Tying up Loose Ends

Since returning to Japan from our honeymoon in Germany, Aaron and I have had to ask ourselves some serious questions.  What does God want us to do here?  How long are we going to be here?  What are our longterm goals?  What church should we immerse ourselves in?

I've engaged myself in some deep prayer and fasting, as has Aaron and we've slowly been getting answers here and there.  We know that God does want us here in Japan for the time being.  We don't know how long, but it seems that God doesn't really want to focus on that.  Instead, He just wants us to be here.  As for ministry and longterm goals... before we could do anything we had to tie up some loose ends.

It was pretty hard and sad for me to do.  First, I had to say goodbye to Ayashichuo Christ Church for good.  We'd been in touch with them ever since I left, and I had been regularly attending the hula ministry that I helped to start there.  Unfortunately, God has been clear that he wants me to cut ties there.  That meant quitting the hula class rather abruptly and dropping out of the hula performance the very next day.  And not even showing up to support them.  It had to be a clear cut.  Very hard for me to do, but I had to do it and trust that everything was in God's hands.

Now that I've done that Aaron and I are free to dive deep into another mission.  We've decided to go with Arise Sendai, a branch off of a church in Sano, where we have some Bluewater friends living there.  In a way, it's nice that somehow we are still all connected.  What God has in store for us there is still a mystery as we haven't yet dove in.  One thing God has been certain about is that he wants me to be involved supernaturally.  Something that I haven't really done in Japan yet.  We will see...

As for work, I've put myself out there as a private English teacher, but we'll see how everything unravels over time.

Doctor Fish, Robots & Candy Stores, Oh My!

For one weekend, Aaron and I took Melissa down to Tokyo to experience the craziness that we really can't get in Sendai.  I wrote a short entry with some pictures in my "Around the World" page.  But I wanted to journal some of the more in depth details of our trip.

We took a commercial bus down to Tokyo rather than the Shinkansen.  We were really glad we did.  It was way, way cheaper and much more comfortable.  We got to sit back, relax, and eat snacks along the way.  It was pretty fun.  When we finally reached Tokyo, we walked around Shinjuku.  I'd only been to Shinjuku once and it was my first week in Japan for my JET orientation and training.  It'd been so long ago that I'd forgotten a lot about it.  

Melissa had several things on her list that she wanted to check out.  One thing was a Doctor Fish Pedicure.  I'd done some research and found a place that offered it.  The three of us all did it together.  It was something I'd heard about but never thought I'd ever do.  Particularly because I really can't stand fish, whether they are alive or dead.  But somehow I ended up doing it.  I documented it in a couple of somewhat funny videos.

We sat in the spa for about 15 minutes while the little fishies nibbled at our feet.  At first it was freaky.  Several times it was so ticklish that it was unbearable.  But after it was over, our feet were soft and smooth.  In fact, my left big toe had been bothering me for some time because of some skin and callouses that had grown there.  It was actually kind of painful for me to walk with my shoes on.  But after 15 minutes with the Dr. Fish, my feet were baby smooth and the skin that had developed was gone.  Walking with shoes wasn't a problem after that anymore.

The next day we woke up early to visit Shibuya.  Once there we had to take a picture of Hachiko the dog.  The famous story was turned into a Hollywood movie called Hachi starring Richard Gere.  The dog waited every day at the train station waiting for his owner to come home even long after the owner had died of a heart attack.  The story actually took place in Japan instead of America.  In the place where the real dog used to wait is a statue in its memory.  Aaron never saw the movie so he didn't get the significance of it.  But me and Melissa took a picture on behalf of our Mom, who would've appreciated it.

Then we took pictures in front of Shibuya Crossing.  I wanted a picture because it was the spot featured in Lost in Translation.  I had to channel my inner indie Scarlett Johansson.  Except not as well as she did.  And there were no giant dinosaurs walking onto the mega-screens on any of the buildings.  We did, however, see lots of Transformers trailers and advertisements all over the place.

From there we headed for Shibuya 109.  It wasn't a place I knew about, but Melissa sure did.  It was basically a shopping mall with lots of floors.  With stores that looked like the picture on the left.  Pretty interesting.  Pretty crazy.  Pretty exhausting.  I'm not a shopper.  I have a 3 store maximum before I start to lose my mind.  This was hours of walking around in circles buying nothing.  But hey, anything to please the sister on her last day in Japan.  Poor Aaron must've been bored out of his mind.  Like me.  

After shopping, we headed back to Shinjuku for the Robot Restaurant.  Another thing off of Melissa's to do list.  It was definitely a spectacle.  As soon as we walked in, everything was neon lights, mirrors, girls in skimpy costumes, robots, and so many strange and loud things.  The show was pretty long and they had boxing robots, girls dancing in furry outfits, a Chinese lion, a Kung-Fu Panda riding a cow, and so many other bizarre things I can't comprehend.  

Here's a band dressed in shiny costumes performing Lady Gaga's "Telephone" song.  Were they good?  Eh... the keyboardist was good, I'll give him that!  Having to play an instrument with flashing lights and a helmet that covers his entire head has got to be a feat.  Although there's no way to know if he was actually playing live or if it was just a recording.  The singers were singing live though.

After the robots, we decided to head to Harajuku real quick.  By the time we got there it was already night time and things were closing down.  We managed to walk though some weird looking shops before having to turn around.  Not before I saw a candy shop playing Avril Lavigne's "Hello Kitty" song on repeat... that was not a sight or sound I wanted to experience.

It was pretty much a whirlwind and I was a little sad that Melissa didn't get a chance to experience more of Japan since her time was limited.  But maybe one day she'll come back and we can take her to a real crazy place - Osaka!

Welcome to Uobei Sushi!

Aaron had heard from a coworker about a new sushi restaurant that opened called Uobei Sushi, located in the Musashi parking lot. We'd driven past there before and since Melissa was in town, we figured we'd check it out.

When we got there, we saw on the sign that it was actually a Genki Sushi restaurant, but for some reason the name is Uobei. When we were seated, we were surprised by how everything worked.  The restaurant was mostly tables and not so much counters like a lot of the conveyer belt sushi places.  Also, there were no conveyer belts.  Instead, there were bullet trains and race cars and space shuttles delivering our sushi orders for us.  We were so entertained by them!  I had to video them.

The quality of the sushi wasn't bad either.  So far we've eaten at Hama Zushi, Umai Sushikan, and Sendai Heiroku.  Sendai Heiroku and Hama Zushi are all cheap in price and quality.  We end up going to Hama Zushi when we're hungry late at night and there's nothing else open.  Umai Sushikan's sushi is much better in quality, but pretty pricey.  Well, Uobei seems to be the perfect medium.  The prices are cheap, but the quality is much better than Hama and Sendai Heiroku.  On top of that, it stays open until 11pm!  Awesome!

What I like about Uobei, is there's more variety just like Genki Sushi.  It's kind of weird to be excited about Genki Sushi, since in Hawaii it's not that great.  But in Japan, the variety (and space shuttles) is welcomed!  Here we ordered basil french fries.  Seems weird, but not bad!

We were so excited about this place that we ended up returning two more times in the next two weeks. By then I was pretty sick of sushi!  But not a bad place to go to, especially if you've got kids.

Tanabata Festival

Early August was the Tanabata Festival.  I'd gone once before, but this was Melissa's chance to try on a yukata.  We had arranged for some of the Japanese ladies from Meysen to help her put it on, but at the last second they fell through.  We had planned to go to Tanabata with Janele, an employee and coworker of Melissa's, so we walked to her apartment where we tried to put it on together.

It was definitely a puzzle trying to put it on right.  Janele and I both reviewed youtube videos on how to do it.  We managed to put on the yukata okay enough, but when it came to the obi we had serious problems.  Turns out, Melissa's obi wasn't a traditional obi (which is what I'm used to using).  Instead, it was an obi with a clip on bow.  Something I'd never used before.  It took me and Janele forever to try to figure out how the bow was was supposed to stay on.  Unfortunately, Melissa was so skinny that the bow wouldn't stay on tight enough and it kept slipping.  Oh well.

Melissa in her yukata.

By the time we finished, there wasn't enough time for Janele to put hers on.  We had to run out the door and catch the bus.  When we got to downtown Sendai, it was already super croweded.  We found a spot on the road near the back.  It probably wasn't the best spot, but we were pretty tired from rushing and we just settled on that spot.  Melissa and I walked around the vendors looking for dinner.  Everything was ridiculously overpriced.  We had passed by a McDonald's on the way and I knew we should've gotten something from there.  It would've been way cheaper and much more filling.  But oh well.  Melissa seemed to enjoy the fireworks display, which lasted 90 minutes straight.  When it was all over, the three of us stopped at Baskin Robbins for some ice cream.  The line was really long, but it was well worth it!  That ice cream was probably the best part of it all!

Later that week, I took Melissa to see the Jogi Temple.  We took the bus from Sendai Station, because we weren't sure of any other ways to get there.  We caught the bus and it took us through my old town of Ayashi (where I realized we could've caught the train for much cheaper) and after about 90 minutes, we were at the Jogi Temple.  It was a long bus ride, but it was nice because we got to see the country side and the dam.

When we got there, it was super hot and muggy.  I immediately went for some kakigori (shave ice).  Melissa got one too.  When we were done, we walked through the main gate and started looking around.  We took lots of pictures.  Mostly me taking pictures of Melissa on her phone/camera.  We went to all the usual spots.  All the temple and shrines.  We went into the newest temple and I was surprised you could actually walk in it.  I've been there about 3 times previously, and I had no idea you could step inside.  We did and we walked around and found that there was a school or a little play area for kids.  It was air conditioned too and it made me want to stay there all day.


After that, we headed to the pagoda and tea house.  We took pics of the pagoda but when we went to the tea house it was closed.  We couldn't figure out why because it was still early.  Finally, we read on a sign that it was open every day EXCEPT for Wednesdays.  It was a Wednesday.  I was super annoyed and Melissa was bummed because that's the thing we wanted to do the most.  Melissa was a pretty good sport about it though and she was content with sipping tea at the tea house in Matsushima.

After that there was little to do, so we went back to Sendai.  It was another 90 minutes - 2 hours on the bus, but it was a nice ride since we had been walking around in the sun all afternoon.

When we got back into town, we saw that there were a bunch of festivities going on and we realized that the Tanabata Festival was still going on.  So we jumped off the bus and started wandering through the crowd.  We ate snacks and walked through all the streamers hanging from the bamboo sticks in the shopping plaza.  It was insane.  I actually recorded some video footage of what it's like to walk through there and it's crazy.  It's down below!