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.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Thursday, November 13, 2008
One Day Trips
Here it is to one day trips. This last Wednesday I headed down to the Tokyo BEST ministry with my roommate, Tomo, and a student, Yamao. They were heading down to participate in Tokyo's Bible discussion while I was heading down to spend time with Kyle and Jennifer. We left at 4:15pm from Utsunomiya and arrived around 7:45pm. Went to bed around 2am and woke up at 5:40 to head back to Utsunomiya. Give a thanks to Tomo for doing all the driving.
Kyle and Jennifer went through fundraising school and global orientation with me. We were part of the team of 5 young'ns heading overseas. "To the Nations!" Kyle and Jennifer are heading back to America in December. They will have been here for 2 years. How fast the time flies. I was able to spend a couple hours with them and catch up a little bit. It was probably the last time I will see them in Japan.
I am glad that I was able to visit them before they returned. Japan will be a little lonlier without them. Hopefully I can swing by Iowa sometime and see them in the future.
Kyle and Jennifer went through fundraising school and global orientation with me. We were part of the team of 5 young'ns heading overseas. "To the Nations!" Kyle and Jennifer are heading back to America in December. They will have been here for 2 years. How fast the time flies. I was able to spend a couple hours with them and catch up a little bit. It was probably the last time I will see them in Japan.
I am glad that I was able to visit them before they returned. Japan will be a little lonlier without them. Hopefully I can swing by Iowa sometime and see them in the future.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Halloween Party
We had our annual Halloween Party this year conveniently on Halloween as our Friday After BEST. We had all sorts of animals, cute and ugly show up to the party. We had many masked men and women. In fact, I think one was invisible but I'm not sure if he came or not.
Keith had the brilliant idea to perform a skit. The name of our house is "Full House" and then why not do a skit of Full House. Tomo was Danny, Keith was DJ, Yoshihiro was Stephanie, and I was Uncle Joey and Michelle. Yes, that's right. I was two people. Sadly, Uncle Jesse was on tour.
Pictures of the event have been uploaded for your delight. The movie will hopefully be up soon. Enjoy!
Keith had the brilliant idea to perform a skit. The name of our house is "Full House" and then why not do a skit of Full House. Tomo was Danny, Keith was DJ, Yoshihiro was Stephanie, and I was Uncle Joey and Michelle. Yes, that's right. I was two people. Sadly, Uncle Jesse was on tour.
Pictures of the event have been uploaded for your delight. The movie will hopefully be up soon. Enjoy!
Monday, November 03, 2008
November Already!
I can't believe it is already November. Where did October go? Well, besides becoming history, here are some of the events from October.
One of our ministry houses (Aim High) closed. Which means I have two new roommates. Keith and Yoshihiro have moved into Full House with Tomo, Yoichi, and I. Keith is practically my new roommate as the only thing we have dividing our rooms is a sliding door that becomes the wall. I have enjoyed having new roommates as Keith has helped me out in cleaning the garden outside, but I will come back to that. Here is a picture from our first Full House dinner together.
We went to a local 100 yen sushi restaurant which was very good. I do have to say that I was the champion in eating but also the loser because I paid the most by eating 11 plates. Since April I have become a huge sushi fan and often crave it. I still do not enjoy every kind but most are wonderfully delicious.
Another thing I have been doing is working in our garden. We moved into our house in May last year and I had no idea how fast the weeds would grow. Especially when I was in America for Ryan and Betsy's wedding. I spent a little time during the summer trying to keep a couple areas clean but that almost seemed impossible because I found out we had the devil weed in our yard. This weed grows about 6-8 inches deep in the ground and spreads like a vine. About every 2 inches it shoots up another branch out of the ground. If you pull on them, they usually don't come out. If they come out you never get the root because it breaks off from the vine. It has been attempted 2 times to dig this up but it takes forever and it is everywhere. Imagine trying to dig up your entire yard by shovel just to remove one weed.
The month was started by clear cutting the weeds so that we could at least see the ground. In total we took about 30 bundles of weeds to the garbage this month. The next phase was to create two flower beds in the garden. The one flower bed had about 15 tree trunks that I dug out because the former owners of this house would only cut the trees or bushes they didn't like. As a result our yard has over 100 tree stumps, big and small, in the yard. The second flower bed was full of ivy and 2 tree trunks. I am excited that I finally have these phases done because on Wednesday we will have a tulip party.
Some students will come over to our house and plant tulips. I bought about 70 tulip bulbs and a few other flowers that we are going to plant. We are also going to plant a sakura tree (Japanese cherry blossom) in our yard.
Our yard is indeed a beautiful garden, professionally built 27 years ago but their has not been good upkeep for a while. I am going to take some pictures of it now and from the tulip party. Then I can hopefully show you some before and after pictures as I continue to work on it.
One of our ministry houses (Aim High) closed. Which means I have two new roommates. Keith and Yoshihiro have moved into Full House with Tomo, Yoichi, and I. Keith is practically my new roommate as the only thing we have dividing our rooms is a sliding door that becomes the wall. I have enjoyed having new roommates as Keith has helped me out in cleaning the garden outside, but I will come back to that. Here is a picture from our first Full House dinner together.
We went to a local 100 yen sushi restaurant which was very good. I do have to say that I was the champion in eating but also the loser because I paid the most by eating 11 plates. Since April I have become a huge sushi fan and often crave it. I still do not enjoy every kind but most are wonderfully delicious.
Another thing I have been doing is working in our garden. We moved into our house in May last year and I had no idea how fast the weeds would grow. Especially when I was in America for Ryan and Betsy's wedding. I spent a little time during the summer trying to keep a couple areas clean but that almost seemed impossible because I found out we had the devil weed in our yard. This weed grows about 6-8 inches deep in the ground and spreads like a vine. About every 2 inches it shoots up another branch out of the ground. If you pull on them, they usually don't come out. If they come out you never get the root because it breaks off from the vine. It has been attempted 2 times to dig this up but it takes forever and it is everywhere. Imagine trying to dig up your entire yard by shovel just to remove one weed.
The month was started by clear cutting the weeds so that we could at least see the ground. In total we took about 30 bundles of weeds to the garbage this month. The next phase was to create two flower beds in the garden. The one flower bed had about 15 tree trunks that I dug out because the former owners of this house would only cut the trees or bushes they didn't like. As a result our yard has over 100 tree stumps, big and small, in the yard. The second flower bed was full of ivy and 2 tree trunks. I am excited that I finally have these phases done because on Wednesday we will have a tulip party.
Some students will come over to our house and plant tulips. I bought about 70 tulip bulbs and a few other flowers that we are going to plant. We are also going to plant a sakura tree (Japanese cherry blossom) in our yard.
Our yard is indeed a beautiful garden, professionally built 27 years ago but their has not been good upkeep for a while. I am going to take some pictures of it now and from the tulip party. Then I can hopefully show you some before and after pictures as I continue to work on it.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Back in Japan
It feels good to be back home and not traveling. September was indeed a month of traveling across America. It was good to be able to catch up with some of you. Thank you for all your hospitality.
I arrived back in Japan on Monday night and was glad to see that I could still exchange the American dollar for a decent exchange rate. I slept well through the first night and did not seem effected by jet-lag.
Tuesday night we had a Hokkaido reunion party which meant we started up the grill. All but one of the students came and it was a fun time seeing each other and having a yakiniku feast (grilled meat and vegetables). We then watched a video that Ruth Ann made for us from our trip. I might be able to post the video by next week. I don't have a copy yet.
I will hopefully be able to post some photos from our trip to America also by next week. I will be working on putting together a video from the trip here in the next couple days.
I arrived back in Japan on Monday night and was glad to see that I could still exchange the American dollar for a decent exchange rate. I slept well through the first night and did not seem effected by jet-lag.
Tuesday night we had a Hokkaido reunion party which meant we started up the grill. All but one of the students came and it was a fun time seeing each other and having a yakiniku feast (grilled meat and vegetables). We then watched a video that Ruth Ann made for us from our trip. I might be able to post the video by next week. I don't have a copy yet.
I will hopefully be able to post some photos from our trip to America also by next week. I will be working on putting together a video from the trip here in the next couple days.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
America Trip
Once again there will probably be some down time on my blog. Bryan and I are leaving for America with 5 students from September 4-21. We will go to San Diego, Grand Canyon, Boulder, and then Colorado Springs.
This is an all guys trip so we have planned some more difficult things or more energy consuming events. Our first morning in San Diego we plan to go on a Kayak adventure for a few hours through a homestay family from last year. When we reach the Grand Canyon we will put up tents and then wake up the next morning to do a one day climb from the top to the Colorado River and back up. It is recommended that you don't do this in one day because it can be very exhausting but many people have done it with no problems. It will take about 4 hours to get down and about 6 hours to get back out. The height is like climbing Mt. Fuji but inverted so this will be very interesting. When climbing Fuji it is very hard at the start and then easier going down. Here we will do the easier part first and then do the very hard part of climbing back up last.
Please pray for the 7 of us that we will have safety in all of our driving and events. Also pray for our 7 Bible Discussions that God will use them in our hearts and in theirs. Pray that we will be the light of Christ in their lives as we spend 18 days in a row together.
This is an all guys trip so we have planned some more difficult things or more energy consuming events. Our first morning in San Diego we plan to go on a Kayak adventure for a few hours through a homestay family from last year. When we reach the Grand Canyon we will put up tents and then wake up the next morning to do a one day climb from the top to the Colorado River and back up. It is recommended that you don't do this in one day because it can be very exhausting but many people have done it with no problems. It will take about 4 hours to get down and about 6 hours to get back out. The height is like climbing Mt. Fuji but inverted so this will be very interesting. When climbing Fuji it is very hard at the start and then easier going down. Here we will do the easier part first and then do the very hard part of climbing back up last.
Please pray for the 7 of us that we will have safety in all of our driving and events. Also pray for our 7 Bible Discussions that God will use them in our hearts and in theirs. Pray that we will be the light of Christ in their lives as we spend 18 days in a row together.
Hokkaido Trip
I realize it has been a long time once again since I have done any kind of an update. Much has happened over the last 3 months. We had 6 students come from America and spend 9 weeks with us; I went to Hokkaido for 10 days with 12 others from Utsunomiya; and been preparing for the America trip which is in 2 days.
Back in April, Bryan and I went down to Shizuoka with 3 students to do a preparation trip for doing Hokkaido this year with Nagai-san from Shizuoka BEST. Two of those students went to Hokkaido with us and the other then decided to go to America instead.
Our trip to Hokkaido was from August 10-20. We took Nagai-san's minibus and drove up to Hokkaido by way of ferry. We spent much time traveling as we went to 7 different cities. Some of the exciting things were eating king crab for the first time, eating venison in Japan for the first time (that made me really happy), seeing sunflower fields, playing idiotic games with each other in our down time, going to a famous zoo, going to many hot springs, going to Sulfur mountain, running in the mornings with 4 of the students, and, of course, seeing cows.
Hokkaido is a very beautiful place and nice and cool in the summer time since it is so far up North. In the winter they receive a lot of snow and they are famous for their snow festivals. We were able to help chop firewood for the people in Kawayu. It is amazing to see how much wood they have stored up for the winter.
This is how I would describe Hokkaido. It is like the midwest but with mountains. They have a lot less rice fields and more crop lands, many cows, more open land, and many pretty flowers. I think it would be a wonderful place to live sometime.
It was exciting to see how the students came together and bonded while on the trip. It was two days before the trip ended and they had already planned a reunion before school starts in October.
I have posted pictures from our trip. You may think, wow Alan, that is a lot of pictures but in the end a very small amount compared to what was taken.
Back in April, Bryan and I went down to Shizuoka with 3 students to do a preparation trip for doing Hokkaido this year with Nagai-san from Shizuoka BEST. Two of those students went to Hokkaido with us and the other then decided to go to America instead.
Our trip to Hokkaido was from August 10-20. We took Nagai-san's minibus and drove up to Hokkaido by way of ferry. We spent much time traveling as we went to 7 different cities. Some of the exciting things were eating king crab for the first time, eating venison in Japan for the first time (that made me really happy), seeing sunflower fields, playing idiotic games with each other in our down time, going to a famous zoo, going to many hot springs, going to Sulfur mountain, running in the mornings with 4 of the students, and, of course, seeing cows.
Hokkaido is a very beautiful place and nice and cool in the summer time since it is so far up North. In the winter they receive a lot of snow and they are famous for their snow festivals. We were able to help chop firewood for the people in Kawayu. It is amazing to see how much wood they have stored up for the winter.
This is how I would describe Hokkaido. It is like the midwest but with mountains. They have a lot less rice fields and more crop lands, many cows, more open land, and many pretty flowers. I think it would be a wonderful place to live sometime.
It was exciting to see how the students came together and bonded while on the trip. It was two days before the trip ended and they had already planned a reunion before school starts in October.
I have posted pictures from our trip. You may think, wow Alan, that is a lot of pictures but in the end a very small amount compared to what was taken.
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