Tuesday, July 22
Sports Day
It's a national holiday in Japan! So let's go outside and play softball! Well, there is that pesky rain, but who cares? It was awesome!
However, the day didn't really start all that great for me. You see, it's a holiday, so the buses don't run at the time we need them to, so Seiji and I biked to the Seibu line station that's near his house. But, it was raining at the same time. Japanese bikes are difficult enough as it is with their narrow handlebars, but then to have to steer with one hand and hold an umbrella in the other? Yeah, muzukashii (difficult). I biffed it. Hard. We did a little dodge between some poles and then I went left a little too far, right into step up to one of the buildings on the street. I totally saw it coming and couldn't really do anything about it but hope it wouldn't hurt. I did have to peace of mind to yell, "Seiji-kun, matte!" which means, "Wait up, Seiji!"
I decided to then just pack the umbrella and deal with the rain. I did, and then as I was reading the sign that said the Japanese equivalent of "No Bikes", Seiji dodged between the poles on the path that were meant to stop bikes. I attempted to do the same while slowing down, and I moved my food just in time, because my pedal scraped against the pole. A little too close of a call.
After that, things went alright. A smooth ride to the Seibu Tachikawa station (which is nowhere near the part of Tachikawa I know about, it was in the middle of several fields) where we ran into (fortunately, not literally this time) Kazuya who was on his way from Kokubunji to meet Yoshizawa at the station. So, Mr. Yoshizawa gave us a ride to the park.
At the park, Seiji and I warmed up with some pitching before everyone arrived. I got a few fast-pitches across the plate, and Seiji did too. After that, everyone had arived, so we sat down for a picnic lunch. As you can see, Isaiah just tore into his lunch. The rest of us took it a little slower. Then on to the game!
So I've only got two pictures from the first two innings. The first is Yoshio taking his turn at bat. The second is Lindsey pitching for her team.
I actually really got into the game after that. I pitched the frist two innings for my team. At least the other team had something to swing at. At the bat, we didn't get anything worth hitting. But Caroline wanted to try her hand at pitching, so I moved to the outfield.
My biggest play was almost getting Tim out at second. That's right, almost. I tagged the plate, but he wasn't being followed by someone going to first, so just to be sure, I moved to tag him too. But, I had taken the ball out of my glove and was holding it in my right hand. So, technically he wasn't out. That's what I get for not knowing how to play. Oh, and I got a single once too. However, David got an in the park homerun for our team! He even slid into home to score! It was awesome!
Then, after five innings, it started raining, er, pouring, er, nearly typhooning. So, we stood in the shelter of a few trees before deciding to go bowling. In the meantime, Shin and Yo started wrestling in the rain and I just missed taking a picture of them. Then Jon and David started playing frisbee. They were soaked!
Fortunately, once we got back to the church, I had a change of clothes because my suitcase was there. Then we took off to go bowling. I didn't take my camera for some stupid reason. This place was cool! It's a three story bowling alley! We playe do on the second floor. They barely had shoes that were big enough for David (Mr. Size 15), and the rest of us got these cool velcro shoes that were out of the late 80s. First time around, I shot a 121. Mr. Satoyama blew me away with a 142. Other than that, I was the top score, at least for Summer Workers.
The second round was a bit later, because there was much confusion in the rain. Jessica and Caroline ended up going home by accident. And, sadly, the only other person there was Mr. Sando, who was obviously drunk. I'm glad that the girls were safe though. It was an uncomfortable situation, even though he's in his late 60s. Apparently he's be a bit of a problem, but tomorrow they're moving to the Honda's which will be awesome for them!
If that wasn't enough, Tim and Isaiah nearly got forgotten at the park, so they walked home, further delaying our second round of bowling, because we waited until 5:15PM for them to show up.
So, finally, the second round happened, and I shot a little lower, 115. Mr. Satoyama still blew everyone away with a 152. But Jon did better, hitting around 130.
And after all of that, Seiji and I went home, to a fairly uneventful bike ride, aside from the fact that I knocked over a few bikes at the bike rack while simultaneously letting mine drop. It just wasn't my day. We did get home in one piece though. And we all went out to dinner in Tokorozawa to celebrate Mrs. Saoshiro's birthday. What a cool restaurant! They served our meal in courses and we spent alot of time talking when they forgot about us for about thirty minuites. And when we got home, Miwako was asking Seiji if he still had space for cake, and he answered, with conviction, "My stomach is space!"
Then I was out for the night. I'm still sore even a day later.
However, the day didn't really start all that great for me. You see, it's a holiday, so the buses don't run at the time we need them to, so Seiji and I biked to the Seibu line station that's near his house. But, it was raining at the same time. Japanese bikes are difficult enough as it is with their narrow handlebars, but then to have to steer with one hand and hold an umbrella in the other? Yeah, muzukashii (difficult). I biffed it. Hard. We did a little dodge between some poles and then I went left a little too far, right into step up to one of the buildings on the street. I totally saw it coming and couldn't really do anything about it but hope it wouldn't hurt. I did have to peace of mind to yell, "Seiji-kun, matte!" which means, "Wait up, Seiji!"
I decided to then just pack the umbrella and deal with the rain. I did, and then as I was reading the sign that said the Japanese equivalent of "No Bikes", Seiji dodged between the poles on the path that were meant to stop bikes. I attempted to do the same while slowing down, and I moved my food just in time, because my pedal scraped against the pole. A little too close of a call.
After that, things went alright. A smooth ride to the Seibu Tachikawa station (which is nowhere near the part of Tachikawa I know about, it was in the middle of several fields) where we ran into (fortunately, not literally this time) Kazuya who was on his way from Kokubunji to meet Yoshizawa at the station. So, Mr. Yoshizawa gave us a ride to the park.
At the park, Seiji and I warmed up with some pitching before everyone arrived. I got a few fast-pitches across the plate, and Seiji did too. After that, everyone had arived, so we sat down for a picnic lunch. As you can see, Isaiah just tore into his lunch. The rest of us took it a little slower. Then on to the game!
So I've only got two pictures from the first two innings. The first is Yoshio taking his turn at bat. The second is Lindsey pitching for her team.
I actually really got into the game after that. I pitched the frist two innings for my team. At least the other team had something to swing at. At the bat, we didn't get anything worth hitting. But Caroline wanted to try her hand at pitching, so I moved to the outfield.
My biggest play was almost getting Tim out at second. That's right, almost. I tagged the plate, but he wasn't being followed by someone going to first, so just to be sure, I moved to tag him too. But, I had taken the ball out of my glove and was holding it in my right hand. So, technically he wasn't out. That's what I get for not knowing how to play. Oh, and I got a single once too. However, David got an in the park homerun for our team! He even slid into home to score! It was awesome!
Then, after five innings, it started raining, er, pouring, er, nearly typhooning. So, we stood in the shelter of a few trees before deciding to go bowling. In the meantime, Shin and Yo started wrestling in the rain and I just missed taking a picture of them. Then Jon and David started playing frisbee. They were soaked!
Fortunately, once we got back to the church, I had a change of clothes because my suitcase was there. Then we took off to go bowling. I didn't take my camera for some stupid reason. This place was cool! It's a three story bowling alley! We playe do on the second floor. They barely had shoes that were big enough for David (Mr. Size 15), and the rest of us got these cool velcro shoes that were out of the late 80s. First time around, I shot a 121. Mr. Satoyama blew me away with a 142. Other than that, I was the top score, at least for Summer Workers.
The second round was a bit later, because there was much confusion in the rain. Jessica and Caroline ended up going home by accident. And, sadly, the only other person there was Mr. Sando, who was obviously drunk. I'm glad that the girls were safe though. It was an uncomfortable situation, even though he's in his late 60s. Apparently he's be a bit of a problem, but tomorrow they're moving to the Honda's which will be awesome for them!
If that wasn't enough, Tim and Isaiah nearly got forgotten at the park, so they walked home, further delaying our second round of bowling, because we waited until 5:15PM for them to show up.
So, finally, the second round happened, and I shot a little lower, 115. Mr. Satoyama still blew everyone away with a 152. But Jon did better, hitting around 130.
And after all of that, Seiji and I went home, to a fairly uneventful bike ride, aside from the fact that I knocked over a few bikes at the bike rack while simultaneously letting mine drop. It just wasn't my day. We did get home in one piece though. And we all went out to dinner in Tokorozawa to celebrate Mrs. Saoshiro's birthday. What a cool restaurant! They served our meal in courses and we spent alot of time talking when they forgot about us for about thirty minuites. And when we got home, Miwako was asking Seiji if he still had space for cake, and he answered, with conviction, "My stomach is space!"
Then I was out for the night. I'm still sore even a day later.
Another Gaijin Filled Sunday
So, we had even more missionaries come through. Canadians at that. They were from SEND International and they had just finished a youth camp in Japan, so they're cool. Other than that, not a whole lot today. Although it was mysteriously empty at lunch today. Oh, and I particuarly enjoyed Sensei's sermon on desicion making and leadership in the church. He spoke from the end of Acts 1, where the Eleven choose Matthias to replace Judas.
Tomorrow is that softball tournament, and so Mr. Yoshizawa took Jon to the batting cages while we were all cleaning up after lunch. Once we found out, we all went to do a little team-bonding over at the batting cages (to practice for tomorrow's game, of course) and then got ice cream for everyone who was at church in meetings. Every single floor was in use for meetings, some floors had two meetings at a time too!
Once we were all stuffed with that oishii treat, I went home. We watched some of the FINA Swimming finals. America was doing pretty good. And Japan won one event too. Then we sat down for some spagetti. It was great.
To help us veg after dinner (or in Seiji's case, sleep) we watched The Avengers on TV, in English with Japanese subtitles. It was pretty good. Now, I'm upstairs in my room typing this, realizing (now that it's too late) that I was supposed to call Mr. Hosokawa to encourage him to go to the softball tournament tomorrow. Nobuko will be going to watch a ice skating competition, and Mr. Hosokawa just got tickets to a Seibui Lions game, so he's not sure whether to go or not. For that matter, it might rain tomorrow. In that case, we'll all go bowling. It's a national holiday, so we should have a good group for either event. And since it's a holiday, the buses don't run as often, so I'll be taking the Seibu Line to Tachikawa tomorrow. Cool, huh?
Meanwhile, I'm beat and I need to get some rest. I'm still unbelievibily tired from the past few days. I don't know what it is about buses, they just always make me fall asleep!
Tomorrow is that softball tournament, and so Mr. Yoshizawa took Jon to the batting cages while we were all cleaning up after lunch. Once we found out, we all went to do a little team-bonding over at the batting cages (to practice for tomorrow's game, of course) and then got ice cream for everyone who was at church in meetings. Every single floor was in use for meetings, some floors had two meetings at a time too!
Once we were all stuffed with that oishii treat, I went home. We watched some of the FINA Swimming finals. America was doing pretty good. And Japan won one event too. Then we sat down for some spagetti. It was great.
To help us veg after dinner (or in Seiji's case, sleep) we watched The Avengers on TV, in English with Japanese subtitles. It was pretty good. Now, I'm upstairs in my room typing this, realizing (now that it's too late) that I was supposed to call Mr. Hosokawa to encourage him to go to the softball tournament tomorrow. Nobuko will be going to watch a ice skating competition, and Mr. Hosokawa just got tickets to a Seibui Lions game, so he's not sure whether to go or not. For that matter, it might rain tomorrow. In that case, we'll all go bowling. It's a national holiday, so we should have a good group for either event. And since it's a holiday, the buses don't run as often, so I'll be taking the Seibu Line to Tachikawa tomorrow. Cool, huh?
Meanwhile, I'm beat and I need to get some rest. I'm still unbelievibily tired from the past few days. I don't know what it is about buses, they just always make me fall asleep!
Let's Be Friends!
It's the day of the big high school outreach, "Let's Be Friends", and it turned out great!
We had an early start at the church around 10AM for skit and music rehersal. I'll have to refer you to our main site for that right now, because there are rumors of some footage of this skit. It's awesome! David stayed up late writing it one night, then Yoshie, Maki, and Tomo did a voice-over tape in Japanese, so all we had to do was act and mouth the English words. The whole jist of the play is about three different Japanese fairy tales all mixed together. And they loved it!
After skit rehersal, we ran through the three songs we did, "All In All", "As The Deer", and "In His Time". Aside from a few chord misses during the actual performace, it turned out great! Everyone knew the songs, and we had no trouble with them.
Oh, I should probably let you see the schedule of events, so here it is.
Our opening skit was one that Megumi came up with. Four of us guys stand in a line with heads bowed. Just like a real-life drink machine, right? Isaiah walks up, digging in his pocket for change for a drink. He puts the changed into Jon's ear, selects his drink by pushing David's nose, then I swing out a can of soda, Isaiah takes it, chugs most of it, then Tim (acting as a drink machine) burps. Apparently this is some kind of Japanese-only joke, because it was funny, but not all that funny, to the rest of us.
For game time, we did a combination of Telephone and Charades. It's so much fun, but you never can tell what the charade was meant to be then what the charade became, I mean, just look at Isaiah here, I don't know what he's doing!
Then we did our Momo-taro skit, full of mixed up fairy tales. I was a messenger for the Emperor, and all I do is run in, yell that the Emperor is coming, then run out. But I enjoyed it, after all, I got to wear my jimbe for the first time.
Right after that, we did "All in All" and transitioned into Isaiah's preaching time. He had a difficult topic. He did quite well by American Christian standards, but who knows how the subject of God's Holieness and the reason for His judgement against sinners can a non-believing Japanese person understand when the message goes through two people before it gets to them? They sure gave him a tough topic. But everyone listened intently, despite this difficulty.
Then right after Isaiah prayed to close his message, we got together and sang "As The Deer" and "In His Time". I really got flustered on "In His Time" and we had to start over, but it still went well.
Alright, on to the food! Hot dogs and pizza! You can see that the Japanese were pretty enthusiastic about it! And us Americans too! I enjoyed it, aside from the fact that Seiji and Miwako warned me, after a hot dog, a slice of pizza, and three cups of soda, that we were going to dinner afterwards.
Speaking of afterwards, we had way too much fun taking down the decor! We even stopped to take a group picture of us covered in balloons and streamers. Sadly though, I didn't get a group picture, just these few individual ones.
In the midst of all those balloons, Jessica gets one of the Golden Camera awards, again. She's just too photogenic! You never see David in pictures here; he won't pose or do anything funny!
And after all the chaos, I rode home with Seiji and Miwako. Their sister is in town for the first Sunday in a month! I'm telling you, the Japanese work hard! We went to, well, I forget the name, but it was a nice Japanese restaurant. I was rather full, so I just had a small plate of udon and a melon soda. Seiji and Miwako both ordered rather large desserts. We took the Saoshiro's car to the restaurant. It had a GPS system! Oh, and it was quite roomy for a Japanese car, after all, I did fit in it, didn't I? The GPS is pretty cool, it would even show what convenience stores were coming up. Oh, and it did the whole train thing, "Mamunaku left turn desu", and it would show a special animation of a left turn! Talk about awesome!
To finish the day, I went home and crashed. I've been so tired the last few days. I don't know what's different from the other days on the trip, but I've been beat lately. So, oyasuminasai!
We had an early start at the church around 10AM for skit and music rehersal. I'll have to refer you to our main site for that right now, because there are rumors of some footage of this skit. It's awesome! David stayed up late writing it one night, then Yoshie, Maki, and Tomo did a voice-over tape in Japanese, so all we had to do was act and mouth the English words. The whole jist of the play is about three different Japanese fairy tales all mixed together. And they loved it!
After skit rehersal, we ran through the three songs we did, "All In All", "As The Deer", and "In His Time". Aside from a few chord misses during the actual performace, it turned out great! Everyone knew the songs, and we had no trouble with them.
Oh, I should probably let you see the schedule of events, so here it is.
Our opening skit was one that Megumi came up with. Four of us guys stand in a line with heads bowed. Just like a real-life drink machine, right? Isaiah walks up, digging in his pocket for change for a drink. He puts the changed into Jon's ear, selects his drink by pushing David's nose, then I swing out a can of soda, Isaiah takes it, chugs most of it, then Tim (acting as a drink machine) burps. Apparently this is some kind of Japanese-only joke, because it was funny, but not all that funny, to the rest of us.
For game time, we did a combination of Telephone and Charades. It's so much fun, but you never can tell what the charade was meant to be then what the charade became, I mean, just look at Isaiah here, I don't know what he's doing!
Then we did our Momo-taro skit, full of mixed up fairy tales. I was a messenger for the Emperor, and all I do is run in, yell that the Emperor is coming, then run out. But I enjoyed it, after all, I got to wear my jimbe for the first time.
Right after that, we did "All in All" and transitioned into Isaiah's preaching time. He had a difficult topic. He did quite well by American Christian standards, but who knows how the subject of God's Holieness and the reason for His judgement against sinners can a non-believing Japanese person understand when the message goes through two people before it gets to them? They sure gave him a tough topic. But everyone listened intently, despite this difficulty.
Then right after Isaiah prayed to close his message, we got together and sang "As The Deer" and "In His Time". I really got flustered on "In His Time" and we had to start over, but it still went well.
Alright, on to the food! Hot dogs and pizza! You can see that the Japanese were pretty enthusiastic about it! And us Americans too! I enjoyed it, aside from the fact that Seiji and Miwako warned me, after a hot dog, a slice of pizza, and three cups of soda, that we were going to dinner afterwards.
Speaking of afterwards, we had way too much fun taking down the decor! We even stopped to take a group picture of us covered in balloons and streamers. Sadly though, I didn't get a group picture, just these few individual ones.
In the midst of all those balloons, Jessica gets one of the Golden Camera awards, again. She's just too photogenic! You never see David in pictures here; he won't pose or do anything funny!
And after all the chaos, I rode home with Seiji and Miwako. Their sister is in town for the first Sunday in a month! I'm telling you, the Japanese work hard! We went to, well, I forget the name, but it was a nice Japanese restaurant. I was rather full, so I just had a small plate of udon and a melon soda. Seiji and Miwako both ordered rather large desserts. We took the Saoshiro's car to the restaurant. It had a GPS system! Oh, and it was quite roomy for a Japanese car, after all, I did fit in it, didn't I? The GPS is pretty cool, it would even show what convenience stores were coming up. Oh, and it did the whole train thing, "Mamunaku left turn desu", and it would show a special animation of a left turn! Talk about awesome!
To finish the day, I went home and crashed. I've been so tired the last few days. I don't know what's different from the other days on the trip, but I've been beat lately. So, oyasuminasai!
Flyers at Josui
I'll have to say this first: I've had the most bizzare breakfast every. I'm doing fine with having leftover yakisoba for breakfast, but today's "leftovers" tops them all. I had a grapefruit, which by itself was awesome. But, it was accompanied by the following dishes. First, there was some rice. Then there was a bowl of what appeared to be thin noodles with two black dots on the ends. Well, those black dots were eyes. Yes, tiny little clear fishes that looked like noodles. They were covered with purred horseradish, I think. Next to that was a small plate of cod roe, which I knew was just another phrase for small plate of salt. So I didn't touch it. Rather, I felt daring and dove into the bowl of octopus. Well, not dove, but maybe touched. Yes, it was cooked, but the presentation was quite lacking. All of this was so random, I was tempted to run upstairs and grab my camera to take a picture, but I thought it would be rude. Then, breakfast was followed by a long bus ride to chaos. Utter chaos. The meeting at Josui thing just didn't seem to work.
I ended up getting on the bus a little earlier than I think Joy would have, so I waited around a bit ahead of the stop that Joy would have to get off at, that way she'd see me and know it's her stop. I waited for two buses to go by. She wasn't on either. Rather, she told Mrs. Satoyama that she was going to take the bus to Josui in the morning, and Mrs. Satoyama refused to allow her summer worker to have to travel to Josui alone. So, she said she'd give Joy a ride to Josui. Josui, remember? Josui.
If you were taking a train or the monorail, you would hear this just before your stop: "Mamunaku, name of stop. Name of stop desu." Joy should've heard something like: "Mamunaku, Josui Megumi Kurisuto Kyokai. Josui Megumi Kurisuto Kyokai desu." But, Mrs. Satoyama drove right by the church, straight to Tachikawa Church. Mind you, Joy reminding her repeatedly, "I have to go to Josui. Josui Church." Once they go to Tachikawa, Mrs. Satoyama realized that Tachikawa just wasn't Josui. So they turned back around to go to Josui.
Meanwhile, Caroline, Jessica, and I had no clue where Joy was. Mr. Honda called the Satoyamas, and no one answered, so we figured she'd gotten a ride. They also called Tachikawa church, just in case, but no Joy. So, Jessica waited at the church with Mrs. Kato's daughter while the rest of us went to two different elementary schools (shogaku)to pass out flyers for Josui's Ice Cream Party. While we were out, Joy showed up at Josui, but the door was locked and Jessica didn't know that it was! She was on the second floor watching the little girl. So, Joy just went back to Tachikawa with Mrs. Satoyama.
As for flyers, Caroline and Mr. Honda went to one school, while Mrs. Honda, Mrs. Kato, and myself went to another. It turns out that this is the school that her son goes to. before we started passing out flyers, we had to go inside and talk with the principal and show him the flyer to get his approval. He said okay, so we waited outside for the kids to come out of school. We had a great time walking aroung the school grounds and talking about the trees or the "Animal Happy Land" that the school had. (The Animal Happy Land was just a cage with some ducks and rabbits in it.)
Then the kids started coming. They had already seen me from the window and were shouting "Hellos" from the third floor of the school. Mrs. Kato took one exit from the school, and Mrs. Honda and I took the other. Then they came. Kids. Tons of them. Then all of the sudden, Mrs. Kato's son, Yuki, comes tearing up and jumps on my back as a hello. He was great! He put his backpack in the car, then came and was handing out flyers for us. He'd run up to all of his friends and give them some, then run back to Mrs. Honda and I for more flyers. We ran out of flyers before we ran out of kids to give them to!
After that, we went back to Josui for some home cooked curry, done up by Mrs. Honda. Mike, you know it was awesome! Oh, and not just curry, a fresh salad, a coffee yogert thing, and then a dessert that involved peaches, kiwis, and bananas! It was great! Oishii desu yo! If you look close enough, you can see the remains of it here as we talked about the Ice Cream Party itself. Oh, and the Hondas found out that the girls like gyoza, and since they're staying at the Honda's later, they're going to have a gyoza party. And because they remembered the gyoza party that Mike and I had last year, guess who got invited?
Okay, so the ride back to Tachikawa was quite uneventful, aside from the fact that Jessica and Caroline decided to go into a drugstore to look for makeup. It took them quite a while to realize that no one in Japan is their color. I was beginning to think that they were looking for "that stuff" where a guy would want to stand on the other side of the store and hide behind a newspaper. So, I started moving away from the girls and the makeup isle in order to look more manly. However, little did I know it, but I was moving towards the "Depends" isle. That was definitly the sign to just wait outside near the bus stop, so I did just that. And finally, we returned to the church and were quite happy to see Joy there.
After a while of just waiting around and relaxing, three of us guys, Isaiah, Tim, and me, went to First Kitchen in the downstairs Granduo area. All I have to say is, it's the best fries you've ever had! They do this flavor thing here that you just don't find in the states. We shared some BBQ, Cheeze, and Katsu flavored fries. Great stuff!
Then, I had my lesson for the day, Yoshio. He's still a handful. I'm wondering if his goal in life is to be messy and loud, but I don't know. I tried talking more in English this time, but it's way too difficult still. I really don't know where to start with him. I tired the guitar thing the last two weeks, but it didn't seem like he was learning much. Well, I'm sure there's always next year for him.
I ended up getting on the bus a little earlier than I think Joy would have, so I waited around a bit ahead of the stop that Joy would have to get off at, that way she'd see me and know it's her stop. I waited for two buses to go by. She wasn't on either. Rather, she told Mrs. Satoyama that she was going to take the bus to Josui in the morning, and Mrs. Satoyama refused to allow her summer worker to have to travel to Josui alone. So, she said she'd give Joy a ride to Josui. Josui, remember? Josui.
If you were taking a train or the monorail, you would hear this just before your stop: "Mamunaku, name of stop. Name of stop desu." Joy should've heard something like: "Mamunaku, Josui Megumi Kurisuto Kyokai. Josui Megumi Kurisuto Kyokai desu." But, Mrs. Satoyama drove right by the church, straight to Tachikawa Church. Mind you, Joy reminding her repeatedly, "I have to go to Josui. Josui Church." Once they go to Tachikawa, Mrs. Satoyama realized that Tachikawa just wasn't Josui. So they turned back around to go to Josui.
Meanwhile, Caroline, Jessica, and I had no clue where Joy was. Mr. Honda called the Satoyamas, and no one answered, so we figured she'd gotten a ride. They also called Tachikawa church, just in case, but no Joy. So, Jessica waited at the church with Mrs. Kato's daughter while the rest of us went to two different elementary schools (shogaku)to pass out flyers for Josui's Ice Cream Party. While we were out, Joy showed up at Josui, but the door was locked and Jessica didn't know that it was! She was on the second floor watching the little girl. So, Joy just went back to Tachikawa with Mrs. Satoyama.
As for flyers, Caroline and Mr. Honda went to one school, while Mrs. Honda, Mrs. Kato, and myself went to another. It turns out that this is the school that her son goes to. before we started passing out flyers, we had to go inside and talk with the principal and show him the flyer to get his approval. He said okay, so we waited outside for the kids to come out of school. We had a great time walking aroung the school grounds and talking about the trees or the "Animal Happy Land" that the school had. (The Animal Happy Land was just a cage with some ducks and rabbits in it.)
Then the kids started coming. They had already seen me from the window and were shouting "Hellos" from the third floor of the school. Mrs. Kato took one exit from the school, and Mrs. Honda and I took the other. Then they came. Kids. Tons of them. Then all of the sudden, Mrs. Kato's son, Yuki, comes tearing up and jumps on my back as a hello. He was great! He put his backpack in the car, then came and was handing out flyers for us. He'd run up to all of his friends and give them some, then run back to Mrs. Honda and I for more flyers. We ran out of flyers before we ran out of kids to give them to!
After that, we went back to Josui for some home cooked curry, done up by Mrs. Honda. Mike, you know it was awesome! Oh, and not just curry, a fresh salad, a coffee yogert thing, and then a dessert that involved peaches, kiwis, and bananas! It was great! Oishii desu yo! If you look close enough, you can see the remains of it here as we talked about the Ice Cream Party itself. Oh, and the Hondas found out that the girls like gyoza, and since they're staying at the Honda's later, they're going to have a gyoza party. And because they remembered the gyoza party that Mike and I had last year, guess who got invited?
Okay, so the ride back to Tachikawa was quite uneventful, aside from the fact that Jessica and Caroline decided to go into a drugstore to look for makeup. It took them quite a while to realize that no one in Japan is their color. I was beginning to think that they were looking for "that stuff" where a guy would want to stand on the other side of the store and hide behind a newspaper. So, I started moving away from the girls and the makeup isle in order to look more manly. However, little did I know it, but I was moving towards the "Depends" isle. That was definitly the sign to just wait outside near the bus stop, so I did just that. And finally, we returned to the church and were quite happy to see Joy there.
After a while of just waiting around and relaxing, three of us guys, Isaiah, Tim, and me, went to First Kitchen in the downstairs Granduo area. All I have to say is, it's the best fries you've ever had! They do this flavor thing here that you just don't find in the states. We shared some BBQ, Cheeze, and Katsu flavored fries. Great stuff!
Then, I had my lesson for the day, Yoshio. He's still a handful. I'm wondering if his goal in life is to be messy and loud, but I don't know. I tried talking more in English this time, but it's way too difficult still. I really don't know where to start with him. I tired the guitar thing the last two weeks, but it didn't seem like he was learning much. Well, I'm sure there's always next year for him.
