Ocha + July 4th!

I didn't really do much yesterday, so I will only talk about today. Today, for our ususal Advanced Ladies' Class, we went to a tea museum. Machiko is a tea ceremony teacher, so she took all of us (plus her daughter in law) to the museum where we got to sit in on a pretty casual tea ceremony. It was a lot of fun.

First, a lady brought us a Japanese sweet that we were to eat before the tea. The tea, or ocha, is supposed to be pretty bitter, so they give you the sweet to sweeten your mouth before the tea. Another lady was making the tea. We were each served tea in a bowl like cup. Each of the cups are around 500 years old. They even change the cups according to the seasons. The cups we used? Today was the last day they were used this season. They are changed out tomorrow.

I was complimented on my sitting by both the man telling us about the museum and the ceremony and the lady who served us. Machiko also said that I was very good at the ceremony, and in 3 weeks she is going to teach me how to actually make the tea! I am way excited!




The museum is built in a very large, beautiful Japanese garden! Oh man! I want to live there! The place was gorgeous! We walked around a bit after the tea ceremony.




If you would like to see more pics of the garden and tea ceremony (courtesy of Laura! :D):

http://www.facebook.com/karissa.dennis?cropsuccess=#/album.php?aid=276712&id=814700376&ref=mf

After we got back from the tea museum, I hurried on over to ECS. I was kinda in charge of the kid's classes today :S. I was to teach them a little about July 4th and then do some activities. for the first class, it was only the one girl. We read a book together called The Fourth of July Mice....I found it to be kind of ridiculous. haha. After that, we colored a US flag and made a flag Japanese fan. The second class, we colored flags, counted stars, and then made pinwheels. They really seemed to like it. We also ate watermelon popsicles. The looked like watermelon slices and tasted pretty much just like a watermelon...only with chocolate seeds. mmm.

The last class of the night was the Intermediate class with Takako and Misaki. We talked about too and enough. After the class was over, Misaki gave me a present. She gave me two packages of paper balloons, one pufferfish and one strawberry and a takoyaki (octopus ball) key chain. It was so sweet. :)

Arigatoo Gozaimasu!

This is one of two blogs I will be doing today. This one is going to be a quick note about Sunday and a quick thank you for those who supported me financially.

Ok. Sunday was church. Then there was lunch at the church. I cannot tell you what all I ate, but it was all Oishi! (delicious!) And it was all Japanese. :)

After church, we went shoe shopping. This is the quick thanks to the supporters. Thanks to your support I was able to reach enough money so that I had a lot of extra spending money. About $50 went to buying me some decent waterproof hiking shoes for when I climb Fuji. Another $100 or so will help pay for the Fuji trip. Thanks everyone for allowing me the opportunity to experience so many awesome things while I am over here in Japan. Arigatoo gozaimasu! (Thank you very much!)

Man vs Mountain, Season 1

Yoni-yama

Today we climbed Yoni-yama. It is 1/3 the size of Fuji, and the average time getting up the mountain is about 3 1/2 hours.

We left for the trip at about 10. The trek was pretty hard; the trail being mostly stairs. We ended stopping for a quick breather every couple of minutes. When we reached the half way mark, we were able to see our destination: a little house on the top of the mountain. The above picture is a pic from half way.

We passed a bunch of people on their way back down the mountain. They were really nice and some even chatted with us for a bit. One man who was stopped talked to me in English :). About 400 meters from the top, there was a little trail that led down to a well. Jerry and Rebekah filled up our water bottles while Robin and I stayed on the original trail. I cannot tell you how good cool water tasted on a day like today.

Like I said, most of the trail was stairs or stair like parts, but there was this one glorious stretch of mostly flat, slightly up and down trail. It was soooo beautiful in more ways than one. Haha. There were also parts on the trail that were so steep they put up ropes on the side of the trail to help you climb it. Yoru-chan, a man who works at number coffee, invited me to climb with him sometime. Jerry told me he goes fast and he goes at night. :S I don't think that that will happen anytime soon. haha.

When we reached the top of the mountain, you could see the ocean! There was a little rest house where we stopped, ate lunch, and played Euchre. Rebekah and I won... but just barely!

The trek down was easier, but at the same time, for me at least, really hard. I have a terrible sense of balance as well as gravity.... the earth likes to suck me down to its surface when I'm going down hill. My legs were shaky, and I was taking it pretty slow. Jerry and I decided that my dad is thankful for the trail ropes today. If it weren't for said ropes, Jerry might have fell down, running into me and making us both tumble down.....well, stairs!

Thankfully we all made it up and down the mountain in one piece and then we all went and got cappachino shakes and donuts at Mr. Donut!

Prayers:

I think praying for those of us who climbed the mountain today would be a good idea. We will all be really sore tomorrow.

Prayers for the 4th of July BBQ next Saturday

This next week at ECS, we will do some culture learning. I will learn about Japanese tea ceremonies, and the students will be learning about the 4th of July and maybe make matchstick rockets? (like we did at home in the kitchen, dad :D)

Laura's back is doing better

Thanks for all your prayers. God bless!

P.S. If you would like to see more pictures of our trip visit this site (provided you haven't already seen these on facebook :P)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7542253&id=814700376&saved#/album.php?page=1&aid=275200&id=814700376

Your strength, his steal, and my brains against 60 men, and you think a little head jiggle's supposed to make me happy? hmmm?

Ok. Update.
Last I wrote was Sunday... so I have about 3 days to catch up on.... No problem!

Money
I mean Monday.....
Soooooooo, yeah. Mondays are days off, basically, for everyone but Jerry. Haha. I mean... sorry Jerry. Before we shipped Jerry off to work, we all drove out to Yomiyama to figure out where the trail is at. On Saturday, Jerry, Rebekah, Robin from Sanjo and I will be climbing Yomiyama. It's a practice run. haha. In July we are planning on hiking up Mt. Fuji!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's right!! Wooohooo! But we decided to climb a smaller mountain to see if Rebekah, for one, can handle the whole Fuji climb and just for practice to build up some strength. Yoniyama is about one third the size of Fuji.
Anywho, after we found the trail, we drove Jerry to work at the University and then went summer clothes shopping. I didn't buy anything, but the girls needed shoes and Bekah needed shorts and stuff. I did SEE some pretty interesting clothes, though.
After supper, I went out for a walk. I was going to go to Number 1 coffee, but they were going to close soon, so I just went over to 7-11 and bought some ice cream. Mmmm.... ice cream. I was really hoping that it was going to rain on me while I was walking. It didn't. Kinda made me feel silly carrying around an umbrella. :S
It DID rain later at night though. I put on my shoes and went outside and stood in the rain. No umbrella, that would have wasted ... i dunno, something. I'm used to rain being cold, but the rain here is not really that cold. I stood outside for almost 10 minutes before I felt silly standing in the street outside the house in the rain.
I apparently locked the door on the wrong side when I came back in also. :S haha
Oh well. At least it was locked!

TUESDAY
Didn't do much Tuesday morning....I lounged about. But Laura had to go to the chiropractor this day because she had twisted her back or something. So I got to lead Laura's advanced ladies class by myself! It was fun! One lady, Tomomi, is expecting a baby in September. We talked about what she was going to name the baby, and we also talked about how the other ladies in the group, Noboko and Machiko, named their kids. I really love these ladies. They are so much fun. Machiko's oldest son's name is Dai (pronounced die). She was saying how in Japanese it means Great, but in English die means die. ahaha... they both named their kids easy names. :D
After we were done talking for the most part, we were talking about Japanese culture, and Machiko is a tea ceremony instructor. We all decided, without Laura (haha), that next week for class we would go to this tea museum. We would also get to participate in the tea ceremony. Jerry told me the cups we will be using their are really really old. I think it was either 6 generations or 6 centuries old. Either way, they're pretty old.
Machiko even taught us the basics of what we would be doing in the tea ceremony. I am WAY excited!!!
I helped Jerry out with his ECS classes today. In the first class, I helped the only student who showed up, Rae, with some flash cards. She is a very bright girl. The next class was the giggly girls class. They were doing a review of the alphabet and counting. The last class we had for the night was the intermediate class. Only Takako came to class. We talked about the difference between hope and wish. In the book the class is using, there is a dialogue that uses hope and wish. It is between a princess and a frog. Takako and I were supposed to read it. It made us laugh really hard. She was the princess and I was the frog. She started off by wishing she could meet a handsome prince and go somewhere romantic. I, the frog, chirped in that I was a handsome prince. Now that made me giggle a little, but when Takako read "Oooo, may I kiss you?" I lost it and she started laughing as well.
The advanced class was canceled because neither of the students showed up.

Wednesday..... (that's today)
I was slow going this morning too. Have been every day this week. But after I finally got up, Laura and I went to the birdie store (once again, i don't know the name. It's Ma...something something). We found a coat for Josh, since they are going to the States for Christmas. A coat might come in handy.
After the birdie store, we went to ECS. After playing around with cute little kids for the first two classes and talking with some girls for the third, we ate supper (mine included speghetti and melon ice cream.... mmmmm....) and then made hamburger patties. For the 4th of July, ECS puts on a bbq on the beach. I can't wait. I believe there are fireworks also, so I can be patriotic and light things on fire to celebrate our independance even abroad!!!
For the last class, we played a little bit of scattegories...only, we just wrote down as many ___ words we could think of. It was fun. And now here I am, blogging for the knowledge and enjoyment of YOU, my reader. :D

Prayers:
Please pray for Laura's back. She got it checked, but she was still hurting today.
Please also pray over our 4th of July BBQ coming up, that it will be a great ministering opportunity.

My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die!

Welcome, fair maidens, to our fair village. I would like to start off this blog with an ode to a very special person, near and dear to my heart: my daddy!

I would like to say, "Thank you, daddy, for being so supportive of me and always being an encouragement. You are so sweet and loving. You are uplifting and I always enjoy talking with you....even if it takes five unanswered phone calls. ;) But it's ok, because you bought that webcam and mic just to be able to chat with me online. I love you soooo much, daddy. Thanks for always being there for me. Happy Father's Day!"

TODAY!!!!! =FATHER'S DAY!!!!

Today was a pretty fun, simple day. We went to church.... i didn't sit by Jerry this time, so I ended up writing out sounds to the hiragana that I knew in the bulletin and reading about 4-5 chapters of Genesis. I read about Joseph :). I was proud of myself, though. I kept up on most of the Japanese hymns they sang written in hiragana! Woot, Woot!

After church service, they took a church photo. Their church photo includes everyone who was at the church at the time of the photo, so I am in the church photo! It was fun because Keiko and Aki were getting me to do silly things in the pictures with them. :D

We stayed for lunch at the church and this week was bento week. A bento is basically a box lunch.... and they bought bentos for everyone. It was pretty tasty. The only thing I knew for sure that I ate was bamboo rice. haha

When we got home, we played a couple games of euchre, then me and the girls walked down to the 7-11 and the birdie shop and explored. After we got back, Laura, Kei, and I walked down to the river. On the way back, I almost stepped on a little crab. It kinda freaked me out cause all of a sudden this little rock was moving. ahaha

We had pizza and then finished off the night with some Princess Bride, which makes my title doubly relevent today. Father and Princess Bride. It fits! I actually didn't need to watch the movie. I was sitting in the back mouthing the whole thing. I've seen it enough to know all the lines in it.

Have fun storming the castle!

What to say, what to say. I've learned a couple things about myself the last couple days. Hot showers don't tend to melt away my grumpiness, a day without any form of caffiene is like a day at sea with no wind, and I cannot eat a whole bowl of ramen. Nope. Can't do it.

Let's begin. Once upon a time, there was.... me. Friday, if you haven't begun to notice a pattern, is lunch and bible study with the ladies. Friday's lunch was egg salad and tuna salad sandwiches....mmmmmm. I was given the task of going down to the birdie shop (yeah, I don't know the name of the store. But there is a bird on the sign, so.....) and buying some butter rolls for the salads to be put on. Easy enough, right? But apparently they have some butter rolls here that come with butter in them....that would not be all that great for a sandwich. Luckily another growing trend on my Fridays is Japanese class, so I happened to have my Hiragana and Katakana alphabet worksheets on me. That was lucky!! All of the signs at the bakery were basically in Katakana.....I'm struggling to remember Hiragana right now...and sooooo....trying to remember Katakana at the spur of the moment to find bata-ro was not happenin'. Another lucky occurance...the sign actually said bata-ro, well, in katakana of course, and not some Japanese word that I didn't know the meaning of. If you still don't get it say ba-ta-ro slowly.
Ba-ta-ro=-bu-tter-roll :D. I managed, thankfully, and the rolls I bought? DELICIOUS!!! They were sooooo good.

After bible study, (we learned about Moses and the Red Sea, if you were wondering) I headed on over to Japanese class. Again, lucky moment. I walked into the building right after a girl that was in my group and followed her to where the class was. Why is this lucky? They had class in a different room than last week. I would have been soooo lost. We learned about seasons and a few other things like weather and the difference between "o" and "oh" in speaking and writing. I still like the class alot....even though I'm pretty sure I'm behind everyone else in my group. haha.

I chilled for a bit when we got back to the house. For some reason, I was kinda in a grumpy mood. I went and took a hot shower, putting on some coffee before I went. Nice long hot shower+ hot cup of coffee+ the added bonus of peanut butter popcorn apparently did not = good mood. I didn't snap at anyone or anything like that. I just took my coffee and popcorn back to my room to get away from it all. After the chillins went to bed, I hiked downstairs to have my weekly meeting with Laura. And then we started talking about a bunch of other things.....for like 2 hours. It was really nice though, and I appreciated it greatly.

Today!
I woke up this morning at about 9 or so, stumbled downstairs, took a shower and then went to get my usual cup of coffee and.....bum, bum, bummmmmmmmm! There was hardly anything in the pot! I felt pretty awake anyway so I thought I'd go without. I hurried up and finished getting ready just in time to head out the door to take Kei to her friend Ami's to study science and then go grocery shopping with Laura. I was feeling fine....until we actually got to Ami's house and Laura went inside for a few moments. I was stranded at the drive-in, branded a fool, what will they..... wait.... that's not right at all.... I was just left in the car for a bit and then that lack of morning coffee hit me hard. I almost fell asleep in the car. I dunno what it is about Saturdays and no coffee lately, but it's really starting to bum me out. Laura noticed my distress and said we could get coffee at the grocery store, which is what I did last week. We both forgot. How I forgot, I do not know.

After we got back to the house and put groceries away, I hung out for a bit before Keiko came over. We had planned about a week ago to go to a ramen shop today. So she came over about 11:30. We walked over to the ramen shop and then waited outside for about 10-15 minutes because it was so busy. I was told to just order ramen, which is kinda a soy sauce ramen. Keiko was going to order miso ramen and then let me try it. I didn't get a picture, but those bowls were huge! Like huge huge! I also learned that Naruto, you know the ninja? Naruto is actually this white thing with a pink swirl that they put in ramen..... that's all I know. Keiko didn't know how to describe it. I think it tasted funny. The ramen was pretty good, the miso ramen tasted a bit better, though. I didn't eat all of my ramen.... but that turned out to be ok cause Keiko finished it off. :D

Keiko hung out around the house with me and Rebekah til about 2-2:30. Rebekah showed us how to make this.... flower looking thing with origami... it was pretty fun. We also played spoons. I told Laura about SCC games of Extreme Spoons. It very well may be an English camp activity. She was warned about the hazards, though. Like violence over a spoon. haha.

By the time Keiko left, the fact that STILL no caffiene had been added to my body was hitting me hard. I fell asleep for 3 hours before waking up for supper. I will definately have to make sure to get my coffee tomorrow because between this cold and no caffiene, I am really tired at the writing of this blog, only 4 hours after my 3 hour nap. Plus I have a withdrawal headache. haha.

Oh! In case you were wondering, Kids' Club was canceled this week due to a lack of people signed up for it. That's why there are no little paragraphs about kids' club in this blog. Well, except for this one. :)

There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead

Sorry all my readers. I kinda made myself a liar by not posting yesterday as I had promised. I didn't count on the fact that I would be completely exhausted and barely functioning as a living organism the past two days. I really don't have anything exciting to report from the last two days, as I really didn't do anything but wander around the house looking for the brain I had lost. Laura was in the same boat as me. Hopefully we are both up to snuff tomorrow, or it's going to be an extremely long day. :S

Oh yeah, that reminds me. I would appreciate prayers for both me and Laura because we are pretty sure this slight brush with mostly deadness is caused by an ambush by the cold. So far, we have done our best to fight it off, but it's a tough advisary.

Enma Ichi Adventure

Hello loyal readers and those joining us for the first time. You may have noticed that there has not been any posts for like, the past 3-4 days. There is a reason for that. From Sunday til today was Enma Ichi, a street festival in honor of the Chinese god Enma, Lord of the Underworld. Bum Bum Bummmmmmm.
Anywho, I decided that I would give you Enma Ichi in one big serving instead of little pieces. So, here you go. My Enma Ichi experience.

Before the Festival

Like I said, Enma Ichi started on Sunday. But because it is Sunday, we went to church. It was kids Sunday, so the preacher, well, preached about the Israelites in the wilderness using what looked like pictures from a coloring book. During Sunday school, he elaborated on the story more for the adults.
After the church service, the church has lunhc. Usually the Mort family goes home for lunch, but today we stayed. Most of the food was Japanese, which is a given. I sat betwen Aki and Keiko, and Keiko made sure that I tried a little bit of everything. haha

After lunch, I helped some of the ladies wrap flowers. The kids in the church had been learning how to play this instrument made out of wood that is kinda like bells in a bell choir. They were practicing because they were going to an old folk's home to play and pass out flowers. They were really good. I had a video too of them playing Jesus Loves Me, but it wouldn't load. Sorry:S



At the Festival

Each day, we went down to ECS and took the doors off the front and had an open door for any weary festival goers. We offered free Mugie-chaw, a barley tea, which i'm pretty sure I spelled completely wrong haha. We also had a bean bag toss game where kids could win snacks. For the adults, we had a chance box where they could pull out a slip of paper from this box and depending on which color dot they got, they could win a free text book, half-off tuition, or 10 free lessons. Or a tissue pack.

Keiko and Aki are in a band called Morning Glory, and during the festival, they sat out front of ECS and played and sang praise songs both in English and in Japanese. Keiko has an amazing voice! I somehow ended up playing a jimbe (?) drum. I don't think I have very much rhythm, but I wasn't doing too bad. Jerry played the tamborine.



On Tuesday, Nathan Worley, the intern at Sanjo, came down and stayed at the Morts'. He's an education major, so he came down so he could go to University classes with Jerry. Blog readers, meet Nathan Worley. He was a lot of fun to hang out with. And he's in Jerry's office..... where he slept. haha







When Nathan arrived, he, Jerry and I walked around the festival and to Enma's temple, the eventual end stop to all Enma Ichi goers. Out in front of the temple, they had three statues. One was of a preist. One was three headed, and I'm not quite sure who it was supposed to be. And the fancy looking one with the aura is a statue of Buddha.









Luckily, they allowed photography inside the temple. I took a picture of the main wall of Emna's temple where a statue of Enma and his court sat. Jerry was telling us that people come once a year to bribe Enma and make requests of him. He is an unmerciful, unrelenting god, but he takes bribes. :S Go figure. I also took a picture of the seven hells. This is what one would bribe Enma for: a favorable hell.


Other Fun Stuff

I got to eat a bunch of festival food and I also got to buy some really awesome bowls and cups from a pottery booth!

Today, as in Tuesday, I also got to go eat at an Italian restaurant called Rigalo(?) with Laura and two of her students, Noboko and Machiko, both older women. It was alot of fun and the food was delicious!!!!!!


Also, for reader ferrero, I investigated a little on Pokemon. It seems that they catch young pikachus and use them for festival things. For some, they slice off their faces and use them as masks. I found that they are also very popular as a snack. This picture here is from a vendor who caught a young pikachu and coated it in candy. It is somewhat disturbing, but kids seem to love it here.

Thanks to all of you who have been praying over this festival and our outreach. The next event on our calender is Kid's Club on Saturday. I ask for prayers over this event also! Thanks and God bless. Next post tomorrow! Promise!

Ummm.....a quick update? I'm running out of title names

OK! The past few days have been kinda... uneventful. Only a few things here and there to talk about, so I let it build til today. :P
WEDNESDAY
So, yeah. Wednesday. I basically sat in on Laura's classes and ran small errands. The final class of the night was pretty fun. The class was learning about clothing and styles and wearing. Wearing, as in the verb we Englishers (?) use for almost everything we put on from wearing a shirt to wearing contacts or glasses. We had some sort of mini fashion show where everyone got to stand up and the class had to describe what they were wearing. It was fun. Keiko, the secretary, and Aki, her friend, are in that class. I like hanging out with them, so I like being in that class.
THURSDAY
Not much for most of the day. It was a lazy day for me. Though, I did get Laura and the girls to try pork chops with saurkraut, one of my family's favorites! After hanging around the house all day being lazy, I went with the Sasaki-sans, Keiko, and Aki to a Japanese Christian concert. On the way there, Keiko and Aki were teaching me some Japanese words like nande (why), nani (what), cho (very, but only for younger girls. sorry guys), and Kimoy(?) (creepy) haha.
The concert was pretty good. It was a very famous Japanese woman who sang. She even sang a few songs I knew like Count Your Blessings and Because He Lives, mainly in Japanese. Though, on Because He Lives, she did sing one chorus in English. It wasn't really my style of music, but the lady had a very beautiful voice and I enjoyed myself alot. After she was done singing, a man got up and shared a message. I apologize because I didn't really catch the names of these people. Noburo Sasaki was kind enough to try and interpret everything for me.
If I understood right, Keiko gave the woman singer a cd with songs from her band to listen to. I hope that's right. Way 2 be, though, Keiko!
FRIDAY
Today was bible study again. We went over the last part of Exodus 12 and the first part of 13. We talked alot about covenants, since these passages were about the Passover and circumcision. After bible study, I went to my first Japanese class! Yata! Keiko took me to get signed up. It was funny cause as we were waiting, my purse felt like it was wet. I thought maybe I had left a water bottle in my bag and just forgot, so I investigated and pulled out a piece of ice. Laura had accidently dropped it in there when she was getting her drink together before I left. haha
They were nice enough to put me in a group with a girl who spoke pretty good English. Everyone in my class is from China. We learned about how to say you are going somewhere and names of certain things. I also learned how to say I want this/that please. I have a couple pages of homework to do before next week, but I liked class.

Prayers:
*Kei-san's aunt is still in a coma, but Kei is able to go see her for a night. That's a praise!
*Yuko's, another lady from bible study, mom has cataracks (?) in her eye and is going to get surgery done as soon as she finds an eye doctor she likes :D
*Enma Ichi starts THIS Sunday, so prayers for ECS to impact people and aquire new students
*PRAISE! We did get a new student this week!

Long Day

Today was kind of a long day. I woke up kinda early, around 6:30ish, so that I could go with Jerry to his University class. I liked the class and had fun. One girl said that I was Bijin, which means very beautiful. Jerry said she was sucking up hahaha. If she was, she was doing a great job of it. :)
After class and as Jerry and I were waiting for the bus, he told me a little about Kanji, one of the alphabets here. Each word written in Kanji is made up of certain symbols. Kashiwazaki, for example, is White-Oak and then Coast (pretty much) so it basically means oak coast. Some of the more awesome Kanji he was telling me about were deception, salvation, and redemption. The Kanji for deception is made up of the symbols for woman, snake and tree. Sound familiar? How about Eve and the serpant? Salvation is a boat with eight people. Ring a bell? Maybe Noah and the seven other people on the ark will. And redemption is sheep, blood, and one other thing that I can't remember, but i thought that that was so cool.
He also showed me his Old Testament Manga. A manga is pretty much a Japanese comic book. It was really neat. It was the Old Testament in Japanese comic book style. Jerry told me how things were expressed in teh Japanese language. Like when God was talking to Abraham, He talked to him as a friend, not a lowly peon. But when Abraham spoke to God, it was using language like that of a lower person to a higher person. It was way cool. I liked how everything was depicted.
After we got back, I had a couple hours to chill before heading off to ECS. I helped a bit with the kids classes, but I actually participated in the young adult/adult class (the Intermediate class). We talked about what we did that week and about the upcoming festivals. It was really fun. The last class of the night was the Advance class which is basically conversation. Noboko was the only one in the class tonight, so we talked a bit about what I am going to school for, about onsens (hot spring baths), and about tea ceremonies. Noboko invited Jerry and I to go to a tea ceremony with a lady that speaks pretty good english to explain everything. I am way excited! :D

Birthday day

Today was Rebekah's birthday pls a day off of most ECS things. I woke up kinda late, and we went to GuraGura sushi (name ?). I tried a few things. I tried natomaki which is this really nasty smelling bean thing. I dunno if I actually tasted the nato cause all I could taste was the seaweed wrapper.... and I did not like the seaweed thing. :S I also tried some rice patties with an egg on them... it was pretty good, plus some fried shrimp wrapped in rice.
We went shopping after that for groceries followed by homemade coffee shakes back at the house. After some cards, Kei and I watched The Little Bear Movie :) and then walked down to 7-11 and got some sodas.
We had soba (noodles) for dinner and then played some more euchre. I'm really liking this game. I also got to talk with Jerry tonight about the mission field and evangelism and it made me really think about some stuff.

Please continuing praying for Kei-san and Sato-san as well as Enma Ichi. I would also appreciate prayers just for the ECS ministry and for boldness on my part to help out with the ministry.

Thank you~

Catch-up

It seems that this week is all about the Catch-up game with me. Sorry readers. :S

FRIDAY

Friday was the Bible Study with the ladies again. We talked about Exodus 12 and the beginnings of the Passover. After bible study, Laura taught classes and I.....was supposed to go to Japanese class. But it turned out to be a no-go this week cause I would have been late, so I attempted to study my Hiragana alphabet. The Japanese have like 3 or 4 different alphabets. Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, I believe. The Hiragana has almost 50 characters in it... and I'm having a little bit of a hard time remembering what is what. I also colored some more flash cards! :D

After we got back to the house, Laura sent Kei and I out to buy some bread to go with dinner. I have fun hanging out with Kei. As we were walking, she would tell me words in Japanese like tree=ki, dog=ino, cat=neko, that sorta thing. After dinner was Clue and brownies. You can't go wrong with brownies, like ....ever. :)

SATURDAY

Saturday we went to Josh's Undokai. An undokai is kind of like a school track and field day, only with more pizzazz. Laura told me that they practice for weeks before the actual Undokai. Josh's school is a special needs school, so they made many of the events so that the kids are able to do them. Josh got to make a goal with a large ball..... and he liked playing in the dirt. haha

They also had a ping-pong-ball in a spoon race for people in the audience. Kei did that and got some juice as a prize :). Yata, Kei!

After the Undokai, we went to Kaze no jin which is basically a wind-surfing festival. Down by the beach were tons of flea market, food and game booths plus a concert stage. Wind surfing is pretty popular in Kashiwazaki.

On the way back to the house, we passed a small shrine. It is for a neighborhood caretaker. It's not a god, just a neighbor guardian/watchmen. I thought it was interesting, so yeah. Here ya go.

When we got back home, Jerry and Laura taught Rebekah and I how to play Euchre. It was pretty fun! I love games! Yay!

SUNDAY

Ok. Now to today. We went to a church in Kamo today. It was a small church with a bilingual service. Jerry preached. He preached about wilderness experiences and how they strengthen our faith. We also got to meet Sanjo's intern, Nathan Worley(?). My brother's name is Nathan, and I was telling the girls (Rebekah and Kei) about him, so Kei thought that Worley was my brother and was so excited to meet him. haha.

After church and a fellowship lunch, we went to a Kite museum because today was the Kite Festival. Apparently, long ago, Samurai kids and village kids used to "fight" each other with kites. Soon, the parents got involved and the tradition of kite fights still stands. The kites are humungous, some as big as a small room.

We got to make and paint our own mini versions of some of the kites used. It was pretty fun.

Afterwords, we went to the actual kite fights. We got there too late for the fighting, but we got to see some of the huge kites get launched. It takes a team of about 30-50 people to launch these bad boys into the air.

Nathan and I also got to try some Japanese festival food, namely Takoyaki and Popoyaki. Takoyaki is fried octopus balls. They were actually pretty good, only, really chewy, and I could barely get past feeling the suckers on my tongue. haha. Popoyaki, however, tasted like a cross between soft pretzels and pancakes. They were sooooooo good.

Prayers:

Kei-san, one of the ladies from our bible study, her aunt has been in a coma for almost three weeks now. The aunt is a widow and has no children. Kei-san's parents have been going to take care of her, but it is hard for them because they are older. So prayers for her

A lady named Sato-san in Laura's Thursday class has been asking alot of questions about the bible lately, and it is a good opportunity to minister to her, so prayers for that.

Next week from Sunday-Tuesday is the festival called Enma Ichi. ECS will be having an open door and having games/crafts for the kids as well as providing drinks. Prayers that this ministering opportunity will go well and that we might be able to attract new students for ECS.

Wednesday/Thursday

Okay, so today is Thursday. I skipped over Wednesday's blog cause I was sleepy :).
On Wednesday, oh, let me see if I can remember everything without mixing up my days...... ok. I can't remember everything. Sorry. :S haha. But I do remember the important things.
I went to English classes with Laura. Basically, for the first two classes, I colored flash cards. I did peek in on the 3 and 4 year olds and they were sooooooo cute. They were learning about the letter B. :)
I did get to help with the last two classes of the night. I fielded questions and listened to introductions as well as provided my own. I also helped with a few games. The last class played Clue. It was a lot of fun. I was the murderer the first time and then Keiko was it the second time. I think we had Laura kinda worried that she was working with two murderers. haha
Thursday! (today)
I did a little bit of babysitting today. Not much to it, just stayed here with the girls and Joshy while the parents were at work. After Laura got back, the girls and I walked down to the 7-11 so I could get out some money. I have to admit, I caved and bought a Coke. It was my first pop in a week, though. I'm pretty proud of myself for lasting so long.
After the excursion we hung around for a bit and played some cards and then went shopping. We bought a clock for my room, a clock for ECS, some ant poison, and a present for Jerry for Father's Day. Well, I didn't buy any of that, but I went with them to buy it. :) I bought 2 notebooks, one for my daily journal and one just for writing when i feel like it. I also bought a Koala cookie pen. I like it alot haha. Kawaii. :) (means it's cute).
I should be starting Japanese class tomorrow ( i think). So I'm excited about that.
Prayers:

Joshy hasn't seemed to be feeling well the last couple days. His temp was way low this morning. So prayers for him.
Also, Rebekah told me of a fellow blogger named Lisa whose father has had 2 strokes and a heart attack recently, so I would also appreciate prayers for her.

I think that's all I have for you tonight. But I will have something for you tomorrow. :D

June Deux

Hello friends.
Sorry to disappoint but I have absolutely no photos today. haha. This morning, Laura, Josh (6 year old son), and I went to run some errands. Bank, Post office, store. The store we needed to go to wasn't quite open yet, so we went to the 100 yen store. Laura and I took a quick look at some t-shirts. "English" t-shirts. They were pretty funny. Some of them didn't make any sense.
Well, today was my first actual involvement with the English classes. First was a ladies class with Laura. There were two ladies, and we just sat and chatted. We also decided about going to lunch in two weeks. I'm pretty excited about it, and they were really nice ladies.
Next were a couple kids classes with Jerry. I helped out a little bit here and there, but it was fun just to watch. The kids were pretty funny. One class, especially, was full of giggly girls that just made me laugh. Then we had another adult class. There were five in the class, so i ended up taking a student role to help with some of the activities.
I had a good time, all-in-all, today. Can't wait for tomorrow.
And now I will issue an apology for the shortness of my blog today. I'm pretty tired, so i'm going to turn in. One good thing to pray for:
Rebekah, the Mort's oldest, seems to have caught a cold and is spreading it through the family like wild fire. Kei is coughing, I'm coughing. Joshy is kinda coughing. So I ask for prayers for health. It would be very much appreciated. :D

June!

Today was the first day of June! Well, here in Japan, anyway. It was kind of a laid back day.
Jerry gave me a quick tour of main street, emphasis on quick. Not because it was breif, but rather cause Jerry has a quick stride and I half jogged to keep up. :D We went to a 7-11 where I got some money out. Silly me, I didn't notice there was a limit to how much I could take out at a time and ended up trying to get money twice. After that was a department store, then a sweets shop? Jerry bought two bunches of Sasudango. Sasudango is this chewy little bun thing full of sweet bean paste wrapped in sasu(?) leaves. I think they look kinda like cucumbers. They taste really interesting. It didn't taste bad, but I couldn't finish my sasudango.
Right next to the sweets shop is Number 1 coffee. We stopped in and said hello to the owner who was really nice. But right now I feel bad cause I can't remember his name. But they were roasting coffee beans when we walked by and it smelled sooooooooo good. We also stopped at the post office.
Jerry is a wealth of information. During a little town tour, he told me a bunch of things about superstitions. There are soooooo many superstitions like certain days are bad for weddings or funerals while others are good. Like, Take a Friend Along day? Good for a wedding, bad for a funeral. :D haha
The rest of the day I spent just hanging around. Rebekah, Kei, and I played like 7 games of Eqyptian Rat Race/Killer. I also walked around the park with Laura. I get to go to English classes with Jerry and Laura, tomorrow, though.