English Cooking Class

Every Tuesday night I teach English to a class of 10 adults. We do various things each week and kind follow a book. The class is not very serious as most of them work full-time and don't actually study outside of class. You could kind of say it is an English entertainment class.

Because Monday was a holiday in Japan we could not reserve our normal room in the community center. As a result we had class at my house and the students wanted to have a cooking class. So I decided to pull out my old trusty recipe of Jambalaya. Ok, to be honest I had never made it before today.

During the BEST club America Trip I stayed at a house where the wife was from Louisiana and she made us some great Jambalaya. So I asked her for the recipe and we attempted to make it tonight. It is always interesting trying to make a recipe in a different country because you may not be able to find all of the ingredients.

As a result, we made a pork jambalaya and a shrimp jambalaya which they seemed to really like. We also had a salad (which turned into a shrimp and egg salad because we had extra shrimp and one of the students wanted to add egg) and garlic bread. Here are a few pictures from our time.

Here are our two pots of jambalaya.

A sample plate

And my English Class

久しぶりですね〜

For those of you who still check this page periodically, I give you a huge thumbs up. I can't believe it has been 6 months since I last made a post, but at the same time I can believe it.

The busiest time of year is always our first semester which in Japan runs from April through July. We had many surprises thrown at us this year when it came to our Freshman recruiting. As a result we only had 7 students show up to our callout when we normally have around 40. Because of having only a couple Freshman, two Sophomores decided to have another callout at the beginning of this winter semester.

They worked very hard putting together videos and pictures and gathered other BEST club students to explain about Bible, English, Sports, and Travel. When all was said and done we had 8 Freshman come to our callout on Friday (all of which were girls). Afterward we had taco rice together for dinner made by Ruth Ann.

I can't say how many of those Freshman will start coming to BEST Club but one thing I have enjoyed in the meantime are the relationships that were formed over our America Trip. We have had two Friday BEST so far since coming back and most of the students who have come were on our America Trip this year. I desire to see these relationships go even deeper having spent 17 days with them in America.

Some other news:
- I will be taking the Level 3 Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) in December. I was hoping to take it last year but I still had a lot more to study. I definitely think I can pass so I am studying harder to hopefully take the next level in July. There are currently 4 levels with level 1 being the hardest but starting next year they are adding a 5th level. It will be placed between levels 2 and 3 because there has always been such a huge gap between them. So hopefully then next year I will take the N3.

- We will also be having our first camp of the new semester this weekend (16-17) at Kodomo no Mori. Also the university has a sports tournament each semester where students create teams and play a single elimination tournament. That is also this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. There will be two teams of BEST students playing in the volleyball tournament. I enjoy this time a lot as they will be practicing this week in preparation for the tournament. This means more time to hang out with them and build deeper relationships.

Goodbye, For Now

The last 3 weeks have been consumed mostly thinking about two things. The new school year starting and Keith returning to America.

Keith returned to America on Thursday. Keith had been on staff in Utsunomiya for 3 years and I was able to minister beside him for 2 years of that time.

I want to say a warm Thank You to Keith for all that he did here in Japan. I remember the first time I met you. I believe it was the Fall Conference of 2005 when you were fundraising. A small group of us went into the gym and talked together and prayed for you that God would provide your funding. And God did.

Thank you for all of the help you gave me when I first arrived in Japan, especially helping me sign up for language study and then after those 2 months helping me find a tutor. Thank you for helping me teach English when I wasn't able to go. Thank you for being willing to share the car for 2 years. That saved me a lot of money.

Thank you for your patience. Thank you for the exciting road trips and all of the adventures we shared finding roads that "looked familiar". Whether it was shaking hands with Colonel Sanders or yelling, "Yoi wo toshio" together in Kansai (assuming you didn't eat too much mochi) I am very thankful to have labored with you and lived with you as a roommate. We will miss you very much.

Check out my pictures for some fun memories together.

Your brother,
Alan

A New Car!

Every 2 years in Japan comes car inspection time. Sure enough Keith and my car (Toyota Carib) is due for inspection on February 1st. When inspection time comes, you always ask the question, "Will this car last another 2 years?" The reason we ask such a question is because at minimum we will pay $1000 just for the inspection plus whatever repairs have to be done for being road worthy.

Sure enough our '94 Carib has been acting up in various places to the point that we decided it may be time to look for a new vehicle. After a week of searching and driving to various places to look at the different models we finally found the one for us. The Toyota Town Ace Noah. She is a beauty.


This is our new 1997 Town Ace Noah. The van has 16,000 miles, is very clean inside and out, and sold for just under $3,000. The reason the mileage is so extremely low is because it was a former business car. Not only was it a company car but it was the company car for the president. Another reason it is so cheap is because it is the most basic model you can buy. No special features or anything impressive inside. This style of van is usually shipped off to Russia because Japanese people want more options and features in their cars. But since the economy has not been good these cars have recently started appearing for sale in Japan.

I am excited as it is currently going under its 2 year inspection which the price is included in the $3000. We are planning to pick it up on Friday the 30th. It seems that its first road trip will be coming up on Sunday when we take one of our students to the airport who is going to study abroad for one year.

As long as the picture stays online this link should be good for you to see the car and some other pictures.

http://www.goo-net.com/usedcar/spread/goo/13/700054026820090118002.html

New Roommate

At the end of December one of my roommates moved out of our house. It was sad but I still get to see him occasionally. We had tried to fill his room by asking a few students but none of them were interested.

After arriving back from snowboarding, Tomo received an email from a student seeing if he could move into our house for a couple months. He then told me who it was. Miura. My heart jumped for joy and said lets move him in.

When I first arrived in Japan I ate lunch with 4-5 freshman guys each week and then saw them at Sunday sports. I struggled a lot trying to know if these guys even liked me. It was like trying to have a one way conversation with engineers who don't like English. Whenever I ate lunch with them it seemed they didn't even like me, but when I played sports with them it seemed that they liked me. I couldn't understand.

When the school year started last April and they entered their Sophomore year, I couldn't believe it but they started to open up to me and actually talk to me. I really wanted to be able to live with these guys in a share house but that seemed like that would never happen. During their sophomore year it has seemed like our relationship hasn't really gone anywhere as I don't see them very much.

But then came this email. Miura wants to move into our house for two months. He has had a terrible neighbor problem in his apartment complex and needed to leave so that he could get sleep and study for his finals. So the next day, Tomo talked with him and he started moving in last night. I am excited to see the doors that God has reopened. To me it seemed like they had slipped away and now these guys are closer than ever to where I actually get to live with one of them. Please pray that we are able to be the hands and feet of Jesus to him during his hour of need.

Pow! Zip! Bang! Bop!

This last Friday was a day off for students because of the entrance exams taken for the university. Many high school students come to the university to take a test to see if they can enter. A slightly different process than the SAT or ACT in America.

Instead of attending school, our Bible discussion group took a one day ski trip to Hunter Mountain. This was my second time ever to go to a ski slope. Last year's Best ski camp was my first time. Since I boarded my first time, I thought I would board again to try to get better.

As the members with me wanted to go to the top first, I convinced them to at least do a shorter course first to let me remember how to snowboard. On my first time down, there wasn't much problem until the finish which is like the beginner's course. I still don't exactly know what happened but I do vividly remember quickly falling backward and straight on my tailbone. That was by far the hardest or most painful fall I have had yet. As I sat on the hill throbbing in pain for about 3 minutes, the realization that we bought a ski pass for 9 hours and I have only been on the hill for about 20 minutes passed through my mind.

We then went to the top of the mountain which had a gorgeous view of the snow capped mountains surrounding the area. After going down twice from the top a student offered to help teach me some more technique in my turning. The turning he was trying to teach me was how to turn on the front side of my board facing up the mountain with my back towards the bottom. If any of you have ever done this, that is extremely unnatural to not see where you are going. I think I racked up a total of 40 times that I fell trying to learn how to do this before lunch. I was able to get the turn down a little bit. After lunch we came back out and I was only able to go back down two more times. Every part of by body was bruised or soar from so many wipe outs.

After the day ended we went to a nearby hot springs to rest our weary bodies.

I do have one quick comment. For all those action heroes in the movies that fight and jump of crazy tall buildings and get beat up, there is no way that they can have the strength to keep going the next day. I fell down a mountain forty times and I am pretty sure that my body felt like gelatin.

Osaka, Kyoto, Nara [DEER!]

I traveled down with Keith, my roommate, Yoshihiro, and my old roommate, Keiichi to visit his family again this New Years holiday season. We decided to go by train and bought our 18 year old tickets. Japan has a system where you can purchase a ticket during the holiday season for $23 and in one day you can travel as much as you want. This ticket was originally designed for people 18 and younger but no longer applies as anyone is able to buy them.

We departed on our trip and arrived 12 hours later after transferring trains 11 times and getting to see a great view of Mt. Fuji. The first day we went shopping in Osaka. The second day we went to Kyoto and their aunt showed us around part of the town. We arrived and the first thing we did was get on an old traditional boat and ate lunch inside the boat while the driver pushed along the river with his pole.
We had a great day in Kyoto. The next day we went to Nara which is the ancient capitol of Japan. And if you can guess by the title, they have a lot of deer! Yeah! I had an absolute blast from so much gun powder (ok, just kidding). I had a great time feeding them, petting them, getting rubbed by the males, getting bit in the butt, and of course receiving a kiss on the nose.


I have posted pictures with comments on my photo's page. Also, if you are interested, I am going to add a link to Keith's and Ruth Ann's photo page so that you can see some other pictures from our ministry and life here in Utsunomiya.

Happy New Year! Time to start losing weight.

あけましておめでとうございます！今年もよろしくお願いします。

Happy New Years in Japan is all about the postcards. Everybody sends there custom made New Year's cards to the 500 people they know and the people they may not know just in case they left someone out. I can't believe how much work the post office does to deliver all of these cards to your house on New Year's Day.

This past holiday was filled with friends, travel, and of course, food. Around this holiday season, the Japanese people now how to eat. I think every event or party is based around food. I participated in only 3 Christmas parties this year. I first had my English class Christmas party where we had very little food for substance and way to many sweets. Followed by our BEST Christmas party and then our church potluck dinner for our Christmas Eve celebration.

I then went on a 3 day retreat with three other mid-term staff to Karuizawa where we had our American getaway while still in Japan. And of course what else would we do but eat all the food that we normally can't get. Thus having three days of stuffing ourselves with delicious food.

I then went down to Osaka and enjoyed a week with my roommates family. It is very interesting how Japanese view foreigners, especially our roommates mother. There is the traditional size of what a person should eat. Their mother thinks that her sons should eat about 3 times the amount of the traditional size. Then comes in the foreigner factor (aka gaijin factor). This is when she makes so much food your forced to eat about 5 times as much as the traditional size because I am a guy and I am bigger than the average Japanese person. Even though our stomach size is probably similar, it sure isn't anymore. So for about 6 straight days we ate and then ate some more. I am very thankful for their kindness even though I always have to end up dieting afterward.