My (Incomplete) List

I have been tagged in a game I was not aware I was a part of, but since I'm such a sport I'll play too. What I can gather is that people who are tagged make a random list up to five...or something like that. So I will make a list. Here I go.

Things I'm looking forward to about going home:

1) being close to my family and friends (by close I mean a physical closeness where I can see them most every day...I've found an uncanny level of the other sort of closeness with people while I've been halfway around the world...)

2) going to church, singing to and worshiping God from the heart with many other people and just soaking for a while

3) being in a culture where it's not weird or awkward to touch someone or give them a hug

4) the smell of fresh laundry, a drying machine, and stepping out of the shower and using a towel that doesn't stink (or into a room where I can see my breath)

5) I honestly can't think of another thing. I've been learning to be satisfied with where I am and what I have and who I don't have during my time here in Japan; therefore, (yes I did just say 'therefore') nothing else comes to mind.
I can't think of really any food because I love Japanese food, and maybe now even prefer it to what I've grown up with (yay vegetables, rice and tofu!!!).
I know even in saying it'll be nice being around my friends and family at home, I'll miss the people I've come to love in Japan.
I don't miss the flatness of Saskatchewan too much; it's absolutely gorgeous living in the mountains among the rice fields and forests.
I can't say I'll love being back in my native tongue all the time because Japanese is addicting to me and I'll miss not hearing it all the time (even when I have a day in Japan without much Japanese I start to get antsy and want to hear it again...).
I'm tempted to say I'm looking forward to having no responsibility, but you can't escape responsibility; it's a part of growing up and being human in this world. Even when I go home I'll have responsibilities, though they might seem easier from over here (the grass is greener mentality).

So that is my list of 5, no matter how incomplete it is because it only goes up to 4.

Two Conclusions and Some Questions

I'd like to start off by saying that I taught an entire class today with a piece of rice leftover from lunch stuck to the front of my shirt; there's no point in this story other than the fact that I find it really funny.

Another thing I'd like to say is that my suspicions have been confirmed: I really do live in a group home. I've had this chanting neighbor for a while now, and anybody I ever see in the halls is a little...not normal...and there's a building across the parking lot that actually says 'group home' on it, so I put three and three together and came up with the conclusion that a group home had moved in around me; it's a conclusion I've been trying to tell myself for the past couple months is incorrect and that I should stop labeling people in my head, even if they do seem skittish when I see them or if they chant and laugh at two in the morning. But then one day a few weeks ago Arnie was dropping me off at home just as the group home van (as was written on the side) was pulling out and he said, "looks like the group home's going on another excursion", to which I pointed and said, "hey! There's my neighbor!" who was in the van. So that's it; I now live in a group home...and I'm only 20.

I went to Mr Donuts today, got some endless refill coffee and sat down to read some C.S. Lewis. I didn't particularily like the coffee (not enough sugar) but I somehow felt that those refills were like my ticket to staying seated at the table for 4 my things were sprawled out all over; I ended up having two and a half cups. Conclusion: there's nothing like sitting down with a cup of something hot in a place somewhere warm with a book written by C.S. Lewis. I think I have a lot to learn from that man.

I've been doing chapels for the last couple weeks in three of my classes about the rich young man who came to Jesus and asked what he needed to do to get eternal life. Considering I'm attempting to do it in another language I really should put more preparation into it, but this is how it goes: when I pull out the book with the story in it I say, "Jesus, can you please help me with this?" And then I dive in with Japanese that's not mine, praying the entire time. More than once I've felt like someone just trying to sell eternal life or someone that's part of a cult telling others they can live forever if they just do such and such. What's the deal about eternal life anyways, and why am I trying to convince people who say they don't need it that they actually do?
So I try for other approaches. I ask them questions and don't necessarily wait for the answers; I just want to make them think. I ask what they think is after death, and after a long pause where they think about this question they've never thought the answer to I confront them with two options: eternal life and eternal death. I ask them what they think heaven is like, which leads to questions like 'what kind of god is God?' which leads to conclusions like 'eternal death is existance without God, and existance without God is an existance without love'. Then I ask them which they would prefer. I ask them what they think someone needs to do to get into heaven. They respond with things from the story like following the commandments or selling everything you have and giving it to the poor. Then I lead them back to the story and point out that that's not even enough. This week we ended off with the disciples' question of 'who then can be saved?' They don't know, but I'm hoping that they will be thinking of that question until their next class where they will see the answer as 'everyone, even you, not because of anything you can do but because of what Jesus did'.
So please pray for my students in those three classes that have a chance to hear from God themselves, and that they will listen to the voice prodding to them in their head.
The only thing that I can do is ask questions and trust that God will give them the answers as they draw conclusions in their own hearts.

Valentine's Day Rhapsody (Blues)

It's the Boxing Day of Valentines Day today. Happy Valentines Day to me. Kaila and I had a splendid time making about 90 cupcakes for the kids to decorate in the classes yesterday and today...by that I mean....we should both not cook. Or attempt to. It's funny because we used box mixes and things still went all haywire. We decided to color one of the batches so the dough would be all pink and festive, but it turned out looking on the nuclear side of inedible. Those were the underbaked pink ones. There were brown pink ones and lightly tanned pink ones as well. Then there were the white ones which varied from white to hardly able to distinguish that they're supposed to be white.
We had all of the sprinkles picked out that the kids would use but then we realized that we needed something to stick them to the cupcakes. We checked in the Nordaas' fridge, and alas, no whipped cream; we checked the cupboard and oh no, no icing sugar; we checked the clock and oh wow, gotta make something up quick cuz the kids will be coming. So we decided to make buttermilk icing (a double recipe) which did not turn out so well - it's quite orange and tastes like pure butter. And now we have to figure out something to make that uses 8 egg whites.
But the kids enjoyed it and said they were good, even though me and Kaila were secretly grimicing inside and praying that no one would get deathly ill.
Oh buttermilk icing, angel food cake and Valentine's Day. We ruined all three in one go.
And Kaila gave me sembei (rice cracker) for Valentine's Day, and we ate on the heated carpet as we mourned.
But things are looking up because we're going snowboarding on Monday. Oh and Starbucks, where things always seem to feel normal.
And now we will attempt to get home safely and not get blown off the bridge into the murky depths below. I've never heard such hard consistent wind before or seen horizontal falling snow...hard chunky rain-snow.
Tomorrow must be better cuz it's Odate Day...and Mr Donuts Day.

Us looking at the Hina Dolls in the Odate museum and being paparazzi-ed by the newpaper men,


Yuki and Heather in front of the candy trees,


us in $10 000 kimonos,


and Heather using the "please use freely" glasses at the train station. Love the face. We were told they are for the old people, but why don't they bring their own glasses? Question of the day...Answer?

Some other random Tokyo pictures...the endless sea of lights from the highest observation deck in Tokyo Tower, Disney Sea pictures (us on a kiddie ride making it look scary, wearing special glasses at the Magic Carpet Theater before we were supposed to, the no fish smoking sign at Mermaid Lagoon, our Indiana Jones ride survival picture).

SumoTown

Here are some pictures of the sumo tournament we got to go see in Tokyo last Sunday. It was amazing. They actually only fought for like 5-20 seconds, but the whole fight preparation took forever, like 3 minutes. They threw some salt, went into the ring, squatted, faced each other, left the ring, drank some water, threw some more salt, went back into the ring, lifted their legs and squatted again. Talk about a warm up and a half. What a day.
And a sumo carrying a briefcase just for fun...

Here are some random pictures from Tokyo...me and Heather in the world's largest ferris wheel in Yokohama, us in wooden cutouts in Asakusa (Heather's a playing god and I'm a singing god), and Fumiko and I playing with sunglasses while we were waiting in the mall for the movie to start.

Highlight Reel

Here are a few highlights from the last couple of days:

-getting to go see a sumo tournament in Tokyo...and then taking pictures with them outside

-being a kid again at Disney Sea, where it's cool for grown men to wear Mickey Mouse ears (or Minnie) and hang big pink buckets of popcorn from their neck...and having my glasses cleaned by the rollercoaster misting water at me at high speeds

-trying on Gucci sunglasses in the Ginza store without shame

-wearing a $9000 kimono... and then taking it off the same time as Heather to reveal to everyone in that high-class place we already felt awkward in our matching t-shirts that say in bright kiddie lettering "Love Tokyo Tower" right on the front

-hearing my neighbor chant and seeing my breath in my apartment (just kidding about this one...)

-discovering the Japanese version of crepes...though we haven't found any as good as the first one we had in Shibuya

-receiving scented toilet paper that teaches you Japanese (or English), not once but twice. Right now I'm working on learning about sea life... the picture of the sea otter (rakku) is my favorite so far. Soon I'll graduate and move on to something else like classroom supplies or vegetables.

-discovering what it's like to laugh with your whole body again

-eating a parfait as big as your head...with your mouth open

-drinking tea and stretching in the morning

-getting filmed by a tv crew in Tokyo while I was listening to rocks (some relaxation thing they invented during the Edo period about 300 years ago)...and then not even a week later getting photographed by the Odate newspaper when we were looking at the Hena Doll (Girls' Day) display