The Land of the Rising Son: Spring has Sprung and changes are a bloomin’!

Okay, so maybe the title is a little corny but it has been awhile since I’ve written in this blog! When I do not write an entry for a long time it is usually because I’ve been really busy, so that’s a good thing, right? The busier I am, the happier I tend to be and feel fulfilled, so March was a good month…. And we’ll take things a month at a time. March was a crazy busy month; and also my birthday month! Considering it was such a busy month I probably took over 1,000 pictures between Kayla's visit and Thailand so there are quite a few pictures in this entry! I had intentions of writing several blogs about the month’s activities but considering I am so far behind I’m going to roll everything up into one long blog entry. The events will still be in their abbreviated version, but if you wish to know more about any specific activity or event please comment or send an e-mail and I will give more details!

March 5th was the last day of language classes for our orientation group. Being it was the last day of course we had to give some kind of public performance so everyone could judge how much Japanese we’ve actually learned. It serves as an end of the year party as well as an evaluation of how the teachers have done. So our group decided to do a skit in the form of a new J-Pop band being interviewed on a talk show. We each created a persona (which were quite amusing) and dressed accordingly (yes that’s why I am dressed so obnoxious, but believe it or not that’s not too far off from how some of the girls dress here) we had a lot of fun with that. My name was あめAme, which translates to Candy. Some girls in Tokyo dress in all pink such as I did, and it is thought to be ‘cute’, the hat is borrowed from a friend and is QUITE popular at Tokyo Disney. Skit day was a good time had by all, and officially marked the end of our formal Japanese study and phase one of our missionary term in Japan. We “graduated” from school and received certificates (yes I formally received mine in that outfit) and then it was time to begin our real jobs here in Japan.

After the hype of classes ending had worn off, I was lucky to have my friend Kayla come visit from the States. Having Kayla stay with me was awesome; she brought a sense of home with her when she came to visit (not to mention she brought me some stuff from America, which was fantastic!).

I could talk in English at my normal 90 to nothing speed, and she understood every word I said. It was great! Doug and Sue took Kayla and I to Tsukiji (the largest fish market in the world) where we enjoyed an early morning. And to all of you who know me well… I got up at 4:45 am willingly to go, impressive, huh? The four of us had a blast together, and it was a mini foster family reunion (although Rebecca was missing) so it was nice to sit around the dinner table, or to grab a coffee and talk about religion, the current ELCA situation at home, current economic events or dive into a deep philosophical conversation. While Kayla was here, we went on a tour of Tokyo, everyday brought on a new adventure and new things to see. We went to Kamakura to see the second largest Buddha in Japan, Tsukiji, several different gardens, the Hotel New Otani Gardens, Tokyo Tower, Harajuku, Ginza, Tokyo Abercrombie ♥ and a million other places! It was a world wind tour for sure, and I hope Kayla remembers everything we did!

We were also lucky enough to be able to participate in a traditional tea ceremony at our language teacher’s house. We even got to dress up in Kimonos, which I must say I rather enjoyed. The Japanese tea ceremony is very detailed, from how you hold the bowl, to how many times you must turn it before you can drink and in what direction, to how to pour the water; it was very beautiful.

After Kayla left it was time to move! As soon as she packed up her bags, I started to pack up my apartment. Moving was an interesting experience to say the least. I was currently living in Adachi-ku, which was located in the northern part of Tokyo. It was a great neighborhood and I grew to love my little apartment very much, but it was not exactly in the ideal location for where I was going to be working, so I moved to more of a central location in Tokyo, and am now living in Bunkyo-ku. I now live 3 minutes from my church and the Katerina Dorm where I work. The other site where I work, the Hongo student center, is approximately 20 minutes by bicycle, so it is a much nicer commute! My new apartment is quite larger than my last as well. I will put pictures up once I’m satisfied with how it is arranged. There are still a few things I need to purchase in order to make the apartment my new home for the next two years, but I am settling in…again.

After I was moved in (by that I mean my boxes were physically there) I picked up and flew to Thailand for a vacation with my friend Carolyn who is also a J-3 here in Japan. She lives in Kumamoto so we flew in separately, and our travel dates were a BIT different, all but two days we were traveling Thailand together. We landed in Bangkok and spent the first night there, and the next day we left for Koh Chang our island resort for the week. All I can manage to say is wow…the beach was beautiful, the food was delicious, the accommodations were great, (albeit very much so what I like to call authentic) and the country in general was rather inexpensive. We could take taxis places,

and a good majority of the people spoke English, which was refreshing. I have nothing but great things to say about Koh Chang, it was amazing and I was rather sad to leave. After leaving Koh Chang we traveled back up to Bangkok for the next few days. We went on tours of the Grand Palace, the temple of the Emerald Buddha, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, Wat Phra Kaeo, got scammed on a tuk-tuk, I rode an elephant, played with a baby money, found and successfully opened a coconut and did many more things in between. It was an adventure to say the least! Thai massages are also quite fantastic and I am sad to not have those in Tokyo. Thailand was a beautiful country and quite possibly our favorite part were the food vendors on the sides of the roads. The roads are packed with vendors’ stalls selling food, and it is cheap too! I had the most delicious meals and snacks of mango and sticky rice from these food vendors; it’s a great way to eat in Thailand. It was a very relaxing trip and a much-needed break from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, which also made it rather hard to come back to this style of life after living on an island. I also met quite a few foreigners in Thailand which was nice; the whole way in which people interact is different thus making it a lot easier to make friends in Thailand which made for a fun week, but once again slightly harder to leave.