Thailand

Things I enjoyed in Thailand: sleeping in a bed, not sorting my trash, not wearing shoes too much, not taking my shoes off inside, paper towels in the bathroom, Mexican food, so incredibly many palm trees, and the beautiful ocean. Also, it was 30 degrees Celcius instead of negative 2 like Tokyo. I got to surf three times (and it was only $3/hour to rent a board.) I'm so thankful for the conference and vacation!!! I'm refreshed and ready to go!

Hokkairo

For a belated birthday gift, I received something that has changed my life. Hokkairo. Since it is now freezing cold in Tokyo, it is very helpful to keep Hokkairo very close to you. These little heat packs go inside your pockets and prevent you from being miserably cold. It's really great! These three girls from Sophia University blessed me with Hokkairo and even wrote out the directions in English so that I wouldn't burn myself or anything. They also made me the most precious card I've ever seen in my life!

I will not need Hokkairo in a couple days though, because I will be in Thailand! The beach and warm weather will be so refreshing! My friend Paul and I would really appreciate your prayers for good surf in Koh Samui from the 20th through the 27th. Actually, I don't really know how to surf yet, but I've been training (push ups, stairs, running) and my friend Paul is wondering if you could pray for a sandbar reef and barreling rights.

Also, I'll be joining the gospel choir on tour from March 11th through the 21st. We would really love your prayers for all the planning for that as well! Sorry, video of our fall concerts still to come!

I miss you! I miss you all a lot!

pictures, compliments of my roommate!

Pictures from my birthday! Hiroshi had such a nice set-up for us! He knows I can't drink caffeine at night, so he made a special menu of drinks just for me! And he doesn't really speak Engish, so he looked up most of the words in a dictionary!

These Christmas lights might be the best ones in Japan! At least they're the coolest ones I saw this year, and I really enjoyed them. I found them when I was on a run and went back just to see them.

Shyla and I are taking care of the kids! I really really enjoyed helping out with the child care at the Japanese staff conference! That's Micah and JJ. Plus, I got to hold James a lot, and he slept in my arms for over an hour and it was so sweet! Precious!

So the most exciting thing in the last week was that I went with my team leader to feed the homeless. It was really awesome! We totally couldn't communicate with anyone, but they said thank you and sometimes even in English. We gave out some warm stuff and rice triangles, peanuts, and fruit. It was cool to see them appreciate it.

New Years

Japan is closed for New Years. And not just on the 1st. A lot of places don't open back up until the 4th...it's kind of funny to me. But the cool thing is that it seems like a lot of people take time to spend with family. For me, it's been great to spend more time with friends. I've really enjoyed just hanging out, cooking, and celebrating with the other people I work with. I'm also starting to get to know more people at church, which is nice.

My friend Paul is working on a video from our gospel concerts for me to post...still coming soon.

We really enjoyed watching the Rose Bowl today, even though it was a little weird that it was at 7 a.m. Then I got all confused thinking it was still New Years Day here too.

I thought it was so funny when one of my friends from home sent me an email the other day: "Happy New Years to you and Happy New Years Eve to me! Wow, how weird is it that we're in a different year?" At least it was only for 17 hours. Happy 2008!

10,030 words

Shyla teaching Nao about Jesus and His love

With Keiko

Odaiba tree

Odaiba beauty

Sophia Christmas party

With Chihiro

USC girls

Really cool choir people

I got an oven

Altos

love

I've been pretty busy, so I'm still planning on posting some video footage but haven't gotten to it yet.

Yesterday, I had the most amazing birthday I could have ever imagined. I was so loved! Suddenly on the train I realized something. Usually, I'm very, very, extremely happy on my birthday. I make a really big deal out of it. But this year, I didn't notice that. It's because I'm super happy everyday and am doing what I love to do.

Also, the precious gifts and spectacular ice cream party helped me to enjoy my birthday!

Tonight we somehow had 12 people in our apartment for dinner. We just moved most of my stuff into Shyla's room and used every single dish we own. It was madness but pretty miraculous.

a solid week

I really love having people over for dinner, and this week I got to twice. Last time, Yukiko and Naomi ordered Pizza Hut for us Americans, so this time I cooked Japanese. I didn't get to the miso soup, but I made yakitori (like chicken kabobs) and fish and served some tofu with ginger and crushed peanuts. There was also some salad with sesame dressing. It was a pretty big hit, thankfully, and I even enjoyed it too. We went to see the soft cream man afterwards.

Then, tonight, I made tacos for three students, a Japanese staff woman named Ayumi, and my roommate Shyla. Unfortunately, my camara didn't make it out for this one. It was cool though. The idea for this "takos" party started when I first met Aya. We somehow ended up talking about Mexican food and bonded immediately. Nao and Haruna also came and tried tacos for the first time. I'm still so excited, because Nao is the girl that lives two hours away but comes all the way to hang out. Tonight, I also realized that she is very interested in learning about the Bible. She comes to our English lunch at Sophia, so she asked me to teach her about the Bible next Friday.

I'm really thankful for these awesome times! It's been a rough week in some ways too though. Maybe I make way to big of a deal out of it, but my birthday is coming up. This week I got a package from my mom and my grandma and realized that I won't be spending my birthday with them. Usually I hang out with my family or really close friends, so this year will be somewhat different. I love it when it's my birthday. I really love it. It's just hard because I usally have a little more control in planning who I celebrate with and how.

I forgot to mention last week though, that I got to see a family from my church in Fallbrook! I hung out with them two Sundays ago, and it was so refreshing to spend time in Tokyo with them. They spoiled me too and just made me feel really alive and blessed!

The leaves are gorgeous right now.