Herringtons in Haruna

Day 201 – 202 Tokyo Disneyland & Disney Sea

2010-06-05T22:05:00.001+09:00

Saturday March 20th, 2010

After a long few days of hosting the Gospel meeting the guys knew we would need a little down time. So they took us to Tokyo Disneyland!! We left Friday night and drove to Matsudo to stay with Steve and Debbie Carrell. First thing that Saturday morning we headed to the train station and headed towards Disney. We were so excited to spend the day among friends and fun. We have been so focused on work since we arrived that it was strange to just relax and take a break in Japan.

We started at Disney Sea. We rode every ride we could, before the lines were so long.

Soon it was afternoon and we headed to Disneyland. We wanted to end at Disneyland so that we could see the fireworks show at night. The first thing that lit up at night was Cinderella's castle. It was beautiful. The detail that they put into everything was amazing. We really enjoyed our time. And we were especially glad to have shared it with good friends.

All through out the day we all tried to find hats that fit us best. Paul and Tim had a hard time deciding, but Derin and I knew that right one when we saw it.

The next morning we took the guys to the airport, to say a sad good-bye.

Day 197-200 Gospel Meeting

2010-04-02T16:31:00.001+09:00

Tuesday March 16th, 2010

Our special guest speakers have arrived from America! Derin Dopps and Tim O’Neal arrived today at Narita airport and Paul and Obata-san met them to bring them back to Haruna. We are so happy to have these two men in our home. Derin and Tim are both from our home congregation in the States, Northside church of Christ. They both spent the last 10 days in the Philippines teaching and preaching to the many eager souls there. After dinner the guys showed us all the pictures and video that they had taken during their mission trip to the Philippines. From there on we had a tight schedule to keep. We really wanted to show them around Haruna and give them a feel for where we live.

Wednesday March 17th, 2010 we started off the day with a big breakfast. I love any excuse to cook a big meal! After that we went to the Obata’s to have our weekly business meeting. The guys joined us to finish all last details for the meeting. Then we headed to town. To one of our favorite places, Yamada Denki. We looked around for a little bit, but our main goal was lunch. We found a sushi restaurant and headed in. Tim was a little reluctant, he was not a big fan of seafood. He sat back and watched us all enjoy raw fish. So we soon found a McDonald's and Tim was right at home.

That evening was the first night of the Meeting. We arrived at the church building early to practice singing. Each night Derin, Tim, Paul and I sang a song to start the evening. Then we would all sing Amazing Grace together with those that attended.

Derin started the meeting off, speaking in English and Obata-san translated.

He answered the question, “What is the Abundant Life?”. We had a total of 27 people attend that night. 15 were visitors. Most everyone stayed afterwards to talk and ask questions.

Thursday the guys were really tired from the stress of the meeting and the last 2 weeks of teaching and preaching in the Philippines, so we started off the morning a little later. Soon we headed out for lunch and went to a great ramen place called Kazan Ramen (it means volcano ramen). We all had a great time at lunch and soon we headed off to today’s main attraction, the Kindergarten.

We arranged for all of us to help teach that day with Keiko-san. The kids loved Derin and Tim. We all reviewed animals and all the guys played their parts great. Later that evening at the Gospel meeting, Tim spoke about “How to find the Abundant Life.” Again we had a great turn out. We welcomed 29 people to hear Tim’s message. And again we stayed until 11:00 pm talking to those that had questions.

Another day was finished so quickly. Friday we spent most of the day at Lake Haruna and looking around our favorite recycle shop. On Friday evening Paul brought the final message to the people in Japanese, “The Abundant Life is for you!” We were happy to see so many familiar faces among the 30 people that came.

Most of the crowd, were people that we have met over the last 6 months here and were coming to show their support to Paul. We had so many nice comments from those that came and a Bible study has been started with one woman that was brought to tears every night. Her name is Asa-san. She has eagerly started her journey to finding the Truth! We pray that we can help her on this journey to find God!

Over the three days we had many new people, many friends of the Obatas and neighbors come to listen. This was a great opportunity to plant a seed. We will see in the years to come how these seeds, with God’s love, will grow!

Day 185-196 Lunch with Friends and Gospel Meeting work.

2010-04-02T16:30:00.001+09:00

Sunday March 4th, 2010

After worship today we had a really nice lunch with friends. We’ve been so blessed with a few great young people at Haruna church of Christ. It is always awesome when you can relax and just enjoy the people around you. Paul, myself, Rieko, Ryosuke, and Amy all went to lunch at a really great restaurant near the church. We ate a wonderful lunch and stayed there talking and joking with each other for about 2 1/2 hours. Many of the younger people are here just temporarily but we are enjoying their time here very much. Amy will be here for only 1 year and Ryosuke will start a new job for Honda far away next month.

Gospel meeting work

March 5 – 14th, 2010

Our last week before the Gospel meeting. We still have a lot of things to get accomplished. And yet again our members pulled together and completed the tasks. It was a great learning experience to see how the members worked together.

Nakasone-san and I finished the sign that would go out front to remind our neighbors to come.

Paul and Obata-san mounted the sign for us and covered it with plastic so the rain wouldn’t get to it. And our final task was putting together the informational packets to pass out to our guests. Each informational packet would contain a Japanese New Testament Bible, information about the church in Haruna, Obata-san, Paul and I, and songs we would be singing each night before the talks. It was finally finished. Now we just have to pray that the flyers made it to the right people and let God bring them through the doors.

Sunday March 14th, 2010

We were invited to a beautiful Ume, Japanese plum tree, orchard with the Shimakatas. We were excited to see some of these flowers up close. Usually we drive by them so fast we don’t get to take in the beauty. And today they are in full bloom.

These flowers look very similar to the cherry blossoms, but bloom first during the spring. They are usually a white color, but we saw some dark pink and almost red flowers also. It was a great opportunity to spend some time with the Shimakatas and to be able to let them show us around.

Day 181-184 Paul’s birthday and John’s visit

2010-04-02T16:28:00.001+09:00

Sunday February 28th 2010

Today is Paul’s birthday. He also gets to speak to the congregation this morning and evening. We started off the day with a traditional birthday morning breakfast. Pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, coffee, and milk. It’s a good thing we each only have one birthday to celebrate like this. After breakfast Paul got to open one birthday present. Some of our family mailed him a gift. So I had a few to string him along all day. He enjoyed getting a gift early. Off to church we went. Today was also Potluck lunch. So I made lasagna and a chocolate cake with chocolate icing to celebrate all the February birthdays. Paul did a great job giving us the message today and we all enjoyed lunch together. After worship we passed out a few more flyers with Rieko and Ryosuke. It has been so nice outside, it was great to be walking around soaking up the sun. That evening Paul was really excited. He was expecting a special guest. His brother John was coming to stay with us for a few days. He was on a business trip in China and it was cheaper for him to have a 4 day layover in Tokyo. So Happy Birthday Paul! He was so excited to see his brother. John was our first guest since we’ve been here. Since Paul had to preach again that evening, I got to pick John up from the train station all by my self. A few people were really worried about me getting to the station and back ok, I assured them I’d been driving for more than 11 years now and 6 months in Japan. I was hoping to get John back in time to attend worship service. His train came in and we headed towards Haruna. We walked into the church building with 1 minute to spare. Just long enough to give his brother a hug before he had to preach. The church enjoyed getting to meet one of Paul’s brothers. After church we went home to relax a little and let John rest.

Monday March 1st, 2010

It was a beautiful morning and we had a lot of things planned to show John. We started the day off with a short walk to the building. We looked around and took a few pictures and waited for Obata-san to meet us for lunch. We all took John to Obata-san’s friends restaurant at Mt. Haruna. It is a very nice restaurant with a beautiful view of Mt. and Lake Haruna. After a few more pictures and standing in the cold weather we decided to head back to town. That evening before dinner we went to one of the arcades in Takasaki. Herrington boys love their video games! We played almost every game in the place (well the ones we could understand how to play) and we all had a great time. I think the highlight of the arcade was the vast amount of claw machines they have there. Probably around 50 or so. The boys decided they had to try a few. Most of the machines had really cool prizes, but like all claw machines, by the time you actually win something you’ve probably already paid for two. Oh well, the boys had fun trying. After the arcade we headed to another Herrington favorite, the electronic store. Yamada Denki is really pretty cool. They have so much stuff there and its all divided up between 5 floors of shopping. We had fun playing around and looking at the ridiculous stuff we would never buy. Like this 103in plasma TV that costs $67,000 dollars! After all that difficult decision making we found a restaurant inside the store and had a wonderful dinner. We ate pasta and fried shrimp. Yummy. Well the evening wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t have dessert. So off to Mister Donut we went. We filled our trays way too full then enjoyed a delicious treat together. It was a great day. It was so nice to have family around and take a little time to just relax.

Tuesday March 2nd, 2010

The highlight of our day today was the celebration of Girls Day in Japan. It’s March 3rd and lots of people put together special displays in their houses for the girls in their families. One of the Hosoya families invited us over to see her display. It was quite a collection of dolls. We really enjoy when the neighbors allow us to experience a little bit of their own traditions. That evening I followed up on a birthday request and made Paul lamb chops. It was a little difficult, and didn't turn out the way I wanted, but it was good enough to eat. The boys enjoyed the feast.

Wednesday March 3rd, 2010

Today was John’s last day. He would be taking the train back to the airport. So we headed to the station an little early and walked around. We enjoyed lunch together at McDonald’s and sent John on his way. It was a great visit and we really enjoyed having him with us, but we know he was ready to get back to his family, and we were refreshed and ready to get back to work.

Day 167-180 The Church working together.

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February 14-27 2010

Over the next few weeks, our big goal was to get the word out about the Gospel Meeting next month. We have finished the flyer and Obata-san ordered 3,000 flyers. We hope to have them all distributed by March 15th. We are very anxious to see who God brings to the church through the flyers. We started passing out flyers door to door around the church building.

We divided the area into a few smaller sections. Everyone was sent out to work as long as they could. Some went out in groups, some one by one. That day we ended up passing out around 500 flyers. A great start to this task. Our goal is to get all the church members involved in the preparations and the Meeting itself.

Cleaning the building

Every Saturday Obata-san has invited the church to come and help clean the building. When we got here in September Obata-san was the only one cleaning. After a few months a few people have started to help. On a regular basis Kobayashi-san comes to clean with us. And some times other members come when they have the afternoon free. It is very encouraging to us to see everyone working together.

“to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:12-13

Day 154-166 Snow, Cookies and Wizard of Oz

2010-02-20T16:29:00.001+09:00

Monday February 1st, 2010

We’ve had our first big snow in Haruna! We were so excited to see the big snow flakes falling. And after a few hours of falling it started to stick and accumulate on the ground. Soon we had almost 2 inches of snow. It was really beautiful, and it finally felt like winter.

Tuesday February 2nd, 2010

We woke up to the beautiful snow still on the ground. But by 10:00am most of it was melting off. Maybe next time we will have enough to find a big hill and go sledding. That evening we had some special visitors. We invited Mie-san, Hana-chan, and Megu-chan over to make cookies. The youth group at Northside church of Christ sent us the biggest box of cookies cutters I had ever seen. So I had to use them. And I thought the girls would enjoy making a mess with me and Paul. The girls had a blast. It was really cute watching them be creative with the sprinkles and icing. Paul watched them for awhile and he just had to join in. He started making his cookies and soon they all were in a contest to who

could put more frosting and sprinkles on one cookie. We all had fun and the girls took most of their cookies home to give to their friends.

Saturday February 13th, 2010

For Christmas Paul gave me tickets to see the Wizard of Oz musical. Today was the day we would get to see the play. We were excited to see how it would be done in Japanese. We invited the Carrells to join us. They took the train from Matsudo to Takasaki and then we all drove together to the music hall in Maebashi. We arrived about 10 minutes before curtains. When we walked into the auditorium we saw so many children. We looked at each other and laughed. We didn’t even think about this being a children’s play. Oh well, we wanted to see it. How could we miss the opportunity to see the story that made our home state famous! At one point in the play the actors came down through the audience on their way to the Wicked Witch's castle. When the cowardly lion got too scared he actually sat on our friends Steve Carrell’s lap. Dorothy had to pull him off to the continue the journey. It was so funny. During intermission and after the show we talked with a few of the kids and their parents. They really enjoyed it when we told them we were from Kansas just like Dorothy. One little girls mom asked if we would take a picture with her daughter. She was so cute. After the show we went back to our house and shared a nice meal of rice meatballs, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls and Twinkie cake for dessert. It was nice having the Carrells in our house. We enjoyed showing them around the neighborhood and around the church too.

Day 139-153 Church and Taking a look around Takasaki

2010-01-26T19:56:00.001+09:00

Wednesday January 20th, 2010

The children’s classes are really picking up. We are so excited to see the young smiling faces coming to the building every week. We are trying hard to teach them the truth through a very limited vocabulary. We know most of the children come for the English exposure, but planting the seed of Jesus is our job. We hope to be able to see, one day, the fruits these seeds produce. Paul in 1Corinthians 3:6 tells us “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.” It is so wonderful to see the scriptures alive and how they apply to our lives. Last month we had very low attendance, but with God’s help He brought more kids to our class. We’ve had up to 7 kids and 3 adults (moms that stay with their kids) at once. We actually had to take over the adult’s class room. So now the kids and I are in the main room of the building and the adults meet in the office. I have to say it’s very nice to spread the kids out. It has made teaching the children much easier too. In the coming months I hope to add more crafts and activities to the lessons, so that they have a better understanding of who Jesus and God are.

Sunday January 24th, 20104th, 2010

We were joined the Obatas and Morioka-san today on a tour of the Robai trees. The name means wax flower. They were beautiful and up close they really did look like wax flowers. Obata-san called them the sakura (cherry blossom) of the winter.

Monday January 25th, 2010

Today Paul and I decided we needed to start getting out of the house and explore our town some more. We really enjoyed doing this when we first arrived, but lately we’ve been so busy we haven’t gotten out of the house much. So we took a road trip. Not very far. We decided to take a look at the big statue that stares over the city of Takasaki. The statue has always been a land marker for us as we traveled to and from the city. We drove up to the mountain and bought our tickets and walked up to the giant lady. We got there only 30 minutes before they closed, so we were the only ones inside. I have to say it was kind of creepy being inside a big idol. And inside there were more little idols. Some were angry, some had 4 arms, and some were riding an elephant. When we reached the top (which was only up to the shoulders of the statue) we enjoyed the view. It was beautiful looking out over the city and seeing the country side run right up next to the mountains. After a few pictures we were ready to head back. We walked around the outside and looked at all the souvenirs you could buy. We watched a young family explore the outside. They had a child about 2 years old and he was looking around and soon he discovered the big statue in front of him and as he looked up and saw how big it really was he stumbled backwards. It was kind of cute, seeing how he was in his own small world and then discovered something so huge. I think that’s how we are with God. Most days we are just confined to our own small world and we can’t imagine something out there so much bigger than our minds can comprehend, and then we get a glimpse of God and His awesome power and when we realizes its right in front of us, we stumble backwards in awe.

Day 132-138 Changes at Church, New Years Tradition in Japan, Mito, and Akihabara.

2010-01-21T17:13:00.001+09:00

Sunday January 10th, 2010

Today was a little sad. This would be the last Sunday for the Matsumoto family to worship with us at Haruna church of Christ. They decided to return to the Plymouth Brethren church where Mrs. Matsumoto grew up and her mother attended for 50 years. We were sad to see them go, but we know God will take care of their needs

where ever they go. The Plymouth Brethren are very similar to the churches of Christ but they generally are much more conservative. After services we enjoyed a small lunch and the Matsumotos stayed and sang songs with all of us. It’s hard in a congregation so small to see even one person leave. But we also use this as a time to turn to the Lord and trust that He knows what’s best for all of us. We are excited to see who God will bring into our path in the coming months. And it inspires us to increase our outreach in the community!

Monday January 11th, 2010

We started the day off watching a Japanese New Years tradition. They had been preparing for a couple of weeks. They build up large bamboo stalks and put brush underneath with many Daruma dolls inside and around the outside. Then people put their new years wishes on pieces of paper and tied them somewhere on the brush pile. Today at 7:30am they lit it on fire. Along with the fire they put sake(alcoholic drink) into shorter bamboo stalks next to the big bon fire. So everyone one enjoyed some hot sake to ring in the new year. And for the kids (and any missionaries) they had a sweet non-alcoholic rice drink called amasake to keep us warm. They really had a big turn out with lots of food and a warm fire. We enjoyed walking around talking to more of our neighbors and Paul was introduced to the local volunteer fire department. Since Paul was about their age they asked if he would be interested in volunteering some time. At first we thought it was just nice that they asked, but after thinking about it we decided it would be a great idea if he could help out. What a great way to earn respect from our area and get to know other men Paul’s age. This gives Paul a good goal for fitness training and for language study too. Well, we will see if he can do it next year!

After that we were headed to Mito for a meeting on discipleship. We really enjoyed the meeting. We even understood about 50% of the lesson (because it was all in Japanese). It’s always a long drive to the meetings in Tokyo, but what a blessing to meet with such a great group of people sharing in the Lord’s work. After the meeting we decided since we were so close to Tokyo we would just swing on by. Paul really wanted to see Akihabara (electric town). So we punched it into the GPS and headed to the unknown. Tokyo was really cool. Its a huge place but still much cleaner than a lot of American big cities. But it is so huge it is easy to see how people could become lonely here. A very different mission field than we have in Haruna.

Wednesday January 13th, 2010

We are so excited about the things that are going on in Haruna. We are always surprised to see how things turn out. This week we had to rearrange our classes a little bit. The kids class started in the small office and soon outgrew it. SO we moved into the entry way of the church building. Now again the class has grown. This week we had to switch with the adult class. We set up the kids class in the main room of the church and the adults set up their class in the office. We had 7 kids and two of the moms stayed to help their kids. I have to say it was really nice to have the space. It was a lot easier to keep the kids focused on the lesson. I’m so excited to be moving a little bit forward and start reading them Bible stories. I have a couple of the older kids read in Japanese. And I hope to start reading along in English as well. We are excited to see what the Lord will bring to the church in Haruna. Keep praying for the youth here that they will learn at a young age what it means to have a savior who loves you!

Day 123-131 New Year and New Beginnings

2010-01-14T16:37:00.001+09:00

Friday January 1st, 2010

12:01 am HAPPY NEW YEAR! We were excited to bring in the new year together in Japan. We spent new years eve together at home this year. We watched a few movies we could find and waited for the count down to begin. At 10 till midnight we found a Japanese TV station that was counting down to the new year. We chanted along with the TV Jyuu(10), Kyuu(9), Hachi(8), Nana(7), Roku(6), Go(5), Yon(4), San(3), Ni(2), ICHI(1)!!! Happy New year! We popped our little party favors and we ran outside expecting to see the rest of Japan celebrating. We opened the front door and I think the only thing we heard were crickets and the pigs grunting. Well we yelled YOI OTOSHI WO, and HAPPY NEW YEAR any way!

Saturday January 2nd, 2010

The new year has started out very well here in Japan. We had a couple of visitors today. Obata-san and Rumiko-san’s daughter-in-law(Sachiko-san) and grandson(Luke-kun) came up from Tokyo for a couple of days. Also Joel Osborne, Sasha Ingle,(missionaries) and Gaku-san (their friend)came down from Sendai to hang out with us for the day. Joel has been in Japan as a missionary for 7 years and Sasha has been here for 2 years. Recently Sasha has been looking for financial support because of the financial situation of America she has lost most of her support from different churches. So if you would like to support the efforts of a missionary spreading the Gospel in Japan please read more about her at http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsashainsendai.blogspot.com%2F&h=f0b92e8f5f3d19fb105820f96bdd6268 And Gaku-san was recently baptized in to Christ as a result of studying at the Sendai church of Christ. Sachiko-san and Rumiko-san prepared a wonderful New Year’s meal for us all. It was delicious! We had a lot of traditional new year foods and a few specialties from Sachiko-san. We enjoyed the day talking and listening to Luke-kun play his trumpet for us.

Sunday January 3rd, 2010

We had a wonderful day praising God today. We had quiet a few visitors today. Sachiko-san and Luke-kun were still in town, also Obata-san’s sister came to visit. After services we enjoyed a wonderful meal together with everyone that attended. We had more delicious traditional New Years food. After evening services we were invited by Ryosuku and Rieko to our first movie here in Japan! We were excited. We went to see “This is It!” the Michael Jackson movie. This was not our first choice for a first movie in Japan, but we were excited just to be able to go to the movies. We enjoyed seeing all the differences of the movie theater here. First the price is quite a bit more expensive. Usually about $18 to $20 for a ticket. (won’t be going to movies very often!) They do have times during the week that are discounted to $10 per persons. For example Monday is “couples” day, Wednesday is “ladies” day, Thursday is “men’s” day. Also they have matinee prices ($12 per person) after 8:00pm everyday. We also had to be assigned seats. It was nice to know where you were sitting. Another nice part was snacks were about the same price as a US theater! We got our snacks and headed to our seats. As you walked through to have your ticket checked they offered you a nice fleece blanket. Japan can be so thoughtful! We really enjoyed the movie. It was cool to see Michael Jackson still so passionate about his music, but it really made me realize how we never know when will be our last day and how important it is to be ready to meet our Lord at anytime! Are you?

Monday January 4th, 2010

We were excited for today. We had friends come and visit us! We knew Ryosho Matsumoto and Chiemi Uchida from Wichita. They both went to Wichita State University and have now returned to Japan. They each live about 1.5-2.5 hours from Takasaki. They really wanted to see our house and the church we are working with. And they said they wanted to see how bad Buta-san really was :O. We picked them up at the train

station and enjoyed lunch together. After that we headed back to Haruna and showed them around the church building and our house. We had a great time talking and laughing over tea and I made Ryosho a special snack, his favorite, Nachos! They also brought us a couple wonderful gifts from the US (cereal!) and

from Chiemi’ s family's grape farm (homemade grape Jelly). We are so happy to have more friends so close. We hope to visit each of their hometowns as well!

Saturday January 9th, 2010

Junko-san had to go back to the hospital for another round of treatments. We decided to surprise her with a couple of special gifts. We went to visit her and found her completely exhausted from her treatments. But she sat up in bed with a big smile when she saw she had visitors. I had drawn her a picture of the words Amazing Grace (her favorite song) and the scripture Titus 3:7 “so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” Mark Yeakley also helped us out by sending us a copy of his Quartet singing Amazing Grace. She loved it. It brought tears to her eyes as she listened. She started searching the room to find a piece of paper to write on. She wrote a thank you note for the men that sang this beautiful song and took a picture so we could send it to them. (The cat is her sister’s, she keeps it close to cheer herself up.)

Day 117-122 Christmas Party, Paul Preaching, and New Years Eve

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Saturday December 26th, 2009

December 26th we threw a Christmas party to get the church members to come out of their shells a bit and get to know each other. We expected everyone around 4:00pm, but I was getting nervous when 4:00 rolled around and no one was here. About 10 after 4:00 the Obatas arrived and soon everyone came one by one. I guess its an unspoken custom to show up 5-10 minutes late to a party. After everyone settled in we ate a wonderful meal and played a few fun games. We played the “White Elephant” (you trade/ steal joke gifts) game with a few different rules than we are used to, and played a new game where you take turns unwrapping a gift and there was a surprise under every layer of wrapping. Paul made an amazing pineapple ham that we ate along with all the goodies everyone else brought! Everyone had a great time. We weren't sure how everyone would participate with our crazy games, but everyone joined in like we hoped they would. It was nice to see people laughing and having fun like a family all together. It made our Christmas complete!

Sunday December 27th, 2009

Paul is preaching once a month in Japanese. He enjoys writing out the sermon in English and with a lot of Obata-san’s help they translate it into Japanese. Then Paul practices until he is comfortable enough to give it to the congregation. This month he preached on Sunday the 27th. The last Sunday of the month. He decided to preach on renewing our commitment to God this next year. For those not yet Christians, he charged them to seek God diligently until they find an answer. It’s hard to judge the reaction of the congregation, but one of our members told Paul, “I thought you were talking about me!” That’s is exactly what Paul needed to hear. We really want the congregation to apply all of the sermons personally. One of our biggest goals here is to help unite this body of believers into a church that serves God whole heartedly.

We also had a few guests join us for singing class this morning . Just across

the road of the church building a group of people were constructing a very tall stack of bamboo with a Daruma doll on the top. It was part of a New Years celebration with Buddhist overtones. On January 11th they will light it on fire and you are suppose to write your wishes in a piece of paper and throw it into the fire so it will come true. So while the adults were working, Paul invited the children in to sing with us. They asked their parents and joined us. We enjoyed the opportunity to teach some Christian songs and it was great to hear the children sing songs of praise to God, the one true God.

Thursday December 31st, 2009

The last day of the year! It’s so great to look back on a year. You can learn so much in a year’s time. It seems to go by so slowly at the time, but looking back it seemed to have vanished in a flash. We are so thankful for the past year. So many big changes for our entire family; weddings, babies, moving, changing jobs, and health problems. We love that we are where the Lord has brought us and we pray that He will continue to show us and all of you exactly where we all need to be, to be most effective for His Glory.

“From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.” Act 17 26-28 emphasis added.

Day 108-114 Lights on Mt. Haruna and Christmas Concert

2010-01-05T18:36:00.001+09:00

Thursday December 17th, 2009

Every year Mt. Haruna and Lake Haruna are decorated with bright lights to celebrate the Christmas holiday and New Year to come. We were able to take a trip up the the mountain to look. It was beautiful. I have to say it was extremely cold, but worth the trip. It was a great

experience to see a winter festival in Japan. We were able to enjoy some special foods also. Then Obata-san purchases tickets for all of us to ride the cable car to the top of one of the peaks of Mt. Haruna. From the top you could see the entire display and the city of Takasaki lit up as well. It was a lot of fun and we look forward to seeing it again next year.

Wednesday December 23rd, 2009

On December 23rd we were able to join Haruna church of Christ’s 5th annual Christmas concert. Six years ago Obata-san met Odawara-sensei and he told her about a dream. A dream to offer a beautiful musical concert to the community in Haruna. He would invite the people into the building to share a night of music and hopefully they would come back to see more about how a Christian worships God. This year we had a great response. We offered a children’s concert in the afternoon. Obata-san read them a Christmas story, and then we sang a few Christmas songs together. And then Odawara-sensei (violin & viola), Sekimoto-sensei (bassoon), and Yamaya-sensei (piano) played a few songs for the children. It was wonderful. Then that evening the rest of the people joined us. We sang a few Christmas songs together and a few Christian songs. Obata-san gave a short sermon to the audience and then everyone enjoyed the music. We had a lot of people talk to us and a few said that they wanted to come back to our Wednesday evening classes.

Thursday December 24th, 2009

It’s Christmas Eve! We were excited for our first Christmas in Japan. First thing that morning we went to the kindergarten and sang a few Christmas carols with them and then sang a few Christian songs for them. We enjoyed seeing the kids and we enjoyed singing for them. It was a great start to our Christmas. We knew it would be different today, but to make it feel like we were in the US, we did what most people do on Christmas eve… we went to the mall! We had fun looking around and we found some good food and a nice arcade. Then we headed home. We hoped it wouldn't be too difficult for us to be away from family. With today’s technology we we were able to stay in touch with family and even with Skype sit in on their opening presents. It was wonderful. We still missed being at home and we knew there was something missing.

Friday December 25th, 2009

I have to say Christmas morning didn’t have the same excitement with it, this year. We always look forward to Christmas morning, but this year it probably could have passed by with out us thinking too much about it. Most of the Japanese don’t celebrate Christmas like we do in the US. Although we personally don’t believe the Bible teaches us to celebrate this as a religious holiday, we have always found this time of year to be a good time to talk to people about Christ. The ideas, and image of God are everywhere in America. In Japan it really is a different world. The basic ideals and traditions of Christianity are completely absent from the Japanese culture. Slowly Western traditions are being accepted, but many only as commercial holidays. However, we did try our hardest to spread a little Christmas cheer. We baked some oatmeal raisin and chocolate cookies for a few neighbors and went house to house with a “Merry Christmas” and a plate full of cookies! Then we went back home and enjoyed opening the fun gifts we bought for each other along with a present from the Obata’s and a care package from America .

It was a quiet day, but we enjoyed it and made it our new Christmas tradition! And we were looking forward to Saturday’s party!

Day 94-99 Lots of fun at the Kindergarten and Paul’s preachers meeting.

2010-01-05T17:32:00.001+09:00

Thursday December 3rd, 2009

This month we were able to go to the kindergarten a lot. Paul joined me December 3rd. We wanted to introduce the kids to Paul. The kids loved him! We continued with what they were working on. American food! Something we know a lot about. We made up a game where they had to order from a menu and tell the waiter what they wanted in English. It was cute. Most of the kids ordered hot dogs and usually ordered 3 at a time. We had fun interacting with them.

Saturday December 5th,2009

We returned to the school for the kids’ Christmas Play. When we walked into the room a lot of the kids started yelling our names. They were excited to see us. The kids sang “Winter Wonderland” and acted out “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” and “ The Nutcracker.” It was so cute in Japanese. One thing that was really different was all of the audience was sitting on the floor. They had a floor heater, so it was nice and toasty, but something completely different than an American school. * again we can’t publish any photo’s with the children on our public Blog.*

Monday and Tuesday December 7th and 8th, 2009

On Dec. 7th, I (Paul) attended a 2 day preachers meeting in Hakone with Brother Obata and many of the other preachers in Japan. This was the first night Stacey and I had spent apart since coming to Japan. We went to a Hotel that had an “Onsen” (hot springs bath.) The focus of the meeting was to study about the roots of the Restoration movement and some preachers from the “Christian church” also attended. We learned about our common roots together and worshipped together (in acappella.) In the evening most of the preachers and missionaries all went to the hot springs bath. It’s a kind of community bath divided by gender, where you wash first and then then get in the natural hot springs water to soak after you are clean. It was a very different experience but many of the Japanese men complimented me on being brave enough to try out the experience. The Japanese believe that this kind of fellowship removes all barriers. Well there were definitely were not any “barriers,” enough said. The meeting itself was very informative and one of the missionaries even translated for me. The bath was a relaxing experience and the mountains we were in were beautiful. It was good to spend some time with just the men for a few days but even better to be back at home.

Day 84-91 Yokota dedication, Garden next door, Thanksgiving, Ochanomizu dedication, and Children’s home dedication.

2009-12-08T18:45:00.001+09:00

Monday November 23rd, 2009

This month we attended two building dedications. We went to Yokota first on November 23rd. Yokota finished building their new building this year. Yokota church of Christ is right across from the military base in town, and has quite a few American members attending. They were excited to start this new chapter in their history.

Wednesday November 25th

We were invited to visit the Hosoya’s garden. There are a lot of doctors in the Hosoya family. And they are the main doctors in Haruna. We walked all around this beautiful traditional Japanese garden. We were constantly amazed at the detail and huge landscapes that was put into such a wonderful garden. We look forward to coming back in the spring and seeing the big cherry blossom tree in bloom. We‘ve enjoyed

getting to know them and their son (a doctor also). The young Dr. Hosoya also brings his son to our Wednesday evening children’s Bible study. We hope to become better friend and someday be able to share the Gospel to them all.

Friday November 27th, 2009

We really wanted to share the wonderful family holiday of Thanksgiving with people this year. We invited the Obatas, Rieko and Ryosuke over for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We had a fun time trying to find all the ingredients we wanted for a traditional meal. One day we drove around for 3 hours to find a store that sold imported goods. It was worth it. We found a turkey! It was 5.6lbs and cost $20. Along with the turkey we had mashed potatoes, green beans, deviled eggs, rolls, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, and pumpkin pie. It was delicious. We had a great time making everything from scratch. Except, we bought the rolls and cranberry sauce. The Obatas hadn’t had a Thanksgiving meal in over 40 years, it had been 14 years for Rieko, and Ryosuke had never had such a traditional American meal before. We had fun sharing this tradition of thanks with them. Even though we couldn’t be in the U.S. to share with our family, God gave us a bigger family to celebrate with.

Saturday November 28th, 2009

We had the great privilege to visit the Ochanomizu church of Christ for the first time. This is where Obata-san and his family spent most of their lives worshiping. Obata-san preached here for about 40 years. Then after retiring came to Haruna. We were happy to meet a lot of nice people and to see the new building. It took about 3 years to tear down the old building and build the new one. It is an eight story building. With cooperation from the government Ochanomizu uses the top 3 floors and the bottom 5 are for a company that assists disabled people. Paul liked being in one of the only high-rise churches of Christ he had ever seen. He said, “Only with God’s help would this be possible.” A special guest for the dedication was Joe Betts. He and his family served at the Ochanomizu church and taught at Ibaraki Christian for over 50 years. Joe and his wife Ruth only left Japan 3 1/2 years ago. He was very excited to be back home. It was a big encouragement to the congregation to see Joe again.

Monday November 30th, 2009

The month of November was a busy month for a lot of churches around Tokyo. Once again we were honored to be apart of various celebrations glorifying God. We attended a dedication to the late missionary, O.D. Bixler. O.D. baptized Obata-san some 44 years ago and was a great mentor and well respected in the communities he lived in. He and Suzuki-san started a children's home in Ibaraki. It has housed hundreds of children and also taught them God’s word and the meaning of God’s love. His son Dean Bixler came for the celebration, all the way from California. O.D. and his family served the Lord fervently as missionaries all over Japan for 50 years. His son Dean served 10 years with his family long after he grew up here. There is such a great legacy of people that dedicated their lives to serving God here in Japan. It is such an encouragement to hear of the wonderful way God has used these willing soldiers to spread His seed to so many people.

Day 76 Paul’s first full-length Japanese Sermon

2009-11-16T23:41:00.001+09:00

Sunday November 15th 2009

Paul was excited and a little nervous to preach his first full length sermon in Japanese. He has addressed the congregation before, like our first Sunday here, but that was to introduce us and give a short message. That was definitely a big step but this was a little different. He volunteered to give the 20 to 30 minute sermon because Obata-san was having some medical tests done and we want to try to be as big a help here as we can. It took a lot of thinking to decide on the topic. There are so many different levels of spiritual maturity here and so many needs. Finally Paul decided to speak about who Jesus is. Brother Obata graciously translated Paul’s sermon into Japanese and then Paul practiced it many times. We believe it went well and one of the members even said Paul was as good as a first grader in his speech. (We both had to laugh at this, but it is actually a compliment as most of the time we probably speak like 2 year olds.)

Day 67-69 Visiting, Sushi, and Thank You BBQ

2009-11-12T19:57:00.001+09:00

Friday November 6th, 2009

We accompanied the Obata’s today for their weekly visitation to a friend in the hospital. When we first arrived he wasn’t there. We were disappointed we really wanted to meet him. His name is Nishinome-san and he is the father of Junko Ryan. She and her family were in a picture we were given, by Obata-san. It was a picture of the congregation one Sunday morning last year. We showed that picture to everyone to show them the people we would be working with in Japan. But actually Junko Ryan and her family (Rick, Sean, Aika, and Eamon) live in Pennsylvania, but Junko’s parents live in Takasaki. Her and her family come to the church when they visit her parents. Junko’s father had to have some tests done and would be in the hospital for awhile. So we went to say hello. After we found his room and he wasn’t there, Obata-san was talking to the nurses’ station and they said he should be coming back to his room soon, so we decided to go back and wait for him. There he was. It was nice to meet him. He was in really good spirits and seemed to be doing well. Nishinome-san is not a Christian, so we hope to keep seeing him and encouraging him.

After we left, Obata-san wanted to show us a big mall close to us. We walked around and found lots of great stores to come back to. It was dinner time so we stopped in at a sushi restaurant. The cool thing about this restaurant was that the food came by on a conveyer belt that ran by every table. You could order a few special items, but for the most part you just take what looks good as it rolls by. Every plate is color coded and when your done the server comes by and adds up all your plates. It was a really cool experience.

Sunday November 8th, 2009

We had a few of the people that helped us get settled in Japan over for a dinner to thank them. We gathered up a lot of ingredients and did our best to show our gratitude with a little American BBQ! Paul was really excited. He loves to BBQ. We made BBQ chicken, cheeseburger, broccoli salad, macaroni and cheese. We tried to make hot dogs, but we accidentally bought fish sausage dogs instead! Oops! We had a lot of fun with everyone and hope they enjoyed the little bit of American hospitality. that we could show them.

Our guests were: the Obatas, Shimakata-san, Itabashi-san, Miyazaki-san, and Noguchi-san. It was great to meet these friends again! (and great to eat an American Cheeseburger!)

Day 65 Children’s class tonight

2009-11-12T19:54:00.002+09:00

Wednesday November 4th 2009

Last Wednesday we had our first children’s class. I had the privilege of teaching two wonderful girls about the Bible. The only problem was that we were in the same room as the adults. So we had to be very quiet. The girls were great. But I felt like I could teach them more if we could talk a little louder. So we talked it over with Obata-san and we decided to clean out the office in the church. Obata-san mainly uses it for storage. He uses his office at his house since its bigger and right next door.

We have been about cleaning this room out for awhile, so that Paul can use it if he wants to. So we tackled the little room together. After a few hours of sorting and throwing. We could finally see the floor again. It turned out to be a nice little room. And during the day Paul can come here to work on classes and sermons without me bothering him. :)

That evening we tried our new classroom out. It started out great. We had a new family come. She brought her son (6 years old) and daughter (1 1/2years old) and she stayed in the class to see how her son would do. Then another family came. They brought their son for the class. So we all squeezed into the little room. A few of the adults went to the adult class in the main room, just to make space. We had a nice class. We started going over the story of Jesus’ birth. I think it was a little hard for the kids to follow. They don’t know a lot of English and probably even less Christian English. So next week I will probably change a few things in my lesson.

At this point I realize that some of the kids are just here to learn English and hear a native English speaker, but we will keep teaching them the truth. Even if the only English they learn is from the Bible, I know God can do wonderful things through them. It’s really cute to see them learn these new words and it’s good practice for my Japanese to try and explain the new words to them as best I can in Japanese. So I will keep trying to be my best so that God’s words can be implanted on these little hearts.

Day 59 Stacey teaches at a local Kindergarten

2009-11-12T19:50:00.001+09:00

Thursday October 29th 2009

***I apologize I can’t show any pictures of the kids from this day. I was told by the school that I can’t post the children’s pictures on the internet, but I could in a newsletter to my church. There are a few pictures in our newsletters if you are curious.***

Last Wednesday I was asked to help Mie with her Kindergarten class that she teaches on Thursdays. She comes to 2 classes every Thursday to give the children a few lessons about English. She thought the children would benefit from listening to a native English speaker. She also said she wanted to teach the children a few Christian songs. The principle is Buddhist, but wants the children to learn more about other religions and cultures. So I went with Mie to see how I could help. She told me they were learning shapes and colors. So I made some colored shapes for the kids to play a few games with and decided to teach them the song “Jesus loves the Little Children” I thought it would be appropriate with the colors in the song.

The kids were so cute and so smart. I was really amazed at how many English words they knew. The first class was mostly 5 year olds and the second 6 year olds. It was really fun seeing the kids learn and interacting with them. The first class was really curious about why I was here. So I enjoyed telling them a little and Mie translating the rest for me. After we sang the song, one child asked what it was about. WOW. That really amazed me that I was given the opportunity to give a few of God’s words to a 5 year old. I told them that this song was about how Jesus loves ALL of us. No matter what we look like. If we have black hair or white hair. Blue eyes or brown eyes. I gave them all a little card with a scripture in it and a flyer to give to their parents inviting them to church. I look forward to coming back to see the kids and seeing the new questions they have for me.

Day 57 Concert at Haruna & a Special service for Cloe

2009-11-12T19:49:00.001+09:00

Tuesday October 27th 2009

Today was Haruna’s annual concert for the elderly of this community. Obata-san often lets people of the community use the building like a community building. It allows people access, under Obata-san’s supervision, to use the building from time to time. This concert is a regular event held once a year. Obata-san also passed out info about the church for the people attending. It’s a very small and simple way of encouraging people to seek God. Also this is a good way of showing people that the “church” is not the building. Some people will bow before entering as they would a temple or shrine. It’s interesting to see the different reactions.

We were invited to the concert by Nakajima-san. He and his wife host the event and are so anxious to help us interact with the community. It was very educational. It was traditional Japanese music and dancing. It was enjoyable to see the practice of such an old Japanese tradition.

Later that afternoon Paul had the privilege of giving a very special and challenging service. We have an older couple that are members of the Church here. They came to Obata-san one day inquiring about taking their granddaughter to the Buddhist temple for her 3rd birthday. It’s a part of Buddhism here to take children to the Buddhist temple to be blessed on certain birthdays. In Japan a lot of those religious ceremonies have been ingrained into the normal culture as well. Many people here, even not Buddhists, will do this. Obata-san advised them as Christians not to take part in this ritual. So as a compromise Obata-san suggested we have a special devotional for the young girl, Cloe, at the church. Now this family is from Spain. The young girl’s mother is Japanese. Her father, Quentin, is a French atheist. And of course her Japanese grandparents are Christians. Also the young girls grandparents from France would be coming as well. The only thing that was most in common was the fact that 8/10 people of this group spoke English. So Paul was graciously volunteered to give this special talk. He spoke about Jesus growing up in Luke 2:51-52 and how Cloe should follow in his footsteps. The service was received well and we got to sit down and have cake with the family afterwards. The father, Quentin, told Paul he appreciated the service and that he had never set foot in a church before! God is using us to speak to such a variety of people! We thank the Lord for these opportunities which allow us to be ambassadors to people we never would have met in America. What a blessing!

Day 54 Community Pizza Party with the Neighborhood Chief

2009-11-12T19:47:00.001+09:00

Saturday October 24th 2009

We were graciously invited to a private pizza party. It was hosted by Nakajima-san. He is the man that is chief of this area that we live in and invited us over last month for his wonderful homemade Soba noodles. He has a hand built brick pizza oven in his backyard too. The women got together around 2:00pm to prepare the dough and topping for the pizza. It was fun yet a little frustrating for me. First I didn't have Paul with me to help understand the conversations. Second most of the women knew English, but purely to help me with my Japanese were told not to use English, Japanese only.

These situations really emphasize how little Japanese I know. But it is also a good reminder to study study study. Of course they helped me out and answered my questions, but when I couldn’t answer a simple question I just felt plain ignorant. It was a lot of fun getting to know a lot more women in the area. All the ladies lives within walking distance, so hopefully I will see them around.

Around 5:00 the guys started to come.

Over the course of 4 hours we consumed about 18 pizzas between 15-20 people. It was a lot of food. And we had fun trying a lot of different pizza. In the US most of these ingredients would not even come close to a pizza. They had a sweet sesame-seed and miso paste sauce, a tomato sauce, pumpkin, natto (fermented soy beans), eggplant, boiled eggs …. I tried to make one with the most American toppings they had, but it still wasn't the same. Oh well, it was a blast making the pizzas and meeting new people. We were introduced to a lot of people from the community and we hope to make many new friends from this.

This guy made Paul try on his hat. He was very friendly!

And here’s Nakajima-san cooking the dough!!

Day 52 Trip to Mt. Akagi

2009-11-12T19:46:00.001+09:00

Thursday October 22nd 2009

Obata-san has been wanting to take us to the mountains to go hiking. Obata-san is 74 years old and has so much energy. So today he finally got to take us hiking. We started pretty early because we had an hour and a half drive to Mt. Akagi. Paul was especially excited to visit this mountain, because its talked about in an anime (Japanese Animation) he and his brothers used to watch called Initial D. We actually live right in the middle of where this anime is based. And a few years ago a Chinese movie company made a live action film using this mountain and a city near by for special footage.

It was a beautiful day. We could see the mountains approaching ahead of us. It has been a long time since we went mountain hiking, and we were excited to be getting out of the house. It was pretty chilly when we got there. We were a little worried we hadn’t brought enough warm clothes. But as soon as we started moving we warmed up. Soon we found our hiking trail. I have to say it wasn’t what I expected. All of our expectations are obviously based on life experiences. We are from Kansas and the only times we’ve been “hiking” were trips to Colorado through nice flat uphill trails with few rocks to trip over.

This was straight up mountain climbing in my book. No wonder Obata-san was worried with my choice of shoes. Yesterday he had recommended hiking boots, but all we had were trail running or tennis shoes. Now we understood. Well we decided to do the best we could and hope for safety. Just kidding, but seriously I was a little scared. So up up up we went. It was kind of cool. We were climbing a mountain. Obata-san was really worried about me and kept asking if I was alright. He should see me when I really exert myself. My face gets all red and my blue eyes stand out like I’m going to pass out, but that’s just normal for me.

We made it up to the first peak i guess you would call it. We stopped and looked around. It was so cool. Beautiful view! We had fun taking a few pictures and then we headed back down. We will climb to the top another day.

We walked around and found a good spot for lunch. It was funny looking at the difference between our “bag” lunch and Obata- san’s “box” lunch. He brought a large ball of rice wrapped in seaweed and we brought sandwiches.

After lunch we decided this would be a good spot to do a little singing. Obata-san had brought some copies of “Amazing Grace”, “How Great Thou Art”, & “Jesus is Lord”.

We drew a little attention, but we didn’t mind. It gave us the chance to tell a few people why we were in Japan and what the songs were about. A few people even joined in for “Amazing Grace”. Its a very popular song here.

After we were finished singing we headed towards the car. We passed a big Shrine on our way back to the car. We hadn’t seen a Shrine yet so walked by and Obata-san explained a few things about the shrine and the area around it. It was quite interesting to learn of some of the similarities between Shinto and Judaism . They have priests. And inside the shrine is a similar setup to the temple. They have a place for normal people to come in, and then another place inside only the priests can go, like a Holy of Holies. The similarities stop there though. They also have this dragon water fountain for

drinking before you enter the Shrine. Its supposed to purify you. Also this entrance has this special rope with tassels on it to cleans you as you enter towards the Shrine. It was an interesting walk through the Shrine.

On our way home Paul drove and Obata-san enjoyed the ride home with a little nap. Its good to be able to help Obata-san in this way.

Day 51 New visitors for Bible class!

2009-11-12T19:45:00.001+09:00

Wednesday October 21st 2009

The Lord has blessed us yet again with people that want to learn more about Him!! We are still amazed at the people in Japan. We know Christianity is very rare here, but people willing and eager to seek Him will find Him. Its our third Wednesday Bible Study and this week a new family has come to join and learn. Mie, Hana, and Megu live near our house and attend a church in the Maebashi area. They are such a great addition to our study. Next week I look forward to starting a children’s class. Mie said that she will be back next week and she knew a few other people in this area that want to come too. Awesome!! This week we started in a textual study on the book of Luke. Paul introduced the book to the class with a little history. Everyone really enjoyed the class and were asking lots of questions too. I have to say this was a very encouraging class for Paul and I. I know the work is ALL the Lord and we are not responsible for “making Christians” we just sow the seed, and God makes it grow. But its still encouraging to see the growth.

After class Mie invited me to come to the Kindergarten where she works and help her teach an English class and teach them a Christian song. She said the principle (that is Buddhist) wants the children to learn about other religions and cultures. I can definitely do that!! Again it is so awesome to see the opportunities that the Lord has brought to us to spread His word! Hopefully this will open many new doors for us and the Lord.

Day 49 Preachers meeting in Yokota

2009-11-12T19:44:00.003+09:00

Monday October 19th 2009

Today was our monthly preachers meeting. Obata-san, Paul and I went to Yokota. This was our first time to see the new Yokota building. They recently build it, because they growing! There is an American Air force base right across the street from the building, so they stay busy with a Japanese service and an English service to meet everyone’s needs. This meeting I (Stacey) went along as well ,at Obata-san’s request, to try and encourage the women to start a preacher’s wives meeting too. In Japan the women get very busy with hospitality. Obata-san wants to try to get more women involved too in spiritual growth. There was only one woman at this meeting. She is the wife of the preacher of Yokota. And again she was so busy serving the men during the meeting we really didn't get a chance to talk a lot. When we did it was nice to learn more about the role of women in the Japanese church culture. We will continue to try to bring more people together for the Glory of God. The Christians are so few and far between we think it’s important to keep a strong bond of encouragement between everyone, men and women.

After the meeting we all went to this awesome restaurant for lunch. They served us a very traditional Japanese meal. It’s not usually a meal served daily in a Japanese home, but its a meal that all Japanese enjoy. I guess it would be compared to a steak meal in America. Its a traditional American meal, but not frequently served in a home, except maybe on special occasions. It was fun and we enjoyed trying a few new foods and seeing the atmosphere of the restaurant. And it was good for Paul to talk with some of the other preacher’s and get a feel for what their congregations are like.

Day 48 Beautiful flowers and Takasaki Festival

2009-11-12T19:44:00.001+09:00

Sunday October 18th 2009

We had a beautiful display of flowers for the church this morning. I was so impressed by Shimakata-san’s work I had to share it with you all. We see Shimakata-san from time to time, but he has not yet taken us up on our offer of staying for services on Sunday Morning. But without fail he is there arranging a beautiful spray of flowers from his garden. Maybe someday he will stay to listen. We can only pray.

After services we stayed for our usual tea time with the people that came that morning. Its a good time to talk with people and try to understand a little more about them.

After tea we went with Rieko and Ryosuke to the Takasaki Festival. A couple of Rieko’s students were performing a traditional Japanese dance today. It was a great opportunity to get out into the community and see Japanese culture. And the people watching was fun too.

A couple of girls came up to us and asked if we could fill out a questionnaire. With a little help from them and Rieko we answered their questions. They were working the festival and trying to gather data to improve it. They wanted to know what brought us to Takasaki. I guess Paul and I look like out-of-towners!

Day 47 Friends over for dinner

2009-11-12T19:43:00.001+09:00

Saturday October 17th 2009

Our first dinner party. We invited over our friends Rieko and Ryosuke for an authentic Herrington meal. I really wanted to make something delicious. We had been wanting to make Rice Meatballs for awhile, but we couldn't find one key ingredient. Instant rice. In the land of rice everywhere, this might sound funny, but I hadn’t found any instant rice and regular rice wouldn't work. But while we were at Steve and Debbie’s house I spotted a box of Minute Instant rice. I asked Debbie where she got it and she said someone sent it to her in a care package a long time ago, and they seldom used it. I told her I’d been looking for instant rice and with out a hesitation she gave me the box of rice. Yay! I had all the ingredients to make the meal, so I decided to try it out on our friends and make it here in Japan. We had rice meatballs, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, and dinner rolls. Just like mom makes at home! I have to say It was awesome, only because it tasted exactly the same. Paul graciously gave me “best homemade meal so far in Japan” award.:)

We enjoyed talking over dinner and sharing stories with our friends. After dinner we made our version of a ‘Chocolate Thunder from Down Under’ (a dessert from Outback Steakhouse) for Ryosuke’s birthday. They really enjoyed it. Once again I was amazed as to how much they ate, and both are so slim.

After dinner and dessert we taught them a couple card games and then they taught us one. We really enjoyed playing ‘Rook’ with them. They told us this was their favorite. Paul and Ryosuke beat Rieko and I every time. They also taught us a card game that is pretty similar to an American card game called “Scum.” It was really fun. We had a blast hanging out with our friends.

Day 43 Japanese roads take me home...

2009-11-12T19:41:00.003+09:00

Tuesday October 13th 2009

We got up on our last day in Matsudo and ran a few errands in town. We had fun riding the train again. Debbie and I got to explore another mall while the boys took care of some financial business. We met up with the boys at the mall. At every store you always hear every shop person you encounter say, “May I help you?” (Irrashaimase!!) It's just something they say as kind of a greeting and offering to help you find something. We started talking to one lady that worked there and she was asking us where we were from and what kind of music we liked. We (most of us expect Paul) admitted to liking country music. She then told us her husband was in a band and they played country western music. So Steve asked her if she knew "Country Roads" by John Denver (very popular in Japan) and soon they both started singing in the middle of a clothing store in the mall. It was too funny. I think they actually sang the entire first verse and chorus. Never a dull moment in Japan. Anything can happen!

Afterwards we all met up and had a quick bite to eat and then headed towards the house.

We also saw a few different people talking to the people as they passed by. We asked Steve what this guy was saying and he said that he was from the Communist Party trying to recruit people. (wow)

After getting home we packed up the van with all the great stuff we found in Matsudo.

Well we had a great weekend with Steve and Debbie and sadly we had to say good-bye and head home. Maybe soon another adventure with the Carrells will arise. Here are a few picture of the traditional Tatami room we stayed in at the Carrells house.

Most houses or apartments have one room that looks like this. It was exciting for us to stay here, because we don’t have such a room at our house. We have a very modern house. And we sleep in a “western” style bed. Western as in American style bed. So this was our first experience sleeping on a futon. A futon here is not like a futon in America. (those thin mattresses folded into a couch) This is a 3’’ thick foam/cotton pad with a blanket on top of you. We really enjoyed the stay! So down the road we went. Soon we got to the toll road and came to this sign. You think your highway is confusing? Ha!

We are so thankful for our GPS, because we are still not sure where we should have gone from looking at this sign. And you do not want to make a mistake on a toll road and go the wrong way. We did once. Our GPS had a short lag in telling us “turn left” and of course we went right. It took us about a mile out of our way and then a mile to get back. It also cost us $10 for that little turn around. Ouch!

Day 42 Costco and Pizza!!

2009-10-30T00:35:00.001+09:00

Monday October 12th, 2009

I have to say the thing we were the most excited about today was Pizza. It has only been a little over a month since we had pizza, but having something that's tastes exactly like we want it to will be awesome! We woke up fairly early and headed into town towards Costco. The traffic was horrible. It was a holiday, so everyone was heading out of the city towards the country. It should have taken us 20 minutes or so to get there. Instead it took an hour and a half. After waiting in traffic a long time Steve got out to check if the traffic was ever going to move and to stretch a little.

We really wanted to find a few items and groceries. When we got there it was so crowded. We were lucky to find a parking spot. Steve with his crazy driving skills found a parking spot for us. Costco was crazy! It was like a “Black Friday” sale in America. We had to fight the huge crowds of people to get a slice of pizza. We stood in line for about 20 minutes, then had to wait another 30 minutes for the pizza. We started out shopping by strolling through the isles to see what this Costco had. Soon Paul called and our pizza was ready. YAY! We found a nice bench outside and after the blessing we dove into that pizza. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!! (That’s right, six exclamation points!)

I think it was the first thing we’ve eaten here that tasted like food from the good ole USA. It was so good. We shared a large which for Japan was really big. It was just right for the four of us. We were all full and ready to shop. We walked up and down the isles and found lots of wonderful things that we needed for our house. What a great day so far.

After Costco we headed back to the Carrell’s to drop off all the wonderful goodies and the car. Then we were going to downtown Matsudo to look around and ride the train for the first time. I think for me it’s the first time ever. Paul rode the subways while he and his family lived in New York. He has a funny story he likes to tell about his dad you will have to ask him about it some time:)

We got a cool “Pasmo” card and filled it will a little money. Its like a credit card for the train. You just scan it as you go through the gates and It keeps track of where you came from and takes the money off the card. Paul found he could just slap his wallet on the sensor and it would pick up his “Pasmo” card and let him through. He toyed with the idea of sliding his back pocket across the sensor just to check how sensitive the scanner was. But we both soon had visions of the Japanese people around us staring in horror if Paul tried to slide his rear across the sensor. You know, when you’re a missionary you have to sacrifice some things. So we didn’t try it. (yet)

After our awesome ride we found a train conductor and took a picture. He was really shocked we wanted to take a picture with him. I think it made his day. :)

Then we walked around downtown until we headed home. Debbie was going to make us her wonderful spaghetti. We watched another movie, “Dave,” and talked with Steve and Debbie until we couldn't stay up any longer.

Day 41 Weekend at The Carrell’s

2009-10-29T23:39:00.001+09:00

Sunday October 11th, 2009

It’s Sunday morning and we are excited to worship with another Japanese congregation this morning. We are staying with the Carrell’s today, Monday, and Tuesday. We are just relaxing and getting some much needed wisdom from the Carrell’s. They have lived in Japan for 30 years. They speak awesome Japanese and are fully experienced in evangelizing to the Japanese people.

So we are excited to spend some time with them. Oh and did I mention they are native English speakers? Extra Bonus!

We started off the morning with the Matsudo church of Christ. They had about 15 people attending this morning plus us. We enjoyed the sermon because Steve gave us a great summary in English to start, so we could kind of follow along. After services we had a potluck lunch, a business meeting and a bible study. Whew. They know how to take care of business. After lunch we went back to Steve and Debbie’s house and decided what to do for the rest of the day.

Paul and I really wanted to find a couch at the local recycle stores. (if we could fit it in our van) So off to the recycle shops we went. (kind of like a flea market and pawn shop in one) We found a few things we liked, but it was the first place we stopped. We tried to go a few more places, but they were all closed. It was another holiday weekend. So we thought long and hard about the couch we found at the first shop. We decided to get it. It was really awesome.

It reclines, the middle section folds down into a table, and it comes in 3 sections (that way it will fit in our van). We went back and bought that couch and a few other things. Then we stacked the van full. It all fit!! We were really hungry by then so Debbie and Steve suggested we eat at Bikkuri Donkey. It means “Surprise Donkey.” We kept wondering what the surprise was, but later one of our Japanese friends researched it and found out they want to surprise their customers and make them happy. They choose "donkey" because they thought the donkey has very kind eyes and seems like hard worker. (Interesting huh?) I have to say the food was pretty good, but Paul was a little disappointed he didn’t see a single donkey while we were there. After a wonderful dinner we headed home to plan our next day adventure. On our way home Steve treated us to some vending machine ice cream. Pretty good for a vending machine. At their house we watched our first movie in Japan, The Island. One of our favorites. Then for tomorrow we decided we will go to Costco tomorrow. Yeah, I was excited. Especially because they told us there was delicious pizza there. We are just hoping they still remember what good pizza is. Better not be any of that mayonnaise and squid stuff. I guess we will see.

Day 40 Road Trip of Encouragement

2009-10-29T23:05:00.001+09:00

Saturday October 10th, 2009

We were invited to an Oklahoma Christian Banquet this evening. So we talked with Obata-san and we are going on a Road Trip! Encouragement and Adventure, GO!!! We were excited to take a road trip by ourselves. Just me, Paul and the GPS.

Here’s our chance to really test this thing out, on the open road. We left Haruna around 2:00pm and drove to Mito. Our drive there was beautiful. We saw a lot of rural Japan, and some wide open spaces that reminded us of home. Pretty rare in most of developed Japan.

We got to stop when ever we wanted and stay as long as we wanted. So cool. We stopped at one rest stop and they had fun food so we decided to take a late lunch break. I went to the restroom and this little old lady stopped me and was looking at my hair. All I could understand was “pretty” so I politely said thank you. Then she started to wipe her face with my hair. Not really sure what that was all about, but it was a funny story to tell Paul. Soon we ordered lunch. Paul ordered something like a chilly dog. I took the safe road and bought a ham sandwich and Pringles chips. After lunch Paul went back into the rest stop store and got us some ice cream. Chocolate ice cream. Until now we really hadn’t found any GOOD chocolate ice cream. It was delicious! One our way out the little old lady from the bathroom waved at us from her car as she was leaving too. I really wish I had gotten a picture of her.

It took us about 3 hours to get there and we were an hour early. So we had a little time to look around. They were having the seminar in the top floor of a huge department store. We walked around a little, then soon found the place where the meeting was. We also found some friends we met last time we were at Mito church. The Thompsons are an awesome couple. They are here teaching English at a couple of schools, but they still find time to preach and teach the Gospel to whom ever they find. Allen was telling us how he had just preached a lesson on adversity to a homeless shelter. WOW. He is a very passionate guy. His wife Laura is so sweet. I wish we lived a little closer to them. I think we would enjoy hanging out with them. We met so many nice people. There were students there on the Pacific Rim trip, Japanese high school students looking at going to OC in Oklahoma, Alumni that work at Ibaraki Christian University, and a few missionaries from around Japan. It was a very fun night. We loved meeting all the wonderful people and having some time away from home. Here’s Paul with John and Joel Osborne. They are brothers. Joel is a missionary currently working in Sendai, and John is OC’s Director of International Programs.

That evening we went to the Carrell’s (American Missionaries in Matsudo) house to stay the weekend with them.

Day 37 Our First Wednesday Evening Bible Study – GO OUTREACH!

2009-10-29T22:16:00.002+09:00

Wednesday October 7th, 2009

Tonight was our first Wednesday Night Bible Study with the Haruna Church!

We put out flyers, handed out invitations, and made announcements from the pulpit advertizing “English Bible Study and Singing.” Here’s Stacey’s flyer that she made!

We were anxious to see how many people (if any) would come tonight. Haruna has never had a midweek study. This is also one of our first big attempts at outreach. We are trying to reach out to the surrounding areas and hopefully get some high-school/college kids in here who are interested in the Bible and English.

Around 6:30 we headed towards the building. No cars in the parking lot yet. Closer to 7:00pm a few people started to come in. YAY! We have ears that want to hear. We ended up with 4 people that showed up. No new young people from the community, but a woman that Obata-san has been talking with showed up, Junko-san! Also 3 members from the congregation came, and we are very excited about doing some equipping. Most of the members are fairly new Christians or have grown very little since they were baptized, so we are excited to share with all who will come.

Paul did another great job starting with the first part of a 2 lesson series on “Why the Bible is Special,” and then we’re going to dive into the book of Luke. If the Lord wants us to work on training up the people in the body then that’s what we want too!

Day 35 The Many jobs of a Missionary

2009-10-21T17:15:00.002+09:00

Monday October 5th, 2009

I know this probably isn’t very interesting, but I had to write about it one time.

Of all the questions I got before we left this was the one that most surprised me. “What are you going to do about your hair?” Just in case you never noticed. I am not a natural blonde. At least not right now. I was blonde as a child until about second grade. then it slowly got darker over the years. So I decided to go full out blonde a couple years ago. I enjoy my blonde hair and I wanted to keep it that way if possible while we were in Japan. So out of my own money I bought and brought with me enough supplies to stay blonde for about 2 years. My beautician in the US helped me figure out what I needed and showed me how to be careful and bleach my own hair. She is an awesome beautician she always kept my hair just the way I liked it. So I hauled 5 large bottles of developer, 3 large tubs of powder bleach and all the utensils necessary to do my hair. Just one problem, I can’t see the back of my own head. Oh Paul… He agreed to help me. In return my hair won’t fall out! So, I am so thankful to have such a wonderful. loving, husband that will do just about anything for me.

Paul: Yeah this is awesome I love it sweety! Anything for you!

NOT!!

But, seriously , I do love you. :) (Just not hair dying.)

Day 34 First Singing Class and Bible Study!

2009-10-20T21:10:00.001+09:00

October 4, Sunday, 2009

Today is our first class for the congregation. Today we will start teaching them English Hymns and studying the Bible. We were happy to see so many people show up early for singing. So before service we introduced two new songs “Because We Love the Lord” and

“Just as I Am”. Paul gave a short lesson about the meanings of the songs and why they were written. We sang the songs for the congregation, then they joined in. For being such a small group they sure do sing well. We sang for about 20 min. Then services began. Obata-san led the service as usual. Paul helping with the Lord’s Supper and a prayer.

After service Rumiko-san had a small lunch ready. So we all ate together, then we started the Bible Study. Everyone stayed for the Bible Study. This is awesome. Paul is teaching them about the Parables of Jesus. Today we talked about Mary and Martha. Paul did an awesome job of putting together a few great points. That there are many ways to worship God. Mainly about how what Martha was doing was good, but Mary had chosen the best thing to do. Worship God while He was with them. Over all the members didn't say a lot, but what we have observed about the Japanese is that they listen. They don’t always say a lot. We are hoping to get them to ask more questions and to have more discussion with each other. Paul was pretty nervous, but excited to be working in the Kingdom. This is why we are here!

Day 32 Obata-san’s Art

2009-10-20T20:08:00.002+09:00

Friday October 2nd, 2009

We were invited to see a small art show in Takasaki. It was for some of Obata-san’s school mates. He stays in touch with some people that he went to middle school and high school with. A couple of them own an art gallery. They have also taught Obata-san how paint. I think he mostly uses acrylic and oil paints. So we were very excited to see some of Obata-san’s work.

He had two paintings displayed. They were both beautiful. I’ve tried painting. In any medium its hard. I prefer a steady pencil to work with. So for him to have completed these and then have them displayed is awesome.

After looking at all the pieces. We stayed around for a while visiting with Obata-san’s friends. None of them knew English, so we mostly listened. The owner of the shop had been to the USA, so he showed us a photo book of his trip. He had been to California and then Arizona to the Grand Canyon. He really enjoyed showing us his pictures.

They gave us a few snack to have while we waited. One was a very traditional dish which contains mochi (rice paste). Obata-san said his mom always made this for a treat.

It looks like a big fried cheese stick. But it’s not. It’s a type of mochi that you dip in this hot soy sauce. Not on my list of favorites. Paul didn’t seem to mind it. But he eats anything nowadays. :)

On our way home. We say this crazy van drive past us. Obata-san knew we wanted a picture, so He tried very hard to get close enough to take this picture. It was a fun chase. I really wish we could have taken a picture of the whole thing. It was crazy. In Japan they have very strict laws about motor vehicles. Every two years they must be inspected and repaired to code. This van was not within code. Obata-san said He probably wouldn’t get a ticket, but he would have to take off all the body kits before the next inspection. The picture of the girl on the back is Ayumi Hamasaki. She is Japan’s equivalent to Brittany Spears.

The purple van looked crazy. Paul looked online and found a clearer pic of a similar style. WOW huh?

Day 31 The work starts NOW!

2009-10-20T20:07:00.000+09:00

Thursday October 1st, 2009

Its officially started. Our time to adjust is over. We are getting started with the work that we came here to do. Don’t get us wrong, adjusting to the new culture, language, and environment has been work. But we didn’t come just to meet the wonderful people of Japan and to feel uncomfortable eating strange food! So, we started off this morning with our first Language class with Obata-san. He has decided to read through the Japanese Bible with us. I guess you could say he is using the LST method on us.

We are reading the book of John first. At our first meeting we started with Obata-san reading the first five verses in Japanese to us. We mark where the words divide (other wise we read run-on words). It’s difficult to read Japanese because they don't put spaces between words or have capital letters. They also have Kanji (the word picture characters) which are extremely difficult for foreigners to learn. So after we get the words straight we take turns reading through the verses that Obata-san just read. Then we go through the vocabulary that we don’t know. So the first five verses, we went through about every word. Obata-san is very patient with us. He did say he was happy that we could read hiragana and katakana (the 2 phoenetic alphabets). That made his job a little easier. Thanks WSU! Thanks Foster Sensei! Obata-san is also quite a Greek scholar so we get a great Bible study in every language class.

SO our first session of going through the first five verses of John took 2 hours. Whew! Lunch time!!

Day 30 Japanese Church History Day

2009-10-20T16:12:00.002+09:00

Wednesday September 3oth, 2009

Today we went to Nomura-san’s house. We visited him a few weeks ago, but we went to help him pack up books that he is donating to Pepperdine University’s Heritage Center. Dr. Jerry Rushford, Head of church relations for Pepperdine, is in Japan to receive these books and to research church history in Japan.

When we got there the work was mostly done. A couple of the younger preachers came to help Nomura-san box them up a couple of days ago. So we got to sit around and learn about the history of the churches of Christ in Japan. Very cool. After listening to them all talk and go through pictures we shared a meal together then headed on our way home. Brother Nomura is a great friend and always a treat to visit. He is a true mountain man as well. He basically lives on the side of a mountain!

Day 29 Soba with the Chief

2009-10-20T15:49:00.002+09:00

Tuesday September 29th, 2009

We have been able to enjoy so many wonderful things in Japan. Mostly because Obata-san has so many good friends in Haruna. Today we were invited over for dinner at the chief of the community’s house Nakajima-san. Actually he is the father of Reiko. The young lady that has helped us out so much and is a member at Haruna. We were also told by one missionary that it is always good to make friends with the leader’s of the community in Japan. Then everyone accepts you and knows that you are a honorable member of the community and not an outsider. This sounds good to us and we are always pleased to make new friends.

We were very excited. We heard that he makes Soba (a buckwheat noodle) from scratch.

We arrived at their house and his wife greeted us. She also speaks English. She showed us around the back of the house to where we would be eating. Nakajima-san built a special little house just for making soba! WOW! So we walked around for awhile until dinner was ready.

Then Nakajima-san came to say hello, and he showed us around a little more. He was very proud of his Soba house. He and his friends built it together.

And last summer they built a brick pizza oven just outside of the Soba house. Cool. I can’t wait to try pizza from that!

We all gathered together inside and waited to eat. They prepared so much food. It was delicious! You eat soba dipped in a cold soy sauce based broth. We also had tempura (fried vegetables), potato salad, rice, and nashi (Japanese pear).

Nakajima-san had a lot of interesting stories to tell us. One was about this trophy he won. We had heard about Golf in Japan. There isn't a lot of space for a golf courses, so they are pretty expensive to build and not a lot of people can afford to play. There is such a thing as hole-in-one insurance you should have if you play golf. This insurance is to cover you if you should get a hole-in-one. In Japan it is customary to have a very big party if you get a hole-in-one. This insurance pays for that party if you should ever get a hole-in-one. So Nakajima-san’s insurance was about to expire and his friend told him not to renew it. Well wouldn’t you know within the next month Nakajima-san got his first hole-in-one. And he had to throw a big party all on his own dime. Soon after that he renewed his insurance.

We talked most of the evening. Nakajima-san is a very interesting man. He was a principal of a school, then a superintendant, then he was in the city council of Haruna (after the city was absorbed by Takasaki, now he’s retired) and he makes Soba, Pizza, has a plum orchard, and does a little farming on the side. He and his wife are typical Japanese Buddhists. Paul hopes that his Japanese gets to the point where he can discuss some of the more important issues. Nakajima-san also likes old American Western movies and was very excited that Paul and I had seen many of the old ones he had seen like “Shane” and old John Wayne movies. He said most people our age didn’t know about these American Classics. :) I guess its good that our dads both liked old westerns and we grew up watching them. It was a great evening and we hope to get to know the Nakajimas better.

Day 27 Community Cleaning and Church

2009-10-20T14:49:00.002+09:00

Sunday September 27th, 2009

This morning is a little special for us. Its our first chance to be a contributing apart of our community here in Haruna. Twice a year this community gets together early on a Sunday morning and cleans the area. About a hundred people showed up today. After everyone worked hard they gathered together. Everyone had worked hard cleaning and pulling weeds and stuff. It was funny to me when they started handing our bottles of green tea instead of water.

After an hour of cleaning we all met in front of the Haruna church building and the Chief of the community had a few announcements. Also they take this time to introduce any new members to the community. There were 3 new families. One single young man, Paul and I, and a young Doctor and his family (who has other relatives all around Haruna). It was nice to be recognized as part of the community, and not looked as as a visitor.
After everything we went back home to get ready for church services. Today was our monthly potluck lunch. I was excited to bring something. I made some cheese and spinach stuffed raviolis, garlic bread and blueberry muffins.

It was also a couple of people’s birthdays. Rumiko- san even baked a delicious chocolate cake which we ate with chopsticks!

Day 26 Lumberjack Paul

2009-10-20T14:19:00.002+09:00

Saturday September 26th 2009

Today I learned how to be Japanese Forest Ranger. (This is Paul BTW) But seriously today I was able to join Obata-san and guide a youth group from Ochanomizu church of Christ in some forestry/conservation training. Well I didn’t do much guiding, but I was there to help and do whatever they needed. It sounded like a pretty neat idea for a youth activity. Ochanomizu is pretty close to Tokyo and would be considered a very urban area. I have realized after the last month that we live out in the boonies. Even though everything is really close together in Japan, we still are considered “out in the country.” (Yet I still have fiber optic internet to my house, you have to love that about Japan)

We started out with a small worship singing time led by Brother Obata, and he explained a few items about the activities of the day.

We got underway and stopped by the gentlemen’s house who owns the forest, (Shiimizu-san , I think) he’s actually a Buddhist priest that Obata-san is friends with. I asked Obata’s about sharing the gospel with him and he basically said it is ongoing difficult task. I continue to be inspired by Brother Obata and his efforts to evangelize even the most difficult people, when he himself is a 75 year old man and has his own ongoing struggles. He continues to put the kingdom first. Inspiring , huh? So………Get off your couch and spread the word! :)

After that we began to wind up the side of a mountain and the road began to narrow dramatically.

We arrived at a clearing and were walked through some basic info and training and then we put our hard hats on!

Its great to see that people are the same the world over. Here’s 2 brothers who were goofing off in the special “chainsaw hardhats.” It reminded me of a younger Brock and Zach Lytton, from my own church’s youth group memories back in the day! (Northside shoutout) Ha Ha!

Then we were all instructed on how to notch a tree for a safe cut and took turns. I was amazed at how fast the trees were cut even with a hand saw.

After the cuts it was just a matter of leverage!

Watch the video for a sweet tree fall!

The rest of the day we spent removing the bark from some trees and making some stools out of the tree for the youth group to take back and use at their church building.

Overall it was a great day! I was able to meet and talk to many of the youth and ask them about being in a youth group in an urban Japanese area. They said it was difficult to share their faith with their friends. If a fun activity was planned then their friends would come, but as soon as they would hear it had anything to do with religion they were not interested. I hope we can continue to grow our relationships with the other churches and one day have a youth group at Haruna as well.

We ended up with a group picture back at the church building. Good looking group huh? :)

Day 25 Mount Haruna

2009-10-20T13:55:00.003+09:00

Friday Sept. 25th 2009

We finally had a chance to see Mt. Haruna today. We were so excited. We live so close to the mountains, so to finally be able to explore them was awesome. Obata-san drove us up the mountain to where Dwight and Josephine were staying. Obata-san grew up around here, so he is excellent driving through the narrow mountain roads. We were glad to be listening to the radio in English. After a few songs we noticed a theme. This station was playing only “The Carpenters” songs. We asked Obata-san why, but he didn't know. Anyway we thought it was interesting choice of music as we drove up the mountain. On our drive Obata-san decided to stop in the middle of the road to pick up some small chestnuts for me. He is so silly like that.

The Lake Haruna.

Paul found a soccer field. Just his size!

Hiking trails!

We met up with the Albrights then walked around the lake admiring the beautiful scenery. We saw a couple of funny boats shaped like swans. Then we saw a huge swan boat. Awesome! Then Obata-san showed us a short trail through the wild flowers and grass. Dwight and Josephine love flowers and stop a lot to admire them. It was beautiful. Paul and I look forward to coming back by ourselves to walk around and hike up the mountain. We hope to be able to come here for some quiet time with God.

On our way back down the mountain, we thought we saw a small bear. We were so excited. I was especially excited to tell my friend Ginny that we saw a bear.

But it ended up being a very furry dog. Oh well, maybe next time.

It was getting close to lunch time so Obata-san decided to stop at this little restaurant. We waited for Obata-san to talk to the owner. Pretty soon he came back with 4 fishing poles. He told us we needed to catch 5 fish!

I guess we are catching our lunch. It was a lot of fun.

Paul was the first to catch one.

Josephine caught a huge fish that broke her line and went back into the pond, but she caught another one soon afterwards. Then Dwight caught one. We’ve got 3 so far. Then Paul caught another one. I really wanted to catch one too. I didn’t want to fail. I mean trying to catch a starving fish in a tiny pool of water, how hard can it be. I tried really hard, using all my secret fishing techniques. Finally I caught one.

The last one we needed for lunch. Whew. Mission Comprete!

We sat down and waited while they cooked our lunch. It was an interesting meal. I’ve never eaten a fish right off the bone with the head still attached. I looked over everyone was digging in. Ok here goes nothing.

It was quite good. Then Obata-san told us we could eat the whole fish if we wanted to. After the meal. Obata-san’s plate is on the left, Paul’s plate is on the right. Hummm … something is missing on Obata-san’s plate!

Here is my finished plate. Pretty good. Tasted like Fried Catfish just like Grandma & Grandpa used to make.

Paul got to drive home. On our way we stopped to pay our rent for our house for the first time.

We passed this interesting store. I asked Obata-san what it was, because we had passed it several times. So we stopped and went inside. WOW. It was “Nitori,” it’s like Japan’s Bed Bath & Beyond. Yay! I loved it. I walked around for quite a while. The boys were so nice to let me wonder around. We even found a few things we needed!

Day 24 Japanese BBQ

2009-10-20T12:08:00.001+09:00

Thursday Sept. 24th 2009

We were excited today for our special guests to arrive. Dwight and Josephine Albright came to visit us here in Haruna. Dwight is an elder with the Park Avenue church of Christ in Memphis, TN. They were also missionaries in Japan. They have been coming to Japan every summer for the past 12 years. They spend all their time here encouraging different congregations, preaching and teaching. Today they came to get to know us and spend some time with Obata-san. They were excited to see our house and spend the day with us.

That evening we went to Obata-san’s house for a BBQ. Let me rephrase that Japanese BBQ. Not quite the same, but still delicious. Japanese BBQ consist of steamed rice, then grilled veggies, then grilled meat. You come and eat it as its cooked it in that order. So really you have a constant flow of food, that’s hot and ready to eat through out the entire meal. Obata-san was an excellent cook. The food was awesome. It was a beautiful night to sit around and talk. Dwight and Josephine have a plethora of knowledge about the work that needs to be done here.

Then after the meal is finished Obata-san threw on the Soba noodles to make Yakisoba (fried soba) Delicious! We were so full. That is so typical of the Japanese meals we have experienced. You stuff your self with delicious food that’s in front of you, then they bring out another dish that’s even more delicious.

Day 22 Stacey's turn to drive

2009-10-08T22:21:00.005+09:00

Tuesday September 22, 2009
The only thing exciting today was the fact that I was ready to tackle driving on the other side of the road. Paul has been driving since the second day that we've been here, but I haven't been ready to try it yet. I am a nervous driver. If I am taking directions from someone while driving I get flustered easily. And on top of that add the fact that I had to completely retrain the way I drive.

It was getting dark outside, but it seemed like an easy start, so off we went. We needed to go to the book store to find some language books recommended by another missionary who has been here over 5 years. So I hopped on into the drivers seat and started down the road. I think Paul was nervous for me. I thought I did pretty well for myself. We made it to the bookstore, then the grocery store and back home safe and sound. Yay! Now I know I can drive if I need to. Obata-san wants me to help drive Rumiko-san around. She was born and raised in Tokyo, then lived in Ochanomizu. These cities have great mass transportation and a Japanese drivers license is about $3000.00 (including classes you have to take or you won't be able to pass the test.) So it's not really needed in these big cities. Plus cars are expensive here. So Rumiko is about 73 years old and has never driven. So hopefully she can show me around.

Day 21 - Special recognition for The School of Evangelism

2009-10-06T23:18:00.002+09:00

Monday, Sept. 20, 2009

Today we went to Tachikawa for the 20th anniversary of the Japanese School of Evangelism. (JSE) So we got all dressed up and headed down the road again. Obata-san was very excited to go. He was Dean of the school for many years, and still teaches classes. This year the school only had one student. He is from Okinawa (which is very far south)and actually takes his classes via Skype.

We had a guest speaker, the President from the Osaka Bible School. They are primarily Christian Church affiliated. From what we could understand (with Steve and Debbie’s help) he was very excited to be here and to be apart of this celebration. I think being a part of training Christian leaders in this country is so rare that he was happy to see another school enjoying a long life. (Even with such low attendance.) He was also very surprised that we all listened to his speech with such politeness even though we have differing doctrines on some things. (Mainly in Japan the difference is their worship with instruments.) His message was on Christ’s call for us to make disciples and through that leaders. It was very good and a respectful topic for our brethren.

After the address and some worship we had lunch. Almost everyone had a turn saying thank you for something that had happened in the past year. Obata-san took the opportunity to introduce us to the brethren. And asked Paul to say a few words. Good thing he only knows a few Japanese words. It was nice to hear from everyone.

After lunch we went back into the auditorium to listen to brother Nomura speak about the Restoration Movement. He is quite the historian. He had hundreds of books in his library about the Movement and especially its effect on Japan Christianity. After Brother Nomura’s talk Obata-san had a teachers meeting.

So Paul, Debbie, and I went walking. It was sort of a small adventure. Steve and Debbie lived in Tachikawa for many years before moving to Matsudo, so Debbie knew this area very well. We all decided to find a local recycle shop (it’s kind of like a Goodwill store, or flea market). Its full of useful things that people just throw away or sell to the shop. We walked for about an hour. We passed by lots of cool things. Like this persons front yard. How cool is this. It look that its straight out of Karate Kid 4. And this ceramic shop was making beautiful Holland pieces. This picture is all of the ceramic that she had broken. She made it into this beautiful 3-D collage.

We passed by a lot of bicycles i thought it might be funny if I pushed one over to see if they would fall like dominoes. Just kidding. That would have been terrible.

Then we passed this small river. Debbie gave us a little history lesson. The king wanted clean water for drinking run straight to the palace so they made this stream run from the mountains into the palace. No one was allowed near the stream, because they might polite the Emperor’s water supply and they would be killed. This was done hundreds of years ago and it still running from the mountains clean spring water.

Our little adventure started to become funny after a while , because when we got to a corner of a street Debbie thought the shop was just a little farther. I think she said this about 5 times. Finally after looking at the time we decided to head back. We didn't want Steve or Obata-san getting worried about us. Well we still had fun looking around and we really enjoyed talking and walking with Debbie. We even walked through the train station.

On our way home we stopped by Costco. We were really excited. We don't even have a Costco within 5 hrs of us back home. So this is a treat. Obata-san has a membership so we were pumped to see if we could find any special things we have been missing like a big box of cereal, a mattress pad for our bed or anything fun. We started to pull into the parking lot. Costco is on the same grounds as a huge mall. It looked really fun, but we didn't have time to walk around inside. I plan on going back soon to check it out.

This week is special its Silver week. There are a few Holidays connected together to give people Saturday thru Wednesday off from work. It is for respecting the elderly. So I guess in Japan to show your respect to the elderly you must go shopping, because this place was packed. From the time we pulled into the parking lot till the time we parked and actually walked thru the doors of Costco was 1 hour!

We barely had enough time to look around. We felt really bad for Obata-san. He drove us through there like a pro. We told him several times that we could come back another time, but he insisted on getting through those doors today. We made it inside with about 45 minutes before closing time. It was just enough time to look for the few things we hadn’t been able to find.

It was getting really late and we still had about 2 hours of driving left, or should I say Paul has 2 hours of driving left. I got to sleep in the back seat. :)

Day 20 - Church, Sweet shops, and Dinner with Friends

2009-10-06T22:01:00.002+09:00

Sunday, Sept. 19, 2009

What a beautiful morning.

We started off getting ready as usual before church. We stayed up pretty late last night, because we are finding it harder to get to sleep. I think we are fully over our jet lag but it is hard to sleep some nights. Paul thinks its because of the different bed. We are so thankful to have a Western style bed but it is a lot firmer than our old one in Wichita. So needless to say we haven’t been getting up and continuing our walks around Haruna. And usually we have to start the morning off with a cup of coffee. Usually I have 2 or 3 because the cups are so small. I really need to find a bigger coffee cup.

We went to church like usual. Buta-san has been pleasantly absent a lot more often these days. We are not sure if we are getting used to the smell or if the wind just blows the stink in on itself.

At church we had a few different people this morning. Some of the people that came that first Sunday have not been back yet. And we’ve had a few others come to visit. This morning we had a Japanese couple, the Otanis, that surprisingly spoke English. And to our surprise lived the the US for a number of years teaching at KU! What a small world. We enjoyed talking to them. They had moved to Takasaki fairly recently and they seem to be “church shopping”. After service everyone stayed around for a small lunch prepared by Rumiko-san. She is so sweet she always has a little something to cook up when we have visitors. We all talked for a while and then went our separate ways. We hope that the Otanis come back next week. We will pray about it and wait and see.

Around 5:00pm Rieko and Ryosuke came by to help us with a few things and they wanted to show us a few of their favorite shops. First we went to a Sweet Shop. So cute.

The things that the bakeries here make are beautiful.

Our theory is that not many people seem to “bake” at home, so this has created a thriving bakery market. We picked out a few things and took them back to share with the Obatas.

On our way home we stopped at a coffee house. Not like a coffee house in the US. It was more of a shop for gifts. On both levels they had a lot of antique and collectible coffee cups and saucers. Beautiful. We enjoyed looking around and the different styles. For a minute I thought I would be able to pick out my very own cup and saucer just for me. Then we started looking at the price tags. $50, $75, $80 for a coffee cup and saucer set . No thank you. Unless I will be drinking Gold coffee from those cups, I don’t think it would be worth it. Paul got excited when we saw a set for only $15. Wait a minute. ONLY $15. Its still a tiny cup and a plate to match it. It’s funny how your perspective can change so fast as to what expensive is. Some times I try that trick on Paul. “No honey this ___ only cost me $100. Just kidding it was $50”. See there. I had his mind all in a tizzy with the $100 so $50 didn’t sound too bad ;). (From Paul – she did do that to me once in the states! )

We started evening service at 7:00pm. Only the Nakasones came tonight. So Obata-san preached to a small crowd tonight. Since we are the only ones that speak English he usually doesn’t give us side notes of English points. We hope that we are encouraging just sitting and listening and singing in Japanese.

After church we went to dinner with Rieko and Ryosuke. They planned this last week.

They wanted to take us to one of their favorite Italian restaurants. We were excited to try Italian Japanese style. We were really glad they took us. We couldn’t read a thing on the menu. And it was not what we expected. We were trying to decide on appetizers. Rieko told us we could choose from Goose, Tuna, Salmon, Eel. UMMM We just kind of looked at each other and laughed. “Where are the Italian appetizers?”. Well we decided to go with Goose.

It was a good choice. It was slices of meat (cooked) on a bed of greens (lettuce). Paul also was laughing at the tiny bread.

Ah, now I hope that what we ordered for dinner turns out this yummy. They brought out the entree one at a time. Mine was first. It looked really good. Soon Rieko’s came. She got a similar dish.

Then they brought out Ryosuke and Paul's.

It was kind of funny looking. Lots of shellfish legs and fish on wet noodles. Paul was a little disappointed, because there was not a lot of meat in his dish. But over all it was a great meal. We even ended with dessert. Tiramisu and a fried Apple dish. To our surprise they bought our dinner. It was very kind. What a blessing to have such very gracious friends.

During dinner conversation we talked a lot about the new places we had been. One place was Mr. Donut. Rieko told us that is right by her house. We also told her about Paul asking the young lady at the counter if he could buy the big milk glass and that we thought it was kind of odd that she told us “NO”. She agreed that didn’t sound right. So Paul told her what he said in Japanese . She replied “is that exactly what you said?” “Yes” he said. Then she proceeded to tell us what Paul REALLY said to the the young lady. In Japanese Paul said very calmly and polite “Excuse me, may I smash this glass?” We started laughing. Now it made since why she would say so abruptly “No” to the big American that asked if he could smash the glass!

Day 19 - Meeting in Mito & Ramen

2009-10-04T18:21:00.002+09:00

Saturday September 19th 2009

We left really early that morning and headed to Mito, Japan. It’s about 3 hours southeast of Haruna. We always enjoy the drives, because it lets us see a lot of the country. Our meeting started about 10:30. We were very excited when we found out it would be in English. So far there have been some times when it’s really hard to feel like we are worshiping or participating when a class or sermon is in all Japanese. So today we will soak it all up.

The class was on discipleship. It was so encouraging to hear Brother Rich Little’s words. We really felt that we needed to hear this right now. We met a lot of people that day.

We also met a few other new missionaries. It was nice to swap stories and get some good advice from them. I can’t tell you how encouraging it was to see people that have lived and dedicated their whole lives to mission work in Japan. Amazing. The meeting seemed to go by so fast. And soon we were ready to head back home. What a wonderful day so far.

On our way home Obata-san decided to treat us to Ramen. YEAH!! Paul has been waiting to have a big bowl of delicious Ramen. We waited this long, because we wanted to try GOOD ramen our first time so that we wouldn’t be disappointed. We stopped at a rest stop I have to say I was a little leery at eating ramen at a rest stop, but Obata-san assured us it was good. Actually this spot, Sano, is quite famous for its ramen. MMM… we are really excited. We had to go up to what looked like a vending machine. It had all the different types of food you could order. Obata-san placed his order then passed half of the ticket to the lady in front of the ramen kitchen. Soon they called our number. It was a mad house in there. There were yellow lines on the floor to let people know where to go.

Paul and Obata-san brought back 3 huge bowls of wonderful shoyu (soy sauce broth) ramen. It was really hot (temperature hot). We took a big bit of noodles. YUMMM. It was really good. Its the best ramen we’ve ever eaten. Ok its the only fresh ramen we’ve eaten. I don’t think I will count the store bought brick of ramen we had eaten in the US before. This was the real deal. So with our bellies full of delicious ramen we headed down the last stretch of road towards home.

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Day 18 - The Ping Pong Challenge

2009-10-04T15:23:00.002+09:00

Friday September 18th, 2009

The day of the big Ping Pong challenge is finally here. Well let me remind you about today. Paul is a very caring guy. He works really hard at trying to reach out to people to include them as much as possible. Well I think he has gotten himself in trouble. A week or so ago he started up a conversation with the young man at comes to church. They soon were talking about ping pong. Probably because Paul’s vocab is geared toward basic conversation like: Where were you born?, Where do you work?, What are you good at or like to do for fun? So they soon they were talking about ping pong. Don’t get me wrong Paul is fairly good. You know playing around with the boys at our house on a warped ping pong table I got from my dad. Any way Paul thought it would be a great idea if he challenged Minoru-san to a friendly game of ping pong. Come to find out, a few days later, Minoru-san is a very good ping pong player. He was the #1 junior high player in the entire city of Takasaki. That’s like all of Wichita. Ha Ha Ha! I was rolling when I found this out. Poor Paul just trying to make a friend with this high school student.

So today is the day. The game began at 2:00pm. Minoru-san has been out of practice for awhile, so Paul was hopeful. I think they played 12 games. Paul lost all of the games, some of them zero to 11. (in Japan they only play to 11 and switch servers every 2 points) About half way through Paul asked him if he was going easy on him. He politely replied, “yes”.

So then Paul wanted to see his full ability. The games got even faster. It was pretty amazing. Paul once had the score at 10-10 but then lost when Minoru made 2 amazing shots in a row. So close! Obata-san even took a turn against Minoru. I have to say Obata-san is really good. It was very entertaining watching the 74 year old playing the 16 year old.

Later the two young girls came by. We played with them for a little while they had fun taking a couple goofy pictures with some glasses they found. Then we had to clean the building, to get it ready for services on Sunday. We pray that we continue to grow our friendships with all the people of different ages here!

Day 17 - Outreach and Praying Mantis

2009-10-03T22:20:00.002+09:00

Thursday September 17th 2009

We started the day at home just working on our house and studies. Around 3:00pm we went to the church building. Obata-san had spoken with a few children and they wanted to meet us. And a lot of other children come by the church on their way home as well. This is part of our outreach to talk to the kids and Obata-san always leaves the building open for kids to come by and learn bible stories or play. While we were waiting we found a little visitor.

A nice praying mantis! We took a few picture because we didn't see them every day in the US. And here we’ve seen 2.

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This time we could see it in the daylight. Obata-san decided to pick it up. I’m guessing he knew what he was doing, because he already had leather work gloves on. As soon as he picked up the big green bug it started biting him over and over on the finger! Ewww. I’m glad I never tried to pick one up. Soon the kids started coming by and we put our little green friend down so he could play among the garden killing bugs.

We saw quite a few junior high and high school students. They usually look very surprised when we say “Konnichiwa” which means good afternoon. A few younger boys stopped they had some kind of project that had built and they showed it to us.

A l A little later a few young girls that come by and talk to Obata-san showed up. Nana-chan and Mirai-chan stayed to hang out with us. (Their names are Nana and Mirai, but when talking to a child or someone of lower status or a good friend you add “chan” to a girl’s name and “kun” to a boys.)They are about 10 years old. Very cute and funny. It was interesting to see how they acted together. Just like any American 10 year old girl and her best friend would. All giggles and falling on the floor when they started laughing too hard. They came in and we shared a few snacks we brought with us from the US and then they wanted to read a story. Some times they read stories to Obata-san. The church has a few bible stories on big poster board. So they read us one today. It was really funny. The sounds that they make are just a little different. For example a baby crying we will say “waaa waaa.” But in Japanese they have different sound effect words that conform to their language. The girls would say “Yeww, Yeww” for the baby. After the girls read the story they wanted to hear it in English. So Paul and I had fun reading it for the girls. Of course Paul put on his best puppet voices and made it funny for the girls.

Soon it was time for the girls to go home. And we need to clean the building. Because Saturday we would be driving to Mito for a meeting.

Day 16 - GPS

2009-10-03T22:05:00.002+09:00

First thing this morning the door bell rang. Paul was really excited today. He was expecting his first package from PC Bomber. Yay! We have a GPS now. Paul was so proud. He shopped around online (in Japanese) and found a great deal on a GPS. Go Go Online Translator! He ordered it and the website gave him the option of paying with a credit card or at the convenience store. What ,the convenience store you say? Yeah the 7-11’s here are quite useful. The website emailed us a receipt of the order and then Paul went to 7-11 and paid for it. After that it took only 1 day to get here! It’s great living on a island that makes all its own products and it’s the size of California. Shipping is so fast. Paul didn't waste any time trying to figure out this new gadget. The other catch was that 99% of the GPS’ come only in all Japanese. Well at least it will give us another motive to learn better Japanese. Paul actually ordered the same type as Obata-san, just the newer model. So Obata-san helped him to program and read through the menus. Well we have a loaded GPS. You know what that means. ADVENTURE! Yep. We are headed into Takasaki, because we know if we get lost we just punch the magic button and our newest little friend will lead us home. No more getting lost!

We wandered around Takasaki for a while, but the problem was we didn't have anything we needed to look for so we started to get hungry and we weren’t confident enough in our language to try a strange restaurant, so we found a Denny’s. The atmosphere was a lot like in the US, but the menus was not the same. I went safe and found a Club sandwich, Paul tried a pork sandwich. Mine was delicious , Paul’s was kind of weird, It was really spicy with some kind of hot mustard, and the pork was really fatty. I ended up giving him half of my sandwich. Paul’s smile in this pic was before he took a bite. He was so happy to try some American food, oops not American for him!

Day 14 – Preacher’s Meeting

2009-09-23T12:46:00.004+09:00

Monday Sept 14th 2009

Its our first preachers meeting! We went to Yokohama church of Christ. Once a month most all of the preachers around the Tokyo area get together to discuss different topics and help each other.

It was a great time to meet a lot of the other preachers and a few of their families.

We met up with Steve and Debbie Carrell. We were glad to be with them. They helped Stacey (me) so much especially by translating most of the meeting. Boy was that frustrating not knowing what they were talking about. Paul also met an old friend from OC, Ken Hysten, who helped him translate. Paul just found out Ken has been here for over 10 years doing mission work. What a small world!

They served us a few different snacks and tea twice during this 2 hour meeting. I tell you what, for being so small, Japanese people sure do eat a lot. After the meeting we all went down the street to a nice hotel that prepared a nice meal in one of their banquet rooms. Then we took a tour of their new church building and one of the ladies gave Debbie and I a hand made flower.

After the meeting we drove home. We went through Tokyo. It was really fascinating. So many different shaped buildings, so much English in all of the billboards and businesses. We enjoyed our ride back to Haruna. And Paul got to drive some more on the open road.

When we got home we decided to try the heart shaped meat that we found at the grocery store. MMMmmm good! Its just ground beef (we think). If its not, it sure tastes like it. (So don’t tell us what it is.) :)

Day 13 Worship and Paul's cell phone

2009-09-22T15:51:00.004+09:00

Sunday Sept 13th, 2009

We woke up to a great morning. I think Paul was a little relieved to just be able to focus on worshiping God this morning and not having to speak in Japanese. We got ready and walked down to the building. The message this morning was harder to keep up with. Obata-san doesn't speak very much English in his sermons, so we have to pay attention and catch every word we know. He preached on Deut 1:5-8. “The LORD our God said to us at Horeb, "You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them."

His central message was for us to realize that the Haruna church had been on the mountain long enough, like Moses, and needed to “turn and take the land.” This was a call for a new start at the church and with the addition of the Herrington’s, Brother Obata was asking the congregation to get behind him in a new outreach to the community. It was very moving.

Then after services we stayed around and had tea and a Chinese dumpling called Manjou. It was a bread filled with meat. It was really good. It tasted like sloppy Joes. Yumm. Then about 5:00 we met up with Rieko and Ryosuke to pick-up Paul's cell phone. It only took about 30min this time. Yeah, Paul has a phone now and it's not pink or flashy gold. He has a nice blue/black phone.

After that we decided to stop by an auto store and look at a GPS, we’re a little tired of getting lost. We've seen a few but they are really expensive. But they are huge here. The screens are at least 5" or larger. Well we got some good info and Paul decided to go home and search the web for a better deal.

When we got home we had another visitor. He was on our front door this time. I guess that’s what we get for leaving the front light on!

Day 12 Internet & Tacos

2009-09-18T22:05:00.004+09:00

Saturday Sept 12th, 2009

Oh we've been waiting for today. Today we get INTERNET! We can finally talk to our family. We really hadn't talked to any family for almost 2 weeks now. I have to say I'm getting sad, but not for long. We will be up and running today and then tonight when its Saturday morning in Wichita we get to call our parents and sibling and maybe have time to talk to a couple friends. Oh I can't tell you how excited we are. Ok so we counted down the time and finally the door bell rang. It was NTT. Yeah! Please start hooking up our internet onegaishimasu (it means PLEASE!!). They started asking us questions, and Obata-san wasn't there yet, so Paul told them to wait and our Japanese friend would be right over. Obata-san to the rescue. He came and they started working diligently. With in a couple hours they were finished. So I made them a cup of coffee and a plate of Russell Stover candies we brought with us to share. So after they left we tried our new internet…

It didn't work. :( Ok its a little different than we are used to. We opened the software and started the installation. It wouldn't even open. Oh man. Our computers are not compatible with Japanese software. Obata-san was still here helping us. So we went to his house and he let us borrow one of his laptops. Ok lets try again. Ok its running... and then it came to a prompt screen asking for our provider information. We didn't get a provider. We thought we didn't need one. So after a few hours of trying Obata-san went home, and we sat around staring at each other very disappointed. Paul tried to call the customer service number, but they couldn't understand each other. urrrrr. We are not going to get internet today are we? We decided to make some dinner. We used some of the taco stuff Memorial Road sent us. It was really good. Well at least we had a good Mexican meal today even if we don't get internet.

Soon Steve Carrell (American Missionary) called to check on us. Luckily our home phone works now. So we told Steve about our problem. He said he could call the customer service number and talk to them to see what we needed. After that conversation he called back and now Debbie, his wife, was talking to us while Steve was on the other line to NTT. So after about another hour of this 3 way call. Steve found an internet provider that we could pay for right then and they would give us the info we needed to get through the install CD. Ok lets try it. ... ... ... ... ...

It worked!!! We were so happy. I hooked up Skype so fast and called my Dad. It was the perfect time to call in the US. It was about 9:30pm here and about 7:30 am there. It was really good to hear his voice. After we called a few more people we went to bed very happy. Ahhh. At last we are connected. Now we could call anyone any time we wanted to. What a great feeling. We didn't realize how dependant on the internet we were. It was pretty late. I think we stayed up till 2:30am talking. Now we can go to bed.

Day 11 – Sept. 11 and Yamada Denki

2009-09-18T20:18:00.010+09:00

Friday Sept 11, 2009

Back Home in America this is a special day to remember. It was very strange here on this day. No one really gave this a lot significance. Well we still remembered. When we first got here Obata-san gave me a Veterans of Foreign Wars Calendar (for the US). So I've been watching how to display my flag. Today we would be flying at half mast.

We started the day off around the house and worked on the office and blogs. Closer to dinner time we decided to head towards Takasaki to find dinner and maybe Yamada Denki. We found a paper map in the car that was a big help! We stopped at Yoshinoya for dinner. They have a really good Gyudon. We went inside and ordered. They really only had Gyudon, with different sides. We got salad and miso soup. The salad was a little different than back home, but miso soup is about the same. Ooo, they gave us salad dressing on the side. The waiter gave us two different kinds to try. I shook up my first little packet, and took a closer look at the instructions as i squeezed it a little and... POP, right in my face and over my head goes the salad dressing. As I look a little closer I see the clear picture that shows the packet facing downward toward the salad. Oops. Well Paul had a good laugh. The waiter hurried over to give me a wet towel to clean my face and hair. I looked around and was surprised that no one was looking or laughing at the silly blonde haired girl that just opened salad dressing into her face. Needless to say we were just about finished with our meal. Paul paid the man and we went on our way. On our way out I saw the huge amount of dressing that splattered on the floor behind me. It must have flew over my head and onto the floor. I might have to change my hair color to eat there again. Ok on to Yamada Denki. We asked for some directions and with our trusty map we were on our way. With Paul's superior driving skills and my savvy map reading (all of it in kanji)...

we found Yamada Denki with no problem. And we even made it 2 hours before closing time. So we could actually go in and look around. It was attached to the Takasaki station. The shopping center was 5 stories tall. We parked in the parking garage, very cool, and ended up on the 5th floor where all the classy restaurants were. So we wandered around and looked at each floor. Paul signed up for a point card (it has digital paper to keep track of the points). His first point card! It seems like almost all businesses here in Japan have these point cards. It's kind of like punch cards back home. If you spend so much here you get 5% or 10% of your purchase as points on your card that can be used later at that store. 1 point = 1 yen. We looked around some more and Paul found the cell phones. They had all the carriers lined up to help you, and all the different phones on display with a working model to play with. Paul loved it. He even carried on a lengthy conversation with a young man that worked with AU (our cell phone provider here in Japan). We found a few things small things we needed, but we had to leave because they were closing soon, so we made our way to the parking gargae.

It was the cleanest parking garage I'd ever seen, and we found a few cool cars to look at. Paul paid our parking fee and we made our way back home. No problem.
On our way back home we decided to stop off at Mister Donut. We tried a few Japanese donuts. Pretty good, a little chewy, but really good. We got a big glass of milk to wash it down, but I couldn't drink it. I think it was more of their drinkable yogurt than milk, so I ate my donuts and Paul drank both glasses of milk. Paul really liked the big glasses there, so he went up the counter and asked the young lady working (in japanese) "Excuse me, May I buy this glass?" She very promptly said “No, No!” We were kind of taken a back by this, not the usual response, but we thought ,“well I guess you can't buy the glasses here.” Oh well Paul had an excuse to use his Japanese. We went home and were tired from all the adventures we had today.

Days 9-10: First Mail and First Business Meeting!

2009-09-15T20:57:00.012+09:00

Wednesday Sept 9th 2009

We spend all day at Obata-san's house using the internet to update our blog/finances and trying to connect with people back home. It was nice to be able to get a lot of things done, but it was still frustrating because although we had access to the internet, it was still only 2:00am in the U.S. so we couldn't talk to anyone from home. One step closer to getting things in order here. We went home pretty late that night and Paul was excited to find our first piece of mail in the mailbox. It was an info packet and a cable for our internet. It will be installed this Saturday. Oh how excited we were, especially since we just spent all day on Obata-san’s couch typing and replying to emails. Only 3 more days!!

Thursday Sept 10th 2009

It was another beautiful and clear day. We could see a lot of the mountains. We started the day working on a few projects at home. At 10:00am we had our first business meeting with the Obata's. We went over a few ideas Obata-san had and we gave him a few things we had been thinking about as well. It was a really good meeting. It was good to get some ideas in motion and talk about new opportunities for the church. We have a tentative plan for our work here! We hope to finalize it soon!

After that, we got a call that Paul's hanko was in. Obata-san wanted to go and pick it up and then go the the bank. Yeah! Japanese bank account here we come.

So into town we went. We decided to open an account at a major Japanese bank called Mizuho Bank. We went to Takasaki for the nearest branch. It took a little while. Obata-san helped us with all the forms and within an hour we had an account. Now we can pay our bills through an auto deduct or strangely enough, at the local 7-11 convenient stores. How exciting!

On our way home Obata-san wanted to introduce us to some of his friends｡ They owned a Japanese Pear orchard. They let us walk through the orchard and pick a Nashi (Japanese pear). I peeled it and we shared it under the trees.

It was funny about every 5-10 min. you would hear a big bang. It was a firework or something going off to scare off birds and animals. I guess they get a lot of fox type (Obata-san didn't know the English word for it) creatures that eat and destroy things. I assume the birds can be a menace as well. They said they even get wild boars that come to steal the fruit! The young man that helped run the orchard took a few picture of Paul and I. He was excited because we were the first Americans to visit the farm. So he posted a picture of us on his website http:/nashi.biz/page018.html.

After we got home that evening we decided to go on another adventure. This time towards the big city of Takasaki. Well we figured since we just drove through there we could find our way around. Off we went. We got off to a great start. We got to Takasaki just fine.

We found Mos Burger and we had always heard it was awesome. So we decided to stop for a Mos burger. It was really good.

We've also heard they are pretty healthy, I don't know. It's still a hamburger and fried potatoes. At least I think its hamburger. Then after dinner we decided to try to to drive a little further. Paul really wanted to find the Yamada Denki in Takasaki. Remember, It's an electronic store, imagine that. So we tried. Paul even went into a convenience store and asked, but it sounded really complicated, so we decided to head home instead. We will try another day.

When we got home we Steve Carrell (American missionary in Matsudo, Japan) called and wanted to know if we needed help with anything. We thought we were ok, but then I realized we hadn't done any laundry yet. I really needed to know how to use the washer and dryer. So over the phone we compared machines and with Steve and Debbie's help we figured out how to turn it on and wash some clothes. Yeah! My first load of laundry. We had to run the machine several times, because it had dirt in it from the move. But soon we had clean laundry. Now I can go to bed a happy girl.

Day 8 - Visit to the mountains

2009-09-15T17:00:00.017+09:00

Tuesday Sept 8th, 2009

Today we scheduled a day trip to the mountains, to visit brother Motoyuki Nomura. Brother Nomura and his wife were missionaries to the Korean slums for many years and he has been preaching for many years here in Japan too.

We traveled about 4-5 hrs by car, Obata-san and Paul alternating driving. It was a beautiful day. Sun shining and fresh air.

All the way to Bethany home church of Christ we could see the mountains. We love to look at the awesome display of God's creation. We stopped several times just to stop and look at the scenery.

We stopped for lunch at Sukiya. They had really great Gyudon. Gyudon is a rice filled bowl topped with sautéed onions and beef, its great!

We were very excited to meet Nomura-san and his wife, because they gave us many dishes as gifts to start our new home here! So we were anxious to thank then with special gifts. While corresponding with the Nomura's through email. One of the first emails Paul responded to was to thank the Nomuras for the gifts they sent for our house. In the email Paul put a note carbon copying Obata-san and asking Obata-san to translate into Japanese if necessary. Mr. Nomura graciously responded with an email. He told us that when he was young he took night classes at the local YMCA to learn English, but since the classes were during the night he could only understand English at night time, so he was glad to have received our email during the night so that Obata-san would not have to translate. Also he always referred to himself as an "old geezer bumpkin" After we read this we knew we had to meet this funny man. As we pulled up to their home they were waiting for us. It's so good to put a face with a name. They showed us around their home and the church (which is inside their home). They talked with us for a while, telling us how hard the work is in this area, and a bit about American Missionary history in Japan.

Moto (as he likes us to call him) says "the people in this local community are stubborn Buddhist, and will not listen to the Gospel." I think he has an especially tough area. It's an older community and they are so set apart from any big cities I think they are little more "set in their ways". Brother Nomura and Sister Nomura need lots of prayers to bring people seeking God to this church. After we took some pictures and had coffee and a delicious apple pastry, we decided to head home. It took us about 4 hrs to get there. Again the drive home was beautiful. We went a different way home. Nomura-san showed Obata-san a secret way. It took an hour off of our time home! So with a little extra time we stopped at an electronics store. Yamada Denki! (or in English Yamada Electric) Its kind of like a big Best buy, but this one also sold a few food items and house wares. Pretty cool. We thought electronics would be a little cheaper here, but not so. We did find some ink cartridges for a printer/fax/scanner someone gave us. And we found Heinz ketchup. Yeah! The ketchup here is not the same. I think we use more sugar in ketchup in the US. Big surprise, I think we use more sugar than any other country, but I have only visited 3 countries so far, so I might be wrong.

Videos of our first Sunday Worship with the Haruna Church

2009-09-15T01:19:00.000+09:00

Well I thought you all might like to see a little of the worship service here in Haruna so we recorded the service and here are a few parts.

This first video is of Brother Obata leading the old hymn favorite of “I surrender all” (in Japanese of course)

The next one is the whole of my first Japanese sermon. It was rough up there but exciting as well to finally be in Japan speaking to the church there. I had to read most of my sermon/introduction because I wanted to say exactly how I felt and not be limited to my limited use of the language. I talk for about 5 min. introducing us and then I moved into the lesson about 1 Corinthians 12, which Obata-san was very kind to read for me. Then I wrapped up with the application and a thank you. At the end they clapped for me which I guess they only do for a special speech like this introduction one for me. In Japan no one talks to you at all after the service about what you said or gives you any encouragement. I have yet to understand if this is cultural or just the local custom. At first I thought I had not spoken clearly or was not understood because no one said a word to me after the service. I later asked Obata-san about this and he said they don’t talk to you about your message here. They just kind of soak it in. He said when he preached a few times in the states so many people came up to talk to him and encourage him. He was so encouraged he told me. I told him that when I could understand better what his sermons were about I would encourage him myself. This video is a little long, about 10 and a half min.

The last video is the Lord’s supper. I just wanted to show that all over the world people are worshipping God in a very similar way!

Well I hope you enjoyed those!

-Paul

Day 7 - Our day off and work on the house

2009-09-10T17:13:00.008+09:00

Monday Sept, 7th 2009

What a beautiful morning. It’s our first official day off and we started with our usual walk, we saw a couple of large double blade helicopters headed towards the mountains. Not sure where they were going. Again we went a little too far and got a little lost, so we had to back track until we recognized a path to get home. Oh well, more exercise for today. On our walk we passed a couple of cow farms and many rice fields. The farms and fields here are so much smaller than in America. It probably plays a big part of why the food is so expensive.

Today I made an excellent lunch today. It was excellent because I used all of my kitchen appliances to make lunch. I used the toaster for chicken nuggets, the convection oven for potato wedges (I still can’t read the buttons on the machines; I just punch buttons till it looks right. I turned it on and it started flashing, not sparking, but it flashes until it gets to the right temperature. At least that’s what I told myself. And I used the stove to reheat Mac and Cheese (I fried it in a pan). Well I was proud of myself for not blowing up the convection oven. Paul was taking a nap and I didn’t want to wake him yet. It was scary to use. I really don’t even know where the stop button was. But I told myself if it started acting funny I would just unplug it. After lunch we were really hot in our house, and we ventured to open the windows. Well today its clean air. Thank you Lord!

We worked all day on organizing the house, unpacking the last of our boxes and putting together the few things we bought at Cainz Home store the other day. It was a very productive day. We had a small friend that decided to hang out with us all day by the window. So far we havn't see very many unsual bugs. Although there are some places where the spiders get together to build these giant webs. If we can get a good pic, we'll post it soon. Paul once saw a huge dragonfly in the restroom at a rest stop on the highway, he said he was as big as a sparrow, but he wasn't fast enough for a picture. We were very thankful to be able to enjoy a beautiful day at home.

We made our usual trip into town to get a few things. One thing we wanted was more cereal. The cereal boxes here are so small. Overall a very relaxing day. At times the differences here can be overwhelming, but we are thankful that we don't have to rely on ourselves for peace, but the creator of universe takes care of us. Keep praying for us please!

Day 6 - First Sunday Worship

2009-09-09T17:13:00.008+09:00

Sunday Sept, 6th 2009

We got up around 6:30am. So we had plenty of time to get ready for church. Services don’t start until 10:30am. We made some coffee and Paul loves to show off how small everything is in Japan. Here is a normal sized coffee cup.

After a nice breakfast we were off to a morning walk. Nice and cool. We got ready for our first big introduction to the church members. Paul was really nervous about talking to the congregation in Japanese, but I knew he would do fine. He practiced his talk a few more times and then we walked to the building. I thought it would be ok to walk in my heels to the church, but I was walking so slow, and I really thought I was going to twist an ankle. It was a different walk to the church with these shoes. Next week I’ll use other shoes to walk then change.

This morning we had 15 people. WOW! Praise the Lord! Most Sundays they average about 5-10. Most weren’t Christians, so this will be a great start for us. Obata-san started off and introduced us and sang a couple of songs. It was beautiful! We sang in Japanese this morning, but they have English hymn books as well. At first I started off singing in English, but it was fairly easy to sing along in Japanese also. What an amazing experience. I had to try very hard to keep the tears back. Seeing Obata-san singing his heart out for this congregation inspired me even more to want to be the very best help we can be. He works so hard. I pray that we can show the people in Haruna Christ Jesus our Lord! Here's a picture of all the people there that day!

Then Paul got up to speak. I know he wouldn’t say so, but he did a great job. He spoke on 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, about how we are one body with many parts and that all the parts were needed. He also emphasized that we were there to work alongside the body and not to take over the work there. The Lord was helping his words to flow and touch the people hearts. It is truly a gift to us to be here.

After the service the congregation had prepared for us a very nice meal. They made little sandwiches, fruit, small meat patties, sushi rice, and potato salad. Everything was delicious.

After lunch Rieko and Ryosuke (2 people from the church) took us cell phone shopping. We went to AU one of two carriers in Japan. We spent about 2 hours there talking to them and explaining to them our situation about not having our Alien Registration cards yet. In the end we were approved! After about another hour we picked our phones and we thought we were good to go, but they came back and told us they didn't have the phone Paul picked out and mine only came in crazy pink. So I was ok with pink. not my first choice, but not problem. Then we had to figure out what Paul wanted. It was hilarious. He could either choose a hot pink phone like mine or a shiny gold phone(not the model he wanted). It was like a golden chrome color like C3Po's body from Star Wars. It was way too flashy, especially for a missionary! Or his other choice would be to buy the next model up which would be about $300.oo. The young lady helping us was very nice and she thought for awhile and decided to call one of the cell phone companies to see if they had another color they could send. YEAH. They had a blue/black phone they would send for Paul. He was very excited about this. He really didn't want to have to carry a pink or even a flashy gold phone. In the end he was a happy boy. Thanks to Rieko and Ryosuke we were able to get a phone! We hope to continue our friendship with them and they were very kind to spend so much time translating. Apart from Obata-san, Rieko is the only member of the congregation who speaks English. She teaches at a local high-school for all girls.

So we headed back to the church. Services would start back at 7:00pm. Evening services started and we sang songs to begin. Half way through singing Obata-san invited Paul to lead us in singing an English version of Amazing Grace. You have to be flexible to be a missionary! So he lead it and did a great job for his first time in Japan! In the middle of the song two women showed up and joined us in singing. Obata-san gave a short sermon and then we closed the services with a prayer. We went and met the two nice ladies that joined us. One of them, Kieko, had known Rieko for over 10 years. The other one, Junko, said her favorite song was Amazing Grace and she was very moved that we were actually singing it. Neither one are Christians yet but we are praying! After talking for a while over tea we parted ways and they said they would like to come back to sing with us again.

It was a beautiful service and we were so happy to be a part of it. To see God's people praising the same God in another part of the world is amazing.

Day 5 - Meeting the Neighbors

2009-09-09T17:11:00.005+09:00

Saturday Sept, 5th 2009

Today we slept in a little later than we had been. But we still took our morning walk. We walked for about an hour today and ended with a little running. We took a couple of new paths, and we didn’t get lost! The neighborhood is starting to be a little more familiar. Most of the area is small rice fields, houses, and a few dairy farms are scattered about. We on the side of hill of sorts and all the houses and road are packed together. After our run and lunch Paul worked on his talk for tomorrow. Tomorrow he will give his first address to our new congregation! Obata-san has requested that it be an introduction of ourselves and also a short message from the Bible. The hardest part is Obata-san has requested that it all be in Japanese! So much for easing into the language! No, just kidding, Brother Obata has committed to help Paul translate it after he writes it in English.

After Paul finished we wrapped all of the Kansas souvenirs we brought as gifts and went to the Obatas’ house.

While we were there we met Mrs. Hosoya and she gave us a few of the vegetables that she grows, along with a bunch of big purple grapes. Then a Mrs. Obata (some relation by marriage to our supervisors' family) came by with some Japanese Pears, (Nashi in Japanese) delicious! Her family is one of the biggest fireworks manufacturers and they do firework shows also. We sat around and listened to them speak Japanese (not understanding very much yet).
Paul then worked with Obata-san to finish his greeting and devotional for the congregation tomorrow. They got it all translated and ready to go. And Paul had to sit there and sound out the whole speech in Japanese in front of Obata-san so that he could check Paul's pronunciation.

This is what Paul said about the experience, "That was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. To have to sit there and sound out those words like a kindergartner in front on my new boss was so rough. I had never read it before, and I felt foolish most of the time thinking that Obata-san must be terribly disappointed with my reading skills. But, he was very supportive and stuck with me through 5 pages of this translation. God humbled me greatly today, and if this is the biggest price I have to pay to minister to these people then I will be very fortunate indeed. So much for foolish pride. "

I worked on the internet as much as I could, between the guests that arrived. After Paul and Obata-san were finished, Shimakata-san came by. He is a really interesting man. He is a post-man, a Buddhist, and has provided the Haruna church of Christ with fresh flowers from his personal garden,

every Sunday for the past 5 years. Now that’s a good neighbor. Paul asked him in Japanese to “please come to church with us.” He just chuckled at us. We will be praying for this relationship to develop and maybe he will give us an answer next time we ask. He is very generous to the Obatas and brings them fresh vegetables as well very often.

Later that evening we went on our first door-knocking to all of our neighbors in Comfort Town (the name of our little housing division). We had a small gift to give each house, a small package of Kansas postcards, 6 houses total. A few people weren’t home so we left it in their mail box. It was interesting to see their reactions. Most of the adults aren’t too interested in looking at us, but the kids can’t stop looking at us. Paul is so tall and my blonde hair must be very different for them. It’s funny to see the kids reactions. One young girl named Mima, who was in kindergarten was very cute and was with her mom. They are our next door neighbors and we hope to develop our relationship as our language skills get better.

That was the end of a long fruitful day and tomorrow we meet the congregation!

Day 4 - Haruna Driving and Fun

2009-09-09T12:05:00.003+09:00

Friday Sept, 4th 2009

Today was a little rainy again. But that just means it will be cooler in the afternoon. Buta-san (the pig smell) is very strong today. :( We started the morning off with a nice walk around our neighborhood and through town. We are slowly learning more of the streets. It’s difficult here, because they don’t use street names on small roads, only on the few main roads. After our walk we went to Obata- san’s house. We talked with Steve & Debbie Carrell (American missionaries from Indiana here in Japan in the Matsudo area) on Skype for awhile. They gave us more advice on a few things we needed. Later we went to town to see about another option for getting our Alien Registration card sooner than next month.

Obata-san let Paul drive today! Paul was very excited about this. I was just waiting to see who freaked out first between the three of us. Paul did fine, no mistakes. Although he was very careful. We went back to the city office and they were able to give us a form that would allow us to give our alien registration number to receive a cell phone and internet. YEAH!!!! We will be connected to the world soon. It’s been very difficult not talking to family and friends back home. We’ve had very limited internet access, and when we do get connected it’s late at night in the U.S. I was getting very hungry. So for a fast late lunch we went to …McDonald's. Yay! Well at least we waited 4whole days before we caved in!It was really good. Not too different than home. The mayonnaise has a little soy sauce flavor to it, but not too bad. And the French Fries tasted exactly the same. We better stay away from McDonald’s or we won’t be losing any weight.

So after we filled our bellies with greasy food we went to NTT (the best fiber optic service) to see if our new forms will let us sign up for service. With the help of Obata-san we managed to get all the paperwork filled out and internet is on its way.

Only one more week to wait, we can handle that. We were so tired after trying to follow the conversation, we had to go home and rest for awhile. So after a little rest we decide to go on an adventure by ourselves at night with the van. Remember we don’t have cell phones yet…

Well we really wanted to go to the grocery store by ourselves. It was kind of hard with so many people the first time, so off we went. Also it gets dark here around 6:00pm. We started out pretty good. Then we start looking around and everything looks familiar to one of us but not both of us. So we keep telling each other ”that looks right”, “no turn here”. Well after about an hour we decided where we were didn’t look familiar to either of us. So we kept driving tell we found highway 29 that’s all we could agree on. 29 is the main road through Haruna. We were headed to Central Takasaki. OOPS! Well it must have been a little before 8:00pm when we found Beisia (ryhmes with Asia) the grocery store. Whew. We were triumphant! We shopped a little and bought some excellent bread. So, homeward bound. Uhh, which way did we come? It’s really funny, because in the U.S. Paul could never remember how to get home from a new place. I always remembered. In Japan we are totally opposite. I’m the one always backwards and going the wrong way and now that we are on the other side of the planet Paul’s sense of direction is always correct. I think it’s God’s way of showing us how we work together no matter where we are. Well we finally made it home and in bed around 10:00pm which is late for us here. Oyasumi nasai! (Good Night!)

Day 3 - Another full day in Japan

2009-09-06T18:48:00.001+09:00

Thursday Sept 3rd, 2009

Well we made it through the night in our house alone. We woke up this morning about 5:00am and got out of bed around 6:00am. We had breakfast. Kellogg's Special K. Look at how small the box is. (Sorry Alex! Cereal selection here is very limited.) This is a normal size to buy. No extra large family size here.

So far this is an absolutely wonderful house, except for the pig farm across the road. The smell is very bad some days, and we never know when we open the door what air we will experience. We decided to name the smell Buta-san, which means Mr. Pig. That way we let each other know if we smell the farm and we can hold our breath when we are out side. Every other farm smells better than a pig farm. At least that's what we think right now. :)

We are still trying to adapt to the time change. At first we thought it would be ok since we are sleeping on Japan time, but we are feeling the weight of change. We got up today and went on a walk around our neighborhood. It was a little rainy, but beautiful. so many little roads, we were afraid to get lost. we made it to the main street and back. On our walk home we met one of the neighbors, Shimakata-san. He was very nice and very patient to try and talk to us in Japannese. I thought Paul did very well talking to him. Shimakata-san is a great neighbor to Obata-san.

Today we went to town to see about getting our alien registration cards. (Don't want to be an illegal alien!)We filled out all the forms and found out that it would take 1 month to get. EEEEK! That means we have to wait 1 month to get a cell phone, Internet, or a bank account. Oh well we will have to wait. We also ordered our Hanko, a circular Japanese stamp like a signature. Everyone has one here for legal documents and we will need one so that we can sign important documents and get a Japanese Bank account.

Then we stopped by one of Obata-san's friend's businesses. Mr. Hirokami and his company built the building for Haruna church of Christ. He also gave Obata-san a very large discount to build it. We sat and talked (well Obata-san talked, we listened) with him next door at his wife's coffee shop. The coffee was excellent. We have met so many nice people and the friendships that are made between neighbors is amazing.

We also had sushi for lunch today from Beisia, the supermarket in town.

This evening we went to the home store in Maebashi and purchased a lot of things we wanted for our house. We needs things for storage and a few more cooking supplies. On our way home Rumiko-san wanted to stop at the $1.oo store. In Japan, it is called the Hyaku En (100 Yen) store. Yay! Lots of good thing to buy there. We bought a few good things and some paper to wrap our gifts that we brought from Kansas. There are lots of good people to thank for their generosity.

It was another long ay. and we went to bed early.