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 . . .
