A New Day

I did it. This is my first post-Japan blog. (We'll see how long this lasts). I have gotten a note that my blogs were perhaps a little long for the reading, so I will take that into consideration.

I have been thinking quite a bit lately about some of my biggest weaknesses and taking steps to change them.

1) Procrastination

2) Attitude

3) Timidity

I am proud to say that, to combat procrastination, I started my papers earlier. I completed a ten page paper nearly 24 hours ahead of time. This is quite odd for me since all-nighters are no strangers to me. This will hopefully be carried over into my next 3 big assignments especially since they are all due about the same time :S. I'm getting books for a ten-pager due the 22nd today, so yay!

With regard to attitude, I think this may be the one I am struggling with the most. To me, especially as of late, work has been extremely bad-attitude enducing....not because of the actual work, but because of the contagious bad-attitudes of the co-workers mixed with a lonliness that somewhat carried over from Japan and some what was due to change in school. Val graduated last year, so she has disappated...I mean ....isn't at the school. To Japan, it is somewhat lonely not having anyone your own age to hang out with mainly because you can't speak hardly any of their language and they don't like using their english much because they don't think their's is very good. But I have been thinking mainly on God and being a good model at work. It's hard to be in a bad mood when you are thinking on good things :). I have also been taking initiative in asking friends over.

And in regards to timidness, i have put myself out of my comfort zone and made myself do things i have been terrified for one reason or another to do in my past years. Case and point, I signed myself up not only for being a prayer leader in regular chapel, but also being an mc and signed up to be a singer for chapel praise bands. I was quite scared to discover that my signiture to become an mc for chapel, just welcoming and introducing, was placed onto the duty of becoming this semester's first prayer chapel leader. I was so scared and uncomfortable with this.... I am uncomfortable praying out loud. But I took that and threw it into my prayer chapel mix.

I began by removing all of the chairs from the chapel, with permission of course. And then continued by making everyone take their shoes off before they came into chapel. Ther main purpose of the chapel was to challenge everyone to do something they were uncomfortable doing because being comfortable thwarts growth. The main prayer topics, though, were on missions. We started with a free for all prayer of praise to God. It was AMAZING hearing all of those voices joined in prayer bouncing off of the very nice acoustic-y walls in the chapel. It resonated. Then we split into 3 groups depending on mission experience and prayed over certain areas of the world where missions are taking place or need to take place. We then prayed over Summit's part in the mission. Followed by a different kind of free-for-all circle prayer where each class prayed over their underclassmen. Concluding with another free-for-all prayer for the individual, it was awesome. I loved the free-for-all prayers because you had to get out of your comfort zone to pray out loud while dozens of other voices are going out. You really had to focus on God.

But, there you go. It feels good to get that out there. :)

la sange su la branche

This will most likely be my last post in Japan.....I may keep blogging...maybe just for updates for those who don't see me everyday. Or to be used as an excuse for Laura to come feed my fish. :P

I realize that I didn't blog yesterday after the party.........
So about 3 on Saturday afternoon we had kids club over at ECS. There were maybe 4 or 5 new kids that I have never met along with their mamas. It was pretty cool. The story was the parable of the fish in the net. Laura and Keiko conjointly (is that a word?) read it and then the kids went fishing for these little plastic fish, turtles, and ducks in a fridge drawer that was cleaned and pulled upstairs. Then Laura and I tore apart a laundry bag and stapled its netlike fabric onto some blue paper for kids to put their colored paper fish in. It was pretty fun. Part of the laundry bag was just this white strip of fabric which i found fit perfectly around my head.

And now we know that hippies actually originated from people coming to Japan. It took my last few days and a simple makeshift headband to transform me into.......a hippie! I pulled out some bongos and raved about peace in a stoned kinda movie-stereotyped hippie way. I also transformed Keiko into a hippie. We planned to do a sit-in before one little girl stole Keiko's headband thus stripping her of her power.

After kids club I quickly ran (and by ran I mean walked....and not all that quickly) over to the birdie store to buy butter rolls and some Pringles for the ice cream party. Because it was so close to dinner time, we also had sandwiches and stuff.

Nobuko from Tuesday classes stopped by just to say hi! I was happy to see her.

After the party, I just hung around ECS with Aki and Keiko for a bit. One of the funny things was they were marveling at my gold arm hair. It made me giggle.



Today, we went to Kamo for church. After lunch, we filled up water balloons so the kids could have a water balloon fight. I didn't want to get wet because A) I didn't bring extra clothes and B) I am leaving tomorrow and didn't really need the hassle of trying to dry clothes before packing them. (We don't have a dryer).
So I sat back and watched as the kids threw balloons at Nathan.......and they weren't breaking and NO one was getting wet. So I HAD to join in. I doused Kei...soaked Becka....and got myself wet in the process. :S Currently, my clothes are hanging in front of a fan.....and hoping to be dry by tomorrow morning (maybe?)

So now....I'm chilling out.....after finishing packing my main bags (which I might have to pay extra because of all the stuff packed in). ^~^'. Hopefully it all gets back in one piece.

So I will soon be seeing some of you readers.....please pray for my flight and also please pray for Joshy's surgery next week (tonsils and adnoids) and that he stays healthy up until then.

If you can't say anything nice......

That's not really the reason for my lack of blog this week. It has been CRAZY between packing and *cough cough* last minute papers and such. And for some reason my body decided that it was very tired, so when I had free time I would zonk out for a nice, long, 2 or so hour nap. ^~^'

So this is going to be my week in a nutshell. So.....I believe that I blogged about Monday a little, So I will start w/Tuesday.

TUESDAY
Tuesday morning, while I was havin' my coffee I was being harassed by a pop up box on my computer. Everytime I tried to do something....POP UP BOX! Laura and Jerry told me I was losing my mind because I was threatening to file for a restraining order against this pop up box.

Unfortunately, Machiko was the only one in the ladies class today. I knew Tomomi wouldn't be there, but I didn't know about Nobuko. But we had a really nice chat, and Machiko told me that if I come back to visit, I could homestay at her house! That made me so happy! She is such a sweet lady, I'm going to miss her a ton.


WEDNESDAY
Laura and I went a bit early to ECS today so that we could run over to #1 Coffee!!! for a last internship/plans for the future kind of meeting. We talked about what I needed to get done still.....which is like another paper... and what I wanted to do after school. Then we headed back to ECS for Wednesday classes. I helped a bit for the first 2 classes while at the same time juggled catchin' up on my daily log because of camp.
Then, for the girls' class, I took them on a bearhunt. Laura needed to talk to preschool mothers about Joshy's surgery date (he's getting his tonsils out). So I took the girls on a bearhunt because they were learning the words 'in', 'on', and 'under'. So I had them crawl on some pillows, under a table, and then in a fabricated cave. Then we read "Going on a Bearhunt." I don't really know if they enjoyed it, but Laura thought it was a neat idea.
For the last class, Chisa joined us and we played "Speaker Friendly". It was a lot of fun. After class, keiko, Aki, Chisa and I hung out at ECS. We just chatted and stuff...it was way fun. I'm going to miss them alot. Hopefully we will be able to hang out Today after the ice cream party.

THURSDAY
I'll pass on this one....I didn't do much at all. Went to lunch w/Joshy and Laura. Walked around and then took a nice long nap. The end.

FRIDAY
So, for Friday, Laura and I left a bit early so I could mail my Fuji Stick back to the states. Amazingly enough, it would NOT fit in my luggage. haha. Then we bought lunch from the bakery. Because it was my last bible study, we got my favorite sweet roll for dessert. It tastes like it has honey butter. It's WAY good.
I was very pleasantly surprised that Machiko came to lunch and bible study. I think the main reason she came was to see me, but I'm glad she came for the study and I think she'll be coming back for it.
After the study (Deut. 8-9), Machiko helped me put on my yukata! She taught me how to put it on and how to fold it when I am done! It was fun wearing my yukata. I also, because Japanese class was on summer vacation, was able to stay for the English class and all of Mommy & me. I also helped with the preschool class. Then Keiko and I went to the sweets shop on the corner and bought some sweets to bring back with me. Keiko bought a Japanese pickled suika (watermelon). It was small, don't worry.....like baseball size. She had me try it. Interesting, to say the least.



SATURDAY
You will be getting another blog today, because Saturday is NOT over here. We just went grocery shopping this morning!

She likes cloth. That would be a good band name.

Sooo.....yeah.
Saturday!!!
Since Drew and his interns were staying with us, I slept downstairs and was awaken a little after 7 by Kei who was anxious to watch Curious George......which wasn't on for another hour. O.o So she went into Joshy's room to play and came out a few minutes later with, "Mama, Joshy said he wants to come out to play." ..............Joshy can't really talk. Even with all he CAN say, 'Mama, I want to go play in the living room' is not something he can say. I was layin' in bed thinking "Please, no. Just 10 more minutes. PLEASE!" Thankfully Joshy wasn't brought out until about 8 when Curious George started. So I got myself a cup of nuked coffee, and sat down on my invaded bed, a.k.a. a sleeping bag and a thick blanket, and watched Curious George. Later on....like.....5 hours later, Laura took me and her oven (like a microwave oven) to the church for a cookie baking class put on by Chikako and Erica of California.
I didn't actually make anything.....I just took pictures and ate the samples ;) haha. The main reason for me going was that I was going to stay at Chisa's house as a homestay and she was going to the cooking class. It was fun though.
After the cooking class, Chisa and I , followed by Keiko, headed out to Niigata University for an okonomiyaki party....because Chisa's apartment is quite small. Once at the University, Chisa chopped veggies and Keiko and I took a little tour. Once we got to the medical mechanics (somethin' like that) part, we played in the wheelchairs and even took them for a cruise down the halls to see Chisa! haha It was soooooo fun!
After a while, Noboru Sasaki and his family + Rie-san and her sons+Erica came out to the University. Chisa made us okonomiyaki. It's pretty muc like a Japanese pancake with stuff in it.
First you poor the "pancake" batter, then you put stuff on it like cabbage, bean sprouts, and green onions. Then you put on some soba or udon noodles (soba is thin noodles and udon is thick) and then an egg. The fun part is flippin' the thing over. :S.
After the okonomiyaki, we all played around a bit and then cleaned up and headed out. On the way up the steps to Chisa's apartment (not at the University), there were a bunch of dead semis (cicadas). When we reached her floor, there was an espcially big one (these things are like 3 inches or so), so I touched it with my foot. The thing flew up at me screeching and I dropped everything I was carrying because it scared me so bad. haha Chisa just laughed at me.
We talked and hung out all night and then headed to bed so we could go to church.
I didn't really do anything but laze about the house and recover from the week on Sunday, so I'll pass.

Monday!
Today, the girls headed out to camp. I went out shopping and then came back to fix dinner. I made chicken parmesean and it was a big hit! Yay! See? I can cook. After dinner we watched some James Bond! Woot!

Prayers:
Joshy got knocked out for some tests today.
I'm prepping all my stuff, getting ready to leave next week. :'(

CAMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 'n' stuff

Ok, so.... you may have noticed that I haven't blogged in almost a week. But then again....you may not. I dunno, I can't keep tabs on who continuously reads my blog or doesn't read it so I can go guilt tripping all over the place haha. But anywho, I have been at camp since Monday! So here's camp for you.

Monday!

So...Monday we loaded up, sorta, in the van and headed to the camp. We actually loaded up in waves. Nathan and I were the first battalion sent in. Laura took the two of us to the camp to help set stuff up, and then she stole Maki Sasaki and went shopping for food stuffs or something important like that. I made the schedule for the week into a poster with the help of Ami Sasaki, Amy, a girl from the California group, and Nathan. Actually.....Ami helped me draw lines and pick colors and Amy was questioning everything I was doing haha. Nathan helped me draw pictures to take up space. Then Nathan and I helped Noboru with registration and name tags for the campers. Kei and Ami were nice enough to help Nathan and me make the name tags.

Then we filed all the campers into the gym for orientation. We assigned them their study groups and let them chose their workshops.

We had pizza for dinner (mmmm) and then had music time. Then we whisked away the kids who wanted to be in our workshops to their respected areas. I was helping Daniel and Mitsu (technically pronounced Mee-tsoo or Mee-ts in the Japanese but since he is from California, he was called Mitts) with a skit. I actually ended up helping a whole lot more with that than I planned. We were doing a modern day prodigal son written by Daniel and Mitsu, so we were assigning parts. Two boys wanted to be the prodigal son, so we had sons. Two of the girls, including Kei, were cast as friends along with another boy. And the last girl was the policeman....yes, there was a policeman. Amy, mentioned earlier, was also in our group, but she wasn't feeling well and was seperated from the rest of the kids. When we were casting the parts, Mitsu asked who wanted to be the dad. We had three boys plus two male sponsers....no problem, right? When asked, all the boys pointed at.......ME! They wanted ME to be otousan! What the?! We let Mitsu be the dad, though. I was cast as the narrator.

We then sent the little kids and elementaries off to bed, and the adults and high schoolers had bath/social time.....which, for me and my campers ended up being just bath time. haha. The baths we used are called ofudon. There are shower heads and hoses lower on the wall. You sit on this little stool, use the shower head/hose to get wet, then you soap up, rinse off and then hop into this big community bath tub. Don't worry, though, folks. We did seperate guys and girls at this thing. We set different times for the genders and/or sent one to one ofudon and the other to the other. Does that make any sense? I hope so.

When we got back to our room, and by we I mean Keiko and I plus Erica from California and Lucie and Kiyomi (High School students), Erica crashed from jet lag. I was a bit tired, but not too bad, and the other girls weren't used to going to bed so early (maybe 10, 10:30?), so we stayed up and read or chatted a bit before turning off the lights and trying to sleep. We all (the 5 of us plus Junko from the kitchen staff) stayed in one small room and slept on futons (which, if you don't know already, is pretty much like the matress part of an american futon...only more soft and comfy) with little pillows that, I think, were filled with plastic beads.....it was interesting, needless to say.

Tuesday!

I actually had a dream Monday night that all of the girls in the room save Erica and Junko slept in til 4:00pm, so I woke up at 6 am, reached over and grabbed Keiko's phone to see what time it was, slightly waking everyone in the room, before apologizing and going back to sleep. Wow....that was quite the run-on-ish sentence...sorry Mr. Feilder.

When we all finally woke up, it was about 7:45 which left us 15 minutes to scramble before breakfast! Fred, from the California team, actually came down to the cabin and yelled to make sure everyone was up for breakfast. We had pancakes, by the way.

One of the things I was put in charge of was to make table markers and drawing pieces so we could have a drawing for who had to help with dishes. There was a sun table, a star table, and a moon table. Monday night, the Sun table had to help with dishes. I got some groans from that because Nathan, Jerry and one of the California guys were sitting at that table ^_^. This morning the Sun table drew the Star table for dishes.....I was....sitting at the star table :S.

After breakfast was study time. Keiko, Lucie and Kiyomi were in Nathan and mine's group. (Is that grammarically correct? I don't even know...wow, and I taught English this week :S). We played a little game of charades to help them think of English words, and also to help them start thinking on present continous verbs (-ing's). It was really fun. Everyone did really well and was really good with their English. Lucie, an exchange student from the Czech Republic, was especially good with her English. We had fun, and then we just chatted for a bit after the game.

Then there were crafts. I didn't really help or do anything with crafts but walk around. The kids were making wooden models or paper fans and the adults were starting on silk screen hangings and making cards.

For Lunch, we had bacon cheeseburger or ham n cheese roll ups. And the Star table drew the Moon table for dishes.....I, again, was sitting at that table.

Then we had a breif bible time with singing and a biblical skit + a short message from Fred. Then was study time again for the older campers and nap time for the younger ones. We played Sorry for our study time. The game lastest....forever! Everyone got down to having one pawn one space away from winning and we were all waiting for that right card.....we pretty much went through the whole deck twice to get that last card. Keiko won, and Nathan and I, who were teaming it, LOST! Lucie had to leave after group time...it was way sad.

Then was free time and bath. Noboru took almost all of the campers and staff to the beach. I opted not to go and played a quick game of Idiots (yes, dad, you will learn it when I get home) and Egyptian Rat Race with Jerry before zonking out at a table. haha

I woke up for dinner. We had fried chicken and mac 'n' cheese. I was asked to help feed Joshy, the Mort's handicapped little boy. He is such a cutie. Thankfully, he was eating quite nicely and not throwing his food, but he was being all floppy and sleepy, so I cleaned him up and put him down on the floor. The Moon table drew the sun table for dishes.... I was....NOT sitting at that table....but I somehow ended up helping clean up anyway. (Seeing a slight pattern here?....I don't mean me cleaning, either).

Then we had group time. I took the "friends" and helped them with their lines. Kei, who...ya know....speaks english, had no problems whatsoever with her lines. Keita (the boy) did have some trouble, so I shaved down his line to two words. The youngest in our group was named Hikari. Her line was "Drive fast!" She said it perfectly! It was so cute and funny.

Us girls went down to the seminary's ofudon, took baths, and then talked a bit in the cabin before we all crashed. It was funny, though, because when we were heading out of the cabin to head to the ofudon, this huge harlequin beetle flew in and everyone freaked out. Erica turned off the light hoping the outside light would attract it. haha Then we turned teh light back on and found it on the floor. We didn't want to squish it, so Kiyomi grabbed a broom and started to.... golf it outside, but after the first hit, she didn't want to hit it that way anymore because the genkan where all the shoes are was over there and she didn't want it in the shoes. So I grabbed the broom and flicked it out the door and onto the steps, then i flicked it from the steps onto the roof of the neighboring building. The thing was waiting by the door for us when we got back from the bath, so i used Erica's flashlight to shove it off the stairs again. haha.

Wednesday!!!

I woke up at 7:40 this time....now that I knew there was an alarm haha. Then went to breakfast which was bacon, eggs and toast. I was tired of doing dishes, so I sat at the exempt table. The sun table drew the star table for dishes (O.O).

For study time, Keiko and Kiyomi played a game where they had to use past tense verbs. Afterwards, we played spoons.....but with markers. We forgot the spoons. It was fun because Keiko and I were being really sneaky with our taking of the "spoons". Nathan almost got all the letters for spoons, but he lucked out cause we ran out of time. For crafts, I helped kids make pencil toppers. Word for future referance....googly eyes are difficult to glue to pipe cleaners. But I was happy because Moka and Tomomi from ECS classes came.

For lunch, we had speghetti! yay! The star table drew the moon table for dishes. (Are you getting it?)

Tomomi joined us for the next study session. We played a game like we did yesterday but with future tense verbs. This one was weirder, though, and was asking them about outer space and future houses and cars. It was really wierd. Then we played spoons! with real spoons! It was fun.

Then we played some sort of chair soccer game thing in the gym. I dunno.... but our team dominated by getting 7 goals! Then there was free time and bath. I played idiots with Jerry, Nathan and Amy (an adult...not the kid).

We had a bbq for supper, so no dishes. But we had a drawing for who went first....moon table drew moon table....but sun table didn't listen to directions and jumped into line. haha. We had burgers and hot dogs. Then we cleaned up a bit and had bible time followed by groups. Our group was unruly and I was completely ready to tear my hair out!

After groups, we had a mock camp fire in the gym because it was kinda rainy out. We sang songs, played a game, and then roasted marshmellows over propane hotplates for s'mores. For the game, everyone was split into 5 groups and were given strips of paper with red, blue or green words on them. Then, using those words, the campers made a silly sentence. One of the sentences resulted in me licking a porcupine. O.o

After the "fire" we took baths, and then Keiko and I talked about words in her dictionary for a while before going to bed.

Thursday!!

Woke up, and then put my futon away and packed my stuff. We went to breakfast and had muffins and fruit....plus two cups of coffee. For the drawing, sun table was drawn for dishes. One of the kids at sun table was wondering if i was putting all the papers for the tables in the cup. Know why? The drawing, not including placement for the bbq, went sun, star, moon, sun, star, moon, sun. Even some of the staff was thinking I was stacking the drawings. But I wasn't. I took all the pieces of paper out of my cup and showed the boy who asked that I did in fact have all the pieces of paper in the cup. I had been sitting at sun table, but I had to skip dishes to clean the bathroom in the dining hall.

After breakfast we had a quick time to practice with our workshop groups before a recital. There was our skit group, Erica and Fred's puppet group, Jerry and Nathan's pantomime group, and then Keiko and Kiyomi were in the music group. It was a fun recital.

After the recital was a short bible time, then we packed everything and cleaned up the cabins a bit before lunch. We had taco rice for lunch, and ........star table had to do dishes. Before the drawing, I took each piece of paper, showed the tables at the front of the room, and put them in the cup so everyone would know I wasn't cheating. haha

After lunch we said good bye to campers and had a final staff meeting to discuss how the camp went. A quiet time and some cushion time will be a must for next year.

Nathan and I went back breifly with Laura to clean up a bit before going back to the camp with Drew Glosson (the guy who helped me at the train station when I first arrived) and two interns with him for Senenkai, the young adults bible study.

It was so much fun. There was a Somen slide. It is the traditional way to eat somen. You fill your bowl with the somen soup (it's cold...so it's kinda more like sauce) and then stand by this slide and someone sends the somen noodles down this little waterslide and you have to pluck the noodles from the slide and then dip then into your soup for eating. I enjoyed it alot! Then Nathan and Aki/Chisako played janken (rock paper scissors) to decide if the girls or guys would do dishes. Girls lost ^_^' so I ended up with dish duty again. haha

We played a game afterwards and then Noboru gave a short devo and we took a picture. Then we hung out for a bit. Drew and his interns were staying at the Mort's, so to give them a bit more room, Nathan and I stayed at the camp again.

Friday!

So Nathan woke me up at 7 this morning. He had to be back to catch a 7:46 train, so Noboru was taking us back to the Mort's. I have honestly been awake since. Just hung out until about 11:30 or so before Laura and I went to get lunch for bible study.

My last Japanese class was after bible study, and unfortunately I wasn't able to go out for coffee with Dong afterward because she was busy. But we exchanged e-mail addresses. There was no after Japanese class class at ECS, so we went to McDonald's for supper, and I have been hanging out here at the Mort's ever since!

So there's my week. I know it's a bit long, and I apologize. I will also have a short break from blogging this weekend because I am doing another homestay, this time with Chisako! So enjoy and I will talk to you (figuratively) later!

Caffiene IV Stat!

Hello! I know it's been a little while, but I have become WAY busy the last few days. Saturday, I was picked up by Rie Sasaki, Noboru's sister-in-law, for a homestay. A homestay, for those who don't know, is a stay in a home of a different culture.
Our first stop was the library. Rie has two little boys under the age of 5, Takeshi and Tsuyoshi. So we got a plethera of kids books including 3 English kids books. When we got to her house, everybody took short little naps while she made lunch. Rie is a VERY good cook. We had curried rice for lunch. And yes, Japanese curry and Indian curry are very much different. It tasted slightly the same, but it wasn't nearly as hot or, I dunno, not likeable? haha
I played with Takeshi after lunch and Rie got to slip in a nap. Now, Takeshi and Rie can both speak pretty good english, Rie more so. But, games like tag and hide-and-seek? Not called that here. (Well, duh!) But I didn't know what they were called, so Takeshi kept saying "Kakurembo" and "Oni....(something or other)" while looking at me expectantly. It wasn't until Rie-san came down from her short nap that I found out what Takeshi wanted from me. haha
We also played like 15 games of "Headache" or Cones. It's kinda like Sorry! only simpler, and the pieces look like traffic cones. And I read the English kids books that we got twice each.
Afterward we went kani fishing.....or crab fishing. We took along little chopstick poles tied with thread and went out to try and catch crabs. Unfortunately, we didn't see any crabs...just tadpoles.
For supper, we had somen and tempura. It was delicious.

I also found out that Rie embrioders for money. She showed me some kimono fabric that she had done, and lemme tell ya....it was absolutely gorgeous!!!
She draped the fabric on me to show me what it would look like. I didn't like the pics of me :S, but I loved the fabric! It is going to make a beautiful kimono!
We all took baths (not at the same time), and then played another game of cones and watch Adventures in Odyssey. Then we all headed upstairs to go to bed.

SUNDAY!!!

Woke up, had breakfast (cereal, melon, sausage, eggs, cucumber and coffee), then we all went to church. After church, we headed back to the house for some steak and salad. And later on, after a nap on my end, we had chicken for supper.
Then, some ladies that are staying at the house went with Kei, Bekah and I to the beach for Gyon Matsuri fireworks! I didn't get to wear my yukata because it had been raining. :(
Kei and I got seperated from our heard without a phone and were trying to find either our group or Keiko at the beach......but like half of Kashiwazaki was there, so we just went back to the house and finished watching the fireworks from the roof accompanied by Nathan, Robin and browines and root beer. What we saw of the fireworks was amazing. They were huge! The Japanese word for fireworks is Hanabi....which basically means fire flower. And that was an accurate description tonight. Most of the fireworks looked like flowers. They also had smiley faces, waterfalls, Saturns, and raccoons. It was awesome!





Ok. That's all I've got for ya! Starting tomorrow is English camp, so I'll be MIA from the blogging scene til Thursday night....and I can almost guarentee you won't here from me on Thursday.

Please pray for the success and ministry of this camp and for the workers that they will lead in God's word.

Thursday night, after Jerry got back from work, Laura and I packed up in the car and drove to Kanazawa! We stayed the night at Toyoko Inn. The rooms were really tiny. Only two maybe twin size beds with a bit of room between and a desk. And a small bathroom. After discussing our plans for the next day, we played some cribbage and then went to bed.
We woke up around 6:30-7, got ready, deposited our luggage in the car, and then walked to Starbucks! We then got in the car and drove to Kanazawa, Kenroku-en. Kanazawa castle is one of the only castles still standing in Japan, and its being renovated. Kenroku-en is the huge garden belonging to the Kanazawa castle. Laura and I didn't go over to the castle, but we did walk around Kenroku-en. There is a stone lantern that is very famous in this garden, and it has because the face of Kenroku-en. Also, in the same area of the park, is this pine tree that they have "trained" to spread out over a pond. It was really awesome to see. We also went and saw the Shrine and Sacred Well just outside of Kenroku-en. The Samurai house remains were over that way, too, but we didn't stop to see them.
After looking at the shrine, we went to Seisonkaku, which is the mother-in-law's house. Funny enough, this house is basically on the other side of the garden from the castle. :D Seisonkaku was gorgeous, though. Inside, they had little displays of things owned by the castle family like Kimonos, hair pins, boxes, more. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was really cool to see.
We also went to a museum for prefectural art. This stuff was AMAZING. All handmade. They had laquere wear, had embriodered silk kimonos, as well as other hand painted and hand crafted items. It was awesome.
We looked around at the little shops after that. They had sweets shops, pottery shops, just all around gift shops, and more. One shop, because gold leaf is a well known product in Kanazawa, had gold leaf ice cream; ice cream with flecks of gold leaf in it. It was 600 yen a cone (about $6)! After checking out all the shops our little hearts desired, as well as buying omeyage (presents), we ate lunch at McDonalds and headed back to Kashiwazaki in time for Gyon Matsuri. Gyon Matsuri is like a cultural festival. Today was dancing in the street, which I actually was able to do a bit with Keiko. It was fun. Tomorrow is "Take your god for a walk" day. Basically, all the shrines bring out their portable shrines and walk the streets. Sunday is the fireworks, and I am way excited to wear my yukata for them!
Tomorrow, I am doing a homestay with Rie Sasaki. It's going to be interesting, indeed. Then this next week is English Camp. Please pray for English Camp and the success of reaching those who are tied to ECS!

Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=287700&id=814700376

Gyon Matsuri Video:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=250407605376&ref=nf