Unknown Orchestra

So uh...I have almost no pictures and nothing written in my planner for the week of March 6-12.  I probably didn't do much out of the ordinary, but let's see if I can recall...up until the 11th anyway.  I can definitely remember that day.

SUNDAY 3/6


Our friend Nao-chan, who until last week lived in the womens' dorms on the third floor of the Center, played the flute in the Mie University Concert Band (I guess? lol I only really heard what they were called in Japanese...).  After church this day, we got lunch at a Chinese restaurant (which was delicious), then met up with a couple of people and went to the bands' big concert.  This was the final concert of the year, and had been advertised all around our area for months (I saw the posters in all kinds of places around town).  The concert hall was pretty full, and I was surprised to find out that Nao-chan was the concert mistress.  The band was amazing and played a variety of different kinds of music.  It was great!  In the evening, we had our second to last Purpose-Driven Life Bible study, and shared delicious snacks and chatted.  Everyone there seemed to have a great time!  I'm going to miss that group when the study ends.

TUESDAY 3/7 - THURSDAY 3/10

I don't recall doing anything out of the ordinary.  Becky and I checked out Curves, an all-women's gym that also exists in the States, as many of you probably know, and made an appointment for Friday morning for a free trial.  I taught classes on Wednesday, and went to Japanese on Thursday morning.  After my class, I checked out a foreign foods store recommended to me by a friend, where I ordered a case of Mountain Dew and picked up a few other things that aren't easy to find in Japan, like oatmeal, flavored cream cheese, a taco kit, etc.  That evening, before my class, Carol, Becky and I went to eat at Coco's, and I got jambalaya.  You wouldn't think a family restaurant would make good jambalaya, but it's pretty awesome!  Probably not at all authentic haha, but delicious nonetheless.

FRIDAY, MARCH 11

This is a day most people have heard a lot about by now.  But like everyone else in Japan, I woke up this morning thinking it was just going to be a normal Friday.  Becky and I went to Curves for our free trial, which went well, so we decided to officially sign up.  After that, I went to lunch with Carol at the karaage (fried chicken) place near us.  Super good!  With lots of mayo, in typical Japanese fashion.  Japanese people are shocked to learn that Americans aren't as obsessed with mayo as they are haha.  It does taste a bit different though.

After that, I think I went online for a little bit, then decided to be productive and clean the bathroom.  At around 2pm, just as I was finishing up, Becky came home from getting her haircut and asked if I'd felt the earthquake.

me: What earthquake?

...yeah.  I totally didn't feel it at all, haha.  Becky said she felt it as she was getting into her car to come home. I didn't think much of it at first; as most of you probably know, Japan is prone to frequent earthquakes.  But when Becky turned on the tv, we both started to realize how serious the situation actually was.  When I saw that the earthquake was pretty serious and that the tsunami warnings for up north where the earthquake happened were pretty major, I decided to post on Facebook that I was okay so that no one would worry about me.  I also started to see one clip of the tsunami washing some cars away over and over.  I knew it was bad, but the tsunami warning for our area was pretty minor (although tsunami warnings were in effect for the entire coast of Japan for days), so we more or less carried on as normal with classes.  But it was a strange feeling for the rest of the day, and I spent every spare minute online, checking with my friends in various parts of Japan, making sure they were okay (everyone was, thankfully).  I was also watching the news, watching the death/injury toll rise.  It was only about 10 at first, and rose to around 30 by the time I went to bed, I think.  At this point, I don't think anyone really realized the full scale of this disaster.  I knew it was bad, but I couldn't have imagined that the casualties would end up in the tens of thousands, with entire towns being completely wiped out.  I would find this all out on the news in coming days.  For days after the earthquake, there was nothing but news to watch, not surprisingly, and all of it was heartbreaking.

SATURDAY 3/12

As it was the second Saturday of the month, Inspa, the returnee event in Nagoya, was held as usual in spite of the disaster the day before, since our area was all but unaffected.  We all prayed together for the earthquake and tsunami victims before starting our planned program.  The rest of our meeting was more or less normal: we had a gospel workshop, in which we split up into parts and learned a couple of gospel songs from a really great teacher.  After that, we heard a message from Jun's father, who is Japanese but is currently a pastor in Canada.  (Jun was born and raised in Canada; he jokes that he's Japanese on the outside and white on the inside.)  Afterwards, a bunch of us went to the Chinese restaurant around the corner, where we had a great time.  At our table was Becky; our friend Saki; a friend of hers who's an American; Jun; and a girl named Aki, if I remember right.  We had a lot of fun, and the food was amazing.  It was a great day, and I think kind of helped me feel normal again after the crazy events of the day before.

...yeah, I'm still behind on my blog, but at least I'm making progress :D?  I think I should have time to write again tomorrow~  I did lots of exciting stuff, so expect lots of pictures in the next few posts.

One Day at a Time

So, with the exception of my post about the aftermath of the earthquake/tsunamis, I haven't posted in my blog for over a month.  Epic, epic fail.  -_-;;  And it's definitely not for lack of doing anything!  I've actually kinda been doing tons of pretty cool stuff, so I have a lot to blog about.  Since I'm on spring break from today (Thursday) until next Tuesday, I figured I should try to get caught up.  Let's see how well my planner and pictures will help me remember what I've been doing all month...  There will probably be days missing if I either can't remember or didn't do anything noteworthy.  I think you'll get over it.

TUESDAY 3/1


If I remember correctly, Becky had her last class in Nagoya on this day, so we didn't have our usual afternoon meeting until Thursday.  As a result, I spent my day chilling at home, reading and chatting on Skype, and going out to do some shopping later in the afternoon (I would've gone earlier but it had been raining, and while rain would never stop me in America, in Japan I get around by bike, so...).  I ate dinner at McDonald's, hoping that the new Manhattan Burger had started, but it hadn't, so I think I had the Salt & Lemon Icon Chicken sandwich, which was pretty fantastic.  And then Becky and I had gospel choir, and our friend Nori-chan came too.  After gospel choir, Carol called, inviting us to dessert with our friend Julia.  We went to Gusto, a family restaurant.  I got a chocolate banana sundae.  There was some kind of Kix-like cereal underneath the ice cream, because apparently cereal belongs in parfaits in Japan.

...and then I decided that I was hungry and ordered a vegetable doria, which was delicious.  Yay for late-night meals?

FRIDAY 3/4

Carol, Becky and I went out for lunch, which, I found out later, was apparently to celebrate Becky's one year anniversary of returning to Japan after seminary.  We went to the little French restaurant that's near us.  Everything I've eaten there has been amazing.  This was sausage doria or something like that.  Doria at family restaurants is good and all...but nothing compared to this.

And then I had classes and ran a couple of quick errands.  While I was out, I got my first Manhattan Burger at McDonald's (I've had it twice altogether).  In addition to the burger, it has pastrami, mozzarella (?) cheese, and sour cream sauce.  It's super good.  Too bad it's already gone and I don't know if it'll ever make a comeback...

In the evening we had movie night, where we watched Will Smith's Pursuit of Happyness.  Such a good movie~  ;__;

SATURDAY 3/5

We had our monthly event, a Ladies Tea, on this day.  Over the days previous to this, we'd been making various preparations for it, like getting decorations together, starting to bake, etc.  Joan Stoller, our fellow missionary who lives near Nagoya, came to speak about her hobby, pottery, and the concept of God as a potter and us as the clay.  Thanks especially to Carol, the decorations and food were wonderful, and Joan's message was wonderful!  Everyone who came had a great time.

Julia and Ana, who were indispensable in getting all the food ready that morning!

Joan's collection of salt and pepper shakers.  Yep, these are all salt and pepper shakers.

Just a small part of Joan's pottery collection.

Carol hard at work!

A complete plate.  Everything was really good!

Joan speaking.

We had a roomfull of people!  It was a huge success!  We got great feedback from people too!

So the event was over at 3pm, and I spent most of the rest of my day reading, watching tv, and trying not to fall asleep ridiculously early.  And I cooked potatoes in the microwave and topped them with broccoli, ham and cheese. It was delicious.

And that's it for this post!  I might post again later today~

The Real Crisis

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated my blog.  I was already starting to fall behind when the world started going crazy, and now I'm way, way behind.  I do intend to catch up eventually, but I've been pretty busy recently, so maybe sometime this coming week I can pick up where my last entry left off.


This post is going to be different.  In this post, I want to talk about an issue that is currently very close to my heart.  I want to talk about the recent disasters in Japan.


First off, I think you all should realize this by now, but I am totally, completely fine.  I live hundreds of miles south of the Tohoku region where all of this has been taking place, so I haven't felt any of the effects of the earthquake or tsunamis at all, really.  It's almost embarrassing how well I've been doing in the week since the earthquake hit Japan.


Tens of thousands of people aren't fine, though.  I don't have all the numbers and statistics, and it's been a few days since I've had time to watch the news (which is apparently quite different than the news you guys are seeing in North America, but I'll address that in a minute), but I do know that, even now, the situation is very serious.  The evacuation centers and shelters are still lacking in supplies, power and water haven't been restored in many places, and earlier this week the temperature plummeted, making conditions even worse.  Lives continue to be lost.  The crisis is not over; it's just beginning.  My heart breaks when I think about what the people in northern Japan are going through right now, and watching the news makes me want to cry.  I don't think any natural disaster has ever affected me quite this strongly before.


Which leads me to what's making me even more upset right now: Apparently, from what I have heard, the American media is spreading some ridiculous panic about the situation of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.  Instead of focusing on the people who are still in desperate need of help, the media is fearmongering and blowing the nuclear power situation way out of proportion.  It's sickening.  


I am not even the slightest bit worried about radiation or a nuclear meltdown or anything like that, and to be very clear, I'm not leaving Japan unless NAB (my missions organization) or the government makes me.  God put me here, and I believe that this is where I should be, doing exactly what I'm doing.  I'm no scientist, and I know the media has been pretty crazy in the States, so you don't have to just take my word for it that the nuclear power plant isn't anything to worry about.  Here are several articles I've read in the past few days.


http://blogs.reuters.com/gregg-easterbrook/2011/03/15/japans-real-disaster/


http://hesomagazine.com/featured/cool-heads-must-prevail-to-help-cool-the-rods-updated-response-to-this-is-not-chernobyl/ (I apologize for the swear word early on in this article, but please don't be deterred; it's really very good)


http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/03/16/british-australian-and-american-governments-no-serious-radiation-threat-to-tokyo/


http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/19_04.html


So there you have it.  I've been going about my normal life, with all of this in the back of my mind.  If you want to care about the things I care about, please continue to pray for Japan.  I pulled from a couple of sources to make a prayer guide for a prayer service we had last night here at the Center, so here are specific ways you can pray.  I wouldn't call this a comprehensive list necessarily, but it's a start.

Please pray for…

People who have lost loved ones, and people who are trapped and injured.  Casualty reports are still coming in, and it’s difficult to know how many have been injured or killed, but the number is certainly in the thousands, if not the ten thousands.

People whose family and friends are still missing, or who may not have been able to contact each other yet because of poor phone and cell phone service.  Pray for the continued rescue effort, and that communications can quickly be restored.

The tens of thousands of people staying at evacuation centers and hospitals.  Many have little food and water and no electricity.  The temperatures have dropped since the beginning of the week, making conditions even more difficult.

The power plants and water facilities to be able to resume their work, and pray for those who do not have these essential supplies. 

Grocery stores, convenience stores, etc.  There have been reports of people panic buying and stockpiling food and other everyday items.  Pray that people will think rationally and only buy what they need and leave the rest for others, and for the relief effort.  (Note: I've heard that situation has improved in recent days.)

Rescuers and relief workers, for safety, wisdom, and compassion.

The Christians of Japan, that we would be able to mobilize relief efforts and provide for people's needs, both physical and spiritual.

So please, don't worry about me.  Instead, worry about (and more than that, pray for) the people who are still suffering as a result of the earthquakes and tsunamis, and if you find it in your heart to help, please donate to the Red Cross or another relief organization of your choice.  We here at the Center have been sending donations from our students and friends to CRASH, a Japanese Christian relief organization.  Due to the current state of things, donating money is really the best thing anyone can do.

Thank you all for your concern for me.  I'm really touched by how many people have been thinking of and praying for me in these recent days.  Now I'm asking you to direct those prayers to those who need them the most.

Staying Afloat

So I haven't done anything really ~major~ since my last blog post, but it has been a little while, so I may as well try to stay caught up, right??

TUESDAY 2/22


Meeting at Mr. Donuts, went grocery shopping and then to dinner afterwards.

Caesar salad.

I think this was some kind of hamburger doria?  It was super good.

No gospel choir after that, so I think I just went home and chilled, did some lesson planning and stuff?  So it was a pretty quiet day.

WEDNESDAY 2/23


Did some shopping in the afternoon.  I finally checked out a second hand store that I've walked by a million times.  I got a shirt, a scarf and a pair of Converse for less than 30 bucks.  I'll be visiting again for sure.  Also bought a couple of cd's.  After that, I had classes...and I think that's about it.

THURSDAY 2/24


Japanese class in the morning, short meeting in the afternoon, went to dinner.  My Thursday night class cancelled for the second week in a row (it's test season), so I did some stuff for the Center and watched a little tv.

FRIDAY 2/25


Becky had lunch plans, so I had some awesome stew at Carol's house for lunch.  And then I had my regular classes.  One of my high school girls is graduating and will be going to college in Tokyo in April.  I really love the class I have with her and one other teenage girl, so I'm going to miss her.  </3  But she's really smart, so I know she'll do great in Tokyo!

After class, Becky was out with a friend, so I went to go see Ashita no Joe, a boxing movie based on a manga.  (It happens to star an actor I like, okay.)  It was pretty decent, even though the way they talked- i.e. fast and without enunciating- made it kind of hard for me to understand what they were saying.  But I enjoyed it!  And then I came home and Becky and her friend (a friend of ours from gospel choir) were home, so we chatted for a while.  It was a pretty nice day.  :)

SATURDAY 2/26


a.k.a. Chili Making Day.  Earlier in the day, Noriko came over to give Becky something, and then Becky roped her into helping brown some meat for our chili.  After that, the three of us went to lunch.  Then Becky had other plans, so I met up with Carol, and we worked on changing our decorations from Valentine's to general spring/Saint Patrick's Day.  And then we worked on making coleslaw (aka cutting up lots of veggies), and when Becky came home she helped too.  I only cut myself a little bit in the process of slicing a million carrots haha.  The chili wasn't too hard; we basically opened up a ton of cans and dumped them into giant pots along with the meat Noriko and Becky had browned earlier that day.  Later that night, our friends and students, Akifumi-san and Rieko-san, came over to let us borrow something, and stayed to help us decorate for the next night.  Super nice of them!

SUNDAY 2/27


Church obviously, and then after church was young adults.  We had a "pasta buffet."  The different kinds of pasta sauces/flavors you can get in packages here are amazing!  Everything was really good.

lol hi, my name is Amber and I take pictures of food instead of people.

So we ate, had our Bible study and prayer time, and then Becky and I had to leave just a little early to get ready for that night's Crossroad.  If you were wondering what all the chili was for, it was for chili night!

The room setup.  There were little cups of coleslaw on the tables.

It was over rice, so it was really chili donburi haha.  It was really good!

We had some really great helpers~

And our guest speakers, the Mizukamis.  Aurelio gave his testimony and Laurie translated, and then they sang Casting Crown's "Who Am I" in English and Portuguese (he's Brazilian).  It was so good!

So we had tea time afterwards, and later while we were cleaning up, Noriko, who had been busy earlier, came to eat chili haha.  So I ended up chatting with her for a while, and then Carol, Becky, and Paul Ewing and Izumi-sensei (both there for a meeting) joined us, so it was pretty fun.  :D

So yeah, this isn't the most exciting blog post ever haha, but this is what I've been doing!  This week has been pretty uneventful so far as well, so I'll wait a little longer to post about it~  It's March now, and I do have a few exciting things coming up!

Osaka~!

From Saturday until Monday, I was in Osaka, which is one of Japan's biggest cities.  It's known for food, shopping, and more, of course.  If you really want to know, check out Wikipedia.  I mainly went there to visit my fellow NAB missionaries' churches, but of course, I needed to be a tourist while I was there too, right?  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

SATURDAY


In the afternoon, I caught the limited express train from Tsu Station, and less than two hours later I was in Namba Station, one of Osaka's major train stations.  It's nice because the Kintetsu line, which passes through Tsu, goes straight to Osaka.  I never knew it was so easy to go there!  Anyway, I had to take another train to Kongo, where the Woykes live and run a church.  They'll actually be passing off the church to a new pastor this year, as they're retiring soon!  So I wanted to visit while they're still around.

Anyway, I got to their house a little before dinner, so we chatted, ate, and then spent a quiet evening chatting some more, watching a little tv, and playing a game before heading to bed.

SUNDAY


I went to church with the Woykes in the morning, of course.  Their church, like most Japanese churches, is pretty small.

Outside.  There's a cross on the roof, although it's a bit hard to see in this picture.

Waiting for the service to start.  I really liked the desks, actually!

Giving my testimony, all missionary-like and stuff.  I introduced myself in Japanese...

...and Doug Woyke translated the rest.  Someday I'll be able to give my testimony all in Japanese!

Doug preaching.

After church, Shan, another missionary in Osaka who joined us, went to lunch with us.  We ate at Bikkuri Donkey, which is basically mostly hamburgers.  Japanese-style hamburgers, on a plate, which have shown up in my blog many times before.  They're at so many restaurants here. 

This one had a "cheese packet" inside.  It was amazing.

I don't remember where I saw this, but I was amused.

After lunch, I went back with Shan to her place for a little while, and then we headed over to the Komyo church, where she works with the Ewing family.

And here it is!

Is that a guitar?!  lol most of the JBC (Japan Baptist Conference, related to NAB) churches are very traditional.  Paul Ewing is mixing things up.

Their cute tea time setup.  Because, in Japan, there's always tea time.

I really like their setup.

So I gave my testimony here as well, with Paul translating.  I didn't take any pictures this time though lol.  Paul also led worship and preached.  I found his message to be easy to understand, even in Japanese, so that was nice~  I really enjoyed both church visits.  <3

Their church starts at 4pm, so by the time it's over, it's about dinnertime.  So all of us- the whole Ewing family (including the three boys), Shan and I went to a katsu place.

Yummy~  <3  And they gave refills (?) on cabbage lol.  Awesome.

And from there, we went to the Ewing's house for dessert, and we pretty much just hung out and talked and watched tv together all night.  It was awesome.  A personal highlight: helping Paul pick out which Arashi cd to buy for his oldest son.  He and his friends apparently dance to Arashi's songs, and he's a bit of a fan.  He's 11.  I love it.  <3

MONDAY

My day for tourism!  I stayed with Shan, and we took our time in the morning.  This is the view from her apartment's balcony.

Lucky.

So anyway, we took a train to Namba, and from there we started to walk.  We passed through a pretty interesting shopping/market kind of area?

It just looked so...Japan to me.

No idea what these are.

There were fish hanging from the ceiling in some places.  Consider yourself lucky I'm only posting one picture.

After a while, our wanderings took us to a little takoyaki shop.  Takoyaki was one of my food goals for Osaka, because although you can get it other places, it's one of the foods Osaka is known for.  We got cheese for a topping, which was pretty much the best idea of all time.

  

So.  Good.

So from there we went to an area called Dotonbori.  Apparently this is a necessary tourist destination, if for no other reason than to take a picture with the Glico man.  

Yeah.  This guy.

A highlight of my day: A bunch of guys, maybe university age, came up to Shan and I at this point and, very bravely, asked, in English, for Shan to take a picture for them.  And then she asked a question about the camera in Japanese and they were like EHHHHH SHE SPEAKS JAPANESE.  It was pretty great.

Heading towards the shopping area.  We went this way later.

Huge Arashi ad~  <3

And another.  I love Japan.  This ad was everywhere in the shopping area too.

No Arashi over here.  Psssssh.

And facing the other way again.  Apparently this area looks pretty cool at night.  Maybe next time~

Back a little ways, near the building where we ate lunch.  That building on the left there was interesting.  I don't think I've seen a building like that since coming to Japan.

The view from the restaurant we ate at.  Lots of people!

They recommend the noddles.

So yeah, our lunch was okonomiyaki, which is often described as a kind of pancake.  I wouldn't really compare the two; okonomiyaki is savory, with batter and cabbage as the base, and then whatever other ingredients mixed in.  At some places you cook it yourself; this place did it for us.

Beginning.

Middle.

End.  She put...a LOT...of mayo on mine...

We underestimated how full we were from the takoyaki.  We had to really try to leave this little lol.

So after that we did some shopping (there are cute, cheap clothes in Japan if you go to the right stores) and walked around the area before getting on a train to go to Umeda, another area of Osaka.  Our goal here: to ride the giant Ferris wheel.  I'd love to go at night sometime, but during the day is cool too: you can see what all the different buildings are.  I took pictures until my camera died lol.

Shan told me they're building a train station here.  It looks pretty cool from above!

The weather was AMAZING.

So many buildings!

You could kinda see the bay from way up at the top.

I really can't even wrap my mind around how big this city is.

Got kind of a different view on the way back down~  

It was so, so pretty.  I'm really glad Shan took me on the Ferris wheel.  After that, we shopped a little more, and then we were going to go to Baskin-Robbins, but then we had a better idea: gelato!

All of my pictures from here on out were taken with my iPhone lol.  I took this one myself.  Yay front-facing camera!

And then we made our way back to Namba, where Shan was going to take me to dinner at a Hawaiian burger place.  But it was closed!  So we went to a bagel place instead.

Terikaki chicken on...I think it was a tomato and parmesan bagel?

With apple juice and pumpkin soup.

And then we went to Starbucks, where I got a super cute cherry blossom tumbler (apparently they have a different one every year).  It was perfect for me to take my caramel macchiato (sp?) with me, because after this, I caught my train back to Tsu.  

For interested parties, my haul from Osaka: two books, two sweaters, Starbucks tumbler, and...

...Ninja Hello Kitty.  Has nothing to do with Osaka, but I needed it.

Anyway, I had a wonderful time and Shan and I were already talking about what we'll do next time I come.  I wasn't there for long, but Osaka seems like a really great city.  <3