Journeys

Friday we had our first meeting for the Christian Club. Even though Stephanie and I were the only ones there, it was an encouraging time. After the meeting we started talking about finding an apartment for next semester. Someone from her church knows of several real estate agencies that cater to foreigners. Though I’m going to miss my family, I found out that even if I didn’t get an apartment I can’t stay with them next semester because of school policy. And finding an apartment would mean less money and a shorter commute to the school. Yesterday (Monday) we went to one of the agencies somewhat near the school. (Of course we got lost on the way and asked for directions two times. We wondered through Roppongi which is where all the foreigners are since there are a lot of bars in the area. While we were walking a man stopped us and asked if we’d like to go drink with him. Uh, no thanks.) It turns out that particular agency didn’t help students, only business men, but the woman gave us an extensive list of agencies that were cheaper. We picked the ones that looked the most promising and Stephanie called them today. Tomorrow we’re going to meet and discuss the next step.

Last week I received an e-mail from Nicole, my admissions counselor. She wrote that TUJ has been in contact with CSM (the community college I transferred from) and that CSM wants to write an article about me and the school. I guess I’m supposed to get an e-mail from CSM with the questions they have for me. It’s quite exciting, but also nerve racking.

Sunday my family went on a day trip to a smaller, more traditional Japanese city about 4 hours car ride from here. Since it was the bilingual service and my friend Tad was preaching I decided to go to church instead. Ayumi had explained to me that the front door to the house (and the key) came from England so the reason they haven’t given me a key is because if I lost it, I wouldn’t be able to replace it. They would have to get a whole new door and they don’t want me to have to be responsible for that. But after talking with her husband, they decided I was responsible enough to use the key. I was very honored (and relieved) by their decision. If they hadn’t given me the key I would have had to figure out what to do for about 5 hours before they got home.

The service went well and even though Tad was nervous he did a good job. After the service was over, Candice and I went to a meeting for the new building. The current building we meet in is very old and if an earthquake were to hit, the building would collapse. Obviously they want a safer place and they’ve had a lot of newcomers so they need a bigger building as well. The meeting was to get the whole church up-to-date on the planning of the new church. There’s a lot of politics that I don’t understand involved in the process. One man didn’t agree with the plans and his opinions made a lot of people angry (me included). There ended up being a lot of tension and conflicting views about the plans (though nothing has been signed yet, so there are no permanent plans yet) and when Candice and I left, they were still arguing. It was discouraging but I’m praying that everything gets resolved.

It’s finally started to cool down, the air is cooler and the rain plentiful (it’s been raining for the last 2 hours in fact). I’m still a little sweaty when I get to school but nothing like the beginning of the semester. Apparently the Japanese are really afraid of the cold so when it cools down more they turn the heat way up (and as my friend said, I can sweat in my jacket, yay). But for now I’m enjoying the "normal" temperature.

School has become crazier which you can probably guess since I’m updating less frequently. This Friday is supposed to be our second Photography critique. But yesterday I was talking with a classmate and we thought it was a little crazy to have another one so soon. We haven’t had any classes between now and our last critique (our teacher was in Singapore) and we have no idea what our grades are yet. So tomorrow we’re going to talk with him and hopefully he’ll see reason. The other classes are going well though I’m stressed about a paper due next week for Gender (our teacher said she grades "mercilessly" gulp).

I also found out that I will be participating in the high school English camp at the end of October (mentioned in update 2.1). I’m excited about that opportunity. Ayumi and the girls were in a dance in a summer festival and on Thursday we’re going to a dinner for all that participated in the dance. Ayumi wasn’t sure if I would want to go since I might not sit near anyone who speaks English besides her. It’s a two hour dinner at a traditional sushi bar and should be a good experience even if I won’t be able to talk to anyone.

I took two more videos of Mai singing Jingle Bells in Japanese.  The first one is a little faint but the second one she picks up the volume.

Jingle Bells pt 1 (:30)

Jingle Bells pt 2 (:33) 

Friday I had lunch with Yumi and Junko, two amazing Christian women who work here at Temple.  We ended up going to lunch at a sandwich shop "David’s Deli", a nice, Jewish place that the school had ordered from for the week of orientation.  Since the school ordered about 200 sandwiches they were given a bunch of cards for free cake and coffee.  Yumi brought two and Junko forgot to bring hers.  Our waitress was very nice though and let us all have free cake (she even remembered who Yumi was).  During the meal we talked about how God had been working in our lives to bring us to where we are now, all the crazy, random things that have happened.  Junko talked about how my file and name kept coming to her.  She took it as a sign that she was supposed to look out for me.  And we talked about how I met Steph to which Junko said, "We’re supposed to meet each other, but if we don’t God pushes us together."  So true.  It was one of the best lunches I’ve had and I hope that next time Steph will be able to join us.

Friday night was fun too.  After school Steph and I went to the Japanese 7-Eleven (known as "7 & i Holdings", you can do anything there, buy a meal, have them heat it for you, pay your bills…) and picked up junk food.  After riding the bus for about 45 minutes we arrived at her "dorm" (an apartment building owned by the school).  It was a really nice place, with a little kitchen, a toilet room (all houses here have a separate room for the toilet), a shower and a small bedroom.  The bedroom is actually the size of my room here but with less floor space since they can’t roll up their bunk bed and put it in the closet every morning.

Steph made spaghetti (it was really good) and we ate and talked.  She showed me the lounge, just another apartment with a couch, two computers, a t.v. and a laundry room instead of a shower.  We ended up watching "She’s the Man" and "The Last Samurai".  I hadn’t seen either of them and enjoyed them both.  During part of "She’s the Man" a guy named Bobby came in to use the computer.  After both movies were over we talked with he and a guy who happens to be in my Photography class, Nick.  The three of them were going to a sumo tournament with the school the next day and the guys went to bed semi-early.  Steph and I ended up staying up until 3 am talking about random things.  It was nice to get a taste of dorm life.  While I enjoyed it, I don’t think I could handle getting that little sleep every night.  Steph had told me that everyone stays up until about 3 am and they have parties all the time.  It makes me appreciate doing a homestay even more.

Sunday a group of us went to a karaoke club after church.  It was different than I had expected.  Since I had only done karaoke about two times in the States, I had expected it to be in a big room with lots of people with a few people singing.  We got to the club, reserved a room for two hours, got our basket with two mics and a remote and got on the elevator for the ninth floor.  The room was narrow with booths on almost all of the walls.  There was a table in the middle, a t.v. by the door and the walls were painted with dolphins and an underwater fantasy scene that could only be seen when the black lights shone.  Candice handed me a giant book with foreign songs (they had Chinese and Taiwanese as well) and when I picked the ones I wanted, I used the remote to input them.  It was a bit overwhelming and when the singing started it got really loud.  Everyone who knew a song would sing out, no one was shy about it at all.  It was amazing to see these "quiet" people singing their hearts out, I was seeing a totally different side of them.  It was fun to hang out with people from church outside of church and see a bit of the karaoke culture.

Monday was a holiday, Respect for the Aged.  I had to go to a museum for Art History and almost didn’t make it on time.  After leaving the museum I walked around the area, got some very expensive (but tasty) ice cream and was overwhelmed with all the directions I could have gone on my walk.  I needed to get paper for my Drawing class so I took the subway to the area the store is in.  I ended up walking around for about an hour, asking directions from three different people before finally finding it (but I almost walked right past it since the sign didn’t have any English).  So twice in one day I saw more of Japan than I had planned on, one on purpose and one totally by accident.  But I’ve come to expect getting lost going anywhere new.

Today (Wednesday) Steph and I sat at a table during tea time (12:30-1:30 when no classes are scheduled and the cafeteria is always packed).  All the people who were starting clubs set up a table and a sign up sheet for all those interested in joining.  We had two demonstrations, one by a girl with her baton and another of three people street dancing.  Both were quite impressive and if I had more time I might join them.  Steph is the president of the Christian club and I am the treasurer (though neither of us are really sure what my real job is).  We had one person sign up and some people looked like they were going to laugh when they saw our flyer.  I was a little discouraged but Steph was very optimistic.  I’m really praying that this club does well, even if we only have a few people.

In Drawing we had our first live model.  When models come in our class schedule is a lot more strict.  Every twenty minutes we have a five minute break and if we come back late, we’ll be locked out.  Today the model did eight 15 second poses at the beginning.  It was really tough trying to get the outline in just 15 seconds.  After the first eight we had 5 one minutes poses.  Then two 10 minute, one 15 minute and one 20 minute.  It was very challenging and I was never really satisfied with the end result though I couldn’t wait for the timer to go off every time.

Ayumi has been teaching me a little Japanese every night after dinner.  She’s been teaching me phrases about things I do every day like, "I’ll go to school" or "I’ll take a shower".  And I’ve been helping her with her English.  At the end of October the community center close by (where we went for the "chatting session") is offering a free Japanese class which I’m obviously going to join.  I hope to be able to have a simple conversation with Ayumi sometime in the near future.

I’ve uploaded the videos of Yui and Mai, sorry they are so yellow.

Ittsy Bittsy Spider (:21)

Head and Shoulders (:33)

Twinkle, Twinkle (:37) 

It’s been a week since my last update but I can’t decide if it feels longer or shorter than that.

The first place we stopped at was the "Raumen Museum" (yes, that’s how they spelled it).  It sounds really weird and while it was, it was also very cool.  I can’t give the place justice by describing it so you’ll just have to check out the pictures (here and here and here).  Stephanie and I ate at the small bakery there and when we finally got our noodles (after waiting for a half hour) we were told the group was ready to leave so please hurry.  The noodles were good though.

After the museum we hopped on another train and breezed through a really nice five-story mall.  We were supposed to shop there but since everything prior to that had taken so long we didn’t have enough time.  Before we got to the dock for our ferry, I heard a song drifting towards me.  As I got closer to the dock the singing grew louder.  Eventually I could see it was a big group of people standing in a circle in a very echo-y area.  From the voices I thought they were an English group so I was surprised to find them to be Japanese.  They sounded so heavenly and when they started a new song I could hear enough to decide they were probably Christian.  I didn’t want to leave that spot, the power and beauty of their voices sent chills down my spine.

I’m not really sure why we took a ferry to our next destination since we could have easily walked.  Fortunately the ferry wasn’t expensive and it was nice to sit down and cool off.  We ended up in a nice grassy park right next to the water and across the street from a lot of skyscrapers.  It was a beautiful and relaxing place and everyone wished we could have stayed longer.  Our final destination was Japan’s largest Chinatown.  Stephanie and I walked down the street trying to find a decent place to eat.  It was hard because everything served the same things for the same outrageous prices.  We finally found something reasonable and enjoyed a quiet dinner and being able to rest our weary feet.  All-in-all it was a fun day though as I said Stephanie and I plan on going back sometime when we can go at our own pace.

I talked with Yumi, a staff of Temple and a Christian.  She invited me to lunch with her and Junko (the other Christian staff) sometime this week.  So on Friday we’re going out.  I’m really looking forward to that.  Also I ran into Stephanie and she told me she received a package of movies from her mom.  We had talked about watching them together whenever she got them, so this Friday night I’m going over to her apartment and we’re going to watch movies, eat junk food and not sleep.  I’m looking forward to that too.

This past Saturday my family and I went to a swimming pool in the mountains.  The surrounding area was gorgeous with mountains in the distance and the three hour drive was filled with swift rivers, green trees and small towns nestled amongst the greenery.  When we arrived it was a bit overcast but throughout the day the sun kept making appearances.  Ayumi and I spent some time in the water with the girls, they especially enjoyed the wave pool, a simulation of the beach except there wasn’t any sand and the waves were always the same size.  It was a very pleasant day.

I went back to church on Sunday, this time without getting lost.  Last week I attended the Japanese service (or what was left of it since I was over an hour late) but this week I was able to make it for the English service.  Both the Japanese and English services start at the same time but at the end, during communion and the offering time, the English service joins the Japanese service.  I found out that once a month everyone comes together and the preacher of the day speaks in both English and Japanese.

After the service was over, Candice invited me to go to a karaoke club in two weeks with her and a group of people.  I said sure since I haven’t really done anything like that since I’ve been here.  Tad, the guy I met last week from ACU, invited me to lunch with a couple new to the church.  We went to a nice Italian restaurant and I found out the couple is from  Nashville, Tennessee and he works with Nissan.  They were very sweet and told me if I ever needed anything to contact them.

After I got home Ayumi told me she wanted to show me around the area more.  We were going to do that last week but it started sprinkling after we left.  It was my first long bicycle ride here and I was a bit nervous since there are so many people and other bikers around.  We went to another subway station and she showed me some shops and what they sold.  On our way back, Masayuki needed to stop at a store so Ayumi and I went onto the house.  A few minutes before we got back she realized she didn’t have the house key.  It ended up alright though because we went to another store (where we got fireworks, basically sparklers) instead of waiting around the house.

Ayumi had told me that after dinner she wanted us to put on Yukatas (summer Kimonos).  She dressed Yui and Mai first since their Yukatas are much simpler.  The way to put on a Yukata is very precise, there is much thought that goes into the preparation.  When we were done, all of us went outside and lit the sparklers.  We had a lot of fun (and smoke).

I am now taking Gender and History instead of Japanese.  It’s a very interesting class about the roles and positions women played and had throughout history.  So far I’ve been to two classes and I’ve really enjoyed it.  What’s really nice is that I got to keep my Mon/Wed/Fri schedule but the downside is the History class is MWF at 9 which means I have to get up at 6.  I’m gone from 7am-7pm every school day.

I received an e-mail the other day about an event at a Japanese high school at the end of October.  It’s a three day event where Japanese high-schoolers and English speaking people come together so that the high-schoolers can improve their English and get a taste of other cultures.  Not only is it a good opportunity to get to see the culture of Japanese high-schools but if I participate I will receive 20,000 Yen, about $170.  I’m hoping that I will be able to participate even though the last day of the event falls on a Monday.

I can’t believe I’ve been here only two weeks, it feels like I’ve been here for months (except I still can’t understand what people are saying, though I’m hoping that will change soon).  I’ve learned so much from Ayumi and her family and I’m looking forward to learning much more.