Golden Week

If I was a more responsible blogger, right now I'd present you with some very interesting factual information about what Golden Week is and its history.  However, I am me, and as a result, I will just tell you that Golden Week is in early May, and is called such because of multiple holidays in one week.  I'm not sure what the holiday on Tuesday was, but Wednesday was Green Day and Thursday was Children's Day.  Apparently Green Day didn't even used to exist, but the current emperor made it a holiday between the other two holidays because he likes nature and things are very green this time of year.  Or at least, that's what someone told me.  Yup.  So knowledgeable, I am.

Anyway, basically it means that most students had Tuesday through Thursday off from school, and most people had time off from work, either just for the Golden Week holidays or for the whole week.  As for us at the Center, the English school was closed for the week, but instead of classes, we had a conference with all of the NAB missionaries in Japan.  It was here at the Center, so Becky, Carol and I didn't have to go anywhere.  Literally, the conference room that we met in all week is on the other side of the wall from my bedroom.

On Day 1, everyone arrived in the afternoon, and we had a meeting about the current state of NAB.  After that, we went to dinner at Pure-na, an all-you-can-eat Japanese place.  In the evening, we all gave our missionary book reports, which was really interesting.  It's cool to hear about all the different kinds of people who have come here over the years, and what they've done.  When the book reports were done, several of us played Rummikub until pretty late.  It was a lot of fun!  It's always great to be able to hang out with the other missionaries I don't get to see often.

On Day 2, we went to McDonald's for breakfast.  It was my first McGriddle in Japan.  So good~  We then spent basically the rest of the day having meetings about the future of NAB missions in Japan, and some of the issues we're facing.  I did a lot of listening and I learned a lot about the difficulties that we're facing here because of the ways that Japanese culture doesn't line up with Christianity and the problems that causes in the church.

Anyway, in between meetings, we ate at a place called Viking for lunch.  For some reason, the word "viking" here means all-you-can-eat buffet.  Yeah, I don't know either.  This place was amazing though!  There was yakiniku, where you get strips of raw meat and cook it on a little grill at your table.  It was SO GOOD.  You could also grill veggies and stuff, and there was tons of other food to choose from too, not to mention dessert.  For dinner, we ended up going to Gusto, where most of us ordered salad because we were so full from lunch!  I decided to cut out of games a bit earlier since I was so sleepy because of staying up so late the night before when we had breakfast so early in the morning.  (7:30 is like the crack of dawn for me.  D:)

On Day 3, we had breakfast at Yoshinoya, which is a gyuudon place.  Gyuudon is beef over rice, and Yoshinoya is a chain, which, like other similar chains, sells super cheap food.  So yeah, I don't usually eat there, but they have a breakfast set with salmon, which was pretty good.  After that, we spent the rest of the morning and the first part of the afternoon talking more about the future of NAB missions in Japan, and we had a light pizza lunch.

After spending so much time inside having meetings, the rest of the day was really nice: we went to Nabana no sato, which is basically a flower park, and then a nearby onsen, or hot springs.  A few of us actually went into the onsen, while some just checked out the outlet mall, and then we all met up for dinner.  So here, have some pictures!

The tulips were kind of on there way out, but I really liked these.

So many colors!

I guess they put the flowers that fell off into this pool.  Cool!

The Woykes. 

Me with Becky and Yuri!  :D

Shan!  Look how big those flowers are!

Becky is SO EXCITED about the flowers!

With Yuri in the middle of these awesome purple flowers!

Cool view from above.

Don't these look like trees that would've been around in the time of the dinosaurs?  That's what I thought anyway haha.

Cats' whiskers!  Isn't this cool?

Here we all are for dinner!

Outside after dinner.  I'm waaaaay in the back haha.

At dinner, some of us shared our memories of the Woykes, who are retiring this month after serving for more than 40 years as missionaries in Japan.  I've only known them for a short time, but many of our other missionaries go way back with them.  This time of sharing continued back at the Center, where we also had a slide show, and cake and ice cream to celebrate them.  There were laughter and tears, but it was important time for all of us.  They will be missed by us and by the many people whose lives they have touched over their years of service.

Anyway, I stayed up to play games for a while.  The next morning, we had pastries and eggs at the Center, and then we had our final meeting.  After that, we had lunch at Yaoto, a little Japanese restaurant that Becky, Carol and I frequent.  It was delicious!  After that, everyone left, although some people lingered longer than others.  I had planned to take a nap, but since I was feeling pretty energetic and wanted to get outside, I decided to go do some shopping.  I spent the rest of the evening watching tv and relaxing, which was nice after such a busy week!

So that was my Golden Week.  :D

I struggle with forward motion

So I think I'm going to take a page out of my friend Shar's book (here's her blog - she lives in Japan too and her posts are much more organized than mine haha, so check her blog out!) and just try to update on what I've been doing recently.  I'll post about what I did in the time I wasn't blogging at all later, because catching up seems almost impossible at this point...  Shar calls them Lost Blogs, and I won't steal her term, but it'll be the same idea, I suppose.  As a result, I will post about what I've done since April 29, since I posted on that day, rather than going all the way back to mid-March (TWO MONTHS AGO oh my gosh ;___;  Did I really used to post every day...?).

To those who say helpful things such as "Your blog isn't going to write itself," *coughDADcough*, I hope this will suffice for the time being.  Sheesh, what a whiner.  (I love my dad, I promise I do.)

One thing I failed to mention in my previous post was that, at the place where the seikai (conference) was held, there were some huge, awesome koi nobori flying outside. Koi nobori, or carp banners, I guess is how you'd translate it, can be seen flying throughout Japan during April and early May in observance of Children's Day (traditionally Boys' Day), which is during Golden Week in early May (more on Golden Week later). Since Shar actually did research on why they fly these banners, I'm going to quote her here (you can read her whole blog post about Ise Shrine here):

"The tradition of carp streamers began in the Edo Period based on a Chinese legend about a strong, brave carp swimming upstream who turned into a dragon. Streamers were also flown by samurai in battle. This is why the carp streamers symbolize strength, power, and success in life."

Anyway, here are some pictures.  They're pretty cool!

SATURDAY, 4/30

Becky and some friends started a returnees group here in Mie Prefecture, basically where girls who have spent time overseas can hang out together.  Five of us went to visit Kyoto!  It was my second time there (since I went on my first Saturday in Japan), and this time we mostly walked around and checked out some shops and stuff, so it was pretty chill.

A shrine we just happened to stop by, evidently dedicated to a samurai who killed himself because he didn't want anyone else to kill him.  Um, okay.

Interesting curry rice from this all-natural restaurant place we happened across.

Sorry it's kinda blurry, but.  This is a tiny octopus with a quail egg inside of its head.  It was so interesting, I had to try it!  It was pretty good!

Yummy~

This is apparently a famous river in Kyoto.  I don't know the name though.

From the front, Noriko, Takako, Becky, and Shouko~

Yay I got to be in a picture too!

There were still some cherry blossoms hanging on!

In Gion, a district of Kyoto.  This is the entrance to a really historic area.

It was kind of crazy, such an old place in the middle of such a modern place.  If you're lucky, you can see maiko (geishas-in-training) here sometimes.

A view down a side street.  There was a girl in a kimono~

Back in the modern part of town.  Some kind of temple.  It's so bright!

Too bad I didn't get a picture of one of these rickshaw guys in action.  They're apparently nice enough to take your picture in prime locations haha.

So later, after we came back to Mie Prefecture from Kyoto, we went to a pretty cool restaurant (Saigon Cafe or something like that?) that serves various kinds of Asian dishes.  Everything was really, really good!

SUNDAY, 5/1

We had a surprise party at Carol's house for our student and friend Akifumi-san today.  His wife apparently told him they were going out to dinner with her parents haha.  He must've gotten suspicious when they like, picked up a couple of friends on their way over...but yeah.  

Carol is never short on enthusiasm.

Akifumi-san getting ready to blow out his candles~

Yummy~

Ahaha definitely not a perfect picture, but it'll have to do.  We had a lot of fun playing games and chatting~

MONDAY, 5/2

So, um, I apparently haven't changed much since college, because I'd known since like Christmas or something that I needed to read a biography about a missionary to Japan before our summer missionary conference, but.  Yeah.  This being the day before said conference began, I did quite a bit of reading, and put together a rough book report, since all of us had to report on our books during the conference.  So not the most exciting day ever, but that's okay!

TUESDAY 5/3

In the morning we went over to Akifumi-san and his wife, Rieko-san's, house for coffee, snacks, and chatting, which was really nice.  And after that, the missionary summer conference began...BUT I'm going to give that its own post.  

I think this post is long enough for the time being anyway, so I'll write more tomorrow.  :D

その日全世界が

The title of this song (the title of my blog today) means "On that day, the whole world..."  It seems to be a pretty popular Japanese worship song, which you can check out here if you're interested.  Sorry, I couldn't find one with English subtitles, but.  They use lots of English-language songs translated into Japanese, so original Japanese worship songs are pretty cool to hear.  I heard it today, so it's in my head, which is why I'm sharing it now.  But anyway.

I know I'm realllllly behind on my blog, but I want to write about today right now, so I will.  I'll catch up on everything else soon, I hope!

Today was the seikai, which is a conference for all the Japan Baptist Conference (JBC) churches.  Most of the people who came (pastors, but also lay people from the churches) were in the main room listening to the keynote speaker and such, but I went with Becky to help Kensaku and his wife Hiroko from the Chita church, who were leading the event for the youth.  I helped lead a couple of games, and Kensaku gave his testimony, and also spoke about the Bible story of the woman who loses one of her ten coins and searches until she finds it (Luke 15:8-10).  He explained how that's like God searching for us, and how much He celebrates when He finds even just one lost person, but extended it to talk about how each of us, like coins, have value, no matter where we are or what we're doing.  But just like money can't do anything by itself if it's just laying around, we have to be in God's hands to be used by Him.  This was all in Japanese, but Kensaku is easy to understand when he speaks, so that even I can understand.  It was also nice to be able to see the missionary family today, even if I was only able to see some of them briefly.  We have our annual conference next week (during Golden Week, so it's not really a vacation for me haha), so I'll be able to spend time with everyone then.  :D

After the seikai ended, the Osaka missionaries (Shan, Yuri, and the Ewings), our friend Haruna (who helped out with childcare at the seikai), and a bunch of our friends from Chita came over and hung out in Becky's and my apartment for a while.  I discovered that Kensaku shares my love of Mountain Dew (probably the first Japanese person I've met who does!), and people told funny stories about mistakes people make when learning a language (like, you know how Japanese people have trouble with L's and R's?  Imagine what it sounds like to say "It's all my fault" if you mix up the L and the R...).  So yeah, that was a pretty hilarious conversation.

But what our friend Naho (from the Chita church) didn't know was that this impromptu gathering was really stalling until her surprise birthday dinner at Casa Mia.  I guess the other Chita people (Kensaku and Hiroko, and Naho's boyfriend Iori) acted like they casually decided to go out to eat, and Becky and I happened to join, but when we got to the restaurant, Carol had decorated and had everything ready.  The surprise definitely worked; Naho had no idea!  So we ate lots of really delicious Italian food and chatted for about two and a half hours.

Group shot!  From the left: me, Iori, Naho, Becky, Hiroko, Kensaku, Carol.

Apparently this is the only food picture I took haha.  Everything was amazing!

Naho, Iori and I ended up talking amongst ourselves most of the time, and that was probably the highlight of my day.  I've gotten to know the two of them a little bit recently, and I haven't written about any of it here in my blog yet, but Naho got baptized a few months ago, and more recently, Iori accepted Christ, and I was able to go to his baptism at the Chita church a few weeks ago.  I also got to hear his testimony at that time, and it's a really powerful story of how God pulled him out of depression and totally changed his life.

Iori's baptism.  (They're standing in a pool thing, if you can't tell...)  I'll blog about this day later, I promise...

Last Sunday he gave his testimony at our biweekly CrossRoad event, so I talked to him a little bit then, which was probably the most we'd talked up until that time.  All of this to say, I've talked to Naho here and there at different events (she speaks pretty good English), and I've really only talked to Iori a little bit, but the three of us talked for a long time over dinner today.  Some of it was small talk, of course, but at one point we somehow got on the topic of why I came to Japan, which led to a pretty deep discussion about the way God works in our lives.  He uses everything, good and bad, for His purpose, even if, at the time you're going through something, you might not understand the reason for it.  We also talked about how there's so much pain and suffering in the world, and people fail each other even when they try not to, but how God's love is the only perfect love, and Jesus is really the only answer.  Even when we talked about music, Iori talked about how, once he became a Christian, he got rid of tons of his cd's (he used to have hundreds), because he doesn't need that music anymore, and he doesn't like to own so much material stuff.  Talking to a baby Christian like him is so inspiring.  He has so much passion for God, and it's so clear that he really gets it.  He definitely talked the most of the three of us, I think, but he had a lot of great stuff to say.  (I was really working hard though; most of this conversation was in Japanese.  I'm actually kind of proud of myself, to be able to more or less follow along with everything.  We did have English Time for a while though, because Iori, who doesn't speak much English yet, wanted to practice haha.)

Anyway, everyone gave Naho gifts and cards and such, and we had dessert, and after a while we finally wrapped up and headed out.

Naho with her dessert~

Before the Chita crew hit the road home though (it's more than an hour's drive), we prayed together, and I really felt the unity we have as believers, and as friends.  My friendship with these people is just beginning, and I'm really excited to see where it leads.  The longer I'm here in Japan, the more I realize how many amazing people God has put in my life.  I can't really express my feelings well, but I feel incredibly blessed to know these people, and to be here, doing what I'm doing.  There's no place I'd rather be.

Even if I went back, I'd choose the same path

So!  Picking up where I left off on my last post.

TUESDAY, 3/15


I went to Curves in the morning, and then, since Melanie was still around but was about to leave, she, Becky and I went to lunch at Yaoto, the little Japanese place near us.  I got ten-katsudon and also this amazing rice-filled spring roll thing.  I have no idea what they used to flavor it but it was SO GOOD.

And I think the rest of the day was a pretty standard Tuesday?  Becky, Carol and I had our weekly meeting, and Becky and I went to gospel choir, and I probably studied Japanese or something afterwards.  Nothing too exciting that I recall.

WEDNESDAY 3/16

In the early afternoon my time, I had the privilege of talking to my youth group (from Impact Community Church in Sacramento) on Skype!  :D  The timing worked out really well, since they were having Tuesday night youth group.  I was able to talk to them about my point of view on the earthquake and everything that had happened since up until that point, plus it was really cool just to talk to them about Japan in general and listen to some of their questions (including some ridiculous ones, of course).  I love those kids.  :'D  Other than that, a pretty normal Wednesday.  I had a bit of a rough time with one of my students not wanting to do her work, but she apologized the next week for her behavior.  So sweet, and made me feel a lot better.  I hate having to be mean when I'm teaching kids, but it's kinda inevitable sometimes...

THURSDAY 3/17

After my Japanese class, I went to the foreign foods store in my city to pick up my case of Mountain Dew.  Which sounds like no big deal, but I walked and took the train.  So there I was, walking for like 20 minutes, carrying this really heavy, awkward 24-pack of Mountain Dew to the train station, and then another 10-15 minutes from the station to my apartment.  At one point I was really smart and tore the box open accidentally and cans spilled everywhere and there I was at the side of the road picking them up and putting them back into the now-damaged box.  Yeah, I'm special like that...  >_>  When I told my friends, they were laughing really hard at me.  What can I say, I live to entertain.  And I think I'll order from Amazon next time...

The rest of my day was pretty much spent working on stuff for the displays we had at our prayer meeting for the earthquake, which was on Friday.  Oh, and I watched August Rush to prepare for movie night.  So much love for that movie.  <3

FRIDAY 3/18

Busy day.  Becky and I went to Curves in the morning, and then met up with Carol for lunch at Casa Mia.  It was delicious, as usual.

After that was more preparation for the prayer meeting, and then I had classes.  The prayer meeting started while I was still in class, so I missed half of it.  After the prayer meeting, we had movie night.  Everyone loved August Rush, which made me really happy.  The discussion was really great too.  :D  Three girls stayed over at Becky's and my place, and we had a lot of fun drinking coffee/tea and eating snacks and chatting until we finally decided, hey, it's like 2am, maybe we should sleep.  It was a lot of fun!

SATURDAY 3/19

I met up with my friend Michele, who lives in Wakayama Prefecture, in Nagoya!  She's a fellow Arashi fan, so we were destined to have an awesome day.  We decided to check out a Pokemon store (very disappointing, actually) and a couple of other novelty stores like that, then had lunch at a bakery.  So delicious~  After that, we went in search of the official Johnny's Entertainment store (there are only a few in major cities in Japan).  We followed a walkthrough from the Internet, which was a huge help.  It...was not very nice-looking or official-looking.  It wasn't even in any kind of shopping district.  Strange...  But we found it and that's all that matters.

Little sign up on the second floor of this building.

A closeup of the weird logo.

Tiny, really high up sign.  

I have never seen this logo on any Johnny's product ever.  o_0  Even though it's an official store...  And the stairs to the second floor were really shady.  Michele called it "a test of our fandom dedication," and I agree.  Once inside, I was a little surprised: it was a very bare-looking room, with a bunch of pictures on the wall of all the different groups, and you write down which pictures of which groups you want.  You'd think that, with this entertainment company being as huge as it is in Japan, the store would be a little nicer...but anyway.  The Arashi section was, of course, rather crowded, but we eventually chose our pictures and paid for them.  150 yen per picture doesn't sound like that much, but it adds up fast...but enough about that.  :D

From there, we went to Denny's (Michele apparently didn't know that Japan has Denny's, and that it's nothing like Denny's in America haha), where we got dessert and coffee and looked at our pictures and chatted.  Surprise surprise, Amber went for the chocolate.

Since Michele had a long way back home on the shinkansen, we headed back to Nagoya Station, where we parted ways.  It was a really nice trip, and we'll definitely have to hang out again sometime!  I spent the rest of my evening watching tv and chilling at home.  :D

Aaaand I'll stop there for now, because I want my trip to Hamamatsu to see Nick and Shar, my friends from college, to have its own post.  There are many pictures, after all~