First Week

Hello friends, family, and other blog readers that I may have not met! Today is May 31st, and I have now been in Japan for about 5 days now. This is my first post, and I've never "blogged" before, so I apologize to all of those who have been waiting on me. So, I have a lot to catch up on. This first post, therefore, is going to be somewhat long. But don't worry, hopefully faithful readers, future posts will be as pithy as I can make them without leaving out anything.

Ok! So.... my trip here was long, but thankfully dad got to drop me off at the airport and walk me through check in. It was nice to spend time with him before I left. I also was able to see my grandparents in Berthoud before embarking. It was such a blessing to have easy airport gate numbers, so I did not get lost at all in the airports! :D I also got to catch up on many new release movies on my flight from LA to Tokyo, and yes, I did watch Taken for those who requested that movie from me before I got here.

Because of the Swine flu "pandemic" in the states, each person arriving in Tokyo was required to fill out a health evaluation sheet. If you had any symptoms of the flu, you were ushered through a small check up station at the airport. Thanks to my slight run in with the flu a couple weeks before school ended, I had a slight cough left over which made me go get my temperature taken at the airport in Tokyo. Again, though, thankfully there were no real problems in the airport, and I got through and out to the gate area in about fifteen minutes or so.

Drew Glosson, a former ECS intern who now lives and works as a missionary around the Tokyo area, was super kind enough to agree to meet me at the airport and help me get on the right trains. I was so glad that he helped me, and that we got to chat. He told me about the Shinto religion, and how most people in Japan don't necessarily have a religion, but that being religious is part of being Japanese. Right now, he's doing his best to learn Japanese and, like Hudson Taylor to the Chinese, fit in to be able to minister, and I wish him all the best. I know that he will do great things for God.

I was able to see a bit of Tokyo as we rushed from one station to another and I got to ride on this awesome double-decker train. Laura picked me up at Nagaoka Station. So from the airport to the Morts, it took about five hours.

My first day in Kashiwazaki, the town I am currently staying in, I slept off my jetlag until lunch time. I then went to a part with Rebekah, almost 12, and Kei, 9, Laura's daughters. We hung out for a while and I got to see the Sea of Japan from the park. Laura and I also walked down by a little creek or brooke that had fountains and waterfalls. It was really pretty.

Friday the 29th, I got my first taste of ECS. In the morning, I "helped" Jerry grade some University level english quizzes. I think maybe I might have done more harm than good :S haha, but it was nice to talk with Jerry and learn a little about the University classes. Around noon, Laura and I went to the ECS building and had lunch and fellowship followed by a bible study with four other Japanese ladies. We read and looked over Exodus 5.

After the bible study, I colored and cut English flashcards for Laura's children's class. I also got to meet Keiko, the secretary at ECS. She was really sweet and I got the chance to talk with her and one of the student's mothers while Laura taught a class. They asked me a few questions about my family and where I live and go to school.

Saturday the 30th! On Saturday, I went with Laura to three different stores to buy groceries for the house as well as food and supplies for a hot dog roast/welcoming party for me. It was interesting to see the different stores and things they had. One large department store had a moving walkway ramp so you could go up to a second floor of the store with your cart. :)

After we got back to the house, I cleaned strawberries to be frozen for use in ice cream, and helped Laura a little with prep work for the hot dog roast.

Before the hot dog roast was kid's club. About seven kids, including the Mort's two daughters came to a camp to learn about Jesus calming the storm. They made boats out of sticks, leaves, string, and tape. It was fun. We also made origami boats. Thanks to Keiko sitting right next to me, I was able to keep up haha:).

When kid's club was done, we cleaned up and set up tables and chairs for the hot dog roast while Jerry played with fire... I mean, set up the grill. There were about 25 people who came. They seemed to enjoy roasting their hot dogs over a charcoal fire, but mostly, I think they liked the s'mores that we made. :D For those of you wondering, we had Japanese hot dogs which kinds taste more like braut sausage than normal hot dogs... but they were good. Also, we needed to use chocolate dipped cookies instead of graham crackers on account of not finding any crackers.

I introduced myself with assistance from Jerry and his Japanese translation skills, and took a few questions like when was my birthday, was I going to come back and work in Japan after school, and was I homesick yet.

And finally Sunday. Again, I apologize for the length of this post. i will try and be more frequent with my posts instead of waiting for the end of the week. :S Today i went with the Morts to a Japanese church. It was a cute little church with nice people. The service was all in Japanese, but thanks to Jerry giving me a breif overview every couple of minutes, I was able to know at least a little bit of what was going on. The service was on Acts 2 and the Pentecost since today was Pentecost here. Even though I didn't really understand much of what was being said, I really enjoyed the service. People from other congregations, and even pastors from other congregations sometimes visit other churches to keep the fellowship between the churches. It was really neat.

I was also able to meet a young lady named Chisako that invited me to a tea ceremony practice of which I am pretty excited to see. The rest of my day consisted of hanging out with Rebekah and Kei and introducing them to Teen Girl Squad and Strong Bad Emails.... which they loved haha.

I am really excited for all the things we have going on, and I am thankful for all of your support and prayers. One very important thing I would like you to keep in your prayers is the expansion of the Kashiwazaki ECS building. I was talking with Laura and she expressed a want for a bigger, better building with more room for more students and more people for events, as well as the ability to be handicap accessible. If you would add this to your prayers, that would be awesome. God bless you all, and I will write again soon.

~Karissa