GOOD THINGS

We all know the madness that has been happening recently in the world and have felt the weight of all the darkness and anger. What's harder still, is when that weight is piled on to the things going on personally, in our daily lives. For me, right now, that's mom's broken foot and grandpa Komae in the hospital. I want to be home with them, reaaaaaally badly...but I rest assured that God has me here - right here - for His good purposes. 

It's hard not to feel anxious at a time like this, but because of God's grace He teaches me to see the light in everything, the beauty, the hope, the good, and the purpose. So I want to share a few good things that are going on in my life here in Japan...because God is my helper and I will give thanks to Him forever.

Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me, O Lord, be my helper
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have loosed by sackcloth and girded me with gladness,
That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
Psalm 30

Children are a complete JOY and I was lucky enough to spend a Saturday with my good friend Mina's niece, Yui. She's a full force of energy and stubbornness (terrible twos!) but being around her was so refreshing for my auntie soul. We went to the local mall and played in the incredible giant-Japanese-snack area which had me cracking up and their perfectly proportioned giant sized objects of things, i.e this green tea! Ohhhhh Japan! 

I also was blessed to hang out with my good friend Yuki in Tokyo on a beautiful crisp day! She took me to a local beer festival and although it took me 3x longer than the average human to finish that cup, I enjoyed the german food, ambiance, and chatting with Yuki. She works in Honda right in the super fancy Aoyama area of Tokyo and showed me some local spots. She's the best! Then...the next day after work I got to meet Mashiko sensei's beautiful wife and their two kittens (named "Kin and Gin" -" gold and silver") It was the best start to the week. 

Watching Election day was suuuuuper interesting from Japan and the students were way more into it than I thought. We kept the TV rolling all day and had CNN up on the computer screen. In between classes kids would run in and say, "WHO WON? WHO WON?" The blessing in all of this is that Steph and I were able to share some positive insight into an otherwise chaotic day...we kept the kids positive and tried to make it a teachable moment. 

Speaking of Steph and I...

We came to work on Friday literally matching head to toe. We don't live together, but we do spend every working day together so we are doing that weird subconscious twin thing! Maroon pants/tights and a black sweater. ha! I am thankful for Steph though, she is a great coworker and a good friend. God knew we needed each other at this time in our lives. 

Can't go wrong with Udon for dinner and Mr. Donut for dessert. The old fashion donut from Mr. Donut will forever reign supreme as my favorite donut in Japan. 

And lastly, they re-opened a mall in kashiwa and put a GONG CHA!!!!!! I tried this boba chain for the first time when I was in Vietnam last year and it was amazing...so when I walked into the mall and saw it I almost dropped to the floor. There is NO good boba in Japan...so having this in Kashiwa is too good to be true. Sign me up for a loyalty card ASAP.

So there are a few snippets of goodness amidst a lot of madness and chaos.  The future seems scary, and to be honest...right now the reality of my grandpa passing and me not being there hurts bad. He is someone I love deeply and he has blessed me so much in my 24 years of life. But...ahhh...I rest. I rest because the Lord above holds all things in His hands. My grandpa will soon spend eternity with the Lord in fullness. fullness: the state of being filled to capacity. What a beautiful sight that will be. 

SLOW DOWN

September and October were crazy months. I am so thankful that it's November now and I have a little bit more time to slow down. I haven't been taking as many photos on my camera lately (laziness!) but now that the temperature is dropping I am going to have to do something to keep my mind off how cold I actually am so I'm determined to carry around Joel a lot more. You can take the girl out of California but you can't take California out of the girl!

Went for a walk the other day at my favorite spot, Teganuma. This place is so special to me. It truly is a place of peace and calm where I can see some nature and talk with God. 

I got there just in time to catch a bit of the sunset. 

Gott love some good DOF (depth of field) every once in a while.

Since i'm indoors at school 80% of my week...any spare moment of time out in nature is a treasure to me! Even if it's some tiny plants out by the water. It is so refreshing. My goal is to really get out and make it a priority to see some fall leaves this month. 

The hiragana "め" always makes me think of a pretzel!

I love my little neighborhood and I am thankful for a place right across the street from my apartment to go to and have some time outside. 

In other news...is it too early to listen to Christmas music? (rhetorical question) Because I just bought Lauren Daigle Christmas CD...and I'm going to have to bring out all the other good holiday albums to jam to for the next month and a half! 

When you offer free candy...

Since Monday was Halloween I made sure to bring a load of candy (thank you Costco) to fulfill my duty as the American teacher at Ichikashi. Halloween, over the last few years, has started to pick up in Japan but it still hasn't made its way into the school system yet (no costumes allowed!). I told all the teachers in the English department to announce to their classes that if the students came to our office and said "trick or treat" they would get a candy. And sure enough...

A lot of them came! 

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Then after school, we had an ECC (English Conversation Club) Halloween Party in the 3A classroom, which is the nicest classroom at school! We told all the kids to bring some snacks and drinks and we kicked off the party at 4:00pm...

Riho, our club president, quickly found the Honey Dijon chips I brought from Costco haha. Smart girl. 

Japanese snacks are the best. 

So...my duty was to plan a bunch of games for the students to play. Thankfully, I grew up going to Church summer camp every year, then worked at Forest Home for two summers, and was an RA at APU so you can imagine how many church-friendly-crazy-games I have in my repertoire. (I had to look up how to spell that word)

Game 1: M&M Elevator.
I tied string to some hashis and made the kids put the string behind their ears and pull up an M&M to their mouths without it falling off. They all kept saying "this is impossible!!" but they made it work and it was hilarious to watch how focused they got! 

Game 2: Throw the Mallow
I bought this bag of ridiculously large marshmallows from, you guessed it, Costco. At the last minute I was thinking of how to use them for a game and thought to myself, "hmmm...marshmallows are soft, so why not throw them at peoples' faces?" classic. I printed out these Pumpkin masks and gave each team three big marshmallows each. Every time they hit the pumpkin they got one point. No one was injured in this game so I call that a success! 

Game 3: Find the candy
I played this game so many times growing up...blindfold one person, have their teammate shout directions at them to find whatever object is on the floor. This time it was a bunch of individually wrapped Haribo gummies.

Game 4: pass the pumpkin
They loved this one, simply for the fact that everyone loves a good relay race! These pumpkins were only $1 each at Costco. Over under, behind the back, eyes closed, I tried to mix it up to make each round a little more difficult. They were so loud during this one! 

One of the students, Tats, made his own game by eating far too many gummie bears. His entire mouth was full and he kept shoving them in while his two friends kept cheering him on...boys will be boys! 

After playing the games, the winning team got to be first in line for some cheesecake. We spent the rest of the party listening to American music on youtube and dancing to all the hip hop songs that are going viral haha! 

These girls are awesome! 

The students stayed around until 6pm when we told them it was time to clean up and head home. I loved spending time with them, playing a bunch of silly games, and seeing their happy faces eating candy and enjoying each others' company. I feel so very blessed to call this "work."

Another though: how cool is God to give us experiences in life to build on one another and help us later down the road?! For example, six years ago when I was a summer camp leader at Forest Home planning weeks of games and activities with my coworkers, I would have never imagined that I would use those ideas again as a teacher in Japan.  One of the English teachers here said to me, "Amie how do you think of all these games?" and I laughed because I told her it just comes from all the things I grew up with and it doesn't stress me out one bit to plan them! God sets things up so far in advance, we can't imagine how things will come back into our lives or how two jobs will connect... but after all, God is the one who created us so He knows exactly how our various skills, talents, passions, hobbies will all fit in together to make us the most effective for His kingdom. I love that about God, and I am so blessed by His guidance and wisdom in my life.

Thank you Lord for bringing me here and giving me an outlet for all my icebreaker games and extrovert tendencies haha! 

FEELS LIKE HOME

Truth: the Lord provides
Evidence: (see below)

Recently I had been feeling a bit homesick. Not because I don't fully love loveeee Japan (because I do), but because I've just kind of  missed the coziness of a home, sitting around a big table and grubbin on some home cooked meals. Plus the holidays are coming up so I found myself anxiously counting down the days til I'm back. 

Then, one weekend after teaching my Saturday class, one of my students comes up to me and says, "Amie, I want to invite you over to my house sometimes soon to meet my daughter and son-in-law who are visiting from the states." I tried to play it cool, "Oh sounds great! let's pick a day" but really I was freaking out inside that I would get the honor of being invited to her family home to meet her kids. 

The day arrived and I was so thankful...

She picked Steph and I up at the station and drove us 10 minutes to her beautiful family house. In Japan, people build their own houses and choose the design and layout, so they're all amazing! They fed us some seriously good food; ginger pork, quiche, veggies, kabocha (pumpkin) soup, salad...drooooool. 

The lady, Motoka, has three kids. Her middle daughter is married to a guy from Texas and they came to Japan to have a formal Japanese wedding ceremony. It was so fun chatting with them about their travels and their hobby of bouldering (they're so cool) and the funny differences between Japan and the states. They also fed us home made green tea pudding, with ice cream, and cheesecake.

Chris, from Texas, Motoka's son who is an up and coming singer in Tokyo, Motoka, and her daughter who is so cool and cute! We stayed and chatted until 10:30pm on a Thursday night! haha. We were having so much fun together that we kind of lost track of time. It was such a blessing to spend time in their cozy house surrounded by such good conversation. They recommended so many places in Japan to visit and go hiking at, and I wished them the best of luck with their lives back in American. 

Then, the next day I get a text from a lady at church, Bernie, who has been like an Auntie or Mother to me..."Hey Amie, If you want you can come down and bunk in my house this Saturday and we can take you to church on Sunday!" Wow! I had to teach my Saturday class again but I told her I could come down after that. 

Bernie is from Singapore and her husband Tom grew up in Tokyo (but lived in Singapore for many years). They don't have any kids of their own but they are like a mother and father to so many people at church, and they really are so loving, hospitable, and kind. The picked me up from the station and invited me in their awesome house! 

They made a tatami floor guest bedroom upstairs just so the people who visited would feel "in Japan" and they even had tiny shampoos and soaps in their bathroom that made me really feel like I was in a hotel. They cooked me up the most amazing ramen with homemade dumplings inside! And a side dish of really good tofu. wasabi, and shoyu. They kept feeding me fruit, snacks, pudding, rice crackers, and kept refilling my cup of hot tea. We walked around their neighborhood after dinner and then ended the night watching Korean reality shows on T.V. 

Side note, they even gave me fresh lemon-water in a canteen to take up to my room and have as a refreshing night drink. So cute. 

The next morning I woke up and went up to their 3rd floor deck to have some quiet time and devo. It was chilly outside but Bernie gave me a wool blanket to use so I was more than happy. Plus how cool are they to have a 3rd roof deck?! 

Then, we walked to the bakery 2 minutes from their house and got the most amazing breads! This bakery is called, Queue, and for good reason since there is always a line outside. The breads were by far the best I've had in Japan. Incredible. We walked back home, blasted the worship music, had coffee and breakfast, and then they drove me to church. My favorite part of my time with them was when Tom prayed and said, "Thank you Lord for bringing Amie here. Continue to keep her safe and protected..." simple prayer but it meant so much coming from him. He told me "I think I'm about the same age as your dad, so I can be your dad while you're here!" I felt so loved and taken care of under their protection and they didn't even realize what a true blessing it was to me at this specific time in my life.

The Lord provides.

How funny that in a few days time I had two incredible dinners at two beautiful homes, surrounded by the best people. Life is always an adventure when you're following Jesus and you place your desires, your fears, your anxiety, your joys, your time...in His hands. When I was feeling homesick, I didn't even know what I needed. I thought I would just eagerly count down the days till I flew home for Christmas...but God knows what we need even before we do! He knew I needed a few nights spent in the presence of family and those with such pure hearts of service and gratitude to calm my anxious heart. He knew I needed this refreshing weekend to pick me up and carry me over until I'm home for the holidays.

God is such a good good Father. He knows us so well!

recently...

Steph and I met up with our former coworker, Imazawa Sensei, for Indian food (really spicy, really good). It is always nice to see Imazawa because he has really taken care of us in Japan, and although he works at a different school now, we still find time every few months to catch up!  

And yet another Nomikai...this one was to celebrate the recent Sports Festival and Cultural Festival we had at school. All of the teachers have been so busy recently, so everyone loved coming together to have a night of relaxation and good Kyushu style food. I sat near two of my coworkers who are a part of the unofficial and self proclaimed "若いの先生“ "young teachers" club at school haha. 

Last week I met up with my good friend Mina and her brother Naoya and we went out to eat Okonomiyaki. This one was Hiroshima style, with noodles inside! We also ate ホルモン"hormone" aka intestines which, believe it or not, I actually ate this time. It basically tastes like a thick piece of fat attached to a chewy piece of cardboard (I am assuming that is the intestinal wall) that doesn't seem edible but Japanese people LOVE it. Naoya says he orders it every time and it's the best Hormone he's ever had. Also, how weird is the name hormone? It actually comes from the word "horumon" from the kansai dialect which means "discarded goods" HAHA. 

Okay this is special...Watoto childrens choir came to Hope church again! I can hardly believe it's been a year since THIS POST !! I could not stop smiling dancing and worshipping the good Lord with these beautiful children. My favorite part was talking to some of the kids and leaders after and hearing their Ugandan accent. It's hard to explain, but something about their voices is just so comforting. It takes me right back to my time in Gulu.

After the Watoto concert I headed back to Kashiwa to meet up with a new friend, Yuuki, who Steph and I met via another mutual friend...and get this... he went to APU! How crazy is that? We didn't go to APU at the same time but we knew a few people in common and it just cracked me up talking to a Japanese guy about chapel, cougar den, and donut man! God is a God of connections and He reminded me of that this weekend. Also, the restaurant we went to in Kashiwa has just become my new favorite spot in the city. I mean, if my life were a restaurant it would be this, exactly. 

And the final event of recent was heading into Tokyo and meeting up with my friend Miri. Last year when I was working at the tutoring center, I tutored a lovely lady named Masako. We met each week and Masako eventually introduced me to her daughter my age named Miri - and we became fast friends! Anyway, she recently moved back to Japan and is now working for a company right around the corner from Tokyo station. We met up for dinner on Sunday and went to Shake shack. 

They just opened the third Shake Shack in Tokyo in Yurakucho (right at the Tokyo International Forum) and it was AMAZING. Always a win. Especially those cheese fries. 

I am so happy to have Miri in Tokyo now!! She went to UCR (and UCLA) and her parents live in PV so she totally gets life back home, not to mention shes is obsessed with Disneyland so I now have the perfect person to go there with! YES. 

And a few updates about school since, yes, I do still work during the week...

-Yesterday at lunch I brought instant ramen, this new pack I hadn't tried before, but when I made it I instantly smelled the fishy broth. At this point my coworkers were intrigued "oh Amie, you're eating ramen?" (I usually eat a sandwich or something with rice) and they all watched me take my first bite of the fishiness to see if I could do it. NOPE. NOPE. So then I gave all of it to Tamaoki sensei who gladly devoured it in two seconds. The good things is he said "I'll take you to non-fishy ramen next to make up for it" haha. 

-For one of our classes, Steph and I gave them this stamp card and they have to come once a week, make up a question ask us, and receive a stamp to help improve their conversation skills. The questions usually vary from "what did you do this weekend?" to "what is your favorite type of Japanese food" but yesterday...one of the Filipinio kids came up to me and said, "what is your favorite part about being a Christian?" And I almost cried. Not because of the question but because of his face when he asked me, he was pure joy and happiness knowing I got what he got and we both served the same God! P.s I told him my favorite part was knowing the Father's love and living with purpose! 

-Last week our school brass band went to Nagoya to compete in the all Japan High School Brass Band competition and they won the gold medal for the third consecutive year. No big deal. This Thursday and Friday the entire brass band will be gone at another event so half my students will be out of class! Music is absolutely life here at my school and it dominates every other club activity.