Tuesday

...two weeks late. :) Again, I apologize for the delay.

Tuesday was a big day for us! We were up bright and early and hopped into Pastor Taizo and Yukiko's cars and headed out for Okutama. (Yukiko is a counsellor for Fukushima refugee children. She had two boys, Akira (13) and Taka (11), who became our translators.) Along the way, we stopped at a little bakery. We all had our share of mysterious filled donuts. (A big hit was a custard-filled donut. It was like eating battered and fried creme brulee. Oishii~)
Okutama is a lovely little corner of Tokyo; full of green and surrounded by mountains. The Okutama Bible Chalet is located here; a pretty little compound that hosts many camps during the summer. Just up the road was our destination. I can't remember the name of the camp itself, and the sign was in Japanese. No help there, either. But anyway, it was a small, but tidy and scenic camp; as well as the current residence of a large group of refugees from Fukushima Babtist Chruch. We were greeted by and introduced to Pastor Masashi Sato, who showed us a PowerPoint about his church--its history, its members, and what life has been like for its members since Fukushima was devistated. Sensei, as we called him, always had smile on his face and was a fantastic host :) We also started getting to know the other refugees who were living at the kids. There was everything from facsinated toddlers to excited school-aged kids to mild grandparents there at the camp; all of them very polite, gracious and extremely hospitable.

As we worked on getting settled in, our luggage arrived. We were happy to see it and everything, but I personally (and I'm sure the team felt similarly) felt a sense of guilt--almost selfishness--after talking with the refugees. Here we had been fuming over our lost luggage for the past several days, but we knew we'd be getting it back eventually. When the earthquake first occured and the Fukushima residents left home, they had expected to be able to return home after a few days and, like us, have all their familiar belongings back with them. That was, of course, before the tsunami and the power plant meltdown. The refugees were left with nothing--and most of them still have very little.

That afternoon, we walked down to a nearby river for some wading with the camp kids and a few of the adults. A perfect way to cool off during Japan's muggy summer! After our river run, we went to work practicing our skits for Bible Adventure Camp, which would be starting the next day. We breaked for dinner, and then continued late into the night decorating our camp classrooms--making mazes out of duct tape, palm trees out of streamers, and taping fish to the walls.

We were all happy to see our beds that night :)

(I don't have any pictures for Tuesday. They'll hopefully be here soon :D)

Japan Day By Day: Monday

Hey guys...so I'm actually home now. I'm so sorry for the delay! Things got so super busy in Japan that I didn't have enough time (when I was coherent) to write a quality blog entry for you all. I will still post the Day By Day blogs, as well as some pictures and videos I have :)

Anywho...

Monday was a big day for us! In the new (and the only clean set of) clothes that we had bought from Uniglo, the store we had visited the night before, we went to Kurume Christ Church (KCC)'s Grace Coffee Hour; a time for church members to gather and chat, sing worship songs, and eat yummy treats. We got to know many of KCC's members (despite the fact many of them couldn't speak English!) and played with their children. It was there and at the Okutama camp later on that I decided "Hit the Gaijiin" (hit the foreigner) was a popular game among Japanese children. Poor Emily got absolutely pelted with little footballs and soccer balls in the KCC playground :D  We also got the chance to Meet Pastor Taizo and his wife; our very gracious and helpful hosts.

 Poor Isaac. He made over 1000 T-shirts for a Japan fundraiser, and most if not all of those t-shirts were sold. On the back, a string of Japanese characters read "Support Japan" or something of the like.

They were supposed to, anyway.

As we found out at Grace coffee hour, the Japanese words actually read out, to the most sensible English translation, "Do me a favor." The Japanese loved it, and as soon as we found out what was making them laugh, we all joined in :) Our Japanese friends were kind enough to correct the T-shirt with a sharpie.  

For part of the coffee hour, the KCC members sang a few praise songs in Japanese. Aftewords, we sang a few of the songs we were going to do at camp ("Super Strong God", "Our Redeemer Lives", "Our God"). I don't think anyone from KCC sang along, but they clapped to the beat with us!
Here is a video of the folks at KCC singing "Amazing Grace" first in English, and then in Japan. Absolutely beautiful.

 

Eating lunch with the Kunneckes!

 

A Japanese Train

After our time with KCC,                                Steve and Janet Kunnecke took us out to lunch and then on an afternoon tour of Tokyo! Part of Tokyo, anyway. It's a pretty big place!
We rode a train out of Higashi-Kurume and stopped briefly in Ikkebukuro, a busy region of Tokyo. Ikkebukuro fit my mental image of "Tokyo" perfectly: big intersections full of people, tons of people walking everywhere, tall buildings, big, colorful advertisiments, etc. etc. etc.
Then we hopped the train again and headed to Asakusa, a large Buddhist temple with a Shinto shrine attached. The temple grounds were gorgeous and the inside of the temple was very beautiful; lots of intricate architecture, painting, and decoration. Outside the main temple, there was a large street market. So, we did ourselves some shopping! Some of us, including myself, found out we really enjoy sweet potato ice cream.
Later, we visited Akihabara: the techy, anime, video game culture capital OF THE WORLD. I'll have pictures later; I had to borrow Laura's camera for this part of the trip, which she needed for a wedding she was going to this week. The guys went to a Mr. Donut (where they had curry donuts and other interesting treats) while the girls went to a special photobooth called a Purikura, which makes the user look like an anime/manga character (big eyes, flawless hair/skin, etc.) Then we decorated them by adding words, stamps, etc. I'll post those pictures soon :)
That night we went to  Johnathan's; a 24-hour restaurant that has TONS of food to choose from. They also offer a drink bar, which is an island full of all kinds of beverages (none of them alcoholic, by the way) to choose from. That's how I discovered iced matcha (green tea) lattes. They look absolutely disgusting, but taste like heaven. The sad thing is, I don't think I'll ever find them in America. I know you can get green tea lattes and stuff from Starbucks, but they just arn't the same :(
After dinner, we visited a sento, or Japanese public bathhouse, as a treat from Pastor Taizo. The sento was beautiful and had lots of different options--there were pools with jets, pools with a little electrical current going through it (which I guess is supposed to be beneficial somehow), long, flat pools that you lay in, and a sauna. My personal favorite was the outdoor pool. It was a cool, beautiful night and it was very peaceful (don't worry, it was well guarded from any public eyes!).
After the sento, we were all ready to crash; so we did :)                         



Jonathan's; the restaurant we ate dinner at.