2nd Christmas Party: Ladies

Earlier in the week, the church through a Christmas party for all the ladies who attend church or lady neighbors.  Most of those in attendance were on the older side.  Little, old ladies.  We had a young mom and her baby.  And Hiromitsu and Hisashi were also there.

The New Chapel was all decked out with Christmas decorations.  We also had a nice little lunch.  It's something I'd stereotypically expect from England: cute, little sandwiches, tangerines, and tea.  There was also a variety of Japanese pickles that I tried but didn't like.  After lunch, we had cake.  Christmas cake.  It's a Japanese tradition.  It's mainly a white sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberries.  It was good.  Very light.  But the cold Christmas season always makes me crave really rich foods, like hot cinnamon rolls!

Hisashi gave a sermon about Mary.  I liked the spin he gave on it.  He said that Jesus was not the hero of Christmas.  It was a woman, Mary.  The mother.  It was a nice way to reach all the women and make the story of Christmas personal to them.

After lunch and sermon, we exchanged gifts.  I was prepared this time!  I made another yarn lei with the stuff I had left over.  It was a lot of fun to exchange the gifts.  It was kinda like musical chairs.  Finally, the most stopped and I got my gift.  It was a ceramic cup.  It was really nice for 500 yen!  Plus it was wrapped in a really nice handkerchief.  It was like getting two presents instead of one.  And who got my lovely pink lei?  Hiromitsu!  Not quite fit for a guy.  At first he thought it was some sort of scarf!  But maybe Ayumi would like it...

After presents, we had a candlelit service.  I don't remember everything that was said.  But, Hisashi lit his big red candles.  Then one by one we each lit our own little white candles.  In the end, it looked quite nice.  After saying a prayer, we blew our candles out.  And that was it!

It was a nice little service/party for the ladies.  I hope they enjoyed it and were blessed by it.  Now, on to my third party...

A Baptism & the 1st Christmas Party

Two Sundays ago, we had a really special day.  Yuki, one of my former English students and mother of some of the Sunday school kids that attend, got baptized!  This is a big deal in Japan.  To them, this is the major step to say, "I'm a Christian."  I've never taken baptism so seriously in my own Christian life.  Of course, I recognize it as something important, but I supposed it's something that I never really focused on very much.  When I got baptized, I suppose it felt like no big deal.  But this time with Yuki, it WAS a big deal!

I made a yarn lei for Yuki (not easy in Japan!) and gave her some flowers, but I think I was outdone by the pink poinsettias!

Yuki got up in front of the church and shared her testimony.  It was very educational for a westerner like me.  For most of her life, she's felt an extreme amount of pressure, fear, and worry.  She's worried about everything!  Her husband has been largely unsupportive in her seeking out God.  She has to deal with something that I certainly know nothing about.  Having to obey her husband!  In fact, she had to sneak out in order to show up for her own baptism!  It's something that I don't think I'll ever understand.  The Japanese tradition of the husband being "the king" (as one Japanese woman put it) and the wife being the servant.  It's something that Yuki is facing and I'm sure many other women pursuing God must also face.  But seeing all the spiritual battles that Yuki has been fighting for many years, and how God has always fought for her... It becomes quite understandable why a baptism is something so special and important for a Japanese person.  It's also a blessing to hear how God has used past English teachers and missionaries to bring her up.  Many of those teachers have left, but they made an impact that lasted longer than their stay in Japan.  It's a reassurance that God will continue to use us and our servant hearts in ways that our bigger than we can understand.  It was a beautiful moment to see this fruit of their labors and God's ever-pursuing love.

Yuki getting baptized.

Another note that I found interesting was their style of baptism.  Most Protestant baptisms I've seen involve the pastor submerging the person in a body of water, either a tub, or river, or beach.  Instead, Pastor Hisashi baptized Yuki by putting water from a silver cup on her head.  I do know that in submersion water baptisms, it signifies a person dying (going underwater) and then being resurrected into a new life (coming out of the water).  I wonder if the symbolism and significance for the Lutheran practice is different or if it means the same.  And if it is different then that would also make sense why the emphasis on baptism also seems different.

Mana-Su fell asleep during
Hisashi's message!

After the service and lunch, Fileo had a Christmas party.  It was the first of many Christmas parties to be held at ACC.  Aaron and I showed up and we were very surprised to see people dressed up in costumes.  Manami wore a Santa dress and hat.  Ryunoske dressed up as Rudolph.  Tomowari was some sort of yakuza guy (not Christmas related at all), looked like he stepped out of a shooting video game.  Haruka was Mario (also not Christmas related at all).  Manami Suzuki was a pink prince (again, not Christmas related).  She looked like she belonged in Sugar Rush from Wreck-it-Ralph!  Hajime.. was in all black.  Including black face.  Literally black face.  I'm not really sure what he was supposed to be, but I'm sure he wasn't a black person so it wasn't racist.  But he was black.  I thought maybe he was a lump of coal, but seeing a theme of non-Christmas related costumes made think maybe I just didn't get it.  Lol. Well, Aaron and I didn't really know we were supposed to wear costumes.  Manami mentioned dressing up.  I thought that meant wearing Christmas colors or a Christmas sweater, so I wore a red sweater.  Joshua showed up in a Christmas sweater, which made me feel a little more normal.  But I guess I didn't grasp that she meant wear costume.  It's not exactly a traditional American thing to do.  I think Aaron was also confused.  But it was entertaining.  Especially when we found out our mission.  Head to the local supermarket, purchase a bunch of stuff to decorate a cake, and then decorate the cake.  Prettiest and most delicious cake wins.

We all ran into the store.  Manami Suzuki stood out the most since she was wearing bright, neon-pink tights and a wig.  She was extra embarrased.  Haruka looked mostly normal except for her Mario mustache, which she tried to cover up most of the time we were there.  I don't know why they were embarrassed.  I would've totally embraced the moment!  Maybe I just love being weird.  Being weird is awesome!  I enjoyed being the weird group in the middle of Yorkbenimaru.

We had only an hour and $8 to do everything, so after buying all our stuff, we rushed back to the church to make our cake.  Our original idea was to make a Christmas tree.  Then we saw that the cake was really tiny.  We improvised and it turned into a totally new monster.  A Christmas tree cake turned into a cake Christmas tree forest.

Our tree forest cake.

When time was up, we presented our project to the 3 Wise Men: Hiromitsu, Hisashi, and Toru.  I BSed our presentation by saying the three trees represented Father God, Christ, and Holy Spirit.  But even my BS didn't win us first prize.  The winner was... Hajime, Aaron, and Moe.  Personally, I think they should've been disqualified because they left the paper between their two layers of cakes AND because they stole our Pocky sticks.

The winning cake.

Although, if I were the judge I would've chosen Manami, Ryunosuke, and Joshua's cake as the winner.  There's was just really pretty.  Of course, they had Joshua the artist on their team!  And I thought theirs was the yummiest.  They were smart enough to put loads of almonds and chocolate chunks all over the place.

Manami, Ryunosuke & Joshua's cake!

After the cake contest, we exchanged Secret Santa gifts.  Again, I was totally confused by the different Christmas practices in Japan.  Usually in America, when we do a Secret Santa, everyone picks out names from a bag and then buys that person a gift without revealing who they are.  In Japan, however, people all show up with a wrapped gift and distribute them randomly to everyone in the party.  Well, I guess I assumed we'd be picking out names that day, rather than giving out gifts.  I felt like a jerk for not bringing a gift and we were once again unprepared for the party.  Fortunately, Joshua brought 2 gifts, so we were still able to participate.  Thanks, Josh!  Aaron and I got a gift from Hajime.  Yeah, not really a secret, lol!  But it was a really nice gift.  It looked kinda like an ash tray.  But it was a glass tray from Okinawa.  Even though the tag said "Made in Taiwan."  But everyone seemed to know that this was some sort of specialty from Okinawa.  So... I guess it's Okinawan!  It was still very nice, and Aaron and I are racking up a lot of random gifts given to us from people in the church.  I have no idea what to do with them all since we don't have our new apartment yet!

Well, that was the end of our Fileo Christmas Party.  One down, a bajillion more to go all before December 25th!  I'm pooped.

Food. Friends. Fun.

On Saturday,  Aaron and I had made plans with several friends.  First, we met up with Nobuko and her husband at Yumi's family soba shop.  It's a plan we've been trying to set for several months, ever since Yumi opened up her shop.  Finally, FINALLY we were able to do it.

First, we had to wait for Aaron to get out of work.  He had to work late this weekend because of Christmas preparations.  We didn't get going until around 3pm.  We tried to dial in the address to our GPS, but it just took us in circles.  Once we got to the general area, we stopped at a convenience store and asked the poor high school kid working to give us some directions.  The guy was really helpful and told us exact directions in how to get there.  While in the convenience store, I took the opportunity to buy a snack.  Some cheese crackers!  That was my breakfast!  I'd been waiting all day to eat at Yumi's shop and now we were super late!  But, thanks to that high school kid's help, we found the place.  His directions were perfect.

Yumi taking Nobuko's order.

When we got there, we were surprised by how small it was.  I knew from pictures that it was going to be small, but once we stepped foot inside, we got a better idea of just how small it was.  It was only big enough to sit about 8 people at a time.  With Nobuko and her husband, we took up half the entire restaurant.  Aaron and I sat at the counter on these tiny little wooden stools.  Since, it was pretty cramped and there was already a family sitting inside, we waited for a while before we got our food.  We were able to make some small talk while we were waiting for our food.  Poor Yumi and her family were slaving away!

Once we finally got our food, the wait was worth it!  It was delicious!  I normally don't care for soba because it's quite bland.  But they mixed their soup with some chicken broth and it tasted so good!  I ordered the cold soba, but it probably would've tasted even better hot.  Aaron got the same thing I did and he loved it too.  He said it was the best soba he's eaten!  Plus, they gave us some free dessert.  Some azuki bean bricks (I don't know what they're really called) and persimmons.  After all their other customers left, we all sat around and talked story.  We ended up staying for quite some time.  When we checked the clock, it was already 6:40 pm!  We had to go or else we'd be late for our next plan.

Soba with chicken! Yum!

Before we headed out the door, Yumi gave me one of her homemade charms.  It was worth $5, but she gave me it for free.  It was a little charm made from a 100 year-old kimono.  At least that's what she said.  When she said that I thought it was so cool.  I tried to hand her 500 yen to pay for it, but she refused.  They then ushered us out of their parking lot and waved goodbye.

Next up, we had dinner!  Luckily, our dinner place was just around the corner from Yumi's restaurant.  We couldn't believe how close and convenient it had all turned out.  After only about a 5 minute drive, we were at the restaurant.  When we got there, Natsuho had just arrived too.  Not long after, Manami Suzuki and her friend Ayano came in.  We were all there.  The place was a Korean restaurant that was owned by a Korean lady.  Manami had been there before and recommended we try it out.

The huge blocks of meat, with a little cup to catch all the oil.  By the end of the night that little cup was filled up to the top!  It was pretty gross.

We all ordered whatever we wanted, but Manami ordered a big chunk of meat for all of us.  Literally.  A huge chunk of meat.  We couldn't believe how much meat they gave us.  They fried it right in front of us as we ate chijime, sundub, and other Korean dishes.  Of course, Aaron had to order a bowl of bibim naengmyeon.

Natsuho ordered a big glass of beer and afterwards some kind of rice wine that they served in a bowl.  He passed it around and we all tried it.  It was quite interesting.  It seemed that Natsuho enjoyed himself and we had a good time talking to everyone.  The Korean lady who owned the place was really a crazy lady.  She talked to everyone and was pretty wacky.  I'm not sure but she either called me fat or was checking me out.  She told me I had much volume while making a shapely figure with her hands and then she said that I had a small face.  I didn't really know how to take it.  She also said I was short.  She also seemed to like Aaron since he has a Korean connection.  I don't know what she said to him but she kept feeding him like he was her son.  It was quite a strange but funny experience.

At the end, the Korean lady made us a kimchee fried rice with cheese.  It was pretty cool to watch her.  It turned out to be the most delicious thing we'd eaten all night.  I think I might even have to make that for myself one day.

Unfortunately, Aaron had rented out his school's van for the day and he needed to get it back by a certain time.  So we had to say goodnight far too early.  When we finally got home, we were stuffed!  It was a strange day for my stomach.  I spent the first half dying from starvation, then the next several hours eating non-stop!

Our three friends: Manami, Ayano & Natsuho.  All eating the yummy, cheesy kimchee fried rice.

But overall, it was a fun day with great food.  Aaron was very happy and it was like having a life again.  Lol, I agree.  It's nice to have some sort of social life and not feel like a mindless working robot.  As for me, it was my last day of food happiness.  The next day would be the start of my 3-week-long Daniel Fast.  I guess this was my Fat Tuesday.  Yup, very fat.

A Day with Natsuho

Last Saturday was a holiday in Japan called Culture Day.  So, Aaron had the day off.  None of my students were able to make it to class that day.  A few had other plans, one had to study for some tests, and another was sick.  So I got the day off as well, and we took advantage of it. 

We met up with our friend, Natsuho.  It'd been a long time since we'd seen him, so it was a meeting overdue.  Natsuho showed us this cool curry place in downtown Sendai.  It had some interesting dishes that were a little different from the typical Japanese curry place.  Aaron and I both got the tandoori chicken.  The curry was excellent, but the coolest thing was seeing little people hanging around all over the place.  Literally.  They were so cute.  Hanging on the cash register, potted plants, napkin dispensers, and so on.  We ate and chatted about random things and just caught up.  

After curry, we decided to check out the arcades.  We actually tried out two.  Both were called Taito Station.  The first one was pretty small, but the second was much bigger.  First we hit the 5th floor.  Yes, the arcade had 5 floors!  The top floor was the Dart Floor.  Normally I associate darts with bars and billiards, but I guess in Japan they're considered an arcade game.  Aaron and Natsuho duked it out while I just took pictures of the arcade.  I was happy to sit on the soft pleather couch.

 

After playing several rounds of darts, we headed back to the first floor, which was the crane game section.  There were so many crane games with every type of prize you could think of.  Very type of plush toy, t-shirts, collector figurines... the most disturbing was the slutty school girl statues.  In front of the arcade was a taiko drum game.  Aaron and Natsuho duked it out again.  Natsuho was very good.  I think Aaron didn't quite understand all the rules of the game, and neither did I!  But I think they enjoyed it.

There was also an air hockey game on acid located on the first floor.  It's like your normal air hockey game, except that it shoots a hundred pucks at you at the same time and you have to get them all in the opponents goal.  It looked really fun.  

While they played their air hockey match, I was capturing all the craziness of the arcade.

THE CLAWs look like alien robots!

And I found this lost Rilakkuma wandering the place.

Aaron about to take his first shot.

After the arcade, we walked to a bowling alley that was not too far away.  It was located on the 5th floor of a building in downtown Sendai.  I was so surprised that anyone would put a bowling alley on the top floor of a building.  I wondered how people on the 4th floor, or the entire building for that matter, managed with all the noise from above.  I was also surprised by how nice and clean and modern it looked.  Usually every bowling alley I've seen in America is old, dirty, and dingy.  But this one looked really updated.  Unfortunately, the smell of smoke was still there, like every other bowling alley, or public place in Japan for that matter.  But it was much more bearable since there weren't too many people there.

The first game we bowled was horrible.  Aaron and I both scored under 100.  It was honestly the worst game I've bowled since I was about 10.  I think I got a 62 or something really embarrassing like that.  The second game was much better and I got a 123 and I actually managed to get some strikes and spares.  The third game I think I got a 119.  My legs and hand were already tired by the time we reached our third game.  I think I got like 5 splits in that game!  It was pretty terrible, but it beats a 62.  Natsuho was very good.  He consistently got strikes and spares.  He definitely killed us.  But it was a lot of fun.  In the end, the bowling alley printed out our scores.  They recorded what we got in each frame and all the exact pins we knocked down.  It was pretty cool.

What the monitor looks like in Japanese.  I'm in the middle.

While walking outside we also saw a funny dressed man.  When we looked at him, we noticed he was holding up a sign advertising his ramen shop.  It was Tenkaippin!  Our friend, Dave, works at Tenkaippin in Hawaii and it was a place we would visit after going to the beach in the summer.  I had to get a picture with him.  After bowling, Aaron was really curious about it, so we checked it out.  I was still full from the curry, so I just sat while he ate his miso ramen.  Unfortunately, I'd say that Hawaii's Tenkaippin is much better.  Aaron regretted it later.  Even so, the whole day was a lot of fun.

Aaron enjoyed bowling so much, he wants to do it again as soon as possible.  Natsuho is a fun guy to go bowling with.  While we were bowling, he mentioned he had a girlfriend.  It'd be great if we could arrange a double date.  As for me, I really like bowling and I was pretty disgusted at myself for getting such a terrible score the first time around.  I also had much less control over the ball then I used to.  Getting some practice would be a good idea.  But I'm also significantly older than I used to be.  At least that's what my body's telling me.  I was sore for the next two days from bowling.  From bowling!  Now that's a little sad.  That means I need to start exercising more.  Natsuho also mentioned his girlfriend works at a gyutan (cow tongue -- Sendai's specialty) restaurant.  I don't really like gyutan, but I suggested we all check it out together one night.  I don't know when we'll next get to see him, but hopefully, it'll be soon.  It was nice to get a full day off and spend time with a Japanese friend.

Aaron, me, and Natsuho.

The Sunde's Come to Town

A few weekends back, Carol Sunde and her husband Brad came to visit ACC.  Carol's a former missionary kid who spent most of her life in Japan.  I got to meet them and talk with them for a brief time.  They were very kind and friendly.

At church, they blessed everyone.  First, Carol played the piano and sang a few worship songs.  I really liked her playing and as soon as she started I knew I had to record it.  So here it is:

After Carol performed, Brad gave his testimony.  It was really sweet and mentioned just how much God loves Japan multiple times.  I didn't catch the first minute of it on camera, but I managed to get the rest.  Several of the high school students showed up for church service that day just for the chance to see them.  They had visited the Sunde's when they went to Minnesota in May.  Clearly, they were blessed by them because they came especially for them.

After church service, we all took a big picture outside in front of the church.  The Sunde's left shortly after for Ishinomaki.  I didn't get to talk to them again, but it was nice to meet them.

Imonikai at the River

Hirose River

What is an imonikai?  It's something that's special to Tohoku.  If you've only been to Tokyo or the Kansai region of Japan, you've probably never experienced imonikai.  Imonikai is basically like a picnic or bbq usually held in the fall season next to a river.  But instead of eating sandwiches or meat, they main dish is soup.  Soup in a big pot with potatoes, lots of veggies, and pork or beef.  Sendai's thing is pork and miso.  I love imonikai, because I love food.  And it's the closest thing I can get in Japan to having hibachi at Ala Moana Beach Park.

Making the soup!

This year, ACC Fileo threw an imonikai next to the river that runs below the church and my apartment.  I'd actually never been down there, so it was a nice adventure going down there.  Especially in the fall, the trees were nice with brown and orange leaves.  Still, it was cold.  I couldn't wait for the soup to be cooked!

While chefs were at work preparing the soup, the rest of us played some games.  Tomowari marked several rocks on the river bed with red and green X's.  It was our mission to find the rocks.  This was very similar to looking for a needle in a haystack, because the whole bank was nothing but rocks of many sizes.  I found one rock, and it was for the wrong team.  After finding rocks, we had a stone skipping contest.  I'd never skipped stones before.  There really aren't many places to skip stones in Phoenix and I had earlier made a joke to Aaron that throwing the rocks into the river was not pono.  Hawaiian word for "righteous."  Aaron showed me how to do it and I managed to do it during the practice round.  The whole time I kept thinking of this scene from Harry Potter.  (Yup, nerd alert!)

But of course, during the real contest, I got a plunk!  The others were very good at it.  Aaron was really good at it and I managed to capture it on video.  (Let's see if I can get that on this thing!)

Finally, after skipping stones, the soup was ready!  Yum.  I had 2 bowls.  I was surprised Aaron only had one.  I was even more surprised that we managed to finish the entire pot!  I think it was a really nice time.  I think Aaron really liked it too.  It's a Sendai tradition that I love!

 

Everyone enjoying the hot soup on a cold day.

What is an Engagement Ceremony?

Last weekend, the church decided they wanted to throw me and Aaron an Engagement Ceremony.  Aaron and I had no idea what this was, since we don't have engagement ceremonies in America.  The pastor and his wife explained that it was a Japanese tradition.  It would be short and take place right after the church service on Sunday and we'd all eat lunch together.  It seemed like no big deal.  We always have lunch after church anyway, so we agreed.

Come Sunday morning, we were very surprised.  After the regular church service, Aaron and I were standing in front of the church facing each other.  The pastor spoke about marriage and cited Genesis 2.  Then he asked us to agree to some sort of vow or promise to love each other under God or something like that, where we answered by saying, "Yes," or "I will."  This was all in Japanese and I didn't have a translator, so I don't know what he said exactly or what I agreed to exactly.  Then Aaron and I shook hands very awkwardly.  Twice.  Then Aaron and I both gave a short testimony about our relationship and God.  I didn't really know what to say, so I just talked about how I prayed for a good husband and how Aaron and I got together.  I think Aaron's testimony was much better, though he gave it in Japanese so I couldn't understand everything he said.

At the end, we stood outside the sanctuary where everyone came up to us and said, "Congratulations."  Many shook our hands.  Some took pictures with us.  The hand shaking was followed by a lunch, where Aaron and I sat in front of everyone.  While we ate, the pastor asked everyone to think of words or word phrases that started with A and C.  Like, American Cheese.  It was pretty difficult for everyone, since Japanese is their main language.  They came up with things like, "at church," or "awesome couple."  Finally we ate dessert: brownies and apple cake.  It was all homemade, so it was very nice.

After it was all over, Aaron and I had to take a step back and breathe.  We thought the engagement ceremony was going to be lunch with cake.  We had no idea that an engagement ceremony was so similar to an actual wedding ceremony!  It was much more serious and formal than we had anticipated. I don't think Japanese people realize just how laid back Hawaiians really are, lol!  REALLY laid back! It's a good thing Manami told me the week before that I had to wear a dress.  Or else, Aaron would've shown up in shorts and slippers, and I would've come in wearing a hoodie!  And prior to Sunday, I couldn't understand why the church staff had been inviting people from my English classes if it was just a small lunch after church.  But finally, it all clicked once we realized what was going on.


We're both very private people.  I'm an introvert and even though Aaron likes to be around people, he hates being the center of attention.  So, standing in front of church and talking about our relationship for an entire Sunday was a lot for us.  Still, even though we weren't quite prepared for everything that took place, we were touched by the effort that the church went through to make it special for us.  The cafeteria was decorated with pink and red pompoms, pink and white balloons, and a sign with our names on it.  We were given flowers, cake, cards, and one student gave us a really nice picture frame.  Especially knowing that most of the people here won't be able to make our actual wedding in Hawaii in March, it was nice to be able to celebrate with them here in Japan.

Halau Hula Ayashichuo!

Junko, Sachiko, Yoko, Riho, and Sayaka up front.

After a successful turnout at the Hawaiian Night we held in August, we decided to start our own hula lessons at the church.  Starting about 3 weeks ago, ACC now holds a hula lesson twice a month for the local women in the community.  It's a great way to open the church up to those who aren't interested in studying a foreign language.  I'm really excited because I believe it shows a new side of God to the Japanese people.  God is alive, active, creative, and fun!  Hula is perfect because Japanese people have a great appreciation for it and it's a forgiving dance for those who aren't trained athletes.  Anyone can learn hula, no matter if you're young or old, fat or skinny, male or female, Hawaiian or Japanese.  It's also nice being Hawaiian and getting to celebrate my own culture with Japanese people at the church.

The lessons are taught by one of my English students, Sayaka.  Sayaka's been learning hula now for about 7 years and she's very good!  I studied hula briefly while I was a University student, but I pretty much forgot everything I learned.  Sayaka's definitely the expert.  It's also great that she can teach in Japanese rather than English.

We had our first lesson in October, and we just had our second lesson a few nights ago.  We had a good turnout the first time, but the second time was much smaller due to some women's work schedules.  It was still a lot of fun.  We've had a nice variety of ages, from high school teenagers to retired grandmothers.  So far we've learned two verses to a song called "Puamana."  It's nice that Sayaka chose a song about Lahaina, my hometown.  It's also a nice and easy song to learn for beginners.

So far, every student has said that hula is hard.  I think they're surprised by how hard it is.  You have to use muscles you normally don't use in everyday life!  I agree it is difficult.  But I think it's the right amount of difficult.  It's difficult enough to where it's a challenge, but not too difficult that you feel that you can't do it.  That makes it fun.

Hopefully after a couple months, we'll have the song down and can maybe even perform it in front of an audience.  It's really fun and I enjoy doing it a lot.  It's a lot less stressful than when I learned it in college.  Sayaka is very patient and an enthusiastic teacher.  My Hawaiian kumu in Honolulu was very passionate and, at times, dancing hula felt more like bearing the responsibility for the preservation of the Hawaiian history and culture rather than just dancing for joy.  It's probably why I quit after one semester, lol.  But this is a great way to bring more joy to the classroom.  Even Aaron said, "You've got something special here!'

I hope that we can continue this new ministry as long as possible.  And that as we continue for the next few months, it will grow.  That more women (and maybe even men) will show up and that everyone can be blessed by it.

Yoko and Sayaka have such beautiful pa'u.  Makes me wish I hadn't gotten rid of mine.  I guess it's time to find a new one!

4-Day Weekend

Starting on Monday I've had a 4-day weekend.  It's been really nice doing nothing.  But I have been doing some things...

First of all, I updated this blog.  I revamped it and reorganized everything.  I also added two new sections.  The first one is called "Adventures in Cooking."  Since I've had a lot of time, I've started doing something I've been wanting to do for a long time.  Cook a meal for Aaron.  For the past week or so, Aaron's been pretty homesick.  So, I decided to cheer him up by making some local Hawaii foods.  First, I made one of his favorite dishes:  Spicy Ahi Poke Bowl.  The next few days, I tried making a few more other local Hawaii dishes.

Anyway, I'm not a good cook and I don't do it hardly ever.  But I saw the movie Julie and Julia.  It made cooking look so fun.  Especially blogging about it makes it a lot more interesting.  Now anyone can read about my stupid mistakes, which I've already made!  This was something I wanted to do once married and once forced to cook every day.  But it seems I've started early.  Oh well.  It's still fun.  It'll probably stop as soon as I start working again (like in 2 days) and I probably won't start it up again till after I'm married.

The second new tab on the menu bar is "Wedding Site."  It's a wedding site I created for the wedding.  Duh.  I don't know if it's really necessary, but all these wedding planning things kept telling me I should do one.  So I did.  I think it's pretty pointless.  But oh well.  Not all the information is up yet because, well, we don't have all the info yet.  I hope this wedding site becomes a good tool once we start inviting people.

Anyway, I spent this 4-day weekend basically typing away, cooking, and eating.  And sleeping in.  It was wonderful.  I've got one more full day off tomorrow.  Then, on Friday, I'm back in business.

Halloween Costume Party!

  
On October 26th, I threw a Halloween Costume Party at ACC.  Manami and Haruka co-led everything with me.  We bought lotsa fall decorations and wore our own costumes.  Haruka was a very cute Chucky (you know, the murdering doll).  Manami was a pink bear.  I was a pirate.

The kids all rolled in and they were all witches.  We had like 11 witches.  1 pirate (other than me).  1 cat.  1 adorable Anpanman-Stitch baby.  I guess Halloween costumes in Japan are rather limited.  I didn't think finding a costume in Japan would be difficult at all given their love for cosplay.  But I suppose to them Halloween costume automatically equals witch.  Too bad, since I was looking forward to the originality.  But they were still cute.  We had a fairly good turn out.

Anpan-Stitch Baby's grand entrance!

Our first game was Bobbing for Apples.  I thought this would be a really fun, traditional Halloween game.  Unfortunately, no one wanted to dunk their heads in the water.  Only one kid was successful in getting his apple.

Second game was 3-Legged Monster (in this case, Witch) Race.  This was a quick game and we quickly went inside afterwards.  Then we had cupcake time!  The kids decorated their cupcakes with lots and lots of icing, sprinkles, and Reese's peanut butter cups all the way from America.  Some kids piled their icing so high like a mountain.  Then they had to actually eat it, lol.  The result was a lot of sugar rushes and headaches.

 

After cupcakes, I squeezed in a short sermon about sins, forgiveness, and the cross.  Each child wrote a confession on a leaf and taped it to the cross.  Then we said a little prayer, and the leaves fell from the cross down onto the grown.

Afterwards, we had time for one last game.  TP Mummies!  Kids wrapped each other in lots of toilet paper to make mummies.  The best mummy won.  Some were rather nice, others.. well, the tried.

And at last, we had our Costume Contest.  There were 4 prizes:  Scariest Costume, Coolest Costume, Funniest Costume, and Cutest Costume.  The winners won even more candy!



When all the kids went home, we were tired and I had a headache from too much sugar.  All I had was 2 pieces of candy and apple juice!  But I hadn't had a decent meal that day.  It was such a busy day.  We rushed over to McDonald's drive-thru.  I got a cheeseburger and ate it in about 15 minutes.  Then I had an English class to teach.

When the day was over, I was happy and crashed.  The next day was Sunday and I did my typical Sunday things.  But after that, 4 day weekend!  Score!

The Killer DisneySea Vacation

In the beginning of October, Aaron took me on a trip to Disney Sea in Tokyo.  Disney Sea is a park next to Tokyo Disneyland.  It's the only park that is unique only to Japan.  You can't find a Disney Sea in any other part of the world.  It's a park that instead of having different lands like "Fantasyland" or "Tomorrowland", it has different ports.  Some ports are modeled after real places, like Cape Cod, and some places are modeled after Disney movies, like Journey to the Center of the Earth or the Little Mermaid.  I had been there once before about 3 years ago.  It was a lot of fun, similar to Epcot in Orlando.  So I was really looking forward to this trip.

The Little Mermaid Castle

The day started out rough.  We were supposed to be at the bus parking lot at 5:45 am to make the long drive.  But after a long night, I didn't fall asleep until after 3am and woke up AT 5:45.  So Aaron and I ran as fast as we could, then Aaron forgot we were supposed to meet at the parking lot and not the school, so we ran some more.  Finally we made it to the bus, and we were cold, tired, annoyed.  Aaron didn't have time for a shower, we didn't have time to brush our teeth.  Plus, the bus was really noisy and the seats were made for children, so it was incredibly uncomfortable. I didn't get to sleep at all on the 4 hr bus ride to Tokyo.

Once we arrived at the Disneyland parking lot, we were still in really bad moods.  I was really irritated from lack of sleep.  We spent the first 15-20 minutes getting ready in the bathroom.  Brushing our teeth, changing into decent shoes/clothes, finding a locker to stuff our stuff in.  When we finally entered the park, it was around 11:00ish.  We had time to bypass the noon parade and we hopped onto the only ride I hadn't been on the last time -- Journey to the Center of the Earth.  Aaron said it was a roller coaster, so I was really uneasy about going on it.  We hadn't had any decent food to eat yet, I had no sleep, so I really wasn't feeling well enough for a roller coaster.  Plus, I hate roller coasters.  We waited about an hour to get on the thing.  Well, it was a roller coaster at all.  More like Splash Mountain in a volcano, except the big drop at the end wasn't that big and there were no mini drops before.  So kinda a disappointment.  At the same time I was happy it didn't last longer.  The drop at the end made me wanna cry like a baby.  Things were just not going how I wanted them to.

Journey to the Center of the Earth volcano.  Directly underneath is a submarine ride.

Afterwards, we were starving.  While in line for the ride, there were some girls in front of us eating something really nasty smelling.  We decided to get out of that volcano section and head for something more American-friendly.  We walked over to the Cape Cod and New York sections of the park.  There we ate at an American Cook-Off.  Aaron was in the mood for a good cheeseburger and fries.  Unfortunately, it wasn't good.  McDonald's had better burgers than that.  We paid like $8 for it, when it wasn't worth the dollar menu.

After our less than satisfying lunch, we decided to walk around and look at stuff.  We went through the New York section, noticed a new Toy Story section (which has nothing to do with water or ports at all), through the Mediterranean section (my favorite) and through Agrabah.  We rode a few rides (ones with short lines) like the StormRider (a StarTours-like ride with sprinklers that get you wet) and stood in line for over 2 hours waiting for the new Toy Story ride.  It was definitely the best ride in the park.  And it lasted longer than I expected.  But was it worth 2.5 hrs?  Maybe 1.

 

After that really long wait, we rushed to get on the gondola -- the one thing I really wanted to do the most!  We thought it would be a rather unpopular ride since it's slow.  But it was surprisingly crowded.  We were on the very last gondola before the ride closed down for the night.  The wait was actually quite nice, as the Venice replica was lit up with golden lights.  It looked really cool.

 

After a nice, relaxing ride, we rushed back over to Agrabah.  The dining room of that place was so much nicer than the American Cook-Off.  And the food was sooo much better too.  We had Indian curry and naan.  Rather pricey, but definitely better than bad McDonald's rip-off.

 

Finally, we headed back to the Mediterranean port to watch the night show.  It was very Japanese.  Overly dramatic, funny Japanese voice-overs, lots of cheesiness.  It lasted long enough, and then it was a mad rush to the souvenir shops.  Everyone was rushing to get omiyage.  It took us much longer than we anticipated.  We had to find the right amount for a good price.  I also wanted to find a postcard and stamp to add to my collection.  That was the most frustrating thing of all to find.  Also, asking for directions didn't help either.

At last, we headed back to the bus, then the hotel, and straight to bed.  The following morning, Aaron and I had to run some errands at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.  Finding the place was an adventure.  We got lost several times, and did a lot of walking.  Aaron did some circles in order to complete some paperwork. Finally, we left for Tokyo Station, ate some cheap sushi, and took a shinkansen home.  The shinkansen was a rip-off.  It definitely would've been way cheaper to take a bus.  But we were both so exhausted, we wanted to get home as soon as possible.