preview into fall...

It's September.

I apologize for failing to maintain blog posts throughout the summer. It was a great summer, though, so family and friends can rest assured that I haven't dropped off the face of the internet world...I just have been staying in touch in other ways. \ (^o^) /

Let's see...

In June, I flew to MI for a weekend to surprise Nina at her graduation ceremony. Actually, everyone was surprised except Daddy and Pam. It was a whirlwind of a trip, traveling halfway across the world in a weekend, but well worth it as soon as I saw my family's surprised faces!

In July we still had school until about the 16th. Then Mom came and visited from the 30th until August 19. While she was here we went to Hakone for a day trip, then to Okinawa for a week, and ended with a three-day stay in Kyoto via shinkansen. Okinawa was fantastic. It had been almost 10 years since the last time I was there, so seeing relatives, old stomping grounds, and the ocean brought back a flood of memories. [sigh] I'm ready to go back...

Now it's back to the old routine of the school year. My schedule of classes is still the same as before break so it's nice that I don't have to adjust to anything new. In about two more weeks, we'll begin a new semester, and at that point, we switch halves of each class. I'll get a whole new set of students. That means more names to memorize, and it means starting back up from ground zero in building the girls' confidence to speak English in class. That's always rough, but by the end of the semester, I am so impressed to see how much they've improved. I want to keep going with them, but...a new semester begins and I have to start all over again.

In addition to my normal teaching at Ferris, I'm continuing with the Children's Choir at church. Our numbers have grown from three kids to FOUR kids! Keep praying...

I'm also continuing to teach the elementary Sunday school. Right now we have only two kids that come regularly because we lost lots of families that moved during the summer.

Pretty soon we are going to begin preparations for an evening Christmas program for the kids at church. This is something I will need LOTS of prayers for because as of now, it's just me putting it all together. I need helpers, or really, just another person to work with. Pray that there's also enough kids who are interested in participating. :o) That's always important.

Our Green House ministry on Thursdays has gotten off to a good start. We had a "Welcome Back to School" party for the students this past week and had about 20-30 students come. Instead of one teacher speaking, each of us gave what we called a "God-sighting" from our summer vacation. The students seemed interested to hear about our summers and at the same time, we threw in a little JESUS. Pray that this momentum and interest from the students continues this fall into the Christmas season.

I've been attending a Christian ministry called Lighthouse in Yokosuka. My first year here, I was going to the women's Bible study, but this year I am attending the service on Friday nights and playing piano during worship. It's kind of rough traveling down to Yokosuka two times a week (over an hour travel time one-way!) for rehearsal and the service, but with the Lord's strength...

Also, I now have two private English students. One student is an eight-year old girl and the other is a 25-year old female who wants to study English so she can study music in Germany. It's been fun to get to know another female vocalist.

Then aside from all this, I'm still working on my own Japanese language studies. Right now, I want to quit studying kanji, but I know I shouldn't. The speaking/conversation side of things has gotten easier, though, so that's encouraging. Especially this summer, I was able to speak a lot with Mom, and of course, relatives in Okinawa.

Well...that was just a preview into my fall festivities. I've passed the one-year mark living in Yokohama now. Time flies, but at the same time, with all that's happened, sometimes I think, "It's only been one year?!"

God is good. He continues to bless me every day in ways that are even better than what I can imagine for myself.

Love,
Katharine

the new school year in full swing

Whew! And there goes another month . . .

May was great because we had three big events: Golden Week (three consecutive national holidays), Ferris' Sports Day (体育大会= taiikutaikai), and Ferris' annual excursion (遠足= ensoku).

I'll start with pictures of Sports Day. At this event, the entire school was divided into four teams (A, B, C, and D). Each team was a different color: A = red, B = white, C = blue, and D = green. Every team had all six grades represented, so the ability levels based on age/development were represented fairly. In the end, the blue team won.

Really, I should be calling this event "Relay Games Day" because they didn't play any sports. Most of the activities were running relays, ball games, or dance-style performances. In the above picture, the girls had to throw as many of their teams' color balls into the net within a certain period of time. The team to get the most balls in the net was the winner. There were also a few gold balls for each team, worth a lot more points than the regular ones.

The video below is an impressive formation they made during the S2 students' (11th graders) fan dance. It was really awesome to see their entire class (all 188 of them) doing this dance completely in sync with each other. Their lines were ruler-straight and their motions so tight and fine-tuned that it was as if they were all one person. It was so impressive.

The next picture below is from the white team's cheer/dance. Each team prepared a cheer, then the teachers and staff had to vote on which team was the best. The judging criteria included such things as neatness of formation, uniformity, enthusiasm, creativity, etc. I can't remember who won, but I thought they were all pretty entertaining. Really, they're just cute. :o)

The next two pictures are from when I was walking around, cheering on my students. They were all so surprised to see me, as if they didn't think I'd be there. I showed them -- of course I wouldn't have missed it!! They were all excited to take pictures with me. Aren't they so cute? These are of my J1 students (middle school, first year).

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any pictures from our "ensoku," or school excursion. I went with my S1 students (senior high, first year) to 金時山, or Mt. Kintoki. It took us a couple of hours to finally reach the summit, but when we did, the view was absolutely breathtaking. I'm so sorry I didn't take any pictures! Actually, I was designated as the photographer with the school's camera, so once the students learned that I had the yearbook camera, they kept me busy by asking me to take their pictures rather than letting me take pictures with my own camera. Bummer. That's alright. There's next year, too, right?

Anyway, on this day, we reached the top right around lunchtime, so it was planned perfectly for us to bask in a beautiful view while enjoying each other's company. The day before, I bought a TON of snacks so I could walk around to all the students and offer then some treats. It was "bonding" time . . . tee hee. I also brought some left over rice krispy treats from Green House' gathering the night before. The students loved them. Yumm. After all the excitement, it took us only about half the time to descend the mountain. Our group actually got slightly lost. The other teacher and I were having fun talking and didn't notice where the group in front of us went. Oops. We all made it back just fine, though. In the end it worked out. The poor girls were getting nervous, especially since one of the teachers leading them was a gaijin. They probably had less faith in me. At the end of the day, after the long bus ride and bathroom stops, we finally reached Landmark Tower in Yokohama around 5:00. We left that morning at 7:30. Whew...what a long day.

Well, as for the month of May, that's about it. Besides these major events, the month was all about adjusting to our new schedules and routines. I feel like the school year is off to a good start with my new students. I'm excited to see what God has in store both at school and at Green House. Thank you for your prayers~~!

a new season brings...

a new school year, a new climate, a new experience . . . new life.

That's what April brings -- new life. We celebrated Easter not too long ago, and this year especially I was reminded of how precious Easter should be to us. I won't lie, but I easily get caught-up in the busyness of life and the routines of my daily schedule, so I often forget to take a step back to really remember the purpose of what I'm doing or even celebrating. It gets really hard, especially when the commercialism for holidays definitely overpowers the origin and true meaning to what we are celebrating. In Japan, Easter isn't recognized like Christmas or Valentine's Day, so I wasn't distracted by the Easter bunny, pastel candies, and chocolate eggs. Instead, this year I could focus on being with my church family by celebrating Christ's resurrection with them. The night before Easter, I felt excitement and anticipation as I lay down to sleep much like a little kid on Christmas Eve, eager for morning to come. I had never felt that before.

Then Easter morning came. I can't even describe my sense of 'completeness' as I entered the sanctuary and saw the families that I have grown to know and love all there to celebrate Christ's resurrection. He is alive and we were constantly reminded of that throughout the day. After the service, we were supposed to do お花見　(ohanami) which is "cherry blossom viewing" by having a picnic at Motomachi Park, however, the temperature was pretty cold, so we had our picnic in the sanctuary, then walked together through the park and around Yamate-cho where I live.

Beautiful.

Walking through the park for ohanami felt as if all of creation was celebrating Christ's resurrection with the rebirth of nature. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and the greenery was brightening into a livelier shade. For me, this was the best way to celebrate Easter.

The following Friday we began classes for the new school year. I teach the same grade levels this year, which is great, but my class schedule has all changed. On Mondays I teach 2 classes, Tuesdays I don't teach any classes at all, but still have to be at school, then Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I teach five classes each day. The J3 (9th grade) students I had last year are now S1 (10th grade) students so I get to teach them two years in a row! I am so excited about that because these students last year were our core group to come to Green House. I am hoping that another year with them will strengthen our relationship and that hopefully I can continue to plant seeds. Along with them, I am also teaching an English composition class. Once again, I taught these students last year as S1 students, so I am hoping that the same relationship will continue with them. This class is great because there are only 15 girls, so I can really invest a lot of my time in their writing to help them develop their skills. We are working on a journaling project, and through their journals, I plan to actually write back to them to cultivate a sense of trust to develop relationships even further.

Now for the biggest change -- my new J1 students. These are the students who are fresh out of elementary school, completely new to Ferris. They are so cute! Right now they walk around all wide-eyed and fresh-faced, excited to have passed the entrance exam into Ferris, and yet completely intimidated by the next six years they will spend here. They look like little elementary school girls wearing Ferris' uniform. :o) Their first week of classes is designed as an orientation, with the other teachers basically holding their hand as they learn their new schedule and the way Ferris operates. Because they are eased into the school year, it wasn't until the third week in April that I actually taught them for a full week. At the end of that week, though, I felt my body physically drained because I was doing more acting than teaching. These girls have had very little English experience, and since I have to hold my classes in ONLY English, I found myself acting and having to use a lot more energy in order to make myself understood. Otherwise, simply explaining in plain spoken language would leave the girls completely unsure of their task. Whew...talk about an exhausting style of teaching!

Despite this fact, though, I am thoroughly enjoying this group of students. They are such eager learners! No joke, but they honestly sit with their hands folded nicely on their desks, use great posture, and lean slightly forward as they listen eagerly to anything I say. That is something you don't see in the States. Since they are just out of elementary school, I can teach them fun 'kiddie' songs. I taught one of my classes "Jesus Loves Me" along with the sign language, and we sang it for their parents one day when they were allowed to come and observe their daughter's classes for the afternoon. We even translated the song orally for their parents, so there is no way they didn't get the message. Little by little, we're planting seeds. I am so excited for this class because I get the experience of a fresh start with a brand new group of students.

So, with this spring season, comes the new, warmer climate which is such a relief after the unusually cold winter we had in Yokohama without central heat, the new experience of starting all over with Ferris' newest students, the new school year that I am so excited about, and the celebration of new life, both with the blooming of nature and the reminder of Christ's presence among us.

LUCKY ol' March . . .

March was an amazing month! I'm labeling it as a LUCKY month in the title to this entry for three reasons. First, we celebrated St. Patty's Day (of course), second, Pam came to visit for TWO WEEKS during 春休み (spring vacation), and third, I was able to travel to Hungary where I visited Trazy and Jeff for about six days! Although two of those three occurances actually take planning and can't accurately be described as LUCKY because that implies a fortunate event despite a lack of planning, I still felt blessed that a friend was able to come here to visit, and that I was able to visit friends elsewhere. I'd consider that a pretty lucky month.

So let's start with Pam's visit because it was right at the beginning of the month. She was here from March 5 through March 19th. Seriously, we had so much fun together. Those two weeks were filled with lots of walking, exploring, and laughing, and I could not have asked for a more enjoyable time with my friend.

Pam arrived on a Friday afternoon. I left school at around noon in order to be at the gate at the airport early enough to greet her as she walked out. Her flight was delayed a bit, and even then, it took forever for her to finally come out. I was getting so antsy and worried that something happened, but finally, about 45 minutes after her plane landed, I saw Pam amongst all the other people, called her name, ran up to her, and gave her a big hug. Embarassingly, the waterworks started. Haha, I didn't bawl or anything, but I definitely had more than one tear from my eyes.

From the airport, we had a 1.5 hour train ride to get us back to Yokohama, then another short ride on the subway to the station near my place. Poor Pam was exhausted, though, and in a daze as we made our way to my apartment. To welcome her to Japan, I bought us a bottle of wine, cheese, and crackers, and we toasted to her safe travel and much-anticipated arrival. 　　　　　CHEERS! かんぱい！

Here's a list of the things we did and the places we went:

Friday: Japan welcomed Pam!! Despite her traveling induced delirium and fatigue (thanks, Pam, for the words) I took her to my favorite ramen restaurant where she was so exhausted that she failed to properly utilize chopsticks to eat her ramen. (Thanks, again!)
Saturday: Yokohama station area where we went to SOGO (department store) and PORTA (a series of boutiques along the station's underground walkway. I fixed curry rice for dinner and we watched Grey's Anatomy.
Sunday: Introduced Pam to my Sunday school class and church family. We went out for lunch then walked along Motomachi shopping street.
Monday: Started at Chinatown, where we had lunch, then made our way over to Minatomirai to see Landmark Tower (tallest building in Yokohama, also filled with shopping), and Queen's Square (more shopping).
Tuesday: My church next door was having an arts & crafts fair as a fundraiser for its preschool. We stopped in there to look around. From there we went to Roppongi Hills area. It was cold and rainy that day so we decided to do something indoors. This, of course, included more shopping. We ended at a 270 yen izakaya for dinner.

Wednesday: Finally the weather was nice! We walked to Yamashita Park, Omotesando Pier, World Porters, then made our way to Yokosuka for Bible study.
Thursday: Japanese Outdoor Folk Home Museum (Nihon Minka-En). Green House gathering in the PM.
Friday: Sankeien Garden. It took us 1.5 hours to walk there! Haha, but we had a few stops for snacks along the way . . .
Saturday: A busy weekend day, so I took Pam to a busy area of Tokyo! We stopped at Shibuya, Harajuku, saw Meiji Shrine, and ended with dinner at Shinagawa.
Sunday: Sunday school and church, then made our way to Shinagawa to meet friends for kaitenzushi, a sushi restaurant that serves all its sushi (and other dishes) on a rotating belt so you can simply pick whatever is in front of you! We ended the day by walking through Ginza and Yurakucho (high-end shopping street), then went out for coffee and cake.
Monday: ONSEN DAY!! We went to Odawara Castle (where there were lots of blossoming trees), saw a shrine and temple near Kozu, then made our way to Hakone where we went to an onsen called Hakone Tenzan. An onsen is a hot springs bath. The one we chose is outdoors and separates the men from the women. Basically, you strip off all your clothes, wash yourself, walk outside, then soak in the hot spring baths. They are arranged from warmest to hottest, so anyone can gradually work up to the hottest bath. I'm not an experienced onsen-goer, so I didn't make it up to the hottest temperature.
Tuesday: Kamakura area to see Daibutsu, or, Big Buddha. Kamakura is an old capital of Japan so there are many temples and lots of greenery. Pam and I started at one point in Kamakura, hoping to take the hiking trail to see Big Buddha. However, we didn't realize how much of a "hiking" trail it was. We were definitely not dressed for the journey ahead of us. We made it though!! After our journey, we walked to see Yuigahama Beach, which is pretty popular for surfing.
Wednesday: LADIES' DAY AT THE MOVIES!! Pam and I started by going to Pompadour for coffee, walked to Isezaki-cho to do more shopping, then made our way to Minatomirai to buy movie tickets to Sherlock Holmes. We had to wait until the next showing, though, so we walked around World Porters (the building with the movie theatre and more shopping), then stopped at Starbucks for our 'sakura feast.' What is 'sakura feast' you may ask? Well . . . apparently Japan has a flavor for their beloved cherry blossoms, or sakura. Starbucks has a sakura drink, cake, steamed dumpling, biscotti, and cookie. Pam and I each got a drink (I got hot, she got a frappuccino) and we split the enormous sakura cake. Delicious. That, my friends, is a sakura feast. (By the way, the movie was good, too.) We ended the day by walking along the coast to enjoy all the city lights at night.
Thursday: Another trip to kaitenzushi!! We ate a lot of food . . . then came back to pack!
Friday: We went to Narita airport together -- Pam to fly back to Michigan, and myself to fly to Budapest to visit Jeff and Trazy.

Now from here, another adventure begins . . .

My flight to Budapest included a connecting flight in Moscow. Probably not the best planning on my part because the Moscow airport is awful. I won't get into too many more details, but it wasn't the best experience. The flight from Moscow to Budapest, however, was less than three hours, and at that point I was so tired that I slept the entire flight. That was probably for the best because otherwise I don't think I would have been able to contain my excitement.

So arriving at the airport in Budapest, things went smoothly. I went through customs, got my baggage pretty quickly, then walked out of the gate expecting to see Jeff and Trazy waiting there for me, but was disappointed when I saw no one. Hmm . . . What do I do now? I have no phone numbers, no addresses, nothing. What if I am stranded at the airport?! I started to make my way over to some chairs to sit and wait, but that's when I heard, "Katharine~!" It was like music to my ears, hearing my name in English amongst this foreign language that I had never heard before. It's one thing to be confused when hearing Japanese, but it's another thing to be confused hearing a language I'm not studying! I turned and saw Jeff running up to me, gave him a hug, then met Trazy with a hug as well. Ahh...safe and sound. :o)

Apparently, Jeff and Trazy had been waiting in the wrong terminal. I dramaticized everything on my end just to give them a hard time. Honestly, I wasn't waiting long so it was no big deal.

Well, that's when my trip in Hungary began. We made our way to Trazy's flat in Budapest where I dropped all of my stuff, exhausted from traveling, and did a little catching-up with my friends. Unfortunately, though, I was so sleepy, so I didn't last in conversation very long.

The next several days were just a whirlwind of activity. I am so bad at remembering all the Hungarian names for the places we went, so we'll just deal in English. My first day there, we woke up early to catch a train in to Nyirtelek, the town that Jeff lives in. The train ride was pretty fun. It was like the train in the book, Polar Express, or the Hogwarts Express in Harry Potter. There was a little cafe car and everything! Trazy and I hung out there for a bit to get my first taste of Turkish coffee. Sorry to have abandoned you, Jeff!

We arrived in Nyirtelek, then went to meet Aunt Suzie, the adorable Hungarian lady that Jeff lives with. We visited with her a while, then went to the church that Jeff is attending. There, we met the associate pastor as his wife, as well as the pastor's family. We made our way back to Aunt Suzie's place to have lunch. This is where I learned that a typical Hungarian lunch will begin with soup as the first course, then move on to something else for the second course. I think we had chicken and potatoes. It all blurs together.

After lunch we went and visited the place where Jeff works, then visited some different families that he knows. We went back to Aunt Susie's place to have dinner. From there, we went to the church to use the internet, then were invited to the pastor's house for something delicious that his wife made for us. This is when I was introduced to 'fruit soup.' Sounds weird, I know, but it was so good! Trazy told me earlier that this was her favorite food in Hungary, and now I understand why! We ended up staying at the pastor's house for several hours, playing UNO and a dice game that's similar to BS.

The next day was Sunday, so we went to Jeff's church where we met more people. Then Trazy and I were caught off guard because we were asked to come up front and talk about what we do in our different placements. Trazy, of course, was able to explain in Hungarian, but I had the luxury of a translator. ;o) After church we went to the train station to head back into Budapest to Trazy's place. Here we are at the train station.

We arrived back in Budapest sometime in the late afternoon. That evening we went to a choir concert that Jeff's pastor's daughter invited us to. It featured three Japanese choirs, as well as the choir that she sings in. Who would have thought that I'd be in Budapest in time to hear Japanese choirs? I haven't even had a chance to hear Japanese choirs in Japan . . .

After the concert, Trazy had a surprise for us! We went back to her flat to change our clothes, then went walking around the city at night. She took us to Buda Castle where we were able to overlook the Danube River onto Parliament. Everything was illuminated so beautifully! Talk about a gorgeous view. As we were enjoying the scenery in front of us, from her enormous purse, Trazy brought out a bottle of wine! So, there the three of us stood, overlooking the river at night, in a beautiful foreign city, enjoying a bottle of wine. Like Trazy said, it was oddly romantic.

Here we are at the wall of Buda Castle that overlooks the river. I'm sure the wine was gone by now.

The next day, we woke up in a timely fashion to enjoy all the hot spots of the city. We began by walking past Parliament, since Trazy lives only a short walk away! Of course, perfect picture opportunity. From there we walked along the Danube where I, of course, took many more pictures. We also went to a market where we had langos for lunch, walked across the bridge to the church that's actually a cave, explored around the Castle District some more where we went to a cute cafe called Roszwurm (spelling is definitely wrong--sorry!). This is a picture of the three of us in the cafe. The nice English-speaking girls at the table next to us took the picture! Thank you! We walked around some more and made it back to Buda Castle just as the sun was setting. I was able to get some good pictures before it became TOO dark. This is my favorite picture. The sky is the perfect shade of blue, and this section of the castle is illuminated so nicely. It's like Cinderella! Or Beauty and the Beast...or whatever other Disney castle you want it to be! That's why I like the picture so much. Here the sky has gotten darker, but I still managed to get a decent picture of Parliament across the Danube. We ended our day by visiting some of the other volunteers in Budapest, then Trazy and I headed back to her flat and called it a night.

The next day we went to Trazy's work and hung out with the other ladies there by decorating eggs with beads. Meanwhile, Jeff entertained the kids that were there. We left by about 12:30 to make it over to the hospital to have lunch because it's really cheap. Luckily, the afternoon turned out to be a really nice, with a BLUE sky! We did some more walking around the city, where we saw the Opera House, Heroe's Square, and another castle that I forgot the name of. We also made our way over to the basilica where we walked inside, then went up to the tower to see the view of the city. As we came down from the tower, the sky brightened up a bit, so that's when I took this picture of Jeff and Trazy. We were sitting on the steps to the basilica. Trazy just can't stop being silly . . .

While at the Opera House, we bought tickets to that evening's performance -- the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra playing Ferenc Erkel's opera, Dozsa Gyorgy. I was slightly confused, though, because it was performed as an oratorio, so I don't think they performed it as the real thing. Maybe just selections from the opera? Either way, it was an enjoyable evening of music.

After the opera, we went out for pizza. This was our last night together in Budapest. [tear, tear]. This last picture is of us at the restaurant. It was such a great trip! Budapest is beautiful, and seeing the relationships that Jeff has built in Nyirtelek was amazing. I'm so proud of these two, and I'm so glad I was able to visit.

All in all, do you see why March was a LUCKY month? It's not that unexpectedly good things happened, that's not the case at all, because all of these circumstances were blessings. I was simply presented with such wonderful opportunities. Pam came to visit and I visited Jeff and Trazy. To top it all off, I've been out of school since March 5th, and I don't even start teaching until April 8th! Talk about a long spring break!

Now I have something wonderful to look forward to: the beginning of a new school year at Ferris. I am so excited to welcome in a new batch of J1 students (7th grade equivalent). Most of them have had no English experience in a classroom setting, so it will be difficult for me to break them in to conversational English without overwhelming them, however, I have confidence that we'll be fine. I received some feedback from my students from last school year, and overall they thoroughly enjoyed my class. I hope this new school year goes just as well!

Well, goodbye for now. Until April . . .

February's end . . .

So in Japan, Valentine's Day is backwards from in the States. On Feb. 14th the girls give the guys chocolates or whatever kind of sweet, then on March 14th (also called White Day), the guys have the chance to return the favor to the girls. It's pretty interesting, and it's also a clever way to trick consumers into buying huge amounts of chocolate on one more day out of the year. Needless to say, the girls at school were busy making chocolates or baking cookies/cakes to bring to school. Since we are at an all girls' school, the girls were freely giving their friends all sorts of sweets, despite the idea that it's a day for girls to give to guys. The poor male teachers at school were almost being bombarded with treats from their students. Some of my students gave me cookies and chocolate, which I was so excited about. I'm still unsure of what my students think of me because they're so shy and hesitant to speak in English, so I was glad to receive little treats from them. Especially since I see most of my students only one time a week, I was receiving sweets well until Thursday, when most students exchanged their treats the week before on Friday!

Sorry, I guess I got ahead of myself because I didn't really talk about January. Oops. That must mean that January was pretty uneventful, which it was. Shinny and Brittany left on January 8th, and that was my first day back at school from winter vacation. Once school started back up again, I focused on getting back into my routine with school, tutoring English, doing my own Japanese studies, going to Bible study, church, etc. The end of January into February were the coldest weeks I've experienced. Last week was pretty cold, too, with it snowing a couple times, but this week has been great with the temps being well into the 50s. I'm sure it won't last though. I just don't want it to snow again!

This week at school the students all took their final exams. Teachers are able to leave at 1:00PM everyday, which has been really nice. Monday through Thursday I proctored the first hour exam, from 9:10-10:00, then had the rest of the day to do grades, study Japanese, etc. until 1:00 when I could leave for the day. It was great. Friday, I proctored the last hour exam, from 10:20-11:10, finished all my grades, prepped for Monday's class, and was definitely out again by 1:00. I've been so thankful for the great weather this week especially since we are able to leave earlier in the day. Jo, one of the other conversation teachers, and I were able to take advantage of this week by going out to Minatomirai to see some short films, walking all along Yokohama Bay on our way to Sakuragicho Station, going out for coffee and pie, and simply enjoying the sunshine with good conversation. Next week we have our final classes, then we are basically on spring break. There are a few days when teachers have to come in to enter grades, attend graduation chapel, etc, but they aren't full days. Another great thing is that my friend, Pam, is coming to visit for two weeks -- from March 5th through the 19th. I'm so lucky to have friends visit! They're lucky, too, because Yokohama is such a great place to show off!

Now, as February ends and March begins, we are rolling into a new season. Lent has begun with the promise of Easter, winter is ending, and a new school year is beginning. I am so excited to see how God will work!

December and on . . .

First of all, I'd like to apologize to everyone who has been asking me why I haven't blogged in a while. I know, I know...keeping up with this sort of thing is not my strong point. I'm usually caught up in reading a book, studying Japanese, or sending out emails, and the thought of blogging easily slips my mind. Sorry, sorry, sorry!!

Here I go...
December was fun. We had a big Green House Christmas party about halfway through December, before our winter vacation started at school -- that way students could come. We had a really good turnout, maybe a total of 70-80 girls throughout the evening. Of course, that wasn't all at one time, as Green House isn't big enough to hold that many people comfortably, but as students came and went, we had a pretty sizable turnout. It's so funny because the girls are always starving when they come after school, so as soon as we'd bring out a tray of food, it'd be gone in a few minutes. I was working in the kitchen so all I saw was a full tray go out, then three minutes later, the same tray return completely empty. Like Nozomi said, it was like a cartoon or something...go out full, come back empty, all within a couple minutes.

With Green House, though, I often wonder how many of the girls actually come because they are curious about Christianity, and how many of the girls come for the food or because their friends are coming. Even if we asked them what their motive for coming is, I'm sure they wouldn't tell us that it's only for the latter two reasons. In the end, though, I think I'm satisfied even if the girls come just to "hang out" with friends after school. After all, they still hear the message for that week, right? But then I thought again about the possibility of the girls not even paying attention to the message. Digging deeper into that, I'm still satisfied even if their brains shut down when we give our devotional/message, because they're at least interacting and SEEING Christian behavior, so I hope that speaks loudly enough to them. No matter their reason for coming, I'm always glad to welcome them in because hospitality is a huge part of Christianity. I hope the girls can see that in us at Green House.

So I was lucky enough to have friends visit for Christmas. Shinny and Brittany both came and spent three entire weeks with me! It was so fun, because not only did I have people to spend Christmas with, but I also had the opportunity to go to different places around this area that I wouldn't have gone to otherwise. We went to several areas in Tokyo, including Shinjuku (where we saw Mt. Fuji from the government building's observatory), Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, Shibuya (where it was SUPER crowded as always), Asakusa where we toured the city via rickshaw, and other places. Of course, I took them around Yokohama because I think it's even better here than it is in Tokyo! We went to Chinatown, Motomachi, various parks in Yamate-cho, Yamashita Park, Osanbashi Pier, and Minatomirai where we saw Avatar in English with Japanese subtitles and were the only ones laughing in the theatre, then were bummed when the Avatar language was translated only into Japanese. On top of all that "touristy" sight-seeing, Shinny and Brittany were able to see the Christmas program that I was working on with the kids at church AND hear the trio of "O Holy Night" that I sang for the Christmas Eve service. In the end, despite all the craziness of being busy, I was so glad to have friends with me for Christmas and my 23rd birthday. Wow, is that right? I can't believe I'm already 23...!

In Japan, New Year's Day is a bigger holiday than Christmas, but the three of us girls didn't go out and do much. We actually had a fun night in my apartment, then ran out to Harbor View Park (Minato no Mieru Oka Koen) where we were hoping to see the fireworks that we were told would be shot off from the pier over Yokohama Bay. However, we were disappointed when midnight came around and all we heard was the sound of the ships blowing their foghorns--no fireworks. It was alright, though. At least the city lights were beautiful. I was also glad to see that the park wasn't very crowded. It was actually surprisingly empty! That's always good news in a city with an incredibly high population density. :o)

Ok, now on to January . . .