festival

Today was a holiday (I actually don't know why) so a nearby high school began their two-day fall festival. I've seen university students host festivals, and these high school students were just as unbelievably talented!

I went with my friends/co-workers, Kazuko and Jessica. We saw a capella, a tea ceremony, gospel music, "hand ball", and jazz. These students put effort into every detail. What a fun day!

A full week

I've been in Japan for over a week now, and my heart's pretty much full of joy. I was reminded how difficult it was to leave so many people close to me...which made me really sad. But some of my new Japanese friends comforted me. I'm surrounded by amazing people here too!

Pictures:

1. Amazing friends from the gospel choir

2. My first day on campus (ICU High School for the very first time.)

3. With my former neighbor...

4. ...and her mom!

5. The amazingly cute plate and fork for Japanese pears (I had tea and cake and snacks with my old neighbors)

6. View from my apartment building

7. View from my apartment building with amazing Japanese sky

Adjustments and Joys

I've woken up in Tokyo 3 times now. Life here is good!

Joys:

Dear people have cooked me dinner/had me over to celebrate their birthdays every night since I've been in Japan.

I rode from the airport for the first time by car and got to see a beautiful sunset along the rice paddies.

I've been borrowing a bike and will get my own soon (pictures to come.)

I saw many of my old neighbors, friends, co-workers, students. They greet me so warmly and I love being with them again!

Little Adjustments:

The humidity. My friend said it was much worse last week, but I went running at 5 am and was embarrassingly moist.

The language. On the aforementioned run, I said "good morning" to the first passerby. I've now got "ohayo gozaimasu" down in the quick mumble-like way most Japanese people say to each other. Overall, I have a lot of work to do.

The food. We had an awesome meal, sukiyaki, but I was the only one that didn't dip my meat and vegetables in raw egg. I wanted to try it, but I chickened out. Someday :)

Dreams

I haven't remembered my dreams a lot lately. But, when I woke up today (before my alarm, Hallelujah!) I realized I had been dreaming in a British accent. Strolling out the door to start a little road run, I found my mind still on dreams. Serious childhood flashbacks. I had been dreaming about club swim meets (approx. age 9-15). Not a nightmare, certainly not sweet...but wait, we got to eat out afterward. Except my parents were supposed to meet us there. What took them so long? Their GPS misguided them. I totally modernized my swim meet experience.

I told my mom about the dream and she recalled the printed directions once required to find pools all over San Diego. The really funny part: yesterday she was super late for her Dr.'s appointment. GPS can fail in real life too.

Have you seen Disney's Tangled? I'm not a fan of musicals (please still be my friend) but the song about following your dreams was pretty catchy.

Enough about dreams though. In all seriousness, the part of the movie that really struck me was the ending. SPOILER ALERT: In an act of sacrificial love, Eugene forfeits his life so Rapunzel can truly live. Even on an off-day this might have reminded me of Jesus, and last night I happen to have read a little Desiring God by John Piper:

"My desire to feel the power of God's grace conquering the pride and selfishness in my life inclines me to behavior that demonstrates the victory of grace, namely, love. Genuine love is so contrary to human nature that its presence bears witness to an extraordinary power." p. 140

Smuggled

The joy of reading very few books is that I really like the ones I read! God's Smuggler is definitely one of the most enlightening stories ever written. I've actually been experiencing a fair amount of guilt for the past two days after learning about actual individuals and even whole churches with no Bible. Why don't I cherish every opportunity to read God's Word? But, just now, as I was folding my laundry and making my bed, I refused to move my Bible to its not so uncommon alternative place, the floor. My Bible is too precious to sit on the ground and will have a higher place on a shelf and hopefully more frequently in my hands.

Lifehouse Skit at Mitaka Student Center

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Hpwvp3Gnk

I'm so proud of our students for working so hard to bring Christ's love to Tokyo!!!

16 hours

I'm now back in CA where 16 hours were restored to me. It's still crazy to me that Japan is almost a whole day ahead of us!

Now that I'm getting adjusted to the time difference, I'm realizing that I'm mostly adjusted to the cultural differences too. Running on the left side of the road, throwing both paper and plastic trash into the same can, and leaving my shoes on inside...it just takes me a while to stop bowing. But I'm still realizing how amazing my trip back to Tokyo was. I'm so thankful for the people I got to visit there!!! And thank you for praying for our trip!!! There are pictures on facebook and I tried to load a video on here but failed. I'll keep working on showing the skit some of my teammates performed for Japanese students (and I'll put it on facebook.) The last outreach went well just like the first, and three people decided to trust Christ with their lives! ♥