be fun, but it's certainly not restful for me. But, I'm looking forward to it.

Anyway, here are some random pictures. First is a nice sunset in front of the church. Second is one of my students with his head in his bag. Yeah, I don't know why his head is in his bag. Last picture is of my house on one of the days it snowed this year.

Ok, I guess that's all for now. I'll try to post when I get back from my first trip. If not, it'll be when I get back from America.

Just another update.

Just in case you were wondering about these things, (which I'm sure you are not) this is my 192nd post. This means in 8 more posts, I'll reach 200! How exciting is that?

Anyway, I finally uploaded a bunch of pictures from my cell phone to the computer, AND I figured out how to get Picasa working right again. (my computer has been such a pain lately...) So I have some fun pictures for you today.

First picture, look closely at the fine print. This is a sign of an English school near my house. I wonder how many people notice this?? what do you mean "or children?" You mean I have to choose between having Useful English and having children? What if I want both? haha. Actually, I'm pretty sure the "f" in "for" just faded away. But it's still pretty funny.


This second picture is of a fun drink you can make yourself at the local family resturant. I go there a lot with students. You get this drink by first putting in orange juice, and then adding some sweetener. Then you pour in over the top, hot, freshly brewed rose hip tea. That's what gives it the nice color. But it's better to drink if you actually mix it up first. It's fun to make and look at, but the tea still makes it a little too bitter for me.

In other news, I've officially come down with a cold. Probably because my body is finally relaxing after almost an entire month of stress and tension. I just hope it doesn't get too bad. I really hate colds in Japan. It's super hard to find decent over the counter medicine. Japanese medicine seems weaker than American medicine, and even in America, I often have to take the strongest dosage of the medicine. So, I feel like taking medicine does almost nothing here. A lot of people go to the "hospital" when they have colds. "Hospitals" in Japan are more like clinics than Hospitals. Or rather, a combination of the two. But there's just something in me that rebels against going to the hospital for a silly cold. After all, it'll eventually go away on it's own.

In slightly related news, did you know? I have never once missed a day of work for being sick while working in Japan. (I did miss Japanese class a few times back in orientation though...)

And in other fun news, it looks like I'll be able to visit America again this year at the end of this month. I should be home for only about 10 days this year. My spring break is a bit short this year for various reasons. And my summer is already booked. Hope to see you when I am in America!

Survived the big event!

So this Sunday was the big event, Open House. I had actually been planning this event pretty far in advance. (over a month, this is huge for me!) As I'm not a big fan of the normal layout for Open House, I decided to spice things up, Amber-style.

There was actually two open houses, one for kids (started at 1:00) and one for adults (started at 3). The kids one we made projects of things we studied about in class to show to the parents. And then we performed songs from class. The returnee's also did a dramatic reading of the book "You are Special" by Max Lucado. Yang Sensei gave a message about the book too.

But the big event was the Adult Open House. Usually the adults give speeches. But I'm not a fan of speeches, so I changed it this year. We loosely based the theme on a popular TV game show that airs at the end of every year. Since it sounds very similar to my name translated in Japanese, I decided to make an English version of the game. "Kohaku."

Each of my classes had to think of a short English game, make the rules, and do all the preparations for the game. This way every class participated even if they couldn't come. There were 9 games in all, but we only had time for 7. All the participants (my adult students, plus two families of returnees, plus 4 Trash Box Jam staff members) were divided into two teams, Blue team and Silver team. At the end of every game, the members of Trash Box Jam (who were serving as judges for the event) would vote to see which team got the point for the game. It was a great result that ended in a tie. I was happy. The games were followed by Trash Box Jam playing for them, and then a small party. I think it went off really well.

So now, I'm rather happy to be finished with the planning and stress. And I'm satisfied with the results. It was a good event. And there was also another message in Japanese after the band played so the band members (and around 10 or so fans,) plus students got to hear a Christian message. This was the third time I was able to include the band in my events. So far it seems to be getting positive responses, and it's what I'm passionate about. I really love having a job where I am free to work with my passions. God is good. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :-D

Here's a slide show from the adult event. (Thanks to Yoshiko for taking all the pictures for me, except the band ones at the end.)

Basking in Blessings

Well, it's exciting, I'm finally figuring out how to operate blogger in English again, AND to get out of the html editing mode. Man, that was crazy.

Anyway. Here's a quick update. Spring Retreat was good. Real good actually. God really provided everything I needed. I was a bit surprised this year, because ususally watching the people return back to America doesn't impact me so much. I get over goodbyes pretty quickly. Probably because I treat it about the same way I treat stagefright, which is that I just don't deal with it. Anyway, this is the first group that I have both watched come and go. I was actually there to pick them up from the air port (and take pictures, which they weren't so appreciative of...). I have watched how they have changed in Japan, and how they have changed Japan. It's amazing. So it's going to be strange to watch 4 out of 5 leave in March.


It had kinda snuck up on me too, that they had changed me as well. That's amazing. And I guess that's what forming a community does. The impact on each other is so much greater.

Anyway. Here are some pictures from the weekend. Every Spring Retreat is always held in Tokyo, because of the special events and such for the returning volunteers. So there are a couple of pictures of Tokyo tower. I think this is still the closest I've come to the actual tower. Someday I'd like to actually visit the tower.

Then there's a picture of us at Karaoke. It was a great time, and thanks to this game thing at the begining, we were able to win 50% off of our time. I really like Karaoke. It was a ton of fun.

Final picture is of me at the band concert last Sat. It was really good. Tomorrow is my last big event of the school year, Open House. It's gonna be a long, long day. Today is practice time with the kids. I realized yesterday, that I had forgotten to ask anyone to help me with the practice, so it's probably going to be me and almost 30 kids. Haha. Fun stuff. Hopefully it will go allright.

Ok, that's all for now. I need to get ready for the kids.

yeah, this is gonna be totally random.

So yeah, it's been a little while since I have posted. The funny thing is, I am constantly thinking of things to write about and I take a ton of pictures to put here. I just usually can't sit down to actually write and put up pictures. Yeah, I'm a bum. So here's an update.

Tomorrow begins Spring Retreat. We have two mandatory retreats for the missionaries in our program every year, Spring and Fall. Fall is more retreat style, where we get to go off location and have a bit of rest, and spiritual nourishment. But Spring Retreat is always in Tokyo. This is the time when we do our farewell ceremonies for the missionaries who are leaving in March.

Spring Retreat can be a very stressful and difficult time emotionally. There are a lot of dynamics involved when you bring all the missionaries together. Usually it's good, but sometimes it's hard. But mostly, I've discovered that I tend to go into "reverse culture shock" when I'm around large groups of Americans. I get really stressed out by the loudness, and the large group atmosphere. But this year, I think maybe it will be ok. I think it's mainly the thinking about it before it happens that stresses me out. Actually, I really do love my fellow missionaries. I just usually prefer to be with them in smaller groups. I don't function well in large groups actually. I need one on one time with people to feel like I've really connected. Well, two or three people at a time is fine too.

Lately I've been running on overload. There has been a whole lot to think about. Preparations for the next school year (school starts in April in Japan), preparations for my next event (which, stupid me, decided to make it more fun and exciting, thus increasing my stress in preparing for it! Haha. But I'm getting excited now. I think it's going to be really fun!), preparations for Spring Retreat, plus my regular schedule, throw in a birthday and a shopping trip and I'm wiped out.

That brings me to my next topic. Here's a quiz for you. (no cheating and looking ahead at all the pictures. What do you think this is? Check out the first picture.


Well, what ever you are guessing... You are wrong. Try the next picture.



Still haven't guessed? (now I'm guessing...)
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By now I'm sure you have figured it out. It's a restroom! Yeah, go figure. Japan has some of the best restrooms in the world. They are super high tech. They have fun sounds that play so you aren't embarrassed by the sounds you make, heated seats, automatic flushing, and a ton of other fun gadgets. It's really amazing. And of course right along side of that is the squatty potty, (sorry, forgot to take a picture of that stall...)

Anyway, I found this while out shopping with some friends. We were all impressed by the niceness of the restroom. (they laughed at me for taking pictures.)


Here is a picture of the girls I was with in one of the famous areas of Tokyo, Asakusa. Actually, this is the next story I wanted to tell. Let me tell you about craziness.

So these are girls I hang out with when I go to see the band. One girl I walk home with every weekend. Well, it turns out that we both have a love of beads. She likes making things from beads and I like crafts of all kinds. So she knew of this great shop for beads in Tokyo. So I asked her to take me there sometime. After a great deal of scheduling (and putting it off for about 2 or 3 months) we finally set the date for last Monday. Two other girls were invited to join us. So we met at 10:30 AM. A little early for me on my day off, but hey, it was only a little shopping right? I figured at the latest, I should be back home by about 7 for a nice leisurely evening. That's what I thought...

So, it turns out, they really like being out. I guess. I got home at about midnight (and they were still going after that.) I was really tired. I didn't know shopping took so much energy. We ate twice together, and even walked(after shopping half the day, also all walking) to a famous temple in Tokyo. (At the end there are some pictures from the temple. It was just getting dark, so the gate and a famous 5 story pagoda were lit up to make for some nice pictures. I took them with my cell phone, but they turned out pretty good.) It was quite a long and tiring day for my day off.



Next picture is of a scarf I made for Mako's birthday. I made it in about 9 hours on Sat. We had his birthday party on Sunday. This was the first time I had been able to attend his party, since his birthday is usually the same weekend as Spring Retreat, I can't get away in time. So it was nice to be able to go. He was really happy with the scarf, and I was happy, because he opened it and put it on right then. (He is a band member, so there were a lot of girls giving him presents and he didn't have the time to open all the presents. But he did open mine, so I was lucky with my timing.) So there are a couple of pictures of Mako and his "muffler" (as they commonly call scarves here.)


In other news... I had a great Bible study today. On most days I have a Bible Study directly following my first adult class of the day. This class is all newer students who have never studied the Bible before. So we have been covering the very basic stuff. We just started reading from the Bible about two weeks ago. We are reading in Genesis about creation. Today was the fall.

But it was really good. My students were really confused for most of the class (about several things.) But in the end, they could get the main idea, but there were still a few things they couldn't piece together. So I told them we would re-read the same passage next week. But just as they were about to leave, as they were talking about what they were confused about, the right question was asked to put everything into place. It is what I like to call a "naruhodo" moment. ("naruhodo" means something like, "I see" or "I get it now." Think, "eureka") So it was wonderful when my students could finally get the point. "Ah! God did that because He loves us!" I was so happy. It was so wonderful to hear them say that (esp about "the fall" since that story is hard to see where God's love is...)

I'm really thankful that God is blessing my students. I know it's not what I'm doing (I'm sure I'm more confusing half the time than helpful, and I know I go over their heads most of the time). It's all God. It's wonderful. God has been doing good things with that class. Praise God.

Ok. That's all for now. Tomorrow is Spring Retreat, so I should probably get some sleep, and finish my last minute preparations.

It's official.

So it's finally official. I will be working at my current site one more year.

I kinda guessed for a while, but nothing was "official" until a meeting today where the NRK (Japan Lutheran Church) approved the suggestions of our director. One more year. My students will be happy.

But, this should be my last year. After this, I'm definately going to need a new job. One that pays money. Students loans are looming over my head too closely for comfort lately. There's only so long I can put off paying them, as much as I'd like to continue working here.

This year wasn't nearly as nerve wracking as last year though. So that's good.

Here's to another year! 今年もよろしくお願いします。