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 . . .