We're Leaving Already?!

Wow! I'm so sorry I haven't kept this updated while I've been here in Japan. We settled into a daily routine (for the most part) and I didn't have the time or urgent things to write about. Let me go back and explain what I've been up to this month! For the most part, we had classes every day - Japanese language and Japanese culture classes. Our culture classes covered Japanese lifestyle, literature, music, haikus, games, and much more. We also met with some of the Senior Seminars for English students at IC to talk with them and learn about each others' cultures together. They were all very fun and I know I learned so much about eastern culture and especially Japanese culture. At the end of the day I would always come home and talk to my host family about what I learned today and we'd discuss it more, and they would ask about American culture. I feel like I probably taught just as much or MORE than I learned this month by teaching proper English phrases and talking to my family about every topic under the Sun! About once or twice a week we would take a trip out to some other site around Ibaraki, so now I'll try to recap those visits:

Nikko... It's a really big mountain with a waterfall and some shrines and temples. We saw the tallest waterfall in Japan there then went to Tosho-gu temple where the tour guide explained to us how the Buddhist and Shinto religions work in Japan. Basically they are not exclusive from each other as we in America would imagine something like Christianity and Judaism. Shintoism originates from Japanese culture and involves worshipping spirits, and Buddhism follows Buddha or many Buddhas. In Japan, they are practiced simultaneously going to Shinto temples for some occassions - births or weddings - and to Buddhist temples for others - deaths.

Omika Elementary School... We went to sing and play games with the kids, and that wore us out so fast! I was with 4th graders most of the time, and we played one game where 6 people (me and 5 of the 4th graders) had to stand on a single sheet of newspaper. Then the teacher played rock, paper, scissors and one person from each group played along. If your group lost rock, paper, scissors with the teacher everyone had to get off the paper, fold it in half and get back on. Basically it ended up being a game of every kid climb and hang onto the American. It was hilarious and so much fun. Then we went outside and played Japanese style dodgeball, and let me just say those kids have no mercy! I was most impressed at lunch time when I ate with some 2nd graders. They eat in their classrooms and were very orderly and polite, speaking to me in such clear English. Of course they were also 2nd graders, so we were talking about Minnie Mouse and Pokemon... At the end of lunch the children all gathered their things and each took a different task - recycling the milk cartons, washing the rice bowls, rinsing all the chopstick, or getting water for everyone to brush their teeth with. I sat there watching with the other Americans with me shocked that these little kids were so disciplined and happy to take care of my tray along with theirs.

Dr. and Mrs. Ives' Party... One of my professors hosted a party for us at his house, and his daughter is a friend of mine back in Oklahoma. She had put together a scavenger hunt of sorts for me and one other friend to do, so while we ate and had fun we went around meeting people we didn't know (including her neighbor) to ask them random questions to solve the clues to find our prize - some cute Japanese socks. The other girl with me doing the hunt lives far away from the university so the professor invited her to stay the night there and me also so she wouldn't feel out of place. So we stayed around talking and helping clean up as everyone else headed home then stayed up later than we should have talking until we finally fell asleep on our pallets on the floor.

Halloween Party... Hosted by the IC English department, so lots of the people we've met in classes and meetings were there to hang out with. We had a costume contest and took tons of pictures and had fun just dancing around like crazy people in our silly costumes. I was glad I was able to borrow a costume from my host sister instead of having to buy anything. I did help put together two other costumes, so if you'd like to check out pictures I made the New York Yankees jersey and helped piece together the Where's Waldo costume. Unfortunately, my camera was dead so I couldn't take any pictures, but I know there are plenty in other people's albums as well.

Weekend with my Host Family... We got up on a Saturday morning and went to see another waterfall, and this one was more impressive than the first one in my opinion. It's shorter but wider and we got really close to it instead of far off. I wish I could remember the name of it, but it is one of the three most famous in Japan, and this one is in Ibaraki. Then we stopped at a little shop to eat some strange Japanese foods before we went to a restaurant for noodles and fish on a stick. It has taken some adjusting to be able to bite into a fish while it's head and tail are still on, but it was all delicious. On our way home, we stopped at a little apple tree place on the side of the road to pick our own apples. Haha, it was fun just laughing with Megumi while we humored her parents. When we got home everyone took a nice long nap just to wake up to to out to eat again for dinner. My host parents ordered so much food - dish after dish saying "try this...try this..." They are sooo sweet to me and my only complaint is that they feed me too much!!

Oarai Aquarium... Basically like Sea World Japan! It was really fun to see all the aquariums full of fish and have a day to act like kids. We went to the dolphin show also, which is always impressive. Those dolphins were so smart too...they know Japanese! We all enjoyed a day of corndogs, touching baby sharks and getting told to get off the statues outside. (Erin is apparently our trouble child on the trip) Haha!

Well, I know I didn't do our trip justice with those brief recaps, so I will do my very best to keep up with it better as we get back on the road tomorrow. Or to the air I should say. Saturday we are flying out from Tokyo to Hong Kong for about a 5 day stay. Before I leave Japan behind me in my blog I will also write another update tomorrow morning about the mission work we have done during our time. I hope from this update you can see how busy we were every day!

I love you all, and I love hearing from you as well!
Amy

Watashi wa totemo isogashii desu!!

Translation: "I am very busy!!"

It's been a while since I updated this blog, so I'll try to recap some of what's been going on this past week. It seems like we've settled into a routine, which is nice for a while. They keep us very busy with classes and activities with some of the IC English major students.

Last Friday we had a Karate demonstration during our lunch time, which was really cool. They did some things as a group and a couple individual shows breaking Japanese clay shingles or cinder blocks. That night we stayed the night on campus for an English seminar put together by Jim Batten, a professor at IC. We ate traditional Japanese barbeque and played games that emphasized the importance of understanding different cultures. I think the hardest part for our group was when we went to bed, sleeping on thin mats on the floor with rice pillows.

Sunday I went to the Mito Church of Christ where many of the graduated OC students attend if they come over as Assistant English Teachers. The Japanese government will pay native English speakers to come over to teach in elementary schools, so it was really fun to see them again and for them to see familiar American faces. The rest of the day I spent walking around Mito, shopping and enjoying a day to relax. That evening OC had a reunion in Mito that doubles as a recruiting meeting for IC students. I also received my iPod Touch from OC that night, so I was really excited about having my music to listen to again! (For those of you not familiar with OC, we are a wireless campus, and every incoming freshman receives an Apple Macbook. Apple also gives every student an iPod Touch with their laptop, but I wasn't able to get mine before I left)

Monday was a holiday for us! No...not for Columbus Day, Haha! It was National Health-Sports Day. It was also my host sister, Megumi's birthday! I put a whole bunch of Reese's in a gift bag for her and told her I hoped she liked American candy. She LOVED it! For lunch we went to my host mom's...mom's house. So, I got to meet my host grandma! Haha! She made some great food for us and invited me to come back again before I leave. Megumi's brother, Hiroki, was also in town for the weekend. He is 21 and goes to university in Tokyo. He also spent 2 months in Australia earlier this year, so he was very handy to have around with the grandma talking to me only in Japanese. She would ramble off in Japanese to me while I smiled at her hoping someone was planning to translate then look at Hiroki who would condense 2 minutes of Japanese into, "Do you want some of that?" So I'd look at the dish and recognize it as something I had tried before and really, really didn't like. So I'd ask him, "Do you like that?" and he'd laugh and yell, "I HATE IT!" So, I'd kindly (I hope) decline through him. Her food was delicious, but if you've ever eaten nato or...some kind of mashed up flower dish...you'll understand.

Tuesday we had class like normal, and was an overall uneventful day -- comparatively speaking.

Wednesday we did not have classes, but we left from IC at 8:45 to go to Ushiku to see the World's largest Buddha. Let me just say...it was big. I got dizzy staring up at the top from the base. There was a miniature head nearby that was about the same height as I am, and the sign next to it said it was 1/1000th the size of the head of the statue in front of us. Inside was an elevator so we went up to about the chest level and all the way down saw hundreds of smaller Buddha's. It was quite an experience seeing all of those idols and people worshiping them and offering money to these statues. I think seeing those things plants the urgency of telling the world about God. It was quite fitting that we finished off our night with another devotional at IC with more Let's Start Talking lessons. It's so foreign to all of us to tell people about the life of Jesus who have no idea about it. Stories that have become so second nature to us take on a whole new light again when you explain the miracles to someone for the first time.

Yesterday, Thursday, we had class like normal and afterwards I went with my host mom to a Japanese concert! I really had no idea what to expect, but she explained in the car on the way there that these artists were popular about 30 years ago. My host mom laughed when we got there and told me, "Everyone here is...um...old." :) It reminded me of my own Mom who went to see The Police last summer. "Sting was so old!" Haha!

Today, is business as usual again. Japanese language class this morning, and after a long break for lunch and computer time we'll have a Japanese culture class in a few minutes. I'm not sure what the plan is for this weekend, but I'm sure my host mom has something planned. I should get going so I'm not late to class. I'll try to upload some more pictures soon, and I miss you all!

Amy

Texas Treats / Let's Start Talking!

Thanks Nana for the package! I just got it today, and I was SO happy to see the contents listed before I even opened it. Mmmmmmmmmm!!!

I had forgotten to give my host family some of the jerky that Mom and Dad sent in their package until tonight at dinner. My host mom asked me how we cook salmon in America. (That's what I had for dinner tonight) I told her I wasn't sure because we do not eat fish very often at my house. I explained that my Dad used to go fishing more often, but now he doesn't. He goes hunting every year though for deer (Shika). They were very excited about that and we talked about it for a long time. My mom asked if it was for hobby, and I said yes. I showed them on the calendar that my Dad goes away for one week and gets one deer, then a month later he goes for another week and gets one deer. (I simplify things a lot when explaining) My host dad was so impressed and started typing away at his electronic Japanese-English dictionary. He pointed at it and I laughed and agreed when it said "envious"! I told them to wait one moment so I could run up to my room. I think I confused them, but when I came back down with "Homemade Jerky from Texas" they were SO excited!! My host dad said that jerky is rare, but his father used to make it also. My host mom was very impressed that my Dad had hunted the deer and my Mom had made the jerky. I had to convince that that you aren't a professional jerky maker, Mom. Haha!

After that I ran back upstairs and grabbed a box of cookies and brownies and brought them back down to share. Nana...my host family LOVES you. They think you are a WONDERFUL cook, and my host mom wants to know how to make brownies! If you could send a recipe to make them from scratch that would be very helpful, and I think one night before I leave I will work on making dinner for them. Complete with American brownies (if possible).

When I got the box, of course all 24 of the people on Pac Rim with me wanted to know what it was and wanted me to open it right away. I told them it was too hard to carry around a box that was open, and I would open it later. I ride the same bus as 2-3 other people, so when we got on the bus to go home I opened it to share with them. It was a great bus ride, and all involved thank you, Nana! You are a very famous person in Hitachiota, Ibaraki, Japan!! We had to remind ourselves that we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so while we were hungry and the food was so good, we would have to stop before we ate all of it on one bus ride! Thank you so much, Nana! It's like a little box of home.

Today we didn't have class. Instead we toured a Hitachi factory in Omika -- the same city as Ibaraki Christian University. Then we had lunch with the Hitachiota-Ro (or something like that) Rotary Club. It was very formal and nice. Some of our OC people gave speeches, one of which was a Junior Rotarian when he was in High School. They enjoyed that a lot, and then we sang for them. It seems that everywhere we go we are asked to sing. I'm glad at those times that our numbers of guys and girls is split evenly. They thanked us for coming with gifts of a Japanese silk cloth and a little Japanese toy. I have collected a few things here in Japan like that and some souvenirs/gifts that I will probably ship home from Hong Kong where postage is cheaper again.

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Wednesday night we held our first Let's Start Talking (LST) session. We are meeting in the chapel on the IC campus, and any and all students interested in practicing speaking English are welcome to come! We sing some songs in English, and then we work out of FriendSpeak workbooks reading very short sections from the book of Luke together with the Japanese students. It goes very slowly, but the workbooks are designed to help the reader understand. After we would read over one section I would ask Mio, the girl I was working with, if she understood. Sometimes she said yes, and would only have a few words that she didn't understand, so I would try to explain in other words and reread the section again pausing on those words to make sure the message was clear.

The workbook follows each passage with questions about the reading or about words that were probably new, just to make sure the meaning is getting across clearly. We would spend as much time as she wanted on each section, and I would try to make it clear to her what was going on in the stories. We were able to get through the first 4 lessons in the workbook that night, which got us through the introduction to the book of Luke, Gabriel appearing to Mary telling her she would have Jesus, Joseph and Mary going to Nazareth for the census and having the baby, and Jesus staying behind at the Temple in Jerusalem after the Passover festival. It was fun to watch her slowly understand the words and concepts we were trying to get across, and she was very quick to pick up on it. I told her I hoped she could come back next Wednesday, but she was noncommital. We are hoping that as more people find out that we are doing the lessons more people will come. We had about 8 Japanese students to our 24 American students, so we have a lot of room to grow. There are also long-term LST teachers that are on campus nearly 10 hours a day, 4 days a week. So while our short-term efforts may not be much, we are hoping to plant the seeds for someone else to water so God can grow them after we are long gone.

I love you all SO much, and I can't wait to tell more stories! Every single day is an adventure! Tomorrow we are going to the IC Junior High School to hang out with some 8th graders. We went on Wednesday morning also to a younger class, and the 4 girls at my table gave me a bag FULL of oragami flowers.

More stories later. Test tomorrow!!
Much love!
Amy

Things I've Learned:

My "Mamasan" is treating me well. Haha, I don't call her that, but that's what they call her on I Survived a Japanese Gameshow. Speaking of which, my Mamasan doesn't know what a gameshow IS! I have a hard time explaining things sometimes. "Gameshow...um...a show...TV...with games?" "Hmm....sports show?" Or "Hurricane...big storm?...rain?...rain...lots of rain...rain, rain, rain...flood?...water...lots of water..." "Swimming?"Haha...no, no swimming...water...um...in the house!" "OOOooooh!"

I had my first Japanese class today, and she was planning on giving us a test over hiragana tomorrow!! That's one of the alphabets we learned over the summer, but we've all forgotten it all now. She quizzed us quickly on the board when we told her we didn't think a test tomorrow was a good idea, and I guess she agreed. Now we have until Friday. I checked out two children's books in the library today and read them with my Mamasan. She's a 2nd and 3rd grade teacher, so she's pretty good at that sort of thing. I sat there with my books and the alphabet and sounded out every single word while she helped by pointing them out sometimes. Then she'd explain what it meant. Surprisingly, Japanese children's books do NOT end happily most of the time. They either end sad or just...kind of leaving you wondering. The first book I picked looked harmless. It was about a Teddy Bear. But each page the bear gets more and more torn apart until the last page it's just a mangled mess missing a head and its eye is sitting next to the body with the words "I wish I could love". All the pages were like one person talking and what was happending to the bear so, something along the lines of "Get revenge", "Hateful" and "Be strong", "Forced attack". My Mamasan and I didn't like that one so much... I did like Kore Kore Kore, or "Roll Roll Roll" about a bunch of colored balls rolling around...up stairs, on a red road, down a hill...hahaha! Half the pages were just "kore, kore, kore", "kore, kore". A kindergardener could have read it faster than me. Either way, I just want to do well on that test, and the teacher said she hopes we can read by Friday.

Other than that, it's just the normal adventures of trying to get to and from school everyday by the city bus and trying to figure out how I am expected to take a shower. We really confused the bus driver by jumping the gun pushing the button to let him know we wanted to get off at the next stop. I live near two other OC people so we ride the same bus, and Makenna hit it one stop too early our first day riding home alone, which made the bus driver look around wondering why no one was getting off when he stopped. He just laughed and apologized over and over and he smiled and kept going. As far as showers are concerned, apparently you take your shower and when you are all cleaned off you relax in the bathtub full of hot water. Luckily my family lets me go first, so I don't have to sit in the water they just sat in...since they don't drain it between people. My family actually has two houses - one was my dad's parents' house before they died 2-3 years ago. Now the dad spends the nights in that house, which is strange to me, but I guess that's not completely strange here for couples to not sleep in the same rooms at least. Houses may be pushing it. Haha!

Home Sweet Homestay...

We've finally slowed down from all of our moving around for a little bit, and while it feels a little more like home it definitely isn't! I met my family yesterday and found out that none of them speak much English at all. So, I formally challenge anyone reading this to a game of charades when I get back.

I've also got the opportunity to upload some more pictures, so be sure to keep up with those since they'll fill in the gaps of details I leave out of my stories. Hmm...where to begin?

Since being here in Ibaraki, I've already learned SO much about their culture - and class doesn't start until tomorrow! My family here loves to ask about America, and I enjoy telling them about the crazy things we do.

Today our whole group went to Omika Church of Christ, but the following Sundays I will go to a church closer to where I live I believe. I was impressed by the preacher who taught the entire lesson in English and Japanese without a translator. After church they fed us a hot dog lunch and I went back home on the bus with a few people that live close to where I am staying. Tomorrow we will meet at the bus stop in the morning, and after school Hunter is coming over to my house. Haha, apparently his mom can't pick him up on time on Mondays, so at least I'll have a friend to hang out with and speak English with for a little while each week. I have been trying very hard not to ask for anything special or mention things that I really like, but I think my family is trying to trick me into it sometimes! :) Last night at dinner my mom asked what I wanted to drink: Wine, Beer, Tea, Coffee, Cola? I said cola could be cool, and she said "Okay, I don't buy cola, tomorrow I will, what do you want tonight?" HA!! I thought picking one of the options she gave was sure-fire. Guess not. She's so sweet, and tonight we went grocery shopping together. She pointed at everything asking what I wanted. I smiled and told her, "I want to eat food you cook. I like anything!" She laughed and asked what kind of fish I like...what kind of cheese do I like...what kind of everything! I smiled and picked a few things, but mostly told her I was happy with anything. For dinner tonight we went out to eat, and Megumi (my 18 year old host sister) invited a friend along too. I was SO hoping she was an English major, but she wasn't. That's okay, it's fun to be the center of attention sometimes especially when everything is new and they all think it's so much fun.

So for now, things are going good, and I'm sure they will only get better. They let me use their computer and phone, but only at night, so I might have to figure out a way to call at other times from school or in the mornings.

I love you all, and I'll keep taking lots of pictures!
Amy

Konichiwa!

We made it to Tokyo, Japan now, so I will have to recap some. Also, bear with me as I am typing on a Japanese keyboard, and I only just figured out how to get it to type in English. Also the spacebar is slowing me down since I can only use my left thumb. If I use my right thumb, it starts changing everything to Japanese again. When I figure out how to type an apostrophe I will work some conjunctions into my writing too. :) Here goes...

We exchanged our money over from yuan to yen before we got on the plane in Shanghai, and the exchange rate in Japan is making it a lot easier to figure out how much we are spending than using the 6.8 figure in China. Here it is about $1US = $104yen. They do not deal in cents, so basically 1 yen is 1 penny. It was fun thinking about having $1000yen bills in my pocket, but really...that is about $10US.

Our first impression of Japan walking out of the train station (after our plane and standing in the Customs line for 2 hours) was of how CLEAN it is here! We passed an auto mechanic shop that looked more like a display or big toy station than a working car shop. The roads were clean and most importantly the air is clean! Even the water was good enough in our hostel in Kyoto to drink after running it through a simple water filter. That was such a great relief, and we have agreed along the way that we are so glad things are improving as we go instead of declining so we can appreciate things so much more. K's House Hostel was so nice, and everyone was so friendly. This was our first hostel to stay in, and I didn't know what to expect, but the community feel to it was really nice. There were nice kitchens stocked with dishes to use as long as you cleaned up after yourself, and the computers and laundry facilities were cheap and easy to use. I finally got to do laundry in a washer and dryer! Haha, of course, I also forgot and threw in a brand new red shirt which dyed all my white stuff a nice shade of pink, but at least it's clean!

Sunday we started to head to Hiroshima, but several people in our group were feeling sick including me, so we decided to try again the next day instead. That ended up being for the best since Skyler, one of our guys, ended up going to the hospital later in the day with Pancreatitis. He has had it before, so his family is not too scared because they know what is going on. Currently, they are expecting him to be released tomorrow (Friday) and he will probably meet up with us in Ibaraki. The rest of our group either went exploring in small groups or caught up on some rest to avoid getting any more sick.

Monday, Ryan still wasn't feeling up to leading us, so he gave Joel and Josh the directions for the day and let them lead us to Hiroshima. We got there with no problems and were excited to be met as we got off our bus by a free tour guide! She said she was leading for free as she practiced, and if we would like her to guide us, it would take about 10-15 minutes of our time. She led us around the Dome that is still standing as a reminder and memorial of the attack at Hiroshima, and there her boss met up with us. He was a survivor and told us about his family and how they were affected. He was actually not even born yet; he was in the womb, but because his mother was exposed to the radiation, he is considered a survivor and has had plenty of medical problems in his youth that were caused by his weak immune system. His grandfather died very shortly after the attacks from internal rupturing from the exposure. Next we went to the museum and saw all the pictures and articles damaged in the explosion.

Tuesday we left our hostel and made our way to TOKYO! Our group got a little split up at the train station, but we all made it there fine. Tammy stayed behind in Kyoto with Skyler in the hospital as they try to sort things out.

Wednesday...yesterday, we got up early and ran all over Tokyo taking the subway all over the place trying to get downtown. Their subway system here has many, many more lines than the DC metro does, but the 24 of us made it through just fine. We got to the Imperial Palace in time for our tour, which is only offered in Japanese. They did give us English translation headsets, so we were able to understand what we were looking at during our 2.2 km tour. It was interesting comparing it in my head to the Summer Palace and Buckingham Palace. The different cultures definitely put an emphasis on different things. Here, the size of the gardens and the huge moat around the entire grounds is what makes it stand out as quite amazing in the middle of Tokyo. After that, I went with a group to Hard Rock Cafe Tokyo and then on to Tokyo Tower. They are very proud of Tokyo Tower here because it is 333 meters tall. (The Eiffel Tower is only 320 meters) For those of you that may be worried that we've been eating too much American food, you'll be happy to know that for dinner a group of us found a GREAT sushi place close to our hostel. The prices seemed reasonable when we went in, and indeed it was well worth it. It was a sushi bar that rotates the plates of freshly made sushi around, and you are free to grab whatever dish you like. The plates tell you the price, and each plate was about $130yen for 2-4 pieces of sushi. I splurged on one plate for some really good tuna, and the rest was just as good. The chef was fun too telling us that one dish was "Anaconda...SNAKE!" We must have looked shocked because he laughed and told us, "I'm JOKING!" He started showing off making all kinds of dishes for us to try including octopus and baby squid, and he even made one dish that he made a big show out of. He put the rice and wasabi down then put a nice piece of tuna on top. He put some kind of sauce on it and used a torch to actually cook the top some. He repeated it then put it on plates for us to try. We all did even though we were SO full, and it was delicious! He told us it was American style, not Japanese style, and that it was his own creation -- not on the menu, and usually $399yen but for us he discounted it to the $130yen plate. We tipped him well, even though that is also an American thing and we are told not to. He was so nice to us we felt he deserved it though. Plus, our totals were so cheap! I ended up paying $1040 for my six plates of sushi, and I was so full.

Today one group went off to climb Mt. Fuji and another went to Disneyland Tokyo, but Macy and I stayed behind to catch up on our journals and do some laundry. It was a good day of rest so we can keep up on our big days of adventure.

Sorry this post is so long, I just don't want to skip anything (even though I am definitely leaving pieces out to tell later). We're moving on to Ibaraki on Saturday, so I'm looking forward to meeting my host family and having the experience of living on my own with a Japanese family! I'll update again later and let you know how things are going!

I miss you all!
Amy