Christmas Celebrations

After my month long hiatus from blogging, I'm back! As I briefly mentioned in my last post, December was going to be busy, and December's busyness did not disappoint. There is obviously a lot to share, so this post will highlight a few through words and pictures

English class hristmas parties, December 16-22:

I think that planning 13 Christmas parties sounds worse then it really is. Although this took a little bit more prep time, due to running around getting prizes, drinks and chips; I was essentially able to throw the same type of party for all of my Elementary and Jr. High classes. We played bingo, and decorated cookies (I can not take credit for baking cookies. Junko, out of the kindness of her heart, made Christmas cookies for my students to decorate).

In my more advanced classes, students brought food to share. We hung out, chatted and ate delicious food.

Children’s Christmas party, December 23:

This day our church hosted a Christmas party and candle light service for children in our town.There wee about 90 kids that came out for this event, the majority of the kids were English, and piano students. Santa made an appearance, and the children brought gifts for a gift exchange, and we watched a Christmas video that my church back at home (Grace Lutheran) made. The part that I was most anticipating was the performance of my English Students singing Silent Night. The 6 weeks leading up to this event, I started working on getting my students to learn the words. The problem was that I

would often forget to work on it with some of the classes, so some classes learnt it better then others. Also, not every student was all that thrilled with the idea of singing in front of other people, let alone in English, so there was a definite lack of motivation in class when we worked on it.Anywho, I had a combine rehearsal with students from various classes on theSaturday before the event. A whopping8students showed up to that little practice. The 8students that came were theones who knew the song best. It was good to do a little run though, but I still felt uneasy about the upcoming Thursday. But, on December 23, there were close to 20 students that stood up there and sang Silent Night.

Christmas Eve, December 24:

We had a traditional Christmas Eve candle light service at our church. Instead of being held at 11pm (which is what my church back home has always done), this one began at 7pm. The reason we have it earl is that there is a tradition in this church for all the youth, and young adults to go out and sing Christmas carols around town. So after the service was finished, we piled in a couple of cars and sang at the train station, and then made some special visits to people who were unable to make the service due to bad heath, or people who need a little Christmas spirit. Christmas spirit for us carolers was at a max because it had been snowing all Christmas day, so a healthy pile up of snow had begun to form for what would be a white Christmas…

…Although, I did not see a white Christmas because right after caroling I jumped on a night bus that pulled out of Sendai Station at 11pm. I was bound for Yokohama, where I visited my Uncle and his family for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you back in America, especially to my family and friends. I will miss the fun Thanksgiving traditions such as watching football, setting up the Christmas lights, going down to Seattle for the lighting of the Bon Star, cutting our Christmas tree, and being with the family. I hope you guys all enjoy you long weekend!

Secondly, I want to apologize for being somewhat of a ghost. Things have been very busy around here, consequently there has been no time for me to process or reflect on the past weeks. Will things start winding down as Christmas season approaches? No, just the opposite, many of you probably understand how busy things get, once Advent season begins, so wish me luck as I plan and prepare for all kinds of Christmas parties with my classes, and special services in our church.

Todays Blog I wanted to write a few things that I’m thankful for. Just to clarify, there are many more things that I could add to this list, but for the sake of time, I will limit it to only a few.

1) I’m thankful for my Family: I have been blessed with a family that is so supportive of me in many ways. Dating back to when I was a wee tike, to motivating me to do well in high school and helping me though the process of messy collage applications, to being available to help when I ran out of money towards the end of the school year, to helping me prepare for my move to Japan, all the way to now. They show so much support which makes it easier for me to be here and serve the Lord, knowing that they are happy with what I’m doing

2) I’m thankful for the Sasaki’s: They are my family here in Japan. They picked me up from the airport on July 8^th, they helped fill my fridge for the first month, they take me around different parts of Sendai, they helped me open a bank account and do all the necessary things to get settled and registered as an alien. Junko makes me dinner on my busy teaching days, and they are encourage me and push me to be creative and a fun English teacher.

3) I’m thankful for my students: I wouldn’t be here without them. When I first arrived in July, my student count was in the low 30’s, now we are at the cusp of breaking 60 students. I guess a lot of it comes from the grace of God where He is demonstrating another way he provides, but I enjoy all of my students so much…even the more rowdy ones. Each student is kind and I really appreciate their hard work and attitude through my classes, it makes it so much easier to teach. Through my first 5 months of teaching, I have so much more respect for all the teachers I have ever had, its tough work!

Like I said, this list can go on and on. I am thankful for God’s grace He has on us, I am thankful for good health…etc.

This past Tuesday (November 23) was a holiday in Japan…not really sure what the holiday was for, but a day off none-the-less. I was invited over to the Bengtson’s home (missionary family at the church) for a thanksgiving dinner. Linda always orders a Turkey from America and has a thanksgiving dinner with her family and the English teacher(s). It was a delicious meal, and I am so thankful for people that will bring me into their home and let me be apart

We ate all the traditional Thanksgiving dishes. Turkey, mashed potato’s, veggies, cor bread, stuffing, and pumpkin pie for dessert. I left that evening feeling so satisfied. So mom, you don't have to worry, I got my thanksgiving dinner this year! But, as I was scooping away at my mountain of mashed potato’s, I realized something. Thanksgiving is much much more then eating a delicious meal. Thanksgiving isn’t thanksgiving unless you are with your family. There is a certain atmosphere of love and comfort that you get when you eat that meal with your family, and I’m REALLY going to miss that. With that being said, I hope that you all enjoy your turkey dinners; I hope that you enjoy being with your family, and last but not least, enjoy the Thanksgiving football games!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Kris

Hiking with Yumi and Manabu

One of my students from my Wednesday adult class called me late Sunday night and asked if I wanted to go hiking with her and her husband Monday morning. Being that Mondays are my days off, I naturally wanted to take her up on this offer. Once again, I must say again that I’m so blessed to be around people that want to show me around, take me out for a meal, or to show me a good time!

Yumi has been asking me for weeks, “When can you go hiking? What days do you have off?” So, this spontaneous plan began to take shape. When talking on the phone with her, late Sunday night, she let me know that they would be picking me up around 9:30am and that we would grab a bite to eat in the little village that was right outside the trailhead.

Monday morning I woke up and rode my bike to the post office to grab some cash for lunch. Yeah, that’s right, I said post office, not bank. I don’t know why, but here in Japan you can keep money at the post office. I chose that over a bank because it’s cheaper to wire money into my American account. Anywho, by 9:30 we were on our way.

It was a cold and blustery fall day, but my gloves and hat helped keep me warm. By this time of year, most of the leaves had fallen off the trees and created a colorful path to walk on. The

destination of this hike was a waterfall. The estimated tim

e of the hikewas about 3 hours. But as we hiked, we could see that our hike was becoming shorter and shorter due to trails being closed. We were tempted to ignore the signs, but alas, we didn’t want to get in trouble. Walking along the higher part of the gully, we could look down and see the trail that ran along a stream. We were a bit disappointed we could not be down there, but as we kept trekking along, we figured out why those trails were closed. Big boulders from the cliffs had fallen down and crushed some of the bridges, and if people walked down there, they might be in harms way of another boulder crashing down on them.

Well, we made it to a waterfall, I don’t know if it was the waterfall. But it was still beautiful. We made our way back to the car and arrived back just 1 hour after we had left it. So the time of our hike was severally cut short. But, now it was time for lunch…

...NOT, cause the one little restaurant in that village was closed, dab-burnit! We were hungry! I don’t know the name of the village, but its like 20 off the main on a dirt road up in the hills. There are only three of four houses, a restaurant and oddly enough, the train stops there. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures to show you but if you have seen the movie the village, it’s a lot like that…only smaller.

We drove back to Yumi’s house where she made some good ol’ steak. So now we were eating our late lunch when her friend, Nobuko aka another student of mine, called Yumi and invited us over for dinner. We agreed, so a half hour later we went over to her house and had some delicious soup.

Once 8:30pm rolled around, the party started to wind down and I thought that it might be time to plan my lesson for the next morning. With our final goodbyes, and “see you on Wednesday,” Yumi dropped me back off at my apartment. It was a great day, and boy was I full.

November Colors

I am learning that fall in the Tohoku area of Japan is much nicer of a season then fall in the Northwest. Living in the Northwest my entire life, every fall I’ve experienced has been dark, cold and wet. Of course there are the few odd nice days here and there, and there are trees that change color, but you can only enjoy it for a short time before the cheery autumn colors become damp and soggy from the rain.

Living in the northeastern side of Japan, I am experiencing a beautiful world of red, orange, yellow, brown and every shade in between. As you may see in some of my recent photos, the land and mountains are blanketed with beautiful colors. This is something that you do not see very often in Seattle. Living in the “Evergreen State,” we get the beautiful lush green hills and mountainsides year round, but we can rarely look at a mountain and see a wonderful color pallet. I think that both can be beautiful, but the one thing that I am really enjoying about fall here is that it is dry! The leaves are sharing their last bit of colorful beauty before they become too brittle as they cling onto their branch before they are swooped away with a cool crisp gust of wind. I’m sure that in the next few weeks, colors will begin to fade, and as the days get cooler the last bits of life will be frozen away as nature anticipates the winter season.

This past Friday I had the privilege being taken to a Saikachi-numa by the Sasaki’s. It's a beautiful lake that happens to only be a 15 min bike ride from my apartment. Unfortunately I forgot my camera that day. The colors were so beautiful and I knew that this was a place I needed to revisit with my camera. On Sunday afternoon, Josh and I (you remember Josh right? One of the MK’s at this church, my Sakunami walk buddy) well anyway, we embarked on another adventure once Church and lunch had finished. We rode our bikes and were met by God’s beautiful creation, yet again. We took our time and snapped some photos around the lake, then made our way back home.

Unfortunately…or fortunately, depending on what kind of person you are, we did not run into any exciding wildlife. I’m determined to find a gang of monkeys or a wandering bear, but so far I’ve had no luck.

An Afternoon with the Endo's

The first member of the Endo family I met was Hinako. She is a very bright, energetic and friendly 7-year-old girl who stepped into my English class with lots of confidence. I met the rest of the family on a Sunday morning at church. Hinako has a 4 year old brother named Ryuichiro and the parents are Shigeyoshi and Humie. Shigeyoshi joined one of my adult classes in early September. Through weekly English classes with Hinako and her Father along with spending time together at church, their family and I have established the makings for a solid friendship.

For the past few weeks, the Endo san approached me and invited me over for either lunch or dinner. A week or two went by and we finally found a day that worked, Monday afternoon. They told me they would pick me up at 3:30 and we would just go from there. After they picked me up, we went back to their house. When I walk in the door, I was greeted by the smell of apple pie being cooked in the oven. While we waited for the pie to finish baking, I played memory with the Hinako and Ryu.

Some time went by, and when our stomachs started rumblin, we all piled in the car and made our way to a　とんかつ (ton katsu, deep fried pork) shop for dinner. It was very delicious, which made sense because they told me it was rated the second best ton katsu shop in Sendai. When we had our fill of dinner they took me downtown to a familiar ice cream shop. They said it was a cool shop because they sing. Can you guess what ice cream shop? If you are thinking of Cold Stone, you are correct! I forget what I ordered…I think it was something like sweet cream cookie delight????? Well, whatever it was, it was delicious!

We walked around a few shops and came to the conclusion that the clothes were much too expensive. They suggested that I shop at outlet stores, which then kind of segued into them saying that next time we hang out, they will take me to some good outlet stores…and then a famous temple. I’ll for sure share that story with you once that day comes. Until then, have a good weekend, and so sorry for not taking to many pictures on this day…I’ll try to do better next time ;)

PEACE!

11 Mile Walk

After my ladies class on Friday, Josh and I took a train west-bound to Sakunami. Josh heard that the trees were starting to change color and wanted to get some pictures of them. There are also some great waterfalls out that way.

When we got off the train, we started walking west were we got a beautiful close up view of “Gorilla Mountain.” If you look at it from a certain angle, the shape of the mountain looks like the head and face of a gorilla. We wondered east towards Ayashi where we planned on catching another train to take us back, once we were don't taking pictures.

The whole idea of this trip was to take some pictures of waterfalls, and the thing that motivates us, besides the beautiful weather, was the changing of leafs colors. We did not experience the full colors of fall, we got there about a week early, so we could only see the changes starting to happen, but it was still a beautiful day, so there was no reason to complain. Here are a few pictures taken from that day.

The long walk came into play because we spent too long enjoying the beautiful scenery and were stuck with the decision of walking back to Sakunami Station, then maybe miss that train, or we could walk all the way back to Ayashi. If I didn’t have a class to teach at 5:00, then we would have just walked back to Sakunami and if we missed that train we could have waited an hr for the next one. But, being that I needed to be back ready to teach in 2 and half hours, it would have been a pretty big risk. So, we decided to start our long trek back.

The funny part of the trip was as we were walking along north side of the highway we walked past a train station. We both knew that one was there, but Josh didn’t think the train would stop there. But, as we were approaching the crosswalk that would lead us to the station the train pulled in and stopped. Obviously we wanted to cross the road and try and get on that train, but we couldn’t. Both ways there was heavy traffic, so J-walking was no option. We hit the crosswalk button, but by the time we were able to cross the train started to pull out of the station. Well, now it was
back to walking the rest of the way home.

It was now 4:40, and if I were to keep the walking pace, I was going to be late. So, I dumped my jacket and sweater onto Josh and began running. By 4:50 and 1 mile later I ran into the church and found two of my students there (as they are always a half hr early) waiting. I told them that I would be back in a min. My lesson was planned, but I had not set out my materials or packed anything I needed for the class. Once again I was running, this time a much shorter distance to my apartment. I grabbed my stuff, swiped on some fresh deodorant, threw on a clean shirt and headed back to the church. Once 5:00 hit, we were all sitting in class and I was just finishing my last few huge gulps of water before I started class.

Feel free to check out my 'Explorations' album for more photos!

Hunt for a New Computer

I don’t know when my computer will fizzle out, but all I know that it could be as soon as tomorrow, or maybe it can last 6 more months. There is disconcerting clicking sound coming from the hard drive. Between every 30 and 60 min, my computer freezes up for about 15 seconds and I hear my hard drive stuck clicking. Well, since this has been going on for a couple of months, I think it’s a good time to start thinking about a new computer.

On Monday, Hiromitsu and his wife Ayumi took me around down to various electric shops and we checked out prices. Hiromitsu knows a lot about computers, so I’m pretty lucky to have someone that can show me what’s good, and what’s not good. Well, I didn’t buy a computer, and I did not decide on a computer, but one thing that I do know is that again the great people that surround me remind me.

I don’t really like shopping, I get so tired. I don’t know what it is, but I feel like I could play a few games of basketball and still have more energy then walking around a few stores. What I do like is going shopping with great people that are a lot of fun. The laugher, the conversations, the various food and drink stops make the whole day much more fun and less like a chore. I am so lucky that there are people around that will spend their entire day with me driving around and creating fun memories as we shopped for my computer.

Day Trip to Yamagata

After a few buys weeks of teaching and keeping busy with church events I was greatly anticipating Monday, my day off. There is nothing like having a day where you can keep completely to yourself and let your body and mind rest before another busy week of teaching starts. For those of you that know me well, you may know that being by myself all day doing nothing is not something that I enjoy. Being here in Japan, living on my own and not having any other North American’s around, I often find myself in that situation. I feel that I have adapted well to it, and can now appreciate time where I can physically and mentally recover at the same time. But, the real Kris inside of me is completely opposite of being reclusive. I need to get out there, enjoy the scenery and live life and share fun times with others. Last Monday was exactly that!

It was about time for me have a day spent away from my apartment and the church…where I spend all of my time. There are various times throughout the week where I will run to the store or the bank, but I do not really call that getting away. I woke up to a beautiful Monday morning with sun beaming into my one room apartment. Around 10:00am, Junko, Hisashi, Hiromitus, his wife Ayumi and I piled into the car and made our way to the prefecture east of us, Yamagata. The reason we were making this trip was because on November 3rd, our church is doing a little retreat to a Hot Spring out there, so we went to go check out the facilities and makes sure that everything was all squared away.

It was a beautiful drive as we followed the Sakunami Highway, winding through the beautiful green, and mountainous Japanese landscape. We stopped at a small waterfall and enjoyed the sound of the crashing water and the scent of fresh fall air. The trees at the tops of mountains were starting to change color. They were turning from a dark forest green to a fiery red. In a couple more weeks, I look forward to looking around and seeing the beautiful fall colors everywhere.

We got to the hotel, where we were going to be using their hot spring and took a tour of it. I don’t want to say it was an ugly hotel, because at one point…say 15-20 years ago Im sure it was beautiful. The reason why I didn’t think it was stunning is because I don’t thing its been updated since the early 90’s. But, I don’t want to bash the hotel to much because for the most part it was really cool. I look forward to using the Hot Spring and Dining facilities next week! Once our mini tour of the hotel was finished, we began making our way back to Ayashi, but before we got to far we stopped at a Soba Shop. Yamagata is know for its delicious Soba. I was not let down either; my food was delicious.

Before we got back in Ayashi, we took a little detour and stopped by a dam…which I assume gives power to the town that I live in, plus some other ones. Anywho, it was BEAUTIFUL. The pictures that I took do not justify the wonderful panoramic views of the mountains that I saw with my own eyes. It was also a beautiful time of day, the sun was lower in the sky which provided some beautiful light on the water pooled behind the dam

When we got back home I was very satisfied. My day off was everything that I needed. Good conversations, beautiful scenery, fresh air, seeing new things and eating delicious food. Again, I am so thankful for the people that God has put in my life over here, and am again impressed with the beauty of this world God created.

[More photos from this trip in the 'Explorations' album]

Movie Night

After my high school class two Fridays ago, I decided that it would be fun if we had a movie night. The idea came about due to one of the topics we where talking about in class, which happened to be movies. One of my students said that he liked Jacky Chan movies, which got me thinking…we should watch a Jacky Chan movie.

I asked my students if they had seen or heard of the movie Shanghi Noon. Turns out they hadn’t even heard of it, so I suggested we watch that movie. We all agreed that after class the following week would be a good time to watch it.

Jumping ahead a week to the Friday we watched the movie, I needed to think of a good place to watch it. My apartment is not an optimal spot because all I have is a bed, unless we all wanted to squeeze onto my bed and huddle around a lap top…which by the way couldn’t be mine because Japanese DVDs can’t be read by American lasers…or whatever that disk reader is called. Anywho, I quickly ruled out my pad. The church has a projector, so I got permission to use it with a DVD player and some speakers.

Hiromitsu helped me convert the dining room of the church into a comfortable, usable movie watching area. We brought in some nice couches and set up some tables for food. Him and his wife kindly donated some soda and chips. Hisashi and I ran out and got some more chips, and some delicious imports…Dr. Pepper and A&W. One of my students mom also hooked us up with some delicious bread and Chocolate.

There were 5 of us that watched the movie, myself, Hisashi, Asahi, Arato and Josh. Josh is a MK at the church. I’ve seen the move many many times, but it had been a while, so after it was all done, we quickly cleaned up the place and made it look like no one had even been there. Since everyone had a great time, I’m thinking that I’ll do a movie night with my high school guys once a month. So, if you have any suggestions for what we should watch in November, gimme a shout ;)

Garden Party

Yakisoba, games, singing, kabobs, garage sale, vegetable stand, marshmallow’s, 114 visitors and a beautiful day! The annual Garden Party took place last week (October 11) here at Ayashi Chuo Christ Church.

The event started at 12:30 where we indulged in some delicious yakisoba. Following lunch we sang some songs and then Hisashi sensei shared a bible story. The whole time he was sharing I was sitting on the grass mentally preparing for mylittle speech. I was not worried about getting up in front of all those people at talking. This presentation was going to be a little different because I wanted to surprise everyone and do it in Japanese. If you have not seen the video yet, take a look. Only two people knew about this surprise, Junko and Hiromitsu. Junko knew because she was the one that translated and helped me memorize it. Hiromitsu knew because he was in the room when I suggested the idea. Anywho, I was not completely natural sounding, but my think the subtle message got across. I wanted to demonstrate to my students and potential students that I am learning a foreign language too, and it’s a difficult process. It’s important to have confidence in speaking, so the goal was to lead by example and show that its ok if its not perfect.

Speech:
It’s important to be able to speak two languages. Right now I only speak English, but right now I’m taking Japanese lessons. I’m having a good time in all of my classes now, so those of you that are in my class, I hope you are too. There is still room in all of my classes for many people to join. Lets learn together. I hope you have had a good time today. I look forward to seeing you in class.

Following some more songs, the part of the event called “joyful time” started. Joyful time is essentially a chance for the children to go play the different booths that were set up and run by the youth and young adults. There were 5 booths set up, and each booth gave out stickers depending on how well the child played. Three stickers were awarded if they did really good, two for good, one for okay, and no stickers if they were terrible. You could play old Japanese top games and one of the booths, another one was shooting big darts through targets, the last indoor booth was bowling. Outside there were two booths. Hiromitsu’s booth was where you could demonstrate your shot accuracy, and shoot a soccer ball at targets in a goal. There was a line at his booth the entire Joyful Time. The booth that Yoshi and I were running was called, Goriyata…or in English, Goliath. I dressed as Goliath and stood there like a statue. The children were given pieced of cloth tied up in a ball with a string dangling out. They were supposed to spin it around their head, just like David did when he shot Goliath with his slingshot. You can probably guess what the goal of the game was…but to make it a little more fun the rags were soaked in water. They got 2 chances to hit me from each place. The father back they hit me from, the more stickers they were awarded. Once the children got enough stickers, they could take them in and buy prizes.

By the end of the day, I was pretty wiped. Luckily a number of people stayed to help clean up. After a closing meeting with the staff, I went back home and crashed hard...well, that’s what my mind and body wanted to do. Unfortunately, I hadn’t really planned a head for my Tuesday classes and consequently, still needed to plan them. So, off to plan I went.

Fridays at 5

I teach 3 classes on Fridays. I start the day with my beginner ladies class, then have a beginner children’s class and then end the day with an intermediate high school class. It would not be right for me to say that I have a favorite class or two, but now that I am in the teaching position, appreciate the classes that put and effort into learning. When I was a student growing up, it was hard for me to understand the enjoyment the teacher might get out of a class if they are interested in learning or not. My class at 5:00 is definitely one of those classes that enjoys learning!
The first week I had this class it was just me and Natsuki, then a couple of weeks later Rintaro joined, then Moe started coming in September. Natsuki and Moe are good friends, so there is a fun and little competitive rivalry there that is good. They often compete to try and say things first, or with better pronunciation. Rintaro is just a sweet and smart boy who fits right in with the two girls. This is a beginner class, so we are started from the very basics, but they have for sure learn and understand material fast, as well as remember old units when I review them.

This class loves challenges. Sometimes I will stretch their brains and see if they can figure out what I’m asking them. It doesn’t work out every time, but many times they have impressed me, and its cool to see them connect the dots in their brain. Here is an example where they impressed me:

In weeks leading up to this lesson I taught them: on, under, behind, in front, etc. We were learning to say the number of objects. I would hold up four pens, and say “how many pens?” they would say “four pens.” I thought that I would try and make a bridge between the two different things I was teaching them. I put three pens on the desk and held one under the desk and said, “Where are the pens?” they said, “three pens are on the table, one pen is under the table.”

I was SO stoked when they said that. Of course they did not just rattle it off with any problems, I needed to guide them through it a little bit, but once they said it a few times I could see that they understood, and then answer my questions.

Most of my classes I have adopted from past English teachers, but about a third of my classes are beginner and brand new to English. I get the privilege of being their first English teacher. So for me, it’s exciting to see, and know exactly how much they have learned. I have a lot of pride in all of my classes, and am very conscious about my teaching. I ask myself, what can I do to help them understand or make it more interesting?

English Baseball Class[ic]

So a few weeks ago, September 23rd to be precise, we had our first English class event! As you have probably already guessed, due to the title of this post, we did indeed play baseball. But to keep things interesting, there was a twist! A twist you say? What kind of twists might there be in a simple game of baseball? Well, let me take you back to the very beginning of the idea, and the twist will reveal itself.

(Not to get your hopes up for a big twist or anything…I realize I may have built up the suspense too much. So if you’re prepping for a M. Night Shyamalan twist, relax!)

The summer here was very warm…one might even say hot…actually very hot, and very humid. It was not unusual for it to be 30 degrees Celsius (85 degrees Fahrenheit for all my Americans) by 9 or 10 o’clock in the morning, so when I walked out of my apartment already sweating, I am hit with the reality that its still morning, and still many more hours for it to keep heating up, and it did! But, I enjoyed the heat. Coming from the Northwest, we rarely get to experience a truly hot summer. Anhywho, after spending all this time outside I thought that it would be fun to have an English event where my students have an opportunity to come and bring some friends and we could play a beloved game in Japan, which happens to be Americas past time, baseball. This could be a good fun event that has elements of North American culture, so the planning began.

Basically all the planning that I needed to do was to find a date that did not conflict with anything that the church was doing. We picked September 23. I made flyers then passed them on to Yoko who translated it into Japanese so that people could actually read it. As the day drew closer, we still did not really have a good idea of who or how many people were going to come. Looking back, it would have been much easier to plan the food and drinks if I had put something on their where they could write their name down, how many people were coming and then give it back to me…rookie mistake.


The week of the big game, I went out into our little field and set up some nets to make a homerun fence, oh, and by the way, this is a wiffle ball baseball game…forgot to mention that little detail. The week was sunny and beautiful. The field looked great, but then it happened. Freakin’ rain! It started raining the night of the 22nd and rained hard all through the night and the whole morning of the game. So we had to call an audible.

Time for Operation, convert the church sanctuary into a workable baseball diamond. I was so lucky to have many hands help set up, help make decisions, and I’ll admit it, make the day run smoothly. The day before, Yoko, Junko and I ran out and picked up some pretzels, chips, candy for 25 people. With this rain, we weren’t even sure if we were going to any anyone else there other then the 10 helpers. But, when 1:00 came around, people started trickling in. The final count was 25 people. It was relatively small group of people, but a great group of people. We played 2 games, each were 6 innings. Oh, and I had the idea of tying the base runners feet together so they could only hop between bases, rather then take 4 huge strides to get there.

So, my original plan of having a fun summer wiffle ball game outside in beautiful weather was struck by the cold reality that September 23 is not summer here, but fall, and the possibility of rain is very real. But in the end, we had some good tunes playing, we were still able to have an announcer announce the next batter, and we still had a score-board with score keepers. But most of all, we still had lots of fun and people left with smiles on their faces.