Wrap-up in Japan

I'm planning to write a final post after I get back to the States and have a chance to process everything that's happened this summer, but today is my last chance to update from Japan, since my roommate, Stephanie, is leaving tonight (sad day!) and taking her computer (which I've been using all summer) with her.

Our trip to Shizuoka was a lot of fun, and mostly gave us a chance to relax and hang out with the team there. We went to three different public baths, watched a movie, and played card games and video games. We also climbed Mt. Fuji, but I found that part much less fun. Fuji-san is a dormant volcano, so the path is made up of volcanic rock and is very slippery (also, steep). The rest of the group that went made it to the summit, but I stopped at station 8, a little more than halfway between our starting point at station 5 (halfway up the mountain) and the summit. Thanks to advice from the team leader in Shizuoka, we were all safe and mostly prepared for the climb, but we were very sore for the next few days, and therefore very grateful for the relaxation time we had afterward.

The time since we got back from Shizuoka seems to be wrapping up faster and faster. On the 31st of July, I went to see Harry Potter with a couple of the Japanese girls I've gotten to know this summer. I liked the movie, possibly because my expectations were lowered due to other people's reviews. We had our last staff meeting on Saturday, and our last fellowship meeting last night. Today and tomorrow we have farewell parties with students, we're planning to go to fireworks on Wednesday, and then we leave very early Thursday morning to head back to Tokyo before flying home on Friday.

It's been a full, fun summer. I've really enjoyed starting some friendships here, and I hope that those will continue even when I'm back in Arizona. I am starting to think more and more about home, though, and I know I'll be busy from the moment my plane lands with preparations for school this fall. I'm very thankful for the opportunity I've had to spend this summer in Japan, however, and I want to say thank you once again to everyone who helped to give me this opportunity and to everyone who's read this blog.

The beginning of the end... of this trip

I think this might actually be the longest gap between posts that I've had all summer. I'm still averaging more than a post a week, though, so at least it's doing better than my other journal.

I've forgotten most of the specifics of what we've been doing for the past two weeks; the emotions associated with the upcoming end of the trip are much more vivid to me. It's strange how fast the summer has seemed to pass. We've said more than once that it feels like we got to Sendai just a little while ago, and in two weeks we will be leaving. It has been a full summer, though; a summer full of new friendships and new experiences. It's been a lot of fun, and it's also given me a lot to think about.

Stephanie, Samuel, Dustin, and I will spend one of our remaining two weeks on a trip to Shizuoka, a city in the south of Honshu, on the other side of Tokyo. We're leaving early Friday morning, and coming back on the 29th. While we're in Shizuoka, we're going to a fireworks display and planning to climb Mt. Fuji, in addition to hanging out with some of the American students we haven't seen since we arrived in Tokyo. It should be a lot of fun (I'm still not sure that I'm really looking forward to the hike, but I hope to take many more pictures).

By the way, this picture I've attached is of the sunset at a baseball game we went to last week. I thought it fit with this post, since I've been thinking about endings. I've also been thinking about beginnings, since I've been getting e-mails from ASU about my upcoming school semester. Thinking about school has actually been a little bit of a distraction from Japan -- it's hard to keep the two things (this trip and my plans for the fall) balanced in my mind. The bus ride to Shizuoka should be a good time for thinking through some of the things I've been putting off. I'll see about posting the results after I get back to Sendai.

Thanks for reading.

I was trying to think of a good title for this post, but since I'm planning to catch up on writing about major events in the last week or so, there really isn't a good way to put a title on that.

The only event I didn't get to last time is our Fourth of July party. We really wanted to do something to celebrate, even though it's a purely American holiday, because we'd been seeing fireworks for sale all over the place. (Also, it was a good opportunity to invite some students to share food and the fun of getting to light things on fire). We were able to go to a friend's house by the beach to grill some chicken and vegetables (also pineapple!) and enjoy some time eating and talking before heading down to the beach to light some fireworks. We ended up with a ton of really tasty food, and even though I didn't talk much with the students who came, I think everyone really enjoyed it.

This past week has been a good one, mostly normal, but with a few exciting events. First, on Monday night, Samuel missed coming to the Bible discussion at the Ogawas' because he had a minor accident in the car we were borrowing for the summer. He was totally fine, but the car's axle broke, so it's totally out of commission. We were told when we got the car that it would be junked when we were finished with it, so it's not too bad that it's wrecked, and we were able to get a replacement car that will help us out with getting around for these last three weeks or so.

On Wednesday night, the girls of the team and one of the students had a girls' night at Joe and Julie's house, which was fun. We ate dinner together, played a little bit of Wii, and talked about things like which job we would have if money didn't matter and where in the world we would most like to go. (Two weeks ago, Stephanie, Samuel, Dustin, and I went to Joe and Julie's for dinner for the first time, where we played Wii with the kids, which was also fun).

Yesterday evening, a small group of students went downtown with us for a little bit of shopping, dinner (we went to a Thai restaurant), and ice cream (at Coldstone, which is a lot like it is in the States, but with the addition of flavors like green tea and white peach ice cream). Later this afternoon, we're headed to karaoke (it will be the second time we've gone -- the first was for GUYS club, with a much larger group). I'm looking forward to it.

I don't know when I'll get a chance to post next, but I'll try to include some more thoughts about my experiences here instead of just relating the experiences themselves.

I feel bad that it's been so long since I updated last. I have so much to cover now that I'm sure I'll leave out a lot of things. Maybe some pictures will help make up for it; I'm certainly using them as a guideline for recording highlights of the trip.

Last Saturday (June 27th), Stephanie, Samuel, Dustin, and I went to a nearby park with one of the students we've met, Ogawa-san, Joe (one of our team leaders) and Joe's two young children, Anna and Paul. It was one of the hottest days we've had in Sendai while we've been here, but we wanted to take the opportunity to get outside and play some sports. We played soccer for a while and then took a walk around the park when we got tired.
The picture above is of some Japanese maples and a pond at the park. I love taking pictures of the landscaping, so I only have a few pictures of people on my camera. Also, I don't like asking for group shots when we already have five or six cameras in use. I'm hoping that I can get some of those pictures from other people later.

This is a picture of Stephanie, Samuel, and Anna wading in an artificial stream at the park. They had a lot of fun in the water, which seemed to circle almost half of the park. I had a nice walk on the shore, carrying their shoes.

I had heard that we would be wearing yukata and doing calligraphy at the GUYS club meeting last Thursday, but I had no idea exactly what it would be like. To begin with, the club leaders gave me, Stephanie, Samuel, and Dustin our own yukatas. (We got to keep the yukatas afterward, which was a wonderful surprise for me, especially because the girls had done a perfect job of picking patterns and colors to suit both me and Stephanie). We then got dressed and spent a long time taking pictures, both individually and in groups, after which we did some calligraphy, mostly of our names (the students picked kanji for us that come close to the sounds of our names, but they're not like Japanese names because we weren't paying attention to the kanji's meanings).

For brevity (and because Stephanie has most of the good group shots), I'm only including a couple of pictures of me in my yukata. My hair's a little funny because I put it up without looking in a mirror, but I love the dress. I don't know how the girls who picked this yukata for me decided on the colors and the pattern, but I love them both. Stephanie's yukata is mostly white with a pink flower pattern and a yellow obi, which I think is perfect for her, too.

This is the back of my yukata. I was trying for a good picture of the obi tie (it's kind of like a bow), but I'm not sure that this does it justice.

I'm still amazed that I get to keep this yukata -- it's a wonderful souvenir of this trip, and better than anything I could have bought for myself on my budget. I'm incredibly thankful to the students for their generosity and their willingness to welcome us and to share their culture with us.

After the club meeting, Dustin and I went with a small group of students to see the site of Sendai castle and to view the city at night from one of the tall buildings downtown. I took the picture above from the castle site, looking toward downtown Sendai. One of the things I think is unique about Sendai (but may be common to the rest of Japan) is the blending of greenery with the cityscape. There are so many trees all over the city, and many of them are very big and very old.

I took this picture from the top floor of the skyscraper we visited in downtown Sendai, looking out over part of the city. The views of the city from both the castle site and the skyscraper were really amazing, and it was neat to have some time to talk more with some of the students I still feel like I am just starting to know.

I feel like I've said this a lot about Japan, but I'm both excited and nervous about the second half of this trip: excited because of all the opportunities I know are yet to come, and nervous because I know my tendency moving forward will be to mechanically count off days until our return, and I don't want to neglect a moment of the time I've been given here.

Weekly Schedule

I thought I would have this up a few days ago, but I didn't have the time/motivation to get to it until now. So sorry this is a little late.

We have a general schedule that stays mostly the same from week to week, but part of what keeps things exciting around here is that we frequently have additional or alternative activities. The point of this post, though, is just to give whoever cares a general idea of what life is like around here.

Sunday -- Often a very relaxing day; the only consistent plan is our fellowship night at the Ogawas' house.

Monday -- Stephanie, Samuel, Dustin, and I are studying 1 Corinthians this summer, and we meet in the morning to discuss our studies. We also switch off going to a Bible study with students in the evening (two of us go each week).

Tuesday -- We meet with students for lunch at UpTen, and we have dinner and English conversation practice in the evening, also at UpTen (this means Stephanie and I usually spend the whole afternoon at UpTen, talking to students if they have time or playing cards with Samuel and Dustin).

Wednesday -- We do prayer walks on campus early in the morning, and then I have a meeting with Megan. Stephanie, Samuel, Dustin, and I have been meeting students for lunch on campus, but we have the afternoon and evening free.

Thursday -- This is GUYS club night, which usually means we meet on campus in the afternoon for a couple of activites (origami and karaoke so far). Afterward, we go to Starbucks and then an Italian restaurant for dinner. Altogether, we spend a lot of time talking to students.

Friday -- Our day off, so we are free to do whatever we want.

Saturday -- We have a staff meeting in the morning to discuss our schedules for the upcoming week, and then we have the rest of the day off. This is often our day for special plans: last week we had a movie night at UpTen, and this week we are going to have a sports day, if the weather stays sunny.

Yesterday I heard something about wearing yukata (the summer kimono) at GUYS club this week, so I'm excited about that. There should be some fun pictures, anyway.

More pictures!

Okay, I think I figured out how to make the pictures do what I want them to, although this new method takes a lot longer. Hopefully in the future I can add pictures as I go along, instead of having to do a mass update like this one.

First up in this batch is one of the pictures I took on our Sendai tour, of a path at the site of the Sendai lords' mausoleums. I like the combination of the trees and the stone path.

This is a picture of the lunch I made myself the other day. (I was really proud of my cooking, which is why I took the picture). The base is leftover spaghetti noodles from something that Kaori made, with a mixture of chicken, spinach, green bell pepper, and onion on top. It was very yummy, like almost all of the food we've had here.

Yesterday, we went to a soccer game. It was a division 2 professional game between Sendai (also known as Vegalta, which is apparently a combination of the names of two stars, Vega and Altaris) and one of the Tokyo teams (I think Tokyo also has a division 1 team). We cheered for Sendai, of course. The game lasted about two hours, and ended in a tie, 2-2. All of the goals were scored in the second half of the game, and it really picked up right at the end. Afterward, we had to walk back to a mall where we'd parked the car, and even though the rain was more like mist, we were all pretty soaked by the time we got to the mall. I was really glad to have the raincoat I'd bought at the 100 yen store the day before.

This is a picture of the loudest of the Sendai fans. They were sitting behind the Sendai team's goal box for the first half of the game, and they spent almost the entire game clapping, banging drums, singing, chanting, waving their hands in the air and/or jumping up and down. I've never seen Japanese people make so much noise. It's hard to say which was more entertaining: watching the game, or watching the fans watch the game.

This is another picture of the loudest Sendai fans, one that I took before the game started. One of the things that I found really interesting about the fans was that a lot of their banners and flags had slogans written in English. The banner on the lower right side of this picture, for example, says "Come on SENDAI light my Fire!"

This is a picture of the Tokyo fans. I could fit them all into one shot because there weren't very many of them at the game. They made a lot of noise in proportion to their numbers, though.

This is a shot of the soccer field during the game. The Sendai team goalie is on the right, dressed in pink. The other members of the Sendai team are wearing yellow jerseys, and the Tokyo team members are in green. The guy in the black shirt at the bottom of the picture is what Stephanie called a "ball boy." His job, as far as I could tell, was to catch the ball when it went beyond that barrier at the side of the field, and to throw either the game ball or a replacement back to the players, to help keep the game moving.

The other thing that really impressed me about the soccer game was how little time they spent doing anything other than playing. Altogether, there were only about 6 minutes of stoppage time. Part of that is due to the fact that each team is allowed only 3 substitutions per game, but most of it just looked to me like efficiency on the part of the players, the referees, and the "ball boys."

I think I'll try to post again in another couple of days with a description of our schedule here.

Picture Time!

Okay, so I figured out how to add some of the pictures I've been taking to this blog, but so far they're showing up in reverse order, so I'll have to break up this post until I figure out a better way to do this.

These first six pictures are from a Shinto shrine we visited in Tokyo before coming to Sendai.

First is a picture of a lovely bonzai tree that I think was in a competition at the shrine, then a picture of the entrance to the main part of the shrine, and then a closeup and a wide shot of some casks of sake given as offerings at the shrine. I liked the designs on the casks; they made a very artistic addition to the grounds and the architecture.

These two are shots of the grounds and a sign by the entrance of the shrine.