Mt. Fuji

Climbing Mt. Fuji blew away my expectations.  Ever since moving to Tokyo, I REALLY wanted to Climb Mt. Fuji.  It's just captivating, and plus it's so much of an icon of Japan.  I learned pretty early on that it's only officially open in the summer because of snow.  I planned my second year here to climb with friends from church, but the trip got cancelled because of rain.  Somehow I never found another opportunity until this year.

My co-workers (ended up being only two long-term staff, one volunteer staff, and two short-term staff) and I decided it would be a good thing to do together to bond as a team.  I was of course thrilled about that idea, having wanted to go for a long time.  After almost six years living in Japan, I finally made it!  With all the build up, I honestly thought it might have been anti-climactic.  A lot of people told me I should climb Mt. Fuji once.  Some friends told me it's actually not that beautiful to climb.  They said it's a volcano.  I agreed with them, thinking that seeing Mt. Fuji from the tops of other mountains was probably more exciting than trekking through volcanic rock.  But I was so very wrong!  It was stunning!!  The view was incredible!!  The word we kept using was majestic.  Even after the sunrise was over, I was still perpetually in awe.  I will never tell someone casually that if they have the chance they should climb it once.  If you can at all make it happen, climbing Mt. Fuji is 100% absolutely and completely worth it (pray for good weather, because we were blessed with pretty much perfect conditions.)  I still REALLY want to climb Mt. Fuji any chance I get.

Many of these photos were taken by my co-workers, one of whom guided us since it was his third time.  Thank you Taketo-san!

Festival Time

University festivals are always impressive, and Waseda Sai was definitely huge again this year.

Spring Camp!

While we spent some time worshipping, learning from the Bible, and planning for the new semester, a good chunk of our Spring camp was just getting to know one another and building a trusting community!  So much fun!

Cherry Blossoms~Sakura

Spring is definitely in the air!!  

Cake for Christmas

Christmas isn't really as big of a focus in Japan as it is in America, but most people are sure to celebrate with cake and fried chicken.  Some girls that I study the Bible with each week decided to have a party to bake cake and also show the love of Jesus, the focus of Christmas for us.  They sang a song and dance which talks about God's love and faithfulness and gave out manga which tell the whole Christmas story.  We of course also enjoyed the pot luck (including fried chicken) and the girls all took turns as I explained how to make tiramisu.  They nailed it :)  Merry Christmas!

camp. so glad I went.

Mio, I took this pictures so I could show you a little bit of my camp experience :)

It was a great time with some friends from church and new friends I met along the way.  I spent almost every free moment playing basketball.  It was wonderful to worship God with a lot of people about my own age, and we learned so much about the Bible and how much God blesses us.  

Food

It seems to me that food has an amazing way of bringing people together.  My specialty is dessert.  Even when I keep it VERY simple, sometimes people act so surprised that I feel like a magician or something.  Cake is a great way to put a smile on someone's face. 

Cooking together is even better.  My very lovely (and funny and fun) Japanese teacher taught me how to make these cabbage/avocado rolls (a.k.a. Green Planet) the other day.  We followed up lunch with baking banana bread and brownies, which are both pretty rare in Japan.  I think she was surprised by how easy they were.  :)