For Halloween, Tonya hosted a costume party at Green House. Most of the people there were associated with Lighthouse in some way. Lighthouse is an off-base Christian ministry that is geared toward Navy families in the area. Here are some of our costumes:
On the left is Tabi (with a mask on), I'm in the center (supposed to be Cruella DeVille), and Martha is on the right. Tabi is one of the missionaries from RCA who is teaching at Yokohama Eiwa. She and Tonya are both at the same school and about my same age. They're both a part of the Green House ministry as well. Martha is one of the directors of Lighthouse. She's been so great in helping me fit in there. 
Aren't these great costumes? I guess it took 'Optimus Prime' a month to make his costume! Nina, who is the alien, actually made her saucer to light up!! Impressive, huh? Now, can you imagine what all the Japanese people thought as they saw these two going through the train stations to get to Yokohama? Makes me laugh . . . 
From the left: Yoko, who attends Lighthouse regularly, Aki who I met that night, Risa who is in college and comes to Lighthouse regularly as well mostly to practice her English, and Yuki who lives on the 3rd floor of the Lighthouse complex. The other two ladies I don't remember. They are Risa's friends who I met for the first time that night. 
November 2 and 3 were the days we set aside for Ferris Festival! Here you can see the ENORMOUS banner that the girls in the art club worked on. It's a huge net, and they weaved ribbon in and out to create the picture. Isn't that so impressive? The first night after hanging this banner, it rained. Surprisingly, it withstood the weather!! That takes talent.
Here is a picture of the front of Ferris. We had beautiful, clear skies for both days, but the second day, the temperature dropped down to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Pretty cold for my standards. Nevertheless, Festival was a success! If you look closely enough, you can see a few students standing right above the entrance on the balcony. You can also see how big the banner was in comparison to the school. For Festival, they usually have about 10,000 people attend between the two days, but this year, because of the swine flu scare, they decided to close Festival to the public. Only the students' immediate family and recent graduates were allowed to attend. I guess a lot of extremely disappointed people were turned away. They still had a good turnout, though. I think they said about 3-4,000? The purpose of Festival is to give the girls a chance to show off what they've been working on in their clubs, as well as a chance for the school to market to prospective students. My favorite club that I visited was by far the orchestra. They were amazing! They played several movements from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, and they played as well as a college orchestra would play! I went to their dress rehearsal and the performances both days.
Above are some of my J3 students who are in the tennis club. The girl standing in the back is beginning to attend Green House regularly. Let's pray she continues to come!
Here is a picture of me with some more of my students. This picture was taken on the Friday before their Festival days. I walked around with my camera and took lots of pictures of the girls in all their excitement as they were preparing.
Ok, now moving on from school (not that I don't love it) . . . one night I met up with Dana in Shinjuku, which is one of the prime spots in Tokyo. She showed me this GREAT book store. It's seven stories, and one floor is designated for only foreign books! There is a huge selection for me to choose from. I was so excited that she introduced me to this store because so far the only bookstores that I've been to have one shelf designated for foreign books, and that just isn't going to cut it for me. After the bookstore, we walked around to enjoy the city lights.
Shinjuku is a really fun place -- actually all of inner-city Tokyo is fun. There is so much to do, it's unbelievable! Later that night, Dana and I met with some other missionaries that she has been working with. Really, I was the tag-a-long, but we had a great time. We went to an izakaya for drinks and food. 
Here is a picture of Dana and me!! I used my growing Japanese skills to ask someone to take the picture for us! :o) 
One thing that I missed was Thanksgiving with the family in Paw Paw. Don't worry, though, I did get to enjoy a delicious, American-style Thanksgiving meal. Green House hosted, and we invited Ferris graduates, the Director of Global Missions for RCA, all the Green House leaders (minus one who could not make it) and their families, and others who are involved in Green House in some way. This is our conglomeration of friends here. We really did have a turkey -- it was 17 lbs! We had to order it from the 'Foreign Buyers Club' otherwise there is no way we would have been able to buy a turkey that large here in Japan. Nozomi did an excellent job cooking the turkey! Seriously, it was delicious. The rest of the Green House leaders pitched in by making a dish as well. Some people brought two dishes, so our table was definitely overflowing onto the table in the next room. I made sweet potatoes. mmm . . . nice and easy.
Now you might be wondering why on earth did Katharine take a picture of shoes in the genkan? Well, I just wanted you to be encouraged by the number of students who showed up for Green House one night! It's a school policy that I cannot post pictures of students on the internet when they are in uniform. So, instead of posting a picture of the students, I posted a picture of their shoes! Pretty soon we are having our Christmas party at Green House and I am hoping that we have shoes overflowing to outside the door that night!! 