Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Nothing Much to Report
Life as usual here. Work, chores, chatting with the roomies, watching anime, the usual.
Winter seems to have finally hit. I need to wear a light jacket and gloves whenever I go out. It's still quite liveable, though. In fact, the mornings are *gorgeous*, clear and sunny and bright. I was walking to church at dawn on Sunday, and the sunrise was unbelievable.
Church was wonderful--both of them. I nearly DIED, dragging myself out of bed at 5 AM Sunday for the dawn service, but it was worth it. It was a small service--me, the pastor, and three other people--but the pastor was a good speaker (the half of the sermon I understood, anyway), the message was inspiring (once again, the bits I understood), and everyone was very friendly. I can't guarantee that I'll make it every week, but I'm going to try my best to attend regularly.
At 10 the church down the street had a special Shichi-Go-San celebration instead of Sunday school. Shichi-Go-San is actually today (Nov. 15th), but it's not a national holiday so most people move the celebration to the nearest weekend. So all the seven- and three-year-old girls and the five-year-old boys at the church dressed up in traditional clothes and were blessed by the pastor. It was adorable beyond belief, all the little kids in kimono singing children's hymns and fidgeting and making funny faces at the audience. And I stayed after a few minutes and chatted with members of the young adult class, most of whom spoke a little bit of English and all of whom were very friendly and welcoming. I'm DEFINITELY going to attend Sunday school there every Sunday.
So God has amply answered my prayers in that area.
Yesterday was a long, slow slog of a day. I had eight hours of kids training, which mainly involved pretending to be five years old and saying stuff like "I like pizza" or "He's wearing a red jacket" so the other teachers could get a chance to practice teaching. Blah. On the plus side, I'm now trained to teach children. I can't WAIT for my first kids class! Everyone says I'm going to have a lot of fun with them. Hey, how could I not enjoy getting paid to sing songs and color with crayons? And Japanese kids are THE CUTEST CREATURES ON THE PLANET!
To make up for going in for training last weekend and yesterday, I only had to teach two classes today. I'm not complaining about getting off work at 11:30! I'm spending the afternoon doing chores--laundry, cooking, shopping, vacuuming--and watching anime and chatting with people online. Tomorrow, since all the housework's out of the way, I'm leaving to spend two full days in Kamakura, which is a very famous historical town about an hour from my house full of temples and shrines and famous statues and museums. I can't wait! Expect updates in a couple of days with lots and lots of pictures of temples.
If you feel like praying for me, you could pray that I find some way to get involved with the church here. I know God has some task for me to do here, and I'm not sure just yet what it is. My Japanese is so bad I'm not sure what I can contribute, but I want to find a niche somewhere.
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Winter seems to have finally hit. I need to wear a light jacket and gloves whenever I go out. It's still quite liveable, though. In fact, the mornings are *gorgeous*, clear and sunny and bright. I was walking to church at dawn on Sunday, and the sunrise was unbelievable.
Church was wonderful--both of them. I nearly DIED, dragging myself out of bed at 5 AM Sunday for the dawn service, but it was worth it. It was a small service--me, the pastor, and three other people--but the pastor was a good speaker (the half of the sermon I understood, anyway), the message was inspiring (once again, the bits I understood), and everyone was very friendly. I can't guarantee that I'll make it every week, but I'm going to try my best to attend regularly.
At 10 the church down the street had a special Shichi-Go-San celebration instead of Sunday school. Shichi-Go-San is actually today (Nov. 15th), but it's not a national holiday so most people move the celebration to the nearest weekend. So all the seven- and three-year-old girls and the five-year-old boys at the church dressed up in traditional clothes and were blessed by the pastor. It was adorable beyond belief, all the little kids in kimono singing children's hymns and fidgeting and making funny faces at the audience. And I stayed after a few minutes and chatted with members of the young adult class, most of whom spoke a little bit of English and all of whom were very friendly and welcoming. I'm DEFINITELY going to attend Sunday school there every Sunday.
So God has amply answered my prayers in that area.
Yesterday was a long, slow slog of a day. I had eight hours of kids training, which mainly involved pretending to be five years old and saying stuff like "I like pizza" or "He's wearing a red jacket" so the other teachers could get a chance to practice teaching. Blah. On the plus side, I'm now trained to teach children. I can't WAIT for my first kids class! Everyone says I'm going to have a lot of fun with them. Hey, how could I not enjoy getting paid to sing songs and color with crayons? And Japanese kids are THE CUTEST CREATURES ON THE PLANET!
To make up for going in for training last weekend and yesterday, I only had to teach two classes today. I'm not complaining about getting off work at 11:30! I'm spending the afternoon doing chores--laundry, cooking, shopping, vacuuming--and watching anime and chatting with people online. Tomorrow, since all the housework's out of the way, I'm leaving to spend two full days in Kamakura, which is a very famous historical town about an hour from my house full of temples and shrines and famous statues and museums. I can't wait! Expect updates in a couple of days with lots and lots of pictures of temples.
If you feel like praying for me, you could pray that I find some way to get involved with the church here. I know God has some task for me to do here, and I'm not sure just yet what it is. My Japanese is so bad I'm not sure what I can contribute, but I want to find a niche somewhere.
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