Departures and Arrivals

Ok, so I know that I've been a bit remiss on updating ya'll on my every movement :), but school adds an extra... eh... 30-40 hours to my schedule. Of course, other things are cut out in order to make room for it, but still. I'm trying. :)

In fact, last week, it was raining when I got to Shinjuku to go to school, so I stopped at the Starbucks, and chose a table in the corner that was made out of glass. I pulled out my books and was so tired that I was having a hard time staying awake... and about two minutes later, I was asleep on top of my bag on the table with my cell phone in my hand on the table.

The big news lately is that Debbie and Allan left last week, and Aaron arrived for about two weeks on last Thursday. I was pretty excited for him to arrive, because he's like my adopted little brother from Mexico. He's also playing on the FUSE band these two weekends, and so I was excited to have him meet all our team members and friends from FJC.

Yuiko helped me find the best route to the airport via train since it was the cheapest route. I transfered a number of trains and managed to make it all the way there without getting lost. Aaron came out and we got his money exchanged and then got the train to head all the way back. We made it home around 12:50am (I left around 6:30 from a local stop and his flight got in around 9:15)... so that was a really long day, but I was so happy for him to get there and so I told him.

Friday, I took off school (they extended my credit) and took Aaron and Sally to Shinjuku to the towers to overlook Tokyo, which is an incredible sight. We enjoyed it and then we went out for ramen at a shop with Tim and Christine and then Tatsu also joined us.

In the afternoon we had prayer and street performance, and Aaron played on that... Everyone was really impressed...

Well, I'm going to have to go, because I need to get to bed... Tomorrow's my marathon day and I want to conquer it. Pictures and more stories to come, I promise, but I wanted to let you know I'm alive and still blogging, just a bit busy... Catch ya'll in a couple of days.

Lunch Time!

YES! I finally get to sit down to lunch, and it's a relaxed day too, I only have to go to one other place today. It's really nice though.

So, I think I wrote about last Friday night-- it was a great street band performance! We had a great time, and made some contacts out of that, so hopefully we'll keep that up. As I speak, I'm trying to upload some videos of Fuse practices... granted they're from about a month ago, but.. nonetheless, you'll get the general feel. And, like I said, it's only practice.

Let's see... what have I been up to? Well, school, but you already know that. Monday night we had a goodbye party for Debbie and Allan. Debbie left this morning (Wednesday) and Allan leaves tomorrow night. Debbie has been here for a year and is the last person to leave that has been here from the start, so many here are feeling that. Allan has been here for 2 months, but we've seen a lot of growth and maturity in him, and we're excited that he wants to come back for college next year.

It was a good party, quite a few people showed up, and we had a nice power point and time to listen to them share a few thoughts and hear a few others share their thoughts. Yes, there were tears. I gave myself a 10pm curfew... but didn't leave until like 11... oops!

So, Tuesday was kicking my tail at school, but as you know Tuesdays are my really days. So, after teaching English in the afternoon, I sat down at Starbucks to have a few moments of peace and study Japanese. After that, I headed up to join the team for street band. They had already been going at it for about an hour, but I was so surprised to see so many of our teammates there-- like a lot of Japanese.

What's really cool is that so many have taken a different perspective about the three girls leaving this last month. Instead of whining and crying "woe is me", they are looking at this as an opportunity to step up and work hard for FUSE and to reach more people. How exciting!! Mark gave a good message last Saturday about vision... it was called Committed Japan: World Changers... and it was really about having vision for your life and investing your time, money, effort and perseverance to see success... he also shared about the Fuse's vision and different ways people can be involved.

Anyway, Tuesday night we had the planning meeting and it was cool to all sit together and plan together for the Fuse in both Japanese and English and to work together to meet the goal of reaching out to more Japanese people. Even though it seems like we're low on resources and manpower, God doesn't need those things to move mightily here in Japan. We're going to give it our all.

Well, dear friends, I'm going to work on some stuff, mostly Japanese, and then tonight, I'm planning on a full 8 hours of sleep... Be excited for me. :D

Also, tomorrow night Aaron from Meki-suko (Mexico) is arriving! I'm very excited!!
~~~
Oh: Just in, the video is ready! Hope you enjoy!!

A Changed Life... er... Light

So, I've officially completed my first week of school, and I was very happy walking home from school to the train station on Friday. I feel like I learned a lot this week... with 20 hours of school and 10 more of studying on my own, I should hope I learned something.

Friday, after prayer, dinner together and band practice, we went to street performance that evening. It was a very, very good evening all together. We had about 20 people standing there at one time with people coming and going, and we made a lot of new great friends. Actually, I met a girl who goes to the university right by where I live, so we're going to for sure hang out. But, yeah, it was a really, really great evening and we hope to see quite a few of them again. (pictured above: Sally, Kengo, me and Debbie after Street Performance)

Saturday, we had Fuse and it was good... I had a really bad headache the whole time, so it was a bit of a struggle to really "be there"... but Yuiko and I had a great super-small group right after the message talking about "vision" for life with Yoshi and Kin-chan. Afterward we went bowling and I didn't bowl but watched those playing and stood around and talked with everyone else. I wasn't feeling that great, and I've had a cough all this week, and every time I coughed, it felt like my head was going to explode. We had a good time though, I just wish I could have felt better to enjoy it more. (Here with Kin-chan... we were working on having a conversation between what little English and Japanese we both knew... :) It was good!)

One nice thing was that, on the way home, most of us went together on the train. I had the bass which is a bit heavy, but not too bad, since it's on your back. But Yoshi offered to carry it for me, and I let him. That was very kind, and I really appreciated it. I was just so tired from such a long week, and having a massive headache, it was so nice that he carried it for me.

This week also, Kengo helped me out. He's teaching me everyday Japanese that you need at the store or other places like that, which is pretty practical. Also, phrases for if I get lost, etc. But anyway, I had a question for him because Monday night, my light in my room started to go out while I was working on my homework. It's one of those round florescent ones, and there are two of them. I had no idea where to get another one. So I asked him where to buy it, and so he came and helped get my light bulbs out, took me to the store, showed me where they were and then came back to put them in the thing.

Wow! I was very thankful... because he helped me out Thursday, but since Monday night, I'd been without light, because I hadn't had time to go get a new one, and I also didn't know where to even get one. While at the store, we came to the aisle that they were in and the first price I saw was about $30-$35 for a light. I gasped and was like, oh my gosh! They're so expensive! He goes, yeah, whatcha gonna do?

There's a phrase in Japanese "shoganai", or at least, I think that's how it's spelled. But, it's kinda like, "well, there's nothing that can be done about it. Too bad." Anyway, Kengo always says "whatcha gonna do?" because the girls taught him that as the translation to shoganai. So, it made me laugh at the store, because it was like, yeah, prices are high. Nothing you can do about it. Eventually, I paid about $17ish for it, I think.

I was telling the story on Friday night on the train, because I wanted to make a bit of a big deal out of it, because it really was very nice. So, I was standing next to Mark, and I said to him, "So, Kengo changed my light last night!" Kengo, who was standing next to me, said, "I changed your life?"

And that, my friends, is going in my top quotes. Yes, Kengo, you changed my life. I can now see the light.

Anyway, I'm very thankful for these Japanese friends who are so great and helpful. I'm enjoying getting to know more of them. (Here with Fabiana, who was the bowling champ of the evening, I believe)

So, it's time now for your Japanese lesson of the day. One of the things that we've been working on this week is adjectives. There are two different types of adjectives, but I'm only going to do one kind, though in all the "conjugations"...

きょう は あたたかいです。

Kyoo wa atatakai desu.

Today, it's warm.

きょう　は　あたたかくない　です。

Kyoo wa atatakakunai desu.

Today, it's not warm.

きのうは　あたたかかった　です。

Kinoo wa atatakakatta desu.
Yesterday was warm.

And here comes the big one that I've been working on all weekend:

きのう　は　あたたかくなかった　です。

Kinoo wa atatakakunakatta desu.

Yesterday was not warm.

My response to that is that-- yesterday it was cold. That's much easier.

Anyway, speaking of Japanese, I need to study, and then I think I'll go to the Noborito service this evening and then come back and get a good night's sleep to start another long week! :)

See ya'll soon!

So, I'm four days into school now, and almost done with my first week of Japanese classes. It's been a very, very busy week. Thankfully, today is a more relaxing day, though I have things to do that I haven't been able to squeeze into all the other days. (This is Yuiko and her daughter.)

So, let me walk you through my day. Somewhere between 5 and 5:10 (yes, a.m.), my alarm clock goes off, depending on how inspired I felt the night before. And somewhere around 5:20, I actually roll out of bed. Well, I can't really roll considering it's 10 inches off the ground. Nonetheless, I finally convince myself that it's time to get out of bed.

At 6:30, having done everything that I need to do to get ready for the day, I quietly walk out the door, locking my still-asleep roommate in. I take a 10 minute walk to the train station, dropping off the trash in the bin if I need to.

At the station, I climb up the stairs, over and then down the stairs onto my platform. There, I stand in line at the correct marked arrows till my train pulls up at 6:46, and approximately 30 seconds later, it leaves. If I'm lucky enough to get a seat, which God blessed me with yesterday and today, I put my bag(s) on my lap and let my head drop and nod off, waking every now and then to look out at the stations passing and see where we are so as not to miss my stop.

If I'm not so blessed as to get a seat, I'll find some place to stand, by the door, or at least hopefully by a ring hanging down that I can hold on to... and it's funny to note how people will sleep standing up, hanging onto the rings. I haven't got that desperate yet, though I've come close. (This was actually taken discreetly in the evening. I was way too amused to pass up this opportunity.)

Anyway, I usually get off for a few minutes at one of the last stops and then catch an express, and though it's probably out of my way to do that, it's nice to be out of the crowd for a bit and beside, I know exactly how to get to the exit I need to take when I take the express train as compared to the local train. But the local train is less crowded and so I take that even though it takes twice as long.

At 7:30, I'm in Shinjuku, and I walk over the overpass and find a place to sit down and chill and look over my notes from the day before. Usually, the night before, I make a vocab list and then I quiz myself in the mornings. At 8:20, I head over to school and begin class until 1pm...

Everyday we have a new teacher, which threw me off the second day. One teacher we have Monday and Friday, I believe. But we do a lot of repeating words, and flash cards, and writing out sentences, fill in the blanks, answering questions, working together on dialogues and then saying them in front of the class. And this is all in Japanese, it's not an English teacher or someone using English to teach us Japanese, it's all in Japanese. Sometimes if we all look confused and aren't getting it, she'll say the word in English to help us out. But it's not stressful at all. Well, at least I don't find it too stressful, and we laugh at mistakes. The teacher I had today was actually pretty funny and cracked jokes. We have quite an international group. There are 3 guys from Korea, one guy from the UK, 3 people from China, one Asian guy from Australia, one UK/Nigerian guy, 2 ladies from France (though tomorrow is their last day, I understand), and one American- me.

So, quite an international group.

After school, I catch a 1:30 express train back to wherever I have to go. Monday it was to Shinyurigaoka to teach a class. And Tuesday was crazy. Tuesday I left immediately after school and went with Mark who helped me open a bank account. Then, I headed to Sagamiono to teach an English class (and grab something to eat and quickly finish preparing for the class)... after class, I went to Starbucks to study for an hour and then went to join the rest of the team for street performance. Right after that, we went to Mark and Yuiko's house for the first ever Fuse planning meeting at their place.

We used to have it on Tuesday mornings right after the prayer breakfast. But now we've changed it- for two reasons. First, I'm in school now and won't be able to go in the mornings and since most of the missionaries have flexible schedules, we changed it. Second, we want more Japanese to be able to go, and since they are freer at night, we changed it. Also, we want to start moving things closer to the area that we're working in so we can be more a part of the area and reach it. For this reason, we're also looking at a move for me within the next year to the Machida area, which would be in a number of ways, beneficial.

Anyway, we caught a 9:48 train out of Sagamiono... we had to wait for a while, and there was only a local, but we all had a good time chitchatting and joking on the train. At 10:30, I got into my house and the only thing that I could think of after being gone for 16 hours was how quickly I could get back in my bed.

So, on some days, I go to other commitments, but most days I try to come directly home, grab some lunch and spend a couple of hours studying and preparing for evening activities or just preparing for the next day.

There's always stuff to do.

Monday evening, I hung out with Saki, who I'll be doing life group with soon. It was a really good time-- I wanted to have a "date night" with her since I'll be taking her leader's place. We met at McDonald's, and then afterward, she came back to my place and I painted her toe nails while she told me her life story. I really don't want to do details, but I was surprised. After hearing two other people say that they think that I'll be able to help her move through some areas of her life, I agreed with them when I knew her story. So, praise Jesus.

Well, I need to study some and then I have a few things to do... and guess what! Tomorrow's Friday, and I'm glad. I love and enjoy Japanese school, but I kinda feel like I'm in a swirl of Japanese words and at night when I close my eyes, all I can hear is Japanese voices and phrases zooming by. It's worse than having regular voices in your head. ;)

So, now you know where I am and what I'm doing. Will catch up with you this weekend! I'm looking forward to a great Fuse this weekend and I can tell you more about that later. :)

Two Months!

Today, I celebrate two months here in Japan. It's hard to believe it's been that long already and it's hard to believe that it's only been that long. Debbie said that she was surprised because she feels like I've been here way longer than that.

Anyway, for one of the first times in a long while, I'm sitting here peacefully eating breakfast, with a whole half hour before I need to leave for any place. Normally, it's the last thing I'm doing in the morning, running around, trying to remember everything before I run out of the door.

So this last week was the Tokyo 2010 Global Consultation Conference in... well, Tokyo. It was pretty awesome, and I learned so much. We are getting closer and closer to completing the mission of reaching the world with the Gospel, but at the same time there is a lot of work yet to be done with 3700 people groups still unreached with no known work going on there. So, we talked a lot about that, and the different ways of reaching so many peoples-- Hindus, Muslims, Japanese, etc.

What's really cool about this conference is that there was a conference held in 1910 in Edinburgh and it was a huge conference for the coming together of leaders from every major mission agency, etc., to reach the world. It was the first conference like this. Now, a hundred years later, we've come together, peoples from all over the world, to celebrate the progress we've made, but also to spur us on to work together to reach the rest of the world that remains unreached.

One of the cool things about this conference was that in 1910, the majority of the people who came together for this conference were from Western nations, wanting to reach the world. It looked like over a thousand delegates in the pictures that they have, and wow- what a history! But, there were only 19 delegates representing non-western nations, and I believe there were some there from India included in that 19. I'm not sure how it all came down, but 19 from non-Western nations.

As as gathered in the huge, 2-story auditorium in Tokyo this year, there were over 1000 delegates from non-western nations. In fact, I felt like a minority! I think they represented around 80 nations. It was amazing! Not only that, but our speakers were not just Westerners putting on a conference. We had Korean speakers, Nigerians, Egyptians, Japanese, Swedish, Peruvians-- and this was just in the main plenary sessions-- not even the vast number of workshops that I wasn't able to attend. But the speakers names were not John and Bob, I can tell you.

A particularly touching thing happened on Friday, the last day of the conference. The Swedish speaker got up to talk about the state of Europe and what's needed to reach Europeans. In the past, Europe has sent so many missionaries who were passionately focused on one thing: reaching the world with the Gospel. Many who went out did not return, and so many gave their lives. Through them, the Gospel was spread to places like Asia, Africa and Latin America. In fact, in this conference a hundred years ago, most people were Europeans. It was held in Europe! In Edinburgh, Scotland! We have such a huge debt to these fearless, determined Europeans whose heart is was to share the Gospel with those who had never heard.

Now, a hundred years later, the church in Europe is very sick. While in other parts of the world, the Gospel has grown in the 1000%s, the church in Europe has declined. With the growing ideologies of secularism and humanism, so many churches have either compromised with such liberal theology that it denies itself, or it has withdrawn, also withdrawing its ability to reach out.

As we listened to these things and also talked about what was needed to reach secular and post-modern Europe, our hearts were broken for Europe. We cried out in prayer after that session for Europe, and though my heart is here in Japan, and it's for the Japanese people, I felt like my heart tore open to see what has happened and to cry for the church-- but also, we cried out for the strength of the missionaries working there. They went down from the different parts of the auditorium, and we all prayed in our own languages for them and for God to send more "Pauls" to this European continent crying, "Come over here and help us!".

We believe it-- these people are still God's children needing to be called home.

The conference days were long. The day started at 8:30 (though I left my house at 6:30 avoid the unbearably crowded express trains, and even so, they were still very crowded)... and the last session of the evening ended at 9pm. There was an hour long break for lunch and an hour long break for dinner, a half-hour break in the morning, and in the afternoons, 10-15 minutes between sessions... so, it was a full day!

I got to meet a lot of people... it was exciting to meet brothers and sisters from around the world, and though we didn't all speak the same language, it was fun to watch everyone making the effort to communicate. They had translations in a number of languages for the sessions, and people tuned in on their FM radios... it was interesting too, because some people were not able to be photo-ed or video-ed, for reasons I'm sure you understand. But they seemed to think of all these things ahead of time.

So, that was the conference. I really, really enjoyed it, but boy was I exhausted after it. Friday night, as I spent with our Fuse team in prayer, dinner together, lifegroup and then street performance, all I could say was, "I'm so tired"... like every few minutes.

Saturday was a great, great Fuse day! I did a little bit of prayer walking before we all met in the morning, and then we went to do street performance to hand out flyers, but we got kicked out after one song. :/ Making too much noise, I suppose. Anyway, then we walked around and handed out flyers, had some lunch and then came back.

After talking this morning with the girls in our girl-leaders lifegroup, we were really, really encouraged. Even though there weren't many people there yesterday, the people who were there-- it seemed like we saw everyone go to the next level of where they were. We were all sooooo encouraged to see what God is doing in their lives and how they are growing and are committed to FJC.

Mark had told us about the story of one particular person we know and how it seemed like he wasn't that into participating anymore in something they're involved in. We all really love this person and I was disheartened and troubled to hear about that. Anyway, when I saw this person show up at Fuse and then explain themselves and really see leadership from other Japanese and this person also communicate and show their humility and I was overjoyed to see it afterward. We all were! Anyway, I don't know if that all makes sense, but it was really cool-- it was the next step up for this person.

So, anyway, that's kinda where we are... keepin' on and praying and believing for God to do more things here. We won't be satisfied until it comes to the completion of what God wants it to be... which is a continual process-- so, we'll keep pressin' on and seekin' God. It's so exciting to see that He is answering our prayers and responding to us!

Well, I need to get... I'm in the middle of making lunch and I need to leave in not too long for a church meeting, planning meeting and etc.... and tonight, I'm going to get lots of rest... because....

Tomorrow I start school!!!

I survived!

Two quick pieces of information!

1- Sunday, I experienced my first earthquake here in Japan. It wasn't a big one, in fact, I thought that maybe a huge truck was going down the road, until I realized that it was wayyyyy too long of a time for that to happen and too much shaking (beside the fact that that never happens). The house was a vibratin' and the lamp overhead was swinging just a bit. I kinda just stood there in awe and looked up and thought, wow, it's an earthquake.

And then it stopped.

2- Not only that, but I also survived my first rush-hour train ride this morning. I went to school to sign up and have a trial class, and I was thinking as I got on the platform this morning- wow, there's a lot of people on this track. Not too many, but enough.

Then the train came up and the windows were... black. That's right, it was packed like sardines in there. There were about 6 people before me waiting to get in line. And I watched in amazement as the doors open. The business man who was standing in the middle where the doors meet stepped out for a second to let people off.

No one budged. Not that they could if they wanted to. So, he shrugged his shoulders and stepped backward, back into the train. And that, my friends, was when my eyebrows went up and my jaw went down. All I could think was, oh my gosh, how am I going to get on this train? There is literally no room.

And then I watched the people in front of me just step onto the train, pushing and they magically fit. The guy who was getting on at the same time as me, just went in shoulders first... and so in I kinda pushed myself too.

We were standing there, waiting for the doors to close and the train to go to the next stop when a guy came running down the stairs to the jump on the train, and what do you know- he jumped in right beside me. I was like... really?

Anyway, the doors closed, and thankfully not on me, but on the bag of that guy standing next to me. So, with an available hand, I tried to help pull it in and the officer on the platform helped push it in from outside as well.

On we went for a minute until the next stop, and as we pulled up, I saw even longer lines of people waiting to get on this train. And yes, comparatively fewer people got off the train than got on and farther into the train I got pushed.

If you had a personal bubble, it no longer would exist at this point, and boy, was it uncomfortable. I will leave it at that.

Anyway, thus I continued for most of the way to my destination: the last stop on my line. And the last 3 minutes or so, it was full-- certainly stuffed by any American standard, but it wasn't bad, and I felt free to breathe.

So, then was the hard part of navigating myself through the station to the exit that I needed to take and then actually make it to school, having only been there once before (mind you, once you're out of the station, it's pretty easy-- if you get the right exit.

And I didn't. In fact, I really went the wrong way, and when I got out, I had no idea which way to go. So, I prayed and asked God to guide me. More recently, I've particularly noticed that when I'm lost, I just kinda pray lightly and just go with the flow- trying to be observant, but not stressing out. So, I walked around the station (and I chose the right way!) and I just kept going until I recognized the street that I was supposed to continue on.

I made it to school on time and enjoyed my trial class, though it was really really easy. I registered, gave them money and all the things I had to take along, got my books and headed out, where I needed to go to a bookstore Mark had pointed me in the direction of. With the general directions, I just kinda made decisions as I went along and I made it perfectly there without having to backtrack or anything...

Anyway, I needed to buy the English version of my book (since it's all in Japanese) that also has grammatical notes. I did and headed back and was on a way better train- meaning that the seats were almost all taken and people randomly standing here and there.... It felt so beautiful.

In fact, I'm considering leaving earlier so I don't have to deal with the craziness.

But that's that, and I thought I'd share my adventurous day with you... Will write about the thank you party later. It was lovely.

Kitchen: Dealt With

Well, what an interesting few days! I have lots to tell you. On that note, I won't bother you with Thursday's activities except to tell you that we went prayer walking and then I spent hours catching up on all the things that I had to do but hadn't had time to do.

So, Friday! I ran over to Debbie's house in the morning to work on the dance piece for the evening's street performance (alas, it rained and we weren't able to go). Afterward, I went to Shinjuku where my school will be. Shinjuku is one of those places that makes you feel very small. I guess it's the equivalent of being in Times Square? I don't know, I've never been there, but that's my impression.

Anyway, Shinjuku is roughly 20 minutes by express train from my stop, and then it's about a 15 minute walk, maybe 10 if your legs are longer than mine, which they probably are. But for me, it's about 15 minutes. I went there with Mark and talked with the admin people, or I guess anyhow. But it was pretty intimidating and the girl when she started off just like spoke with SUPER speed in Japanese and my head was reeling. My stress level jumped a little bit.

But there was a girl to do some translation and then I had a quick interview in Japanese where they asked me some questions. I'll still end up going in the beginner's class, even though I answered all the questions, but I'm actually happy about that. So, we talked about classes and cancellation/extention of classes, etc. It should be pretty easy to deal with. Afterward, I went to a kanji class while Mark visited all the teachers (he graduated two years ago). The kanji (picture words) is a self-study class from 12:30-1 where you study the kanji and then have 2 tests... one where you write the reading... for instance 四 is pronounced yon (and it means four). And then another test where you'd do it the opposite and the teachers help you along if you get something wrong on the test. So, I will definitely be taking advantage of that.

So, anyway, class will start from 8:50am to 1pm, everyday. Monday I go for a "trial class" for an hour... I guess to make sure that I'm sure I want to do this, and then pay them all my money, ha! But, actually, yeah, it is pretty steep. I need to go for a year, so I'm praying that finances will be available for it, because I really really do want to learn.

Also, on my way over there on train, I got a gift from Mark and Yuiko! A stamp with my last name in katakana (the Japanese script for foreign words)! I was so excited and I've shown it to everyone, because now I feel more Japanese. Anyway, it had to be special ordered, and I need one to open a bank account here, which I need to do for a class that I'm teaching as a way of direct deposit.

Anyway, like I said, I was really excited. So, after grabbing a bite to eat in Shinjuku, I headed back on train like 25 minutes (on the rapid express this time :) to teach my other English class at a coffee shop. I really enjoy this class, but I was particularly excited this week because as I was preparing for it on Thursday night, I learned something about English: how the order of adjectives goes. You know how when people start describing something and they list like a million words and it just sounds wrong if someone says something in a different order? Well, I learned the order for it on Thursday evening, and I was really excited as I tested it out for myself to see if the book was right.

It was.

So, afterward, I ran to a store real quick in that area and then went back to the church for our prayer time for the FUSE and people going and different needs that we have. We had a meal together after that and then was the Fuse band practice, which I took part of this week since I'm played the bass on Saturday and will play in two weeks' time. I was kinda nervous about it, because I wanted to do well, and because everyone else is just soooo good. So, I practiced really hard and was a good Japanese. :) Practice went pretty well, and I earned myself a blister, as I was running out of blisterless fingers to play on.

Afterward, I hung out with Saki, Yoshi, Tom and Christine was there too. And we all just sat around and chitchatted but we had good talks about baptism and about the ups and downs of your walk with God. I made it home around 11:30 at night and was so tired.

Saturday was the Fuse and we did street performance during the day beforehand and handed out flyers and invited people. The band did pretty well, but I didn't do such a good job with the icebreaker game... it was clear to me what I was saying, but I don't think I made complete sense to everyone else. Anyway, that went over and then Debbie gave the message for the last time.

Afterward, we had supersmall groups and it was pretty cool in that we were: me (American), my roommate So (Korean), Fabiana (Brazilian) and Kaori (Japanese)... Between us, we spoke 4 languages, and it was a lot of fun. I led the group and whatever I said in English, then afterward, I would say it in Spanish to Fabiana (the two languages are understandable between each other), and at the same time So-chan would translate it for Kaori-chan. So, we had a great time talking about "connecting with God", since the message was on John 15. We were able to really encourage one another, but praying took a while afterward, since we translated the prayers because Kaori wanted a a translation (she's still on her way with a decision).

In the evening, after I got home around 7:30, I kinda chillaxed and got some more stuff done and then talked to my family via skype. Then... then. I got to sleep, and it was so nice.

Well, this week, I'll tell you from the start I don't know how much blogging I'll get to do. I'll be leaving my house around 7:30 everyday and won't get home until about 10 each night, with the exception of tomorrow. But, it's going to be a very long week- since there's a conference to go to, and then straight into Fuse activities over the weekend. So, pray for energy for me, and I'll get back to ya'll just as soon as I can.

Golden Week Indeed!

It's a beautiful day, and I'm sitting in my new tatami-floor apartment with the sun shining in through the windows that are 3/4 the height of my wall. It's so nice!

I still have yet to deal with the kitchen, although my roommate made some progress either last night or this morning. I don't know which, but I know that there are few things in there now.

So, these last few days, like I've said, have been crazy!!! Last Friday, I left my apartment... the other one, mind you, at 8:30 in the morning and got home around 11... at night. During the day, I did a number of things, including making a special power point for the girls who were leaving and practising bass with our bassist who was leaving, aned cooking for approximately 20 people some Mexican dishes. I think it was a success, and it gave me pleasure to be able to cook something that everyone liked.

In the evening, the band had practice, and I went down there to snap some shots of the last practice with the girls. Mark and Yuiko's baby girl was down there too, and we were having a lot of fun playing with her and teaching her to dance (she's 2) while the band practised loudly in the background. Anyway, it was during this time that I was jumping around and I jumped up and came back down on the corner of a metal case that carries pedals for guitars. I was more worried that I broke it (the box), when the initial throb of pain went away. Mark was like, oh, are you okay? I was like oh yeah, and then I looked down at my foot.

I had a pretty deep cut in it and it was starting to bleed. Debbie came down and I asked if she had any Neosporin. So, she took me back up to her place, and cleaned up my foot, since is was on the sole of my foot and near the outer edge. I'll spare you mose of the details, but I did have to clean blood off the stair.

Fun times!

Afterward, we went to Shinyurigaoka and had street performance. We had conversations with a few people and passed out flyers. So great!

Saturday, we went and prayer walked and passed out flyers before Fuse for a few hours and then had the Fuse event. It was pretty packed in our place! We had 35 people there, and a few new people! Saki debuted on piano, which was pretty cool, especially since our pianist was leaving! Afterward, we all went to karaoke and got to see a few personalities come out as we sang together. LOTS of laughs and tons of bonding moments. That was another late night getting to bed.

Sunday! Wow, Sunday was a long day. I left my place at like 8:45am or something like that and we went to a baptism in a place called Aikawa. Fabiana, who comes to the Fuse and who is also a part of the Brazilian church started by PAZ. Through a "team effort", she came to know Jesus as well. Sunday she got baptized, along with another girl, and Debbie, from our team got to be part of baptizing her since she was doing discipleship with her.

It was a great big celebration with lots of food, as it was a big Brazilian barbecue as well... and wow! It was great!!! Delicious. I also caught up with my friends from the Brazilian church that I had met last year. I got my share of talking in Spanish as it's pretty interchangable... not completely but we can certainly understand each other, and a few people who speak Portuguese also speak Spanish itself. I felt very content.

Well, I baked during the day... the sun was out and it was beautiful, and I was out in it to show it! I came home slighly lobster-ish, but very happy. I think I got home around 7:45pm from it, and I was sooo tired. I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to do including packing, since we were moving. But I was so tired that I felt like I couldn't even concentrate or function. So, at 8:11pm, I turned off my lights.

And at 8:41am, I got up. I was SO very tired. But anyway, I spent my morning packing and then went to the Indian restaurant with a group since that's where the girls wanted to go and it was their last day. After packing some more, in the evening, I went to Hannah and Amy's goodbye party and we packed the place and had lots of food and shared memories. We prayed for them, watched the slide show and the girls cried, of course. The party dwindled down, and I ended up staying the night there (though at 1:30, I ran back to my house to get my stuff)...


And after 3 hours of sleep, I got right back up to start the day by getting ready for a breakfast for 20 something people who were coming to see Hannah and Amy off to the train station. We did, and then I rushed back to my house to cram pack all the things that I had yet to pack. In an hour, I was ready and then were like... oh no-- the kitchen!

We ended up getting most of it packed, and the guys, who had only slept 1 hour, stayed to help. What a group! We were sooo tired, but they made heroic efforts and didn't complain once, even though I was moving to a 2nd floor apartment, where you have to squeeze past a washing machine to get to it. And I do mean there's about 18 inches of space to get past-- so they had to lift things.

But I really felt blessed by them.

Anyhow, we ate back at the church and So-chan (my roommate) and I saw them off at 4ish in the afternoon and we went back to our place to unpack most of what we'd just packed in the morning (ok, not all of it).

We had the Fuse planning meeting on Skype at 7, which was nice since it was such a long day. And afterward, all I wanted was a shower and sleep.

Now, the girls who had lived here before showed me how to use this shower, but for some reason, it wasn't working the way it was supposed to... and it does involved gas and lighting something.

I'm pretty sure everyone knows my aversion to anything gas related, and so I called Debbie and... off I raced on my bike at 9pm to go shower at the church.

It felt so wonderful to be clean and I came back to the house to finish up some things and to sleep. It felt incredible to lay down and to close my eyes and relax and know that I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn today.

Anyway, that's a catch up of the last few days, and today I'll go clean the other apartment and we'll celebrate Debbie's 22nd birthday this evening with sushi and games, etc. Today, I believe, is also the end of the holiday week and so, we'll also return to our normal schedule tomorrow.

Even though it was a holiday, it felt so crazy and not at all a vacation! Although, I have no reason to complain, I felt it was an excellent last few days and I've gotten to know more of our group and hang out with them. One of the new guys coming to the Fuse has been there at all the events of the last few days and he's just so excited to be part of the group. I really can't wait to see what God's going to do with him when he gets to know Jesus more.

Wonderful people! I love the Japanese and I can't wait until I'm able to talk to them more in their own language instead of depending on English. :)

And, as promised, here's another upward umbrella... notice that both are turned inside out! Dedicated to Vonda.

Posting this is my way of avoiding unpacking our kitchen...

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay-- the last few days have been a marathon of being gone from the house for more than 12 hours at a time... and then packing when I got home in order to move today, which we did! On 3 hours of sleep!

Anyhow, more to come. Included will be Fuse last Saturday and Karaoke afterward, Fabiana's baptism on Sunday, goodbye party for Hannah and Amy on Monday... which inevitably lasted til 3am and today's moving adventures!

SO very tired, but glad that it's over and I get to get some sleep soon.