22 years young

Well, this last weekend was Trav's birthday so we decided to go out with a bang...

just kidding.. . but we did manage to have a good time anyway! We started off with some yummy pizza hut. We thought we would "splurge" since it was Trav's birthday. Now, usually pizza does not cost very much, but pizza in Japan is another story, and for the size.. . definitely not worth it!!!

At least the baskin robbins gives you lots and lots of yummies!

And of course a birthday just wouldn't be the same without some arcade games..

Japanese arcades are crazy because you can win huge prizes.. giant stuffed animals, whole boxes of goodies, much cooler than the arcades in the states!

Trav finished the night off with a little late-night Dr. Pepper, compliments of the import shop in Sendai!

So, that was Day 1: Trav's Birthday.. . onto Day 2 we decided an early morning hike would be nice, so off we go..

We went to a hiking spot that had a pretty nice temple, but we decided to first hike around the mountain before going to the temple.. . here's one of the views from the top! Very beautiful! It was well worth it, even though the hike was a little rough! When they say hike in Japan they mean it.. very steep and a lot of climbing!

Once we got to the temple there was a massive amount of statues that symbolize the gods (dead ancestors) of the mountain. The stone steps are the steps leading up the temple (luckily since we hiked around the mountain we didn't have to climb up all the stairs, just down!) Look at all the work they have to do to worship their gods (we sure are happy we can pray to Jesus anywhere!)(you can't tell in the picture but those stairs were steep and the path to it was super long!!)

After all that hiking we decided a nice hot bath would be nice, so we took the train to an onsen nearby. We got a private/family bath instead of using the public bath so we could actually talk to one another.. . otherwise we would have to go into the men's or women's side. For those of you who don't know what a public hot spring looks like, picture this with the tub being about the size of a pool both inside and outside!! With the private one, we even got our own room to watch TV in and to order food!

What a good birthday, Japanese style!!!

23km later...

We have been in Japan for nearly 2 months now. We may be a few pounds lighter but we are still alive. Although we haven't mastered the language yet, we are studying hard. We have japanese lessons every thursday with the coolest lady that is obviously very patient. We can order food and make simple sentences that usually don't make sense but they get us by. Usually they can understand but there are still many "deer in the head-lights" looks!

Classes are going really well. The students are starting to warm up to us and actually attempt to speak english. Some of the classes are more difficult than others usually based on how much they are willing to talk, and of course there are the few annoying loud mouths that you would rather have be quiet. But all in all we are enjoying teaching. Last friday we went on a 23km (14miles) hike with the entire student body around our volcano. Although, it was fun hanging out with our students, it was a difficult trek!! Our legs and backs were pretty sore by the end, but we made it!

We are starting our Bible study in June which will be held every other week and yes it will be in Japanese. 2 of our teacher friends will be translating which is awesome of them!! The Bible study will be with some of the teachers at our school along with other Christians in the community. We also have joined the Holy club which is a group of students that get together at lunch and talk about stuff. We haven't quite figured out what they do, but we don't think any of them are Christian so that will be really cool. We also joined the JRC (junior red cross) which does volunteer work around the community like trash pick up and visiting nurseries and nursing homes. We both have given our sermons to the school body of 1,000 people, and it wasn't as nerve-racking as we thought (it is much easier to speak when someone is translating for you!).

So i think that is enough about us for now--how about your life? Please email us with an update of your life. We want to keep up on the lives of our friends and family. We also have booked plane tickets to come home this Christmas so mark your calendars for Dec. 20 to Jan. 8 cause we want to see you all!

Love,

The Appelgates

A Little Something

The rocks and stones will cry out

The trees will clap their hands.

Will i be invited to the sound?
And will i be a part of what You've made?

Isaiah 55:12
Psalm 96: 11-13

Matsushima, ah Matsushima, Matsushima

The title for our blog is from the famous Japanese poet Basho. He was unable to speak of the beauty Mastushima held, which is agreeable. It was a very beautiful and amazing place!

If you are wondering, yes we were on the water. We took a boat all around the bay which is full of small islands. It was pretty sweet!

This is a picture of a little beach that we hiked to. We had to repel to get down to it, pretty rugged!! (it was six feet down!)

We took this long bridge out to a big island and hiked around. It was a botanical garden, but their botanical gardens are "natural" so they just stick signs to random trees.

Matsushima is one of the three most famous scenic views of Japan! and has been for hundreds of years. So this place is very "sacred" and has many temples and graves.

They like to dress up their buddhas for special holidays and so they stay warm and dry!

All in all, it was a tourist hotspot: especially for beef tongue! Which travis ate!!

We took a bus to Sendai and back. Sendai is the biggest city in our area and it was huge. But the most amazing thing on the bus trip were their rest stops, which were like towns in themselves. They really outdo America here! (left: rest stop, right: Sendai)

It was a really good trip, but now its back to work!! But hey, we mostly play games in class so...

Ode to Tulip Time

Happy Tulip Time everyone.. . we hope you all ate enough pofferjies for us!!! We're sad we had to miss it, but here is our tulip time..

Our festival lasted two weeks.. . tomorrow is the last day of our festival and we will miss it b/c we are going to Sendai for a few days. However, last night we did get to see the Spring Neputa parade down Dotimache. The Summer Neputa is huge, but this one was still fun..

These dancing men are the Hirosaki fire department.. . quite wonderful really!

Here is a video of what we call the Hirosaki "drill team." They reminded us of the Isisserettes (spelling?) and also a little bit of show choir!

Aren't their parades so much cooler than ours?

Last but not least, here are a few pictures of the actual Neputa (which means big lantern float or something like that)

These floats are so big they have to have men at the top of the float to let down the tops when they come to the street lights and other street signs.

So, not really like tulip time, but it'll do! Stay tuned for our trip to Sendai!! (yes, we have a 4 day weekend!)