Randomness of Summer Vacation

Just over a week ago we went to see the famous Tsugaru rice art that we've only seen pictures of before, and we must say it was just as cool as it seemed in the pictures! They plant the different colors of rice in different patterns every year to make different "pieces of art." This year the picture is of two famous samurai who fought one another. The samurai on the left lost, and was under control of the samurai on the right.



Then, on Saturday, we got to have a special treat in Aomori. Our friend signed up to join a "Special Starbucks Seminar" where we got to have a special taste testing party. They tought us how to make coffee using a coffee press, taught us about the different kinds of coffee drinks, and most importantly, let us try different drinks that we got to make on our own!! They had this special tasting party because FINALLY our state is going to get it's own Starbucks in a city that's about 40 minutes by train this fall!! Needless to say, we can't wait!




And, then on Sunday, we went to a special Korean event at the Zion church (it's ran by a missionary from California, and we sometimes attend the services there). Some Korean people came to do Christian outreach, and last night they brought the traditional wedding clothes for people to try on, cooked delcious (but VERY VERY spicy) Korean food, sang Korean/English/Japanese/Indonesian worship songs, did a skit, and gave a sermon. It was a good opportunity and really revived us spiritually, as we haven't been alongside people who are so on fire for God in such a long time!! It was super refreshing to see God's work through them!

The Taking Down of the Last Link Chain of the First Wall

1 wall down . . .

. . . 2 more to go

We enjoyed many things during that first wall.. one of them being the Gijuku-lympics, the sports' festival at our school, that we had earlier this week

though we enjoyed watching the many sporting events (the picture above is a group of our girls' kickin' butt in volleyball, #1!!) and cheering on our students, we mostly enjoyed walking around and just chatting!!

Here's a collage of some of our students! We couldn't choose which ones to put on here, so here's a whole bunch for you to enjoy!

The Adventures Part 2

Just in!!! The latest video from the Big Red and Silver Bullet series!!

100 Days In

We have accomplished 100 days since the start of our third year in Japan. So we have 256 days to make the most of our time left here!! So on this monumental day we managed to create a fun-filled day of acivities.

Our day started as usual with an early morn run around the mostly vacant streets of Hirosaki. It is so beautiful to run down the middle of the streets with only the crows watching us.

Following our morning exercise, we got off right away to forage in the country side for a secret adventure which we will be unveiled in movie format once we are finished. So stay tuned for the premier. Here is a sneek-peek.

Since today was the 100th day in, Baskin Robbins decided to celebrate with us with the last day of "Challenge the Triple" which means you get 3 scoops for the price of 2. What a deal!!! So we have been "challenging" since the beginning of the sale for a total of around 10 times. The girls there practically know us by name, well at least they don't ask us if the bill will be together. Anyway we went for our last "challenge" of the year!

The day was filled with other various activities such as games, movie, bike riding, and other common funs. Overall, a good use of the 100th day in!

Gijukusai

Last week we had our school festival on Friday and Saturday, which meant we had an extra day of work, but it wasn't so bad since we didn't have to teach on Saturday!!

It was full of festivities, including the usual- a class video contest, a class t-shirt contest, performances by the cheerleading team and brass band, a cross-dressing contest (in which we won't post any pictures to save our students from humiliation), a karaoke contest (which we got suckered into joining to sing "A Whole New World" and only slightly embarassed ourselves b/c the pitch was higher than what we had practiced prior to the contest), and of course all the shops for each class, selling different kinds of food, everything from "American dogs" (corn dogs), slushies, fried chicken, yakisoba (Japanese noodle), cotton candy, mini-pancakes, and our favorite, fried cheese!

A few things that stuck out to us at the festival were:

2 of our students surprised us with candied senbe with our names in Katakana!!

Also, in Japan, they often change the quote, "All for one and one for all" to "One for all and all for one." This has been featured on at least one class t-shirt every year we've been here. When you think about the difference in meaning between the 2 phrases, you will understand what Japanese culture is all about!! And for the 3rd year in a row, the Student Council staff shirts have had a nice English mistake on them. This is one of the most difficult things for Japanese people to get correct in English. If you look closely, you'll see that the shirt says, "The 63th Student Council Staff." Luckily, the next 7 years will be correct!!!

And, next week we look forward to the Gijuku-lympics, our annual Sports Festival at To o Gijuku!