No, I'm not singing about a raunchy TV show. This weekend we got the chance to go to a real Japanese WEDDING!!! (quick side note-- if anyone knows anything about html and would like to tell me how to add spaces between paragraphs, or how to add images NOT at the top of my post, please enlighten me) Hiromi is a woman who became a Christian in Indonesia and then started coming to the fellowship when she got back to Japan. Her long-time boyfriend, Go, is not a Christian but does not oppose her faith. About 3 weeks ago they decided they wanted to get married finally! So, we found out about it and they wanted us to sing in their wedding. We thought that quite a bit inappropriate considering we did NOT have the right attire and 2 of us are too big to wear Japanese clothes. Anyway, we ended up finding stuff to wear but didn't sing in the wedding. I, however, did make new friends with 2 four-year-olds and an eight year old. The wedding was very small, but beautiful. The reception was really fun, at a cool Italian restaurant (think small Olive Garden knock-off). But, when the bride and groom came down the stairs once we all got seated, she had an entirely new hair/makeup look, as well as dressed in a GORGEOUS flowing, purple and green gown, complete with purple bow gloves. He was dressed in a zoot suit with his own set of gloves. All throughout dinner I would play tickle with the little kids, and they would go off screaming. Kids are different here... I know when I think of Asians, I think of very studious, very disciplined, quiet kids. But kids under the age of 5 are a COMPLETELY different story!! They're nuts. They hit and yell and seem to do anything they'd like. Usually the parents just talk quietly to them sometimes, but usually just keep the kid away from their face. Pretty cool, I think. I sometimes wish Americans could let kids be kids more often, even if that means putting up with screaming or noise for a bit :)
On Saturday, the day BEFORE the wedding, our friend Ami took us to a mall about 10 mins away on bus, where I got to look in the "Plus-size" store for a sweater or something dressy to wear to the wedding. I know I'm bigger, but I've never had to shop at a plus-size store. That was kinda fun to go to their mall. We were especially impressed by their socks and female undergarments, surprisingly enough.
Monday we went back to Kyushu University to do more "evangelizing". Megumi and I had spiritual surveys for students to fill out, and I made friends with one dental hygene student named Rieko who speaks English VERY well! KyushuU is a more prestigious University, so the students there seem to speak English better. Some anyway. But she had been to New Zealand, so she had a really pretty accent when she spoke. I'm going to try and hang out with her again next monday; she said she doesn't study ever, and said she's really excited to get to know me and insisted we get food together next time. It's pretty exciting to see the Lord working and making students available to me. Meg and Naoko met a girl that they talked with for a few hours, so that's great to see as well :) It was good to break up so Meg could somewhat find her "nitch" in the ministry here as well. We've both been kind of frustrated.
Tuesday was our day off, so what did I do? I went to the salon! Naoko's sister is a hairstylist that we met a few weeks ago. I got the opportunity to go to the salon with her, and I got to sit right next to her and watch every minute. It was awesome! Salons here work differently, in that most only have the owner, maybe one or 2 hairstylists, and maybe an assistant or 2. In the US, for those of you who don't get out much, each hairstylist rents their own chair and then they share the wash stations, so there is usually 6-10 hairstylists per salon, and they don't directly work "for" the owner, or anyone but themselves. During the cut, I sat right next to Naoko's sister. She said she was nervous that I was watching, but that it was okay. Within the next 5 minutes, there were 5 of us sitting watching the cut, because they were interested that a Gai-jin (foreigner) was so interested. We talked about salons and cosmetology school, and other random things. There were cute little shops "traditional Japanese street style" around the salon, and REALLY cute clothes for cheap (don't worry mom and Michael, I didn't get any, even though they fit). Naoko knew of a great food place on our way back to our apartment, but on our way it started to rain. When we got to the place, it was closed. It wouldn't open for another 45 minutes, so we walked down the street and sat in a bakery shop. Talk about awkward. But anyway, we made it in and the ladies that worked there were SO sweet! The place is owned by a woman and her 2 daughters, who also work there. The older daughter went to a language school in, get this, Irvine Valley College, in Irvine, CA (right next to my church, less than 4 minutes from my house). She went to OCC for another 4 years, and is now back in Japan to work for her mom. Talk about small world. The mother decided she didn't want to serve us bar food, but she wanted to make us food that normally someone would eat in a Japanese home. She brought out things that tasted like crab cakes, salads, cabbage marinated in something, and THE most tasty treats ever! I forget what they're called, but it's like cheesy potatoes in an egg roll. Oh my word, heaven in a wonton. After a few more rounds of foods, we were quite full. They gave us their card, and we headed home.
Today, we had our 2 English classes and the English conversation cafe. Our second class was especially fun because some of us were in short skits that the students had made (and we edited). They watch Seinfeld in each class, and they had to make a skit based off a theme they saw. In one episode, I guess someone lies about being a marine biologist to impress a girl, and gets caught. So, all the skits had something to do with lying. One of my groups was a baseball team, the pitcher hurt his knee and they needed to find a back-up. Someone knew someone who said he was the best, but he really couldn't pitch at all. The other group had a kid who was no good at basketball, and would even score baskets for the wrong team. He transferred schools and told everyone he was the best. There was a game against their rivals (his old school), and he played and scored a basket for his old team. I was the student who called the kid "terrible" in the skit, so that was fun :P They were pretty funny though. I even got them to use sarcasm and say "good luck with that" and "my bad". After almost DYING in a bike accident on the way back to campus, I met up with Bunsho, Misato, some of their friends, and Rob and Kyle, and we went to Misato's apartment for dinner. Bunsho works at Pizza-la (where Rob and Kyle met him) and made us a pizza. His boss made it, and he told us it was new and spicy, so I decided to try it. BAD CALL!!! I ate half the slice before I realized my tongue was going to fall off. We made everyone try it, and apparently I got the only spicy slice, and they did that on purpose. Thanks, guys! I've eaten a lot of spicy food in my life, but this was seriously the worst ever. She made Tacoyaki, which is this amazing cooker thing. It looks like round muffin tins on a burner, you pour pancake batter in and put stuff on top, then rotate the cups and you make things that look like cream puffs. You're supposed to put cabbage and octopus in it, but by the end of the night I had them putting Reese's pieces in it for dessert ;) yum! Then we sampled Japanese desserts, something that's "healthy for you" that tastes like poop, and "chocochip cookies". It was great company, great food, and great fun. I invited them to our apartment for American food next Wednesday, so hopefully I'll find the time to prepare well for that.
Please pray for the women that we've been meeting with, and for Aiko and ChiHiro the rest of this week. Please also pray for BEST club summer camp this week. Please pray for healing from my accident, as well as some other health problems this week. People-sickness (not necessarily homesickness) is setting in, so please pray for comfort for that. Please pray for Hiromi and Go's new marriage :D Love you all!
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