The M.A.D. Show

So, what is the M.A.D. Show? Don't quote me on it, but I think it stands for Music Acting and Dance. ...maybe that's totally wrong, but nevertheless it is a talent show of sorts. This annual event showcases the talent of BEST club students in whatever form they want to show. For example, I took part in a skit (that included a dance number), and there were comedy routines, dancing, piano, a magic performance, singing, and rap.

My groups skit was entitled "Modern Cinderella", and included elements of the Cinderella story but in a modern Japanese setting. I had the role of a fortune teller, who was to give advice to Cinderella. At the end, when Cinderella was reunited with the prince, who was just a cool guy, we all "celebrated their reunion" with the show stopping, final dance number from High school Musical! It was kinda bizarre and made sense all at the same time. And as it turned out, we all got first place!

Here is a picture of me and Sekki, who was the MC, and dressed up as Mickey as he can do a really good Mickey impression. Mind you, it's an impression of the Japanese voice of Mickey. And finally, I'd like the thank the internet for it's turban tying lessons.

A dilema settled the Japanese way

So, in this situation, all of us decided to have sushi for dinner. It is a lot cheaper to get a large amount, but the issue came up of dividing all the good sushi with the 10 people. Well, like all problems in Japan, the only fair solution is to play "Jan-Ken", which is the Japanese version of Rock-Paper-Scissors. I'm not joking in any way when I say almost every problem is solved by this method!

So, in this video someone nominates a sushi, and then the people that want to eat it play Jan-Ken to see who can eat the available 4. It was a hilarious meal! Also, here is your chance to experience the dynamic of a Japaneses gathering of friends. It's also worth pointing out that having bi-lingual conversation is quite normal with upperclassmen. We can all understand each other in our own language (for the most part ^_^)


For those that are curious, what they are saying is "Seishyo wa gu. Janken poi!" to start. At a draw, you say "Aiko desho!" and play another hand until a winner is decided. You'll notice it gets shortened to "desho, desho, desho" because there was no winner for a while. Being able to judge a game is very difficult, but I'm getting better at being able to keep up with the speed they play the game. I play this game, at a minimum, once a week, so it doesn't take long before you get used to it.

And sorry Mandy, I'd explain how I got the video from you, but it would take more than 10 minutes! ^_^ I'll give you a hint: HTML source! HAHAHAHA!

Mega New Years Update Part Three

Christmas has now become New Years, which is a much more important holiday here in Japan. This is the time of vacation. Not only in the sense the the students are on break for the semester, but also this is the time that we get to take a break from our BEST club duties and ministry.

So what do you do when you have to spend your first Christmas away from home in 23 years? Spend it with the other people that are away from home! There is certainly no time like Christmas that puts the "foreign" in foreign country. So for Christmas, coming from our respective prefectures, we all traveled to Karuizawa to create 'Little America', and celebrate Christmas together, the way we know and love. It was a fun time, and that may be the last time that all of us will be together, as some of the people you see in the picture will be returning to America.

Happy New Years! And what better way to bring in the New Year by taking a large hammer, and hitting a big pile of rice! No, I'm not joking... In this picture, I am helping to make mochi; a traditional Japanese New Years food. It's essentially hammered rice, until it turns into a dough-like paste. It's rolled into balls, and usually eaten with kinako powder, which I don't know how to explain, or anko, which is a sweet red bean. It's much more delicious than I'm aware it sounds when I describe it. We also made a soup-thing, which I too don't really know how to describe. It's kind of like Japanese nabe, but that doesn't help either, does it... That's why I took video! So, maybe just watch it and then you can see. The people in the video are upperclassmen, and/or BEST alumni.

Here is a video of me making mochi. It may look easy, but you have to be very careful not to hit the wooden rim of the bowl, or you could crack the bowl (which is very expensive) or the hammer (probably expensive too)



Here is a video of my good friend Shige making mochi also. The people in the background are not really saying anything, but they were trying to start a rhythm that just became funny.



This is the soup being made. It tasted very good despite the fact that it contained vegetables that I didn't even know existed...

Mega Christmas Update Part Two

Merry Christmas!

It's 1:48am, Christmas Day, so it's Christmas here in Japan, but not yet in America. I suppose never before have the time zone implications for Santa been so real to me until now. Anyway, I should be off to bed, but.... MUST..... UPDATE.... BLOG....


Doesn't everyone look so lovely?! Last week, we had the end of the year Christmas party. This semi-formal event is the last event of the year, and in my opinion, one of the best. Here there were all the making of a good Christmas party; Christmas dinner, singing carols, games, gift exchange, and a Christmas message. Except here, the food was Japanese, the songs are sung in another language, and I couldn't understand most of the message. But hey, what do you expect?!

Although, I could only understand very little, I really enjoyed the message at the end. It is a tradition for Nagai-san to speak at the Christmas party about Christmas. While most of us don't have to think twice, for some of the students, this was the first time that they had ever heard that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, or made the connection that "Christ" is found in the word Christmas.

And I got a cool clock as my white elephant gift! Score!!!

Mega Christmas Update Part One

Ok, so I haven't updated in a while, so now I have a lot to say, but I don't want to write too much, so I'll try and break it down into a couple entries. Things have been quite busy, so sorry for the lack of updates, but I'll try and make up for it.


So, here it is! The first ever Penn State reunion photo! All the students you see in this picture are every student that has studied at Penn State University, not including the ones that are there right now. Never have all these Japanese students been in one place at one time. It was pretty exciting. The event that this historical moment took place was a Christmas party that happened on the first of December. So, yeah, that's early for a Christmas party, and I am 19 days late to talk about it, but what can you do?

The party was a get together for Seniors and Alumni, and it was the first time I was able to see many of these students since I arrived in Japan. There were about 20 people that came, which was pretty impressive, since we all had to fit in Lighthouse, which is probably not designed to accommodate more than 10 comfortably. But we all fit, and we had a great time.

Later in the evening, we did a small group Bible discussion on the story of Christmas. Many Japanese have never heard about the true meaning of Christmas, and how it's actually a celebration of the birth of Jesus. In my small group of about 6, our discussion lead into the gospel message of Jesus, and talking about salvation through Christ. The thing that surprised me the most was it seemed that it was the first time that the people in my group had ever heard an explanation of the gospel. Since, these were all upperclassmen and alumni, I assumed that this wouldn't be the first time for them to hear this, but my impression was that it was... Perhaps, it was just the first time to go into detail. My hope is that it will open the door for further discussion down the road.

It was a very positive evening, and a great time that I got to spend with friends that I had not seen in a long time.

It's feels really cold in Shizuoka

Central heat is not a luxury bestowed upon Joyhouse, and for that reason it is absolutely frigid right now. I have a heater in my room, so I can use it when it gets horribly cold, but it's not like I can just leave it on all the time. Anyway, I suppose having a freezing house in winter is just one of those cultural differences that takes some getting used to...

But, on the topic of Joyhouse, meet my roomates:

From left to right: Daichan, Sugi, Ryosuke, Me

And yes, you are correct! We are all wearing the same clothes. They are sport jerseys. It's probably a little hard to read, but each jersey says "Joyhouse". It's the first time a joyhouse group has done this, and everyone in BEST club thinks they're really cool. We may even have started a tradition of generations of Joyhouse uniforms! Who knows, but it's a cool reminder of the friendship we all have together.

I'm really happy to be living with them. Not only have they made my transition easier, but we get to spend a lot of time together, and share a lot with each other. I couldn't have asked for better roommates.

Young Laborers Conference

So, this past weekend, I traveled to Tokyo for the annual Young Laborers conference. It is a conference for the Japanese student Christians in the various BEST clubs in Japan. Since there are very few Japanese Christians in Japan, let alone student Christians, it is a great time of fellowship and encouragement for them, and also for staff, like me.

It's unfortunate that there were no students from Shizuoka BEST that could attend. Utsunomia BEST has quite a few Japanese Christians in their club, and it was fun to meet them. Since as of now, there are no student Christians here in Shizuoka, it was really encouraging to interact and talk with Christians that can share their experiences about what it is like to live as a Christian in a Japanese culture. I think it also helped to start to have a vision for what Shizuoka BEST can become, and how God can work in the lives of our students as well.

The picture is of our small group for the weekend. Each morning we would do a small Bible study. One of the joys of being in a foreign country is that, because the mind of the Japanese thinks differently, the discussion that comes up in a Bible study is so refreshingly different. There is nothing more humbling and exciting than hearing a perspective about a passage that I would never have thought of, or have thought in my many years of doing Bible studies.

And I had to take the train (actually trains) home by myself! NIGHTMARE! Specifically, a 5 hour nightmare! I realize now that the feeling is akin to that of a two year old trying to take public transportation from Philadelphia to NY by himself. (In terms of communication level and ability) ...but I made it. I thank God for my nominal Japanese... -_-