文化祭・Culture Day

I had to work this past Sunday due to Bunkasai, or culture day.

I really enjoy attending Culture Day, but I wish it were not on Sunday.
Not only do I miss church, but Debe and girls miss as well.

Well, at least it is only once every two years.

There were a lot of individual projects in art, music, English and Japanese. Oh yeah, they had some cool science things too (think "Slushie made from dry ice!).

The 2nd year students (8th graders) worked for 2 months on this huge Mosaic (pictured above).

They took a class photo (of 262 students) and blew it up to the size of 10 X 17 meters! They cut and glued each pixel by hand.

It was a lot of work -- I remember several times where some students got in trouble. Their punishment was to sit in seiza and cut out pixels.

Anyway, it made the newspaper.

Pumpkin Carving

While I am not a huge fan of Halloween (especially the scary stuff), it is a part of American culture and thus I am called upon to teach about it at school.


Here we are getting ready to carve some pumpkins.

This was their first time, so we took it slow.

These are "wakanatsu", Special Ed students.

Anyways, they seemed to enjoy it.

Great Day!

It is always a wonderful day when someone decides to get baptized.


Image from "T-Ray"

There is a lot I could say about today, but I will limit it to a few observations:

1. I appreciated the fact that since another church was already baptizing when we arrived, that we waited for them to finish, yet celebrated along with them.
2. I also appreciated the fact that many of this other church stayed to watch/support our baptisms.
3. It was amazing that two weeks after 8 were baptized, 5 more wanted to.
4. It was awfully hot for the last week in October (high 80s?)
   
5. It was a privilege to help out.
6. Pastor Tim is really rocking in Japanese these days.
   

Although baptism is merely an outward show of an inward work, it has special meaning, especially in Japan. This was a big step for these saints. God will reward their faith!

Sports Day

Today was Undoukai, or Sports Day.

A day filled with running, exercise, and of course, lots of ceremonies.

This was Emi and Mika's first time.


After opening ceremonies (marching, speeches), it was time for rajio taiso, or radio warm-up.

Then there was a folk dance with the parents, mostly mothers.

Mika ran in a race for 1-2 year olds.


Notice how some sat down and refused to move. Mika won her first race (with a lot of help from Emi).


Although it looks like Emi is first, she is actually dead last. She made the classic mistake of looking to mama as if to ask, "Do I run now?" and got too far behind.

The highlight of these things has to be lunch.


You are supposed to make a bento (box lunch) for the family. Some people really went all out and made some really fancy bentos. Debe made some delicious bentos for all of us.

First Day of School!

Well, they're off!

Emi and Mika are both attending preschool now.

We wanted them to go to preschool so that they would hear and speak more Japanese.

Their English is strong, since they hear it often at home and at church.


Yet although we desired for them to attend there were two big obstacles: the cost (which we could not afford), and the idea of leaving our little monkeys in someone else's care.


So what happened? Well Debe got hired at a bilingual preschool. So now she can bring them to preschool and get paid to watch them (and several other kids too). Although it is more work, so far everyone seems to be enjoying it. Truly this is a blessing!

God really will take care of all our needs.

Okinawa Goes Green!

From October 1st most of the grocery stores on Okinawa have begun charging for plastic bags. This is to reduce waste and CO2 pollution.

Apparently, Okinawa uses almost 400 million plastic bags per year. That is a lot of bags!!! They hope to reduce plastic bags use by 80%, which would cut 18,700 tons of CO2.

If you bring your own bag, then you don't have to buy a plastic one.
This should be good for the environment and perhaps people will waste less (they are notorious for over-wrapping stuff here). Also it seems to have been a boon for the "My Bag" industry.

So, I don't mind except when I forget to bring our "My Bag"; then I have to pay an extra 3 yen per bag (about 2 cents).
After all, God did tell Adam to take care of the earth (Genesis 2:15).

Saying Goodbye to Summer...

Well, it sure feels like autumn here...
which means the temperature is in the low 80's instead of the high 80's.

Actually the nights are getting cooler, so it is a nice change.

Japan really knows how to celebrate the seasons!

There are seasonal foods: (persimmons, chestnut rice, sanma or mackerel, pears, mikans, etc.), not to mention all the nabe, or soups, stews and such.

There are seasonal activities: Tsukimi, or moon viewing, Momiji, or Leaf viewing, and Sports Day.

Even McDonalds gets into it with their Tsukimi Burger:

a poached egg on a hamburger. Whatever.

Well, we don't get to have snow in Okinawa, but at least we can enjoy the other stuff!