ACC Onsen Retreat!

Sendai's pretty lucky. Whenever there's a typhoon we usually don't get hit hard. Today was a typhoon that seemed to do a lot of damage further down south. It certainly did rain hard and there were some strong gusts of wind throughout the day, but there were also lots of moments when it didn't rain at all.

The church had planned an onsen retreat today, but we didn't let the rain ruin our plans. We all met up at 10:00 am this morning and carpooled to Ogawara. As we were leaving we saw that a tree in front of the Bengtsons' house had fallen down. That was the most serious damage I'd seen all day. Everything else was pretty minor -- fallen leaves and branches. 

After a not too long drive we arrived at our destination. When we entered the parking lot, I realized that I'd been there before. It was the really yummy and stinky tonkatsu placed I'd visited with my Osawa coworkers several years ago!  I had thought of bringing Aaron there before but I didn't know where it was, so I was really glad to be back and excited that Aaron could try it out.  Although I'd eaten at the restaurant before, I'd never actually used their onsen before!

When we walked in, the staff led us down to a private room where there were bentos waiting for us. The food was excellent! I couldn't finish it all and I was so stuffed. 

    

 

Immediately after the meal, we headed for the onsen.  It was really small but nice.  At first we stayed indoors for awhile.  But we decided to check out the outdoor onsen.  There we got a whiff of the pigs from the pig farm directly behind the building.  Also, because of the typhoon, the bath was a little dirty and we were getting rained on.  After a while, we decided to go back inside.  We didn't take too long before coming out again. After about 40 minutes, we were outside behind the onsen checking out their pig farm. We saw several "mini pigs" that were not mini at all. We also saw peacocks, chickens (which I avoided), a duck, two ponies, and a stag. They ponies were really cute. As soon as we approached, they were nuzzling us to pet them. The stag was really cool but we didn't get a good look. It was at the back looking very badass. It didn't move for a long time and it almost looked fake, until it did move. Unfortunately, it was too far away to get a good picture. 

 

On the way back, we stopped for some ice cream.  It was really yummy and perfect after a hot bath.  We all regrouped back into the private room and tried to take a picture.  It was a very interesting situation.  We had to stack a bunch of chairs up so that Toru could set the timer.  It took quite some time to figure out the right height and the right amount of objects we could stack together before finally taking the picture.  After the picture, we all headed home.  When we got back, it was barely raining at all. And tomorrow is expected to be a beautiful, sunny day!

Toru setting the camer on top of 3 chairs, 3 lids, and a serving pan.

August Whirlwind: Week 4 ~ Hawaiian Night

Junko in the kitchen making dinner.

Immediately after returning from Bali, I was in charge of planning an outreach, fun activity for the church.  The idea was Hawaiian Night.  I was kinda nervous/stressed about putting it all together and the idea of being in charge of a bunch of energetic kids for an afternoon, but things turned out pretty well.

The day started out early and we all did what we could to prepare.  Junko was in the kitchen all day cooking the hamburger patties for the loco moco dinner.  Yoko and Manami were running around making sure we got everything we needed.  Hiromitsu prepared the music.  I decorated the New Chapel to make it festive.

The kids all came by 4:30 and we started off by playing several rounds of Chubby Bunny.  It was a new game for the Japanese kids (and adults).  They really enjoyed it.  It was pretty funny to see their faces all stuffed with marshmallows.  Of course, Chubby Bunny has nothing to do with Hawaii, but it was a fun game that I wanted to use on them.

The second game was a hula hoop contest.  Poor Yoko drove all over Sendai looking for hula hoops.  Apparently, they're quite difficult to find and not as cheap as I thought they would be.  The hula hoop was quite a challenge for the kids.  For some of them, it was their first time trying it.  But for a few a girls they picked it up really quick!

After hula hoop, we had a hula hoop relay.  This was really me trying to eat up time and their energy all at once.  The task was to skip to the hula hoops, then jump in and out of the hula hoops 10 times, hula hoop 20 times, then run back.  It was actually kinda fun watching them.  They even wanted to do it twice.  But we didn't have time for that.  Afterwards, every kid was rewarded with an ice pop.

We went back inside for a game of fishing.  It was basically Manami hiding behind the whiteboard and attaching candy to their "fishing poles".  It was a free prize.  The picture's pretty funny!

When games were over, we enjoyed a wonderful local dinner:  loco moco, haupia, and lots of different kinds of tropical fruit juice.  We had pineapple, mango, and mixed.  At this time the adults also came and we closed dinner with the Lord's Prayer in Hawaiian.

After praying, the women who showed up made their own leis out of fake flowers and string and ribbon.  Some of them turned out quite cute despite its cheap quality.  The lei making went on longer than I expected.  About an hour after, we finally started the main attraction.  Hula lessons.  Sayaka was the main star and she taught everyone the basic steps of hula.  It was pretty hard to learn a full song in just one hour, but I think all the ladies really loved it.  Sayaka was a great teacher.

The Lord's Prayer in Hawaiian

Ultimately, I think Hawaiian Night was a success.  I think the adult ladies especially loved learning hula, making leis, and just chatting.  I think the staff also enjoyed it too.  I think we could even start our own hula halau!  Maybe we can another hula event sometime again soon.

Back: Aaron.
2nd Row:  Haruka, Manami, Yoko, Aya, Sachiko, Mayumi, Kyoko
Front:  Asuka, Junko, me, Sayaka

August Whirlwind: Week 3 ~ Bali

For Bali, see the Bali post below or click on the Around the World page.

August Whirlwind: Week 2 ~ Fileo Camp & Tochigi

The next week after Kids Camp, we had yet another camp.  This time Fileo (Youth Group) Camp.  This time the group was much smaller.  We had only 3 junior high kids and a handful of young adults.

We started the day out early in order to make a 3 hour drive to Iwate.  We piled up in two cars and played car games along the way.  With the car games time went by much quicker.  We made several pit stops along the way, including here: Camel Mart.

When we finally got to our destination it was Kenji World, an indoor water park. We were blown away by how crowded it was. There was no where to sit or lay out our towels. Aaron and I started out by going in the lazy river. It was so crowded that we couldn't swim. We just stood in place and let the current drift us. If we tried to swim we'd bump into the next person in front of us or kick the person behind us. Because of this it wasn't all that relaxing. But we reunited with Manami, Haruka, and the two junior high girls to wait in with and go down the water slides together. 

After several hours, we finally headed back to Ayashi.  A lot of us were tired and conked out in the car.  Or tried to at least.  The day was followed by dinner and shave ice.  Aaron and I were really tired and we had a big day ahead of us the next day.  We had to leave right away to head south for our summer trip.

 The next morning started out really early.  At 6am.  Way too early for my liking.  We all had breakfast: sausages, corn, dinner rolls, yogurt, and Aaron made his scrambled eggs for the church.  I don't think the Japanese people like his eggs very much.  It was pretty much all cooked, no runniness.  But I loved it.  And he did too. :)  After breakfast, we had church... Unfortunately, we had to leave much earlier than we expected and made our way to the eastern side of Sendai.

There we met up with Scott McDonald and his son Kaz.  Scott and his family live in Tochigi, but they're from my home church (Bluewater Mission) in Hawaii.  It was our first time meeting them and they happened to be in town that day and heading back to Tochigi.  We hopped a ride with them and stayed with them for a day before heading down to Tokyo.  It was a lot cheaper than catching the shinkansen! 

Not to mention that the McDonalds were really hospitable.  They showed us around Sano, introduced us to the famous Sano ramen and imo-fry (basically like a breaded deep-fried potato).  It was pretty good.  We also checked out their outlet mall, which I have to say is better than the outlet mall in Sendai.  It was like stepping into America again for a few hours.  We even had California Pizza Kitchen pizza and Cold Stone ice cream.

 

They were really great.  They shared all their stories with us, prayed for us, and we also had a lot of fun playing with Kaz.  He's a real cutie.  It was so refreshing for us and that's what we really needed after a hectic and busy summer.  We felt so blessed by them and we felt really grateful to them.  It turned out to be the best part of our summer vacation and that's including Bali!  We were really sad when we had to leave, but we're looking forward to seeing them again some day.

BALI :: August 14 ~ 18, 2013

Boy, are we spoiled! How can we compare Bali to Hawaii? The beaches can't! Just can't! Nonetheless, we still had a wonderful vacation. Villa mix-ups led to a wonderful king-sized bed, clean swimming pool (that was better than the beach!), and room service.  We rode elephants, tasted world-famous coffee, explored Hindu temples, drove through acres of green rice field terraces, and dined on top of a mountain.  Not bad at all.