Our Last Aomori

This is it- Our Last Aomori. For those of you who read this blog or talk to us often, you know that we have kept a paper-chain-link counting down our last year in Japan. Today we took down our final link. Today is our last day in Japan. As you can see in the picture below that at one time the chain-link covered 3 walls in our bedroom.

Here Angie holds the first link starting at day 356.

And today she holds the last and final link. How the time has flown by!

To start our final day, of course we had to do some cleaning and packing and paid off our final gas bill. Later on we decided to head outside to do some last minute errands, and after walking to the corner of our street we realized, because it was such a beautiful day (this last week has been cold and snowy, but today the sun came out for us!), we should probably take one last ride on Big Red & Silver Bullet! So, we quickly ran back to our apartment, hopped on the bikes, and took off!

Also, our other wish for our last day came true- we could see the majestic beauty of our mountain, Iwaki-san! So we decided to head to the best look-out point in town to take our last pictures of our beloved mountain!

And of course, our final day in Japan wouldn't be complete without some Japanese purikura, just the 2 of us!

And, now as we sit in an empty apartment, anxiously waiting for 2:30pm to roll around, so we can head to the bus terminal for the first leg of our long journey home ,we can't help but think about our time spent here. . .

It's hard to believe we are on our final day, writing our final blog of our time in Japan. It has been a difficult yet wonderful three years here. It's been a roller coaster of ups and downs, and just like a roller coaster, it seems like it has finished too soon! This place has become our home, and we will miss it dearly. We have grown so very close to many of our students and friends here and are sad to leave them, but we know that God will continue the good work He has started here, even without our presence. We will never forget our time spent in our little corner of Aomori (our state), in Hirosaki. We will never forget the friends we've made. We will never forget this place. We hope to return someday, but now it is time to say good-bye as we enjoy "Our Last Aomori."

1 More Day!

With butterflies in our stomaches we entered into our last 48 hours of Hirosaki, and we lived it up! After having our fill of packing and cleaning in the morning, we went out for some Mr. Donut with one of our former students who has become a close friend. We enjoyed chatting about life events and reminiscing about school activities. After finishing our donuts we went out for some "purikura" otherwise known photo-booth pictures in English! We didn't have our fill of purikura, so we went out again with another very close friend of ours later in the afternoon after some more crazy cleaning and packing. Purikura will be a great loss when we return to the States. There is just nothing like looking extra cute and getting your eyes enlarged like an alien!! In the evening we attended our last ever English Fellowship. This church has been such a great support to us. We know that the Lord has blessed us and many others through it and that our life in Japan would have been much more difficult without it. We praise the Lord Jesus Christ upon every remembrance of it and those who supported us in Japan! After the Fellowship we went for a traditional outing to Mr. Donut. The workers at this Mr. Donut have become sort-of-friends to us, so we HAD to say goodbye to them. And then a last minute decision was made--KARAOKE!! We just couldn't resist having one more chance to sing our hearts out at the top of our lungs. So we headed to the Queen with our dearest friend and all-time karaoke partner, Kevin. We sang till past midnight and came out more satisfied than ever.

Time Flies.....

Besides packing, cleaning, and freaking out over our change in flight schedule, we have made time for our dear friends in Hirosaki. These are people that we may never see again in person, so it is extremely difficult to say goodbye. Only the thought of our family and friends awaiting us in the States keeps us moving our feet forward. Here is a short outline of the major events that occurred during the past week:

One of our English Club students spent a day with us hanging out. We all enjoy karaoke so we went out to our favorite, Melodie Queen. After putting our time in at the Queen we had a good night of games and food. The next morning we witnessed her first ever McDonald's breakfast, as she is from a smaller town outside of Hirosaki without McDonald's. We were sooo happy to spend some extra time with her and establish a long-lasting friendship that we hope to continue in the States or Japan but of course on Skype!!!


The next day one of our best friends came over to spend the night. We did a Bible study and played games with a bunch of friends until late into the night. The next morning she invited us over to her house where we ate the wonderfully delicious Japanese food her mother kept putting in front of us!! We sat and talked for some time and finally had to tear away so we could go home to work on more packing and cleaning.




The next day one of our close students and her friends came over to eat lunch. Although their English is not the best, we had no problem having fun talking, playing games, doing magic tricks, and watching the national spring high school baseball tournament. We prepared an American style lunch for them consisting of cheese/broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. But they insisted on making us some fried rice that was fantastic as well! We will really miss our students and wish we could have spent more time with students like these outgoing girls.

Just tonight, we had our final karaoke gathering at the Queen. This is a night of karaoke that will go down in the books or at least in our minds. A complete 6 hour marathon was hardly enough to quench our thirst for karaoke. We had a full schmorgasborg of food to enjoy including cupcakes, muffins, chocolates, potato chips, popcorn, and sweets galore. The greatest hits from three years of practice were put on the list and hearts laid out for all to sing. Vocal chords were shredded, headaches created, and heat exhaustion forced us to near collapse, but we left content and satisfied with our last ever visit to Melodie Queen.

More and More Goodbyes!

With seven days left, our time is very limited here in Japan. There are many people we love and will dearly miss. Also, the town of Hirosaki has become our foriegn home. The streets and pathways of this city will forever be etched on our hearts. There are many places in the city of Hirosaki that we will come to miss during our next years in America. Here is a taste:

The DAISO. Enough said...maybe not, but this is the greatest dollar store chain to exist in existance. The question you ask yourself when entering this vast store is, "What can't I find!" And truth be told, everything can be found, maybe not in the quality you would imagine, but the quality is the price you pay--$1.00 (actually more like 80 cents!). This is the 100 yen shop that has provided us with all essentials as well as even more non-essentials: writting paper, soap, candy, California Cola, plates, tupperware, locks, cleaning supplies, pens, pencils, decorations, cds, clothing, toys, games, yarn, folders, tissues, and much more beyond your wildest imaginations. What would have life been without you, Daiso.


Next on the list is the greatest thrift store of all time. If you know us, you know we love cheap stuff. There's something wonderful about finding that great deal at 90% the actual cost that drives us to extreme levels of saving. Although the prices at this particular thrift store are not what you would find in America, the quality is much higher. There are two theories for the high quality. Either Japanese people take better care of their clothes, or Japanese people run through their clothes as fast as fashions change. Whatever the theory, we reap the benefits!! Here's to you and your annoying theme song OFF HOUSE!!

SAKURANO, the mid range dept. store. How many times did we enter and NOT see our students--never! This dept. store is not any old ordinary dept. store. It is a city in itself. NO, not no mega-mall, but non-the-less you can spend a day easily within the doors of this fine dept. store. It is complete with a cinema, bowling, pachinko, hot spring, supermarket, 2 game centers, tourist information and souvenirs, McDonald's, a 100 yen store, and more shopping stores that have the same clothes than are needed.

MT. IWAKI, this scene defines our city. Without this scenic view our city would be any other city. The shear size cannot be captured on camera. Sometimes she can hide behind the clouds and fog, and when she comes out-BAM-there she is!! We have conquered her 3 times yet still she beckons us. Life will not be the same without her near to us, just a glance away!

But of course, our friends will be missed even more greatly. Good times have been had with all these wonderful people. Our great friends threw a party in our honor to say farewell. God has created some great relationships that we know will continue in this life as well as the much more exciting life to come in Heaven. Thank you to you all for your support, kindness, and love. We can't say it enough! We thank God when we remember you all!!!

One Week After

One week after the earthquake we are still feeling the effects of the disaster even in distance Aomori. While this does not bring any life threatening issues to us, it does spoil the last week of plans we have.

Last night we had plans to have dinner with a couple of our old students at the famous Gusto. We were to meet at Gusto at 6pm, but upon arrival we were shocked to find the impossible--Gusto was closed!! This is the first time we have ever seen this sight as Gusto is open 24h. Obviously we were quite disappointed, so we had to find a different place to eat.

After finding another destination for dinner, we were given few options of the possible menu items due to the shortage of food being delivered to our area; for example, out of 10 possible pasta choices on the menu, we were only allowed 4. But we had to settle. and enjoyed our dishes. We can't complain because we at least have food to eat. We were also ushered out at 8pm to save electricty. Why don't they utilize some of these electricity-saving techniques all the time?

On our walk home from dinner we were also surprised to see the only other 24h restaurant in our city, McDonald's, had closed early--8pm! This is actually better than just following the earthquake when McDonald's didn't open all day! Can you believe it, a whole day with NO McDonald's?!

Overall, nothing to really complain about. We are still making plans with our friends and old students and enjoying our last few days to the fullest.

Love Within the Chaos

Although are plans have been disrupted from the earthquake, we are managing to rearrange and see some of our students and friends before leaving in 11 days! Fortunately on Tuesday we were able to have all of our English Club over (minus 1 :( ) for the final "Good-Bye" party. It was a low-key party with some of their favorite games and food, and the most important part of the party- our reminder to them of why we came to Japan- to show them Jesus' love for them and the life that He has to offer them. We said our good-byes, gave plenty of hugs, and shed tears, but we know that we will keep in touch with them, and we know that God will continue to work in their lives even after we are gone.


Meanwhile, in the rest of Japan, mass chaos has errupted with gasoline and food shortages due to closed transportation in most of Japan. We ventured out to the store today to buy some "DonTacos" (the Japanese equivalent to Dorritos) for a homestay that we're doing with one of our students tonight. That idea was quickly forgotten as we noticed the massive lines for food and the empty shelves. Here are some pictures to show just how bad it is even here in Hirosaki, quite far from the disaster-stricken areas.


This woman is not restocking the shelves. She is simply cleaning the empty shelves where once an entire aisle of "Cup Noodle" stood.


We're not sure if you can tell perfectly from the picture below, but almost all of the stores in Hirosaki are using only some of the available lights in order to save electricity. As you have probably read in the news, they have scheduled rolling blackouts to also save electricity. We actually think this energy-saving technique should be utilized all the time. It's quite nice walking through stores without being blinded by the glaring flourescent lights!

We'll continue to blog as things are updated here, and as we draw closer to our return to home.

48 Hour Emotional Turmoil

The past 48 hours have been an emotional rollercoaster for us here in Japan for more than one reason!! It is difficult to recount all the events that took place to everyone, so we hope this is a concise overview what's been going on here.

We began our 48 hours on Friday morning- the morning of our last day at To O Gijuku High School as English teachers. A student greets us at our desk asking us to come to his classroom. We knew something was up, and when we entered the classroom all the students cheered and yelled, "Thank you Truvis and Angie!" Well, they never got exactly how to spell Travis' name, but they did get how much we love them!! They presented us with a standard message card and some homemade goodies which made the first tears of the day come!!





As usual for the last day of the school year, the teachers who are leaving gave a short speech to the students at the closing ceremony service. This was our last assignment for the school, and it was the most difficult one. We were presented with some beautiful flowers and thanked for our time at the school along with 4 other teachers who are leaving this year. After the ceremony students did a final cleaning of their classrooms and went home. At this time we stood in the hallway saying our last goodbyes and giving hugs to our students. This was exceedingly hard to do, not only because embracing is a very very uncommon practice amoung the Japanese, but also because we love these students dearly. Many tears were shed on both sides. Most of these students who we came to love, we will probably never see again. It was very sad to say goodbye.



After returning home, full of sadness, we began to prepare for our Good Bye Party with English Club. The party was to be held on Saturday from 2pm to 8pm. We and the students were so excited to celebrate and meet, but little did we know that trouble was brewing...

At 2:51 on the dot a rumbling began. We felt dizzy at first but shortly realized it was not in our minds. It was an earthquake. Angie quickly whipped out her camera and started the footage. This earthquake was much bigger than we had experienced before and lasted a good 5 minutes (which is rather long for an earthquake). Half way through it, the power when out; we then realized that this was a big one. Although it was the biggest we had felt, nothing in our apartment fell and no damage was done. Since the power went out, we had no idea what was happening in Japan. We figured the power would shortly come back. After the power didn't return for an hour or so we figured we'd go outside and see if we could figure out what was going on. What we found surprised us. ALL electricity was down ALL over the city. Even the street lights were off, which unlike in America create a mess of traffic. Cars were just going through the intersections without waiting, which seemed quite strange to us.




With the power still off, our friend came over for a soup and bread dinner. Although we didn't have electricity, we still had gas for our stove. Unfortunately our heater must have electricity to run, so it was a cold, cold, dark night. We lit our candles and played some games to pass the time. Still by this time we knew little about what was going on in Japan, just that a big earthquake had hit around Sendai. At about 9pm we went out for a stroll around town. The city had become a ghost town. With no electricity there was not a single light or noise, only the light and sound from the few passing cars. It was crazy to stand on the busiest intersection in town and see only 20 feet in front of you! The picture below is what we experienced on the main street in town.



Before returning to our apartment, we made a quick call from a pay phone to make sure our parents knew everything was okay where we were. We called just in time to relieve their already anxious nerves as they had just woken up to the reports on TV. This was the first time we realized the magnitude of the earthquake and tsunami. We were taken aback from the news we heard about Japan all the way from America. Upon returning home, our aparment had sunk to a low of 45 degrees Farenheit, so we jumped into bed hoping that the electricity would return and we could continue with our plans for the Good Bye Party the following day. Several times during the night we were awoken to the temors of the aftershocks.

Unfortunately, we woke up to our colder-than-ever apartment still in the midst of utter black-out. So we ate a quick breakfast and decided we would venture out to see what the rest of Hirosaki was doing during this crisis. We found there was still no electricity, no trains, and very few stores open. Those stores that were opened seemed to have generators for power. Even the city clock tower still held the time of the earthquake. People were frantically buying any food they could and kerosene in case the black-out continued.


Luckily, throughout the day, little by little the electricity returned to the city, and we were back up and running by evening. It was then that we felt the scope of the earthquakes that hit as we watched the footage and read the reports of the disaster that had struck Japan. The picture below shows the magnitude of the first huge earthquake that hit Japan on Friday afternoon. As you can see nearly all of Japan felt the tremor, and in Hirosaki we felt a level 4 earthquake in comparison to the 8.9 that hit in Sendai. Now, we are just continuing to watch the news (since we have electricity) and pray that God will bring quick relief and aid to the people of Japan. We are also continuing our preparations for the Good Bye party which will take place this week. It seems as though our last 15 days here are going to feel quite similar to this weekend as there will be many ups and downs and both laughter and tears shared.



Here is raw footage of the big earthquake live from our apartment! The movement from the camera is not only from Angie's poor filming skills, but mostly due to the difficulty in keeping our balance as the ground beneath us rocked and swayed.

GustoKai

Last Saturday was a day that will go down in the books as a day to never forget!!

We, and our dear friends, spent 12 hours--Yes, 12--at Skylark Gusto!!!!!!!!

A little background, Gusto is a nation-wide restaurant chain that is famous for its drink bar. No, it's not an alcohol bar silly! It is just like a salad bar but with drinks such as coffee, tea, juice, and soda. Now to many of you this doesn't seem very exciting, "Who needs a drink bar when you can get free refills anyway--duh!" you may say, but no my friends this is not true. In Japan very few restaurants offer free refills, which indeed is a great tragedy even more when the normal Japanese large size would easily match an American small size. Therefore, all this makes Gusto so greatly appealing to all who enter its doors.

Next piece of background, Gusto allows you to stay at your table for...well...forever. Either this is its policy or they are too Japanese and don't want to confront any customers to make them leave. In fact, our own eye witness attests to this remarkable truth as we one time observed a girl sleeping at a table for two hours with no interruptions. Regardless, the time is idly spent once at a Gusto table. Three hours is a standard.

Now with all this background you can see the reasoning we have in our endeavor. We have dreamt of this day for many a moon, and the day came and went--in all its glory. We arrived in time for breakfast at 9am. The party started with only 4 but quickly grew to seven, and then the games began. We started with a great: Imagine If. Lunch came with appetizers such as french fries, pizzas, and salads. Following lunch was a game of Citadels; a great little strategic card game. Next up was a round of homemade Who Knew It. Dinner followed with regulars like hamburger steaks, Gusto burgers, Gratin, and Pasta. The day was finished with a rowdy game of Apples To Apples. Through out all the festivities was the common trek to the drink bar and the also common trek to the bathrooms. We finally walked out of Gusto at 9:15pm. A short day but a most splendourious superbly awesometastic day!

Graduation Graduation

Last Tuesday was our last ever Japanese graduation. This graduation meant more to us than all the others because the students who graduated this year came to Toogijuku with us, so we know all the students, except the college course students. (We don't teach the students in the college course because speaking English is not important for getting into college). So we were extra sad this time seeing all those students move on in there lives. We will dearly miss many of these students and hope that we can keep in touch with as many as possible. We did get a chance to give hugs (awkward at it was!) and say goodbye to many of the dearest students we had.

To drown away our sorrows we followed up the graduation ceremony with some very professional styled karaoke. Suits only!!

Last and Late Valentine's Day Party

Though we were a few weeks behind, we had our annual English Club Valentine's Day party last Saturday. This party was a little bittersweet because it is our final holiday party for our English Club. We'll be having a "Good-bye" party in a few weeks with some of our English Club members, but this was the last official English Club party.

Of course we ate lots of delicious sweets, including raspberry chocolate mousse, oreo pudding, strawberry cake, strawberry cheesecake, and a peanut butter cup dessert cake.

The festivities included a rhyming/unscramble the letters to make a word game, some lovey dovey related skits to commemorate what Valentine's Day is really all about, and of course, it wouldn't be a Valentine's Day party without some Spin the Bottle!!!! Before you start freaking out and think we forced our high school students to kiss one another, you must realize that we would never do that!! We ingeniously swapped kissing for asking questions! Now we said any question was okay, but the students still related all of their questions to love, friendship, or Valentine's Day, so we got some pretty interesting questions, such as, "How will you treat your girlfriend when you have one in the future?" or "What did you and your boyfriend do on Valentine's Day?" Though these seem like harmless questions, to Japanese high school students these are cheek-turning-red questions, even if they aren't the ones answering them!

All in all, it was a great final Valentine's Day party, and to make the day even better, it was followed up by a night at the movies watching the newest Narnia (Voyage of the Dawn Treader) in 3D!!!

31 on 31

On Friday we celebrated 31 days until we leave Japan and head for home. As we were walking to school exclaiming that we only have "31 days!!!" Travis decided to use the Japanese pronunciation of 31 that goes something like, "Sati won (31)!" which, unfortunately reminded us of Baskin Robbins here in Japan. We say unfortunately for 2 reasons:

First: Baskin Robbins' official name is "Baskin Robbins" NOT "31"

Second: IF you are going to call Baskin Robbins "31," you should atleast do it in correct English, not in Katakana (the Japanese pronunciation for foreign words) English!

In spite of these disturbing factors for us, we decided the best way to celebrate "Sati won" days until we go home was of course to go to "Sati won" (Baskin Robbins)!

6-Day Party!!!

We are currently in a 6-day weekend (yes, we can just say we have a week off from school, but 6-day weekend sounds much better!) due to a public holiday and testing at our school for the junior high students who want to attend To- O Gijuku next year. Luckily, the winter festival fell at exactly the same time as our holiday, so we got to spend Thursday night with friends marveling at all the amazing snow sculptures, eating yummy festival food, and riding down a snow-slide for kids!

Since we had a whole 6 days off, we thought we had better do something even more special, so we headed to Tokyo on the night bus.

On Saturday we spent our final day in Tokyo in our favorite place, Minato Mirai in Yokohama, with Saori. We did some random shopping and then headed to our special place- TGIFriday's to gorge ourselves! You see not only is this our special place where we always eat together when we come to Tokyo, but it was also a special occasion this time. Last April, the day after we returned from visiting America, we went on a morning run because we felt so gross from all the traveling, and upon our run, we happened to come across a bill laying on the ground! This wasn't just ANY bill, it was a 10000 yen bill (equivalent to a $100 bill)!!!! Well, after much deliberation and talking with friends and family, we decided to keep the bill and spend it on something special during our last year in Japan. And what better way to spend it than with one of our closest friends at our favorite restaurant!

Needless to say, by the end of the full-course meal- appetizers, burgers and fries, and 3 desserts- we were too stuffed to even talk! Eventually we made it back to the train station to head to our hotel where we rested up for the following day's adventure- Tokyo Disneyland!

We met two of our old students, Rei & Mizuho, at Disneyland bright and early and had a fun-filled day of rides, attractions, chatting, and delicious food! Some of our favorite rides and attractions were Big Thunder Mountain (an awesome roller coaster which was so good we had to ride it twice), Winnie the Pooh Honey Hunt, a just-opened attraction Mickey's Philhar-magic, and both the day and night parades!

We finished the night exhausted, yet greatly satisfied! It was nice to get to spend time with some of our old-students/friends as this will be one of the last times we'll get to see some of them!

Goodbye Seniors Goodbye

Last week was our 3rd year's (senior's) final week of school. (Yes, school ends in March but they get about a month and a half off from school. While some students must prepare for college (they are given college homework even before they get there) most of our students don't do anything cause they will just get a regular job). This year was particulary saddening to us because these 3rd year's were the students we came into Toogijuku with and these are the students we will leave Toogijuku with (Remember, Japanese high school only has three years). So it was very sad to see them go. For most of them, unfortunately, this will be the high point of their English ability. We do love them all though, and we hope they realize that.

Even more saddening was the loss of our 3rd year English Club students. These were the students we have grown closest to in our 3 years over here. They probably know us better than most of our friends here in Japan. We had our final English Club two weeks ago and had a treasure hunt extravaganza! We had all their favorite games compiled into an activity based treasure hunt with everyone winning a prize at the end!! Last Friday we gave them their graduation presents and said, "See you next time!!" as we hope to gather together before we leave Japan and they leave for college. NO goodbyes yet!! But needless to say, we are going to miss these six dear friends of ours!