Freshman camp

There have been quite a few things that I haven't been able to talk about recently, so I'm going to play catch up.


Freshman camp is one of the bigger events this summer. This is the first large event for freshman, and it is a bonding experience for both students to students, but also students to BEST club. This is one the first times where freshman get to be involved in activities with upper classmen and get to really meet all the members of BEST.

It was quite fun, and it marks a great milestone in my relationships with students. In BEST club, it has become a tradition for the each grade class to have matching sports jerseys with their names on the back. This way when everyone plays sports, you can see who is in what class. Well, in the middle of the camp, both Mandy and I were both surprised by the sophomore class with matching sophomore class jerseys! It's hard to express the meaning that is behind a gift like that, but it's quite incredible. The current sophomore class is who we are the closest with, and I almost cried at the thought that they wanted to include us as a sophomore! It's a big deal! Anyway, enough sappynesss, here are some pictures.

Argentina colors. And I think they picked number 6, because that is the month of my birthday.

In some ways, I feel like "belonging" is one of the highest values in Japanese culture, (where as in America "independence" is higher) so to be invited to 'belong' is a very, very strong sentiment.

...ok, ok, I'm going to stop, or I may cry again...

I'm still here ^_^

Well, vacation is coming up in a few weeks, which will be great, because I've been working really hard recently. Maybe too hard. I've been having trouble getting some personal time into my schedule.

I know it's been a while, but my schedule has been overflowing with stuffs. Just as a quick rundown, the summer team has been here since August, Aileen has finished her mid-term and has returned to America, Brian VanZante and his family has returned to America to visit family, among other things, my junior highschool classes are coming to an end, I have my final BEST club English class this week, I have taken and failed my Japanese drivers test three times, and my parents are visiting Japan next month.

Yikes!

Yay! More people!

Good news! Two new freshman girls have joined my English class, so now there are five freshman and one sophomore. It's very fun. Every week we read the Bible, and practice English conversation, among other things. Last week, we discussed how talking in English is like a game of tennis, where the conversation goes back and forth, as opposed to Japanese, where conversation can be more like bowling at times. So we had various converstations while throwing tennis balls back and forth to help visualize the nature of the conversation. It went really well.

The summer workers are coming in about two weeks. There will be lots of stuff going on then too. ...like my schedule isn't full enough as is! ^_^

Just a normal update this time

Well sorry, no new pictures. I haven't taken any recently. The semester has begun, and now there seems to something always happening. Between working part time, and BEST club activities, my schedule is pretty full, if not overloaded. On Wednesdays, I have an English discussion class for interested BEST club underclassmen. Right now, there are three freshmen guys, and a sophomore. They all have a desire to speak English, and we are quickly seeming to become good friends. There is also a girl who may be coming next week. She is a new freshman, and I don't think I have met her before. Anyway, I really like the class, and the people in it. It would be perfect if I wasn't always about to die from having taught at the Junior High School earlier in the day. Wednesdays are essentially a 7am-10pm day... Yuck! Hey, that's like a normal Japanese workday for most people!

Now is "Golden Week". It's a period of time during the year where there are 5 Japanese holidays that line up in a row. So, it a big vacation for Japan. There are a lot of people who have left. Golden week doesn't mean anything to me, just as much as probably Spring Break means to a Japanese person. But, I do get a break from teaching, which means I can finally catch up on all the "loose ends" that have been accumulating for a while.

I wish I had a secretary. ^_^

A new semester

Tomorrow is the first day of the new semester! This is really exciting, because we will finally be able to begin the regular activities of BEST club again. Recently, there have really only been vacationy, "touristy" trips and activities, because it's been, well.... vacation. For the students, that is. We will start BEST club recruiting next week, which is to invite new freshman to join BEST. It's an all club event, and it will be my first time to experience it. I'll let you know how it goes later.

It's cherry blossom season now. Cherry blossoms are called "Sakura" in Japanese. They are only in bloom for about two weeks, so I took some pictures before they are all gone. It's quite a short window of opportunity every year, and many Japanese people take time off to travel to sakura gardens, as it is quite beautiful. This tree happens to be at the bottom of the hill in our neighborhood. Sakura trees are all over Japan, but I didn't really notice until now. The White House has Cherry Blossoms, I think. I wonder why?


I think soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Probably the only place it is not popular is in America, I imagine. I could be wrong, but nevertheless it is very popular in Japan. So my roommates planned a trip to a soccer game. S-Pulse is the name of the team for Shimizu, which is like an area of the Shizuoka prefecture, or something like that.

It was really fun. The biggest difference in spectation is the cheering. Fans for each team have a series of cheers that they preform during the game in unison. There is even a cheer leader that stands in the bleachers and leads the cheers. (not to be confused with the cheerleaders, who were the women on the field). If there is any testament to the state of Japanese group oriented society it has to be their cheering. I took a video. This is only one of maybe 10 or so cheers that we did. ....everyone knows them all!?

Taking the "major" out of "major holiday"

Well, Easter has come and gone. I don't know if it really need to be said, but Easter is not a Japanese holiday. So where as in America, at the very least, you are constantly reminded by bunnies and eggs everywhere, I kinda forgot that Easter was this month, because there are none of those typical reminders that we are so used to. I didn't miss Easter. I just said, "oh! tomorrow is Easter, right?" So, we had an Easter message at church. That's about all the Easter there was. I had to chuckle at the thought of how I am in the habit of doing so much (the church service on Friday before, on Sunday, and Easter dinner with family. chocolate too, I guess) and how here there wasn't really anything. I don't know if I'd call it culture shock, but it's definitely another reminder that I am not home... and I'm not in short supply of those at all ^_^

The new semester starts in a week or so, which means there is going to be a lot going on in April. I'm looking forward to it.

update-mini

Well, it's a little long delayed, but I've been meaning to get some pictures from some friends, since I haven't taken many of my own. There have been a lot of random happenings recently. Here are a quick few...



Yep, I learned to snowboard. I'll have to say it's probably my new favorite hobby. There were actually a lot of new learners this time, so it was good that I was not alone. Nothing brings people together quite like falling on your butt a million times in front of others. But as you can see, it's quite a popular trip.

This is the group photo from that all Japan staff conference. For reasons unknown, this photo was taken when not all of the group was around... But anyway, Jerry Bridges was the speaker, and you can see him in the photo. He's like 76 or something! I'm sure there are some of you that have read his books. He could very well be the most famous Navigator!

More to come soon! ^_^