A little insight

I hope that it's ok that this is going to be more of a "personal blog." The Lord has been working on my heart in several areas the past few weeks and I wanted to share some of it with you all. Specifically I've been thinking about where my place is and what my role is within the body of believers. I've been thinking a lot about something that was said to me several years ago on my second missions trip to Mexico with Country Bible Church. My group had been working with the kids and adults at this small church in Mexicali for a week. On our last day there as we were saying our goodbyes and giving our final hugs to the cute little ninos, the church pastor, Caser, came up to me. He grabbed my hands and looked directly at me and said, "You have talents, you just have to use them." Then he was off to speak to someone else. It was strange because I had not had many conversations with the pastor that week and did not feel like I knew him particularly well, yet he presented a pretty bold statement. I'm not sure why that moment has stayed with me so well, but I will never forget those words, "You have talents, you just have to use them." Flash forward 3 years to summer 2007. I was in New York visiting my roommate from college, Kristina. A few days after I was there she told me she wanted me to sing a duet with her in church that Sunday. I was really nervous because I did not have much time to practice the song, but when Sunday morning came Kristina and I went to the front of the church and sang out duet. Afterwards I wasn't entirely sure about how well I had done, but was pretty pleased with our performance. After the service a man came up to tell Kristina and I that we did a good job. It was at this point that the man came up to me and said, "You have talents, you just have to use them." I have no idea where this came from, but immediately it brought me back to what Cesar had said to me a few years back. I thanked the man and continued on my way.

Since then I've thought of those two instances a few times, but didn't really know what to do with it. Recently, as I mentioned before, I've been thinking about where my place is in the church. I feel bad to say this, but I have not been very good in the past about being involved in my church and serving. However, I do think that it is important that every member contributes. The Lord does not give us talents and gifts to keep to ourselves, but rather to share with others. In my defense (although it is a poor one) I'm not entirely sure what my "talent" is. For a long time I thought that music was it, but I never felt like I was extraordinary at it, so I've never done much with it. I think part of it is fear-fear of being judged, fear of failing, etc. But does the Lord give us a spirit of fear? This brings me to yesterday.

Saturday night I did not fall asleep until nearly 2:30am. When my alarm went off at 8:30 I decided to skip the morning church service and just go to the afternoon one. Even after I got up I kept making excuses and didn't really want to have to get ready and walk to the train station to ride a train for 15 minutes to get to church (I know, bad excuses, huh?!). Finally I resolved that I should go because I always love it once I'm there. The night before I had prayed that the Lord just give me some direction as to where I can be of some use to the other believers I've been blessed to meet here in Japan. At the end of the service was announcement time. Aki came up and told us that there was going to be a gospel worship night next Saturday where everyone can just come and sing. He said that they needed some volunteers and if we wanted to help out that we should talk to him. After the service I kept thinking about what he said, but was for some reason, nervous to put myself out there like that. Right before I left I made myself go talk to Aki. I told him that I had nothing else to do next Saturday night and wondered if there was anything I could do to help out. He asked me if I sang and I said I could. Hosanna was standing near by and was like, "Yeah, I heard her in church and her voice is beautiful." It caught me a little off guard, but was happy with the compliment although I'm not sure if I'd go that far to describe my singing. Anyways, Aki got super excited and asked me to join their worship team and to sing with them on Saturday night.

So pretty much, that's the big news. I feel like this might be an answer to prayer. I'm a little nervous because I'm not very confident in my singing ability, but it is something I enjoy, so maybe the Lord can work with that :) Either way, I'm just excited to be involved in a group of believers and serving our Lord together.

The Cherry blossoms have arrived!!!

Well the past two days have been quite eventful. I have definitely been getting my exercise, that's for sure!

Wednesday: I decided to ride my bike to Matsudo station since it was a beautiful day. It took me about 30 minutes to get there. It was a good ride. I had gone with the intention to find a nice spring jacket, but ended up finding a great deal on some shoes. I have a pair of converses at home, but they are all worn out, so I got a new pair here. The sales clerk was anxious to help me. There was a bit of confusion when the pair I tried on didn't fit me and I had to try to explain I needed a smaller size. He ended up taking out a tiny notebook and I wrote down what size I wanted to try on. It was a little difficult because in Japan the shoe sizes are measured by centimeters and I had no idea how many centimeters my feet were. They did have the USA sizes on the box as well, but they weren't correct. Usually I wear a 8 1/2 size shoe, but I ended up getting a size 6 1/2. With my purchase in hand I headed out to my bike and rode the two miles back to my apartment. After I got home I was exhausted, but Carly called and convinced me to go to Tokyo with her. John was meeting us to help Carly pick out a guitar. After she made her purchase John took us to Ueno park. It was absolutely beautiful. The cherry trees are just beginning to blossom. John said in a few more days they will be in full bloom!

And I thought finding my car in a parking lot was difficult...

Beautiful lake and cherry blossoms at Ueno Park.

Walking in Ueno Park.

Thursday: Even though I was super tired from the night before, I managed to get up at 7:30am and headed to Matsudo station with Carly to meet up with Beth and her husband. The four of us rode the train for about an hour and a half down to Kamakura in order to see the ocean! I've been to beaches in California, Florida, and New York, but I have to admit that this one beats them all. It was a picture perfect day with warm weather and only a slight breeze. We walked across a bridge to Enoshima Island. We walked up about a billion stairs and made it the top where we stopped to grab a bite to eat. We sat outside on a ledge where we could see the ocean's great expanse below us. You couldn't ask for a better view. After we were full we stopped for some ice cream for dessert and headed down the other side. There we were met with the ocean. It was so beautiful. I don't think words can describe it, so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Beth, Carly, and I on Enoshima Island.

Isn't God's creation beautiful?

To see all of my pictures please click this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2150747&l=9d8ba&id=17219988

Josh's spring break!

Ok, I promise to update more now that Joshua has left! He was here for 10 days and we had so much fun. I will try to recap all that we did :)

Saturday evening-March 15th : Joshua arrived at Narita airport at 5:30 pm. His plane was 15 minutes late, but that wasn't a big deal. I was so super excited when I got to see him for the first time in 5 whole weeks! We rode the train back to my apartment, which took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I was pretty excited because he brought me lots of goodies from back home (thanks mom!). He also brought me an air mattress so I could go crash on Carly's apartment floor for the week.

Sunday: Carly, Joshua, and I went to the 10:30 church service. Afterwards we went to Matsudo station and had lunch with Keiko (the lady who helped Carly and I a few weeks ago when the trains were delayed because of the wind). It was nice to catch up with her a bit. In the evening Carly and I made puppy chow with the ingredients my mom sent. It was such a nice treat!

Monday: Carly, Joshua, and I headed out to Asakusa in Tokyo. We of course got some ice cream! We did a little shopping and I picked up a few gifts for some people. It was pretty cool because as we were walking through the crowds Carly got asked to be interviewed for the 6 o'clock news. They asked her questions like if stuff in Tokyo was more expensive than in America.

Tuesday: We headed out to Akihabara, commonly called "Electric town." This is the place you go if you want cheap gadgets. I found a 2 GB memory card for my camera for only 900 yen (about $9.00). My old memory card, which was 128 MB, held approximately 50 pictures. With the 2 GB memory card I can now hold 915 pictures!! So basically it was a great deal because now I don't have to worry about running out of space on my camera and I can just snap away. I was pretty excited when we were here because I found a Mac store. It was pretty cool!

Wednesday: Josh and I went to Hibiya Park and the Imperial Palace. This was probably my most favorite day. The park was absolutely beautiful. There were a lot of benches for sitting around a good sized pond. The water was shallow enough you could see the fish swimming around! There were also some ducks on the water. After walking around a bit we went over to the Imperial Palace grounds. I was excited to see an actual moat! haha There were these pretty bridges and some people offered to take our picture for us (as you can see below). We also found this fountain park that was pretty amazing. Funny story: At one point I was taking me and Josh's picture by the fountains when we noticed one of the guards coming near us. We got scared and figured we must have done something wrong (although we couldn't figure out what), so I grabbed my coat and purse and we started to walk away. The guard caught up with us and politely asked if he could take our picture for us. What a relief! I thought it was awful nice of him.


Thursday: We were a little worn out so we just stayed around Matsudo. We went to this place called "Book Off" where they have used books, CDs, movies, and video games.

Friday: Yasu (Josh's friend from Japan that was his roommate at UNL) recommended we go to Roppongi Hills, so we decided to try to go find it! Unfortunately as soon as we walked out my door that afternoon we noticed it looked a bit cloudy. Not to be discouraged, I grabbed my umbrella and we were off. We weren't entirely sure where the shopping center was, so we just got off at the train station close by and walked around. Typical me, I forgot my umbrella on the train and as soon as we started walking it started raining! We found shelter in a convenience store where we bought a tiny blue umbrella (that barely could cover one person) for about 5 dollars. We finally found Roppongi Hills. It was just a giant shopping center. There was this garden of flowers with this huge spider statue next to it. They also had a wall with water flowing down it. We managed to get a few pictures despite the rain. We wanted to go to Harajuku, so we just started walking in the general direction. If you know me you know that my sense of direction is terrible and we ended up going in a big circle. We did find a sweet graveyard though!

As it was getting dark we decided to head home. Neither of us had much money and we didn't want to run short for the train fare, so we decided to hit McDonalds for a quick dinner. We ordered everything off the dollar menu! haha It was a fun adventure :)


Satuday: I had to go to school/work in the morning for the closing ceremony for the students. It was their last official day before spring break. I came back to my apartment and we had lunch and headed to Machida City to visit Yasu's family (Josh came to Japan last year with Yasu over Christmas break and he wanted to see Yasu's family again while he was here). With the walking time to the station and to Yasu's house it took us 3 hours to get there!! It was definitely a long time sitting on that train. We eventually made it though and we were treated to a very nice dinner. Both of Yasu's parents speak English, so we were able to communicate with them. We didn't get back to Matsudo until about 12:30 that night. We were both pretty tired!

Sunday: Happy Easter! Unfortunately Christian holidays are not celebrated here and I was stuck at the school Sunday morning for the Junior High School graduation ceremony. We got done around noon and Josh, Carly, and I were able to make the 2:00 church service in Tokyo. This week we visited a different church from before. Carly found this one through Campus Crusade. It was very large, maybe 100 people. It was a pretty good service though. Afterwards we headed home and chilled the rest of the evening.

Monday: Josh had to leave and go back to America!! Only 12 more weeks until I come home!

The past week!

Well I've gotten many complaints that I haven't been updating on here! I'm sorry about that! So here's the 411.

Thursday was "sports day" at school. The junior high students were split up into teams and played such games as basketball, soccer, basketball, and volleyball. One of the most interesting games was "handball". It seemed to be a mix between soccer and basketball. From what I observed you threw the ball to your teammates and they had to dribble the ball (which looked like a bouncy soccer ball) down the field. At the end of the course were two soccer goalies in which the players threw the balls into to get a point. If they stopped they could take up to three steps before they had to pass it on. If the ball landed on the ground it was up for grabs by anyone. Play stopped when the ball went out of bounds.



Saturday was the culture festival at school. Several of the school clubs showed off what they have been working on. We heard the wind orchestra club and the choir. My favorite presentation of the day was the Japanese Drum Club. These kids were amazing! My other favorite thing was the display they had out from the art students. Each one had to draw their eye(s) from a different perspective. I thought it looked pretty cool!

Wednesday-Shimo-kitazawa

Wednesday we didn't have to go into school until late morning. We decided to leave our apartment at about 10:00. Carly came down to my apartment and we walked over to get our bikes. I was a bit surprised when I realized that my bike was MISSING! There were only about four other bikes there at the time, so it's not like we could have just missed it. So yeah, the only conclusion is that it was stolen! So sad! I'm not sure how the person that stole it is going to ride it though, or even how they managed to take it. I have the key, and without it the lock doesn't allow the back tire to move. We told the office at school about it today and they said they would get me a new bike next week. So yeah, that's the big news!

Later that day John called and wanted to take Carly and me on an adventure. We rode out to Shimo-kitazawa, which is on the far west side of Tokyo. It took about 45 minutes to go there, but it went by pretty fast. This area was a little bit like Asakusa, but definitely more hippie! There were lots of fun little shops. I decided I was going to cover my brown bag/purse with pins and patches from Japan, so I was pretty excited when I found this little shop with quite the assortment. Anyways, it wasn't until after I bought my patch that I noticed the shop was called 420...haha!

At some point John's friend met us and we all went out to dinner. We had some okinomiyaki, but this kind was a little different than what I had before. It's still very much like an omelet, but it also had some spaghetti noodles in there. I didn't like it as much as the kind we had a few weeks ago, but it was still very good. After dinner we headed over to this amazing crepe shop for some dessert. There were probably close to 30 different kinds to choose from and they were all laid out in this display case. I had the special fruit kind with kiwis, strawberries, and mandarin oranges. It was really good!

Asakusa-Monday afternoon

Ok I'm really sorry I've been so bad about updating this week. I feel like I've been super busy! I'm going to break the days up into separate blogs for organization's sake and also that way each blog isn't so long!

Monday we were originally going to go to see the ocean, but it ended up being rainy and cold, so we decided to save it for another day. Carly at the last minute decided to stay in, so it was just me and Beth. We decided to go into Asakusa and do a little exploring there. The first things we ran into was this huge 5 story pagoda, Tokyo's largest temple, and the Asakusa shrine. Temples represent the Buddhist religion, while shrines represent the Shinto religion (in case you didn't know). I guess in Japan many people are both religions, so that's why there's usually a shrine next to a temple, or even sometimes inside a temple. Anyways, after that we did some wandering around the million tiny shops. There were some really cute shops and some of the streets were lined with cherry blossoms, as you will see in one of the pictures below. The interesting thing about this area was that most of the shops were new, but they were made to look old.

This one road on the side of town had shops on both sides of the road that had baking equipment and things for restaurants. There were all these light up signs and huge supplies like the giant whisk! It was really cool. It was cold out all day and a little rainy, but it was still a really fun day. We even managed to get in a little ice cream :) We went to this shop and I tried some sesame seed ice cream. It's weird because it is black and it had a different texture, but it was good. I wouldn't say it tasted like sesame seeds exactly, but it was good.

This is me in front of Asakusa Temple, the biggest in Tokyo.

This is the five story pagoda that is supposedly pretty famous.

This is down one of the streets by the temple. There are a ton of shops. They were so cute!

Normal whisk vs. super mega ultra whisk

Destination: Sunshine City-in Ikebukuro

Well yesterday was quite the adventure! Carly found this cool looking aquarium online and we decided to try to find it. We left around noon and headed towards Ikebukuro-an area in Northwest Tokyo. The train system here is very easy, so it wasn't very hard at all to find the right trains to take. We actually only had to change trains one time. After we got out of the train station we weren't sure which way to head so we asked an officer that was standing around. He didn't speak English, but understood "Sunshine City" and pointed us in the right direction. After a few blocks we actually found some signs that further showed us the right way. It's weird because Sunshine City is obviously not Japanese, but it was everywhere on the signs. You'd be surprised at how many English words you see on buildings and signs. It always looks out of place because there will be all these Japanese characters and then right in the middle have a word in English. ANYWAYS, we found the aquarium. It was actually on the top floor of this shopping center. It was a little high priced, I thought, at 1800 yen (about 18 dollars) but decided to give it a try. We arrived right in the middle of a little show involving penguins and a walrus. It was cute. We stood around and watched that for a little while and then wandered around the aquarium. It was a really good and they had a lot of things translated (although not very well) into English on some of the signs that told information about some of the sea life. I got some pretty good pictures. The only downside was that it really wasn't very long and took only maybe 20 minutes to go through. At the end of the aquarium we got some ice cream. I had mango flavored, and it was SO good. It actually reminded me of the mango ice cream I had in Florida last year. After our treat we walked around outside the aquarium where they had a tiny zoo with penguins and pelicans. It was cute!

After our excursion at the aquarium we did some browsing at the shopping area there in Ikebukuro. It was actually really impressive. They had a lot of high fashion shops that were cool. I bought a few buttons to put on my bag and a little patch to sew on my jeans that have a hole in them. Now all I need is some needle and thread! haha...After our busy day we were tired and hungry so Carly and I had a bite to eat at Wendys! I was pretty happy that they have them here. Interesting enough Burger King is also in Japan.

OH I ALMOST FORGOT! In the shopping center there was this woman and a performing money. He did some pretty cool tricks, like jumping across these platforms. He was cute!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the day. I think you're appreciate some of the aquarium pictures Tasha! Enjoy!

Performing monkey

Performing walrus

Me at the aquarium

Beautiful coral

Pretty fish-looks like Dory!

Mmmm, mango ice cream

Cutest kid ever

Busy week

Ok, well first of all, sorry it's been a few days since I've last posted! I don't know where the week has gone! Let's see...Well, we've had some time off of our internship duties this week. The Japanese school year begins in April and goes until the following March. This week the kids have finals and then they get the next few weeks off. Wednesday and Friday Carly and I only went in for 2 hours in the afternoon to help with some grading. Wednesday night Beth, Carly, and I went to an Indian restaurant in Yabashira. It's technically still part of Matsudo, but sorta its own town. Anyways, the food there was super good, and I had some mango juice to drink.

Thursday we didn't have to go to school at all. I slept in and took my time getting ready. I went into school to practice the piano in the music room. I think I played for a little over an hour. It felt really good! After that I came home and grabbed my camera and went out exploring in Matsudo/Yabashira by myself!

Early in my walk I saw this along the road. It made me laugh and I had to take a picture of it.

Then I found some Mt.Dew, just for you Amber!!

As I was walking down the street I saw a pet store and I decided to go inside. It was there that I fell in love...with a puppy!! I stayed there for at least 15 minutes and just played with it. It was so much fun and I just wanted to take it home with me!

After I visited the pet store I decided to stop in "Mister Donut" and grab something to eat! I got a glazed donut with chocolate on top. It was pretty good. This is one of my favorite places in Japan! haha

After wondering around some more I eventually turned back and headed home. This is me in one of the little mirrors they have on many of the streets to assist drivers to see around the corners.

The Lord blessed me with some amazing scenery coming home!

Small cars and suckers

I took this picture the other day. The cars here are SO TINY!! Anyways, Monday and Tuesday have been pretty slow days. Monday after school John took Carly and I to "Book Off." It's a store where they sell used books, DVDs, CDs, and video games and supplies. He said it was close, but it took us about 45 minutes to walk there, so I'm thinking it was close to 2 miles!! Of course that meant that we had to walk 2 miles back! It was a good workout, but I definitely didn't have the right shoes for that. haha. Anyways, on the way back of course it was cold and started raining! It wasn't too bad though, it was actually a little refreshing!

Today I got into an interesting conversation with Mr.Yamaguchi. Apparently in Japan everyone takes a shower at night. Their theory is that they want to be clean when they get into their beds. Mr.Yamaguchi was like, "You have so much dirt on you from your day. How could you sleep like that?" I told him I just like to be refreshed in the morning with a shower and it wakes me up! We also had a funny talk because only in the midwest do we say, "sucker." He learned most of his English in London and there they call them "lollies or lollipops." Interesting stuff! He told me that in Japan it's the same thing; there are many different dialects within each prefecture.

Refreshed!

Ok so Saturday was the high school graduation. Carly and I went to school at around 8:30 to do some little things in the office. The graduation ceremony went from 10:00 to a little after 12:00. There were 450 students graduating. They were split into thirteen different homerooms, in which they have the same homeroom teacher for all three years of high school (grades 10-12). To begin the ceremony each of the homeroom teachers came up and said the name of each of their students. This alone took like 25 minutes. Then there was about an hour and a half of speakers and presentation of awards to various students. There was also A LOT of standing up and bowing. Sometimes only the students stood, sometimes only the audience, sometimes both. I just followed along with everyone else since I didn't know what was being said! haha

Sunday (today) was absolutely amazing. Carly and I went to the International Bible Fellowship Church this morning. It was only about 15 minutes away by train. I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the building, but here are just a couple of the inside.


It was a very small church. I would say there were around 30 people there total. Everyone was SO welcoming though. People kept coming up to us and introducing themselves. There were mostly Japanese people there, but also quite a few Americans and an African American family. They made us stand up at the front and introduce ourselves. I'm getting used to doing that though, so it wasn't hard!

We started out the service with singing. They had a powerpoint with the Japanese characters and the English translation. We sang a lot of songs I recognized, so that was really nice! Everyone just sang in whichever language they wanted. Sometimes everyone joined in for just the English. It was so encouraging to be around other believers and praising God together. After a few songs the pastor came up and did a short "children's lesson." All the kids (about 7 or 8) went to the front of the room and listened while the pastor talked about God's love. After that the kids all went upstairs. The regular sermon was very good. It was a bit awkward because after every few sentences the Japanese pastor stopped while the translator said everything in English, but it was very nice. It didn't get over until around after noon and I was getting hungry, so I was very excited when they brought out lunch for everyone! We had some sushi and rice. YUM! It was pretty cool after the service because 2 or 3 girls came up to us and they knew a lot of English. They introduced themselves and we found out they were around our age! We all sat and chatted while eating lunch. We didn't leave the church until nearly 1:15! It was such a wonderful morning though. I am really excited to go back next week!

Friday night gatherings

This is one example of the beauty of Japan. Everyone keeps telling me that I came at a good time because soon all the Cherry trees will blossom soon. A few have started early. I think the others will bloom in a few weeks.

March 3rd is "Girl's Day" in Japan. It is also referred to as the Doll Festival. It's basically just a day in Japan in which the girls are honored. (Boys day is March 5th). I did a little bit of research on the internet about it and found that families will set out these beautiful tiny doll displays in hopes that the girls in the house will be healthy and happy. Traditionally each girl will have their own set. In honor of this day, the school nurse invited Carly, myself, John, and Beth over for dinner. It was such a fun night. We took the train to Kashiwa and the school nurse (I can't remember her name right now!! sorry!) picked us up in her van. It was so weird because they all drive on the left side of the road here and the driver is on the right side of the car-completely opposite from America! Anyways, when we got to her house we took off our shoes and she gave us some cute little slippers to wear. At the entryway she had displayed two sets of dolls. They were so tiny and beautiful. I wish I would have taken a picture. There weren't only dolls, but little accessories as well.

The nurse has two daughters and a son. Also joining us was her mother (who is 80 and lives with her. She is the cutest lady ever!) and her niece. This is the school nurse and her daughter Keiko. They both know a little English, but mostly spoke in Japanese. It was fun to listen to them though.

Dinner was amazing. This picture doesn't even show the whole table! There was SO much food. We made our own sushi. It was so cool. I tried some crab, squid, and various other fish. I was so full at the end of the meal!

For dessert we had these intricate little cakes. They were a very nice treat. I almost had a bad experience though. As I was posing for the picture below the piece almost flew off my plate!