Saturday, June 4, 2011

Something more important than words

Oh hey, look, it's June.  Which means maybe I should finish writing about May.  >_>  I'll just hit the high points then, and maybe I can catch up!  Hooray!

CROSSROAD


Our first CrossRoad in May was on Mother's Day, so of course, that was our theme!  The Kajitas came and spoke about their life experience.  Mrs. Kajita went through a really tough period in her life, and this was her first time to talk publicly about it, so I think was just beneficial for her to talk about it as for everyone who attended to hear her message of hope.

The second CrossRoad was about Israel!  Carol visited Israel back in March, and had lots of amazing pictures and stories to share.  A lot of people were interested in learning about Israel, so we had a pretty high attendance that day.  We also sang some Israel-ish songs (Jehovah Jireh anyone?), and Carol even made some Israeli food.

MOVIE NIGHT


We only had one movie night in May, because of the Golden Week holiday.  On May 20, we watched Batman Begins.  I forgot how much I love that movie.  SO MUCH.  <3  It was interesting to talk about the different themes in that movie, and to hear what Japanese people know (or don't know) about Batman.

Last night was our first movie night for June, and we watched Sister Act.  A lot of our regular attendees couldn't make it, but we had four new people!  Two are members of the gospel choir Becky and I attend; one is the sister of Haruna, our friend who lives in the women's dorms on the third floor of the Center; and one is a girl Carol, Becky and I met while eating dinner at the little Moroccan restaurant that opened near us.  We had a decent-sized group, all things considered.  And wow, it's been a LONG time since I watched Sister Act.  It was a lot of fun to watch it with everyone and chat about it afterwards!

GOSPEL CHOIR


Our gospel choir meets twice a month.  If you had asked me in the States if I had any interest in singing gospel, I would've said no.  But singing in this group, where everyone is so enthusiastic, is great!  The director asked me to, just for practice, sing the solo for Oh Happy Day during our last rehearsal.  So I did.  Those of you who know me and have heard me sing are probably having a hard time imagining it, but I think it went okay!  And the longer I'm there, the more I get to know the other members.  (This process is taking me longer than it normally would, since my Japanese is still limited...)  One of the girls is a fan of Arashi, the jpop guys group that I also like, so that's really fun!  Everyone there is really sweet, so I really enjoy going.

MONTHLY EVENT


The monthly event for May was a seminar about keikyo.  Keikyo is the name of the version of Christianity that first came to Japan via the Silk Road.  Many people have never heard of keikyo, thinking that Christianity came to Japan much later via a missionary named Francis Xavier.  Yuzawa-sensei, a pastor from Kyoto, has studied this subject a great deal, so he came to share his knowledge of the history of Christianity in Japan with the 30 or so people who attended.  Afterwards, almost everyone went to a nearby Catholic church to see some relics of Japanese Christians, especially from the period when Christians were persecuted.  It was a great event, and everyone seemed to really learn a lot!

CLASSES


Teaching has been going pretty well!  I was having a tough time with an elementary school boy that it's in a class by himself, but since his mom's been coming to class with him recently, that's helped quite a bit, as I'm sure you can imagine.  A lot of my students are really sweet teenage girls, and they're a lot of fun to teach!  It's crazy how much teenagers have to study here though.  I can't even imagine having to work that hard in school when I was that age.

I've also been teaching some new classes!  Haruna, who I previously mentioned, is in my book review class, where we're reading The Only Alien on the Planet (one of my favorite books) and discussing it together.  I never even realized how many expressions we English speakers use and take for granted that are totally confusing to English learners...  It's been a good experience for me!  I've also been teaching a basic academic writing class to Haruna and Noriko, and that's been interesting too.  It's a good stretch for me to do this kind of stuff, and I think it's been going okay!  But both of those are seasonal classes, so I think I'm gonna do something different when the next term starts in September.

INSPA


Inspa, short for Inspire Union, the gathering for returnees (people who became Christians overseas), was held in a park in May!  The weather was beautiful, so it was a perfect chance to play some games and hang out outside.

Playing frisbee with a team of Canadian guys who joined us that day!

Some of us were a little less active.  (I didn't even get up to take these pictures...)

Kensaku (left) talking about his trip to the earthquake/tsunami disaster area, and Ken (right) translating.

Giant jump rope game!  Super fun!

Tug of war!  

So around 5pm, I think it was, the park started to close, so we got ready to leave.  Those of us who rode with Becky loaded into the van, and she turned on the engine...and was unable to shift out of park.  Many of our friends were still around at that point, so a bunch of the guys tried different things to try to fix it, but nothing worked.  Becky called JAF (the Japanese version of AAA), and the guy came, but still wasn't able to fix it, so in the end, we had to wait for a tow truck.  We were probably in that parking lot for close to three hours altogether.  But the weather was beautiful, and some fellow Inspa members stuck around with us, so we chatted and played around with a basketball Kensaku had in his car.  So really, it could've been worse.



Yep, definitely could've been worse.

Later...  Why does my camera always take blurry pictures when it's dark??  D:

What it looked like outside by the time the tow truck came.  Becky was sad that I didn't get a picture of the tow truck for ~memories~.

So in the end, everyone else went home ahead of us, and Becky and I rode in the tow truck to the nearest Toyota dealership and then took the train home.  By the time we got home, it was after 9, and of course we hadn't had a chance to eat.  But while we were on the train, Becky got a text from Haruna saying that she had made fried rice if we wanted some.  I was SO HAPPY.  ;__;  So when we got back from the Center, we went upstairs to the women's dorms and ate a very late dinner with Haruna.  The day may not have gone as planned, but overall, I think it was pretty good.  <3

FOOD

Because you all will be sad if I don't include any food pictures, right?  :D?

From Golden Week, the restaurant we ate at for the Woyke's farewell.  Oyakodon on the left and udon on the right.  Yummy~

Karaage (fried chicken) with eggplant from the karaage place next to the Center.

Some kind of doria from Uretano Cafe.  It was their special that day~

Curry udon with egg and chicken, from a place that serves curry and parfaits.

Gomoku udon from Yaoto, near the Center.  I think this might be my new regular dish from them.

OTHER

Just a couple of other things I want to mention that happened in May!

☆ I read The Hunger Games the week after Golden Week.  I was totally hooked.  It's been a long time since I was that engrossed in a book.  I'm currently reading the second book on my Kindle (yay Kindle!).  I'm always open for suggestions for book suggestions, by the way.  Particularly young adult fantasy.  Or young adult in general.  Yeah, I'm still a kid, so what.

☆ The returnee group that Becky started met on the 15th for karaoke!  Which is, of course, probably my favorite thing to do ever, so I was very happy.  Afterwards, all of us except Noriko, who had to go to work, went out to eat.  This is where I had the curry udon and a parfait~


☆ Reinoo, who lives on the third floor along with Haruna, had a birthday in May!  So we all celebrated together~

Lots of delicious homemade food!  :D

And in conclusion, May was another good month.  :D  There's actually a little more I want to talk about in May, but there are lots of pictures, so I think I'll save that for a separate entry~

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