GOOD THINGS

A few good things I've been loving recently...

1. RAMEN
On Friday I went to eat ramen for dinner with my coworker, at 9pm. The I went home, went to sleep, woke up...and ate ramen for lunch on Saturday. HAHAH ridiculous. But my excuse is simple; every bowl of ramen in Japan is a good bowl of ramen. So I must take advantage of this and try them all. The one of the left is a ramen shop a 10 minute walk from my house. GARLICY AND AMAZING. The one on the right is at Kashiwa station and had the best SPICY NEGI (scallions) on top. 

2. SATURDAY MORNINGS
As a full-time working person, I can now fully appreciate Saturday morning. There is something so wonderful about staying in your PJs all morning, drinking coffee slowly, getting laundry done, running a few errands, and enjoying the relaxed pace. #adultlife. For me here in Japan, I am blessed to live 10 steps from a 7-11 which is a magical land where I can get good-black coffee, withdraw money from the bank, buy trash bags, pay my bills, and chat with the workers who know me by now. Saturday mornings are the best.

3. THE PERFECT FACE WASH
I have been in search for some good MADE IN JAPAN cosmetics recently, and stumbled upon the holy grail of face wash...SUISAI beauty clear powder!! It comes in these tiny little pods...seriously so small...that you pour out and mix with water to make the worlds best face wash. glory hallelujah. They somehow magically clean my face perfectly without leaving it dry (which I hate!). On top of that, they are cheap, are in powder form so easy to travel with, and are just cute! 

4. LEARNING FROM MY STUDENTS
As a teacher, my job is to teach. But let's be real, 80% of the time, I am the one being taught. Recently, I've have the opportunity to sit down with one of my students who is a Muslim girl from Egypt. We've been discussing the Bible and the Quran, the stories in both and what we believe to be true. It's so rad to share with her, and I feel God speaking so much to me in opportunities I get to work at a school, with eager and curious students. 

5. POCKETS OF BEAUTY
I'm at school 7:30am - 5:00pm, which means I spend most of my time indoors. But every so often, I try to sneak outside to get a breath of fresh air, see the sunset, and take in the beauty of this place. Although I'm in Tokyo a lot on weekend, the truth is, the school I work at (Ichikashi) is pretty much in the country side. It's quiet out here...the sun setting straight over the river with no buildings blocking it. That's some magic. 

RECENTLY

The weather is starting to cool down here in Japan, which means I am bringing out all my HEATTECH and mentally preparing for the C O L D *insert crying face!* But, with fall comes a lot of fun things to enjoy both at school and in the city. 

Here's what I've been up to recently...

Our English Club at school had our big Halloween party and it was a blast! We have about 25 members and everyone came to play games, practice speaking English, and ultimately, eat a lot of candy and junk food. 

I think this photo sums up my life at Ichikashi pretty well. I get the chance to teach English to these students in a fun, limitless environment and use my God given love for groups activities and social-butterfly-ness. I am so grateful to call this my job!! 

I've been spending every possible weekend in Tokyo...and for good reason!! This city is PURE MAGIC and I don't know if I will ever love a place more. Reasons why I love Tokyo are as follows:

1. There is always a new restaurant to try. (ALWAYS)
2. Any fashion is good and acceptable fashion. (polka dots, red socks, checkered vans...sure)
3. Nature is easy to find. (beautiful trees EVERYWHERE)
4. People are dope. (I could sit in Tokyo and people watch forever.)
5. SHOP TIL U DROP. (the best/cutest/dopest/craziest stores in the world are here) 
6. You can walk/train everywhere and anywhere. (a car...? whats that?) 

I could go on forever...so I'll just stop there.

I as much as I love Tokyo, I also have a wonderful life in the suburbs (aka my hometown: Kashiwa) and I love kicking it with my friends and family here too. On the left is a photo from the recent speech contest I took two students to at Reitaku University. They did their best! My favorite memory was one student, Son, who messed up at one part in his speech so started making up his own sentences! HAHAHHAA. I know it is a serious thing and I should be a professional and all...but honestly I could not stop laughing. I have not laughed that hard in a long time. He cracks me up!! And on the right is my first meeting with my dear friend Mina's little girl, Airi!!! Mina is like a sister to me here and meeting her daughter was a DREAM!! I got to hold her all afternoon and was in baby heaven. 

Despite all the madness in the world recently, I find it healing to thank the Lord for all the good he is doing. I find great peace in praising Him and knowing He is in control. 

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

HOORAY!!

LONGCHAMP. OMOTESANDO. TOKYO. 

NO TIME TO BLOG....

GAHHH!!!

I am very behind on blog posts...I have so many pics and moments I want to share from these last few weeks...but alas, no time! I'll get to it eventually. But for now, one amazingly wonderful announcement:

MY SIBLINGS ARE COMING TO JAPAN NEXT YEAR!!!! 

Glory hallelujah!!! My brothers, my sister and their families are all coming and I could cry!!! A true dream come true. I can't wait to share this country I love, with the people I love most. Thank you, Jesus.

バスケットボールやりたい! - I WANNA PLAY BBALL.

After two years of living in Japan, I attended my first basketball game here. FINALLY!  I have no idea why it took me so long, especially considering there is a local team here in Funabashi - the Chiba Jets. My dear friends from church, Bernie and Tom, invited me to a game so we headed there on a rainy Saturday night. 

I got all giddy right when I got off the train and saw this sign! YAYYY!!! From the station, we walked 10 minutes through some residential streets to the arena. I liked the chillness of it all, way less chaotic and crowded than an NBA game.

We walked in easily and got to our seats and my first immediatel thought was...

WHY IS IT SO DARK IN HERE!? Seriously, they had almost all the lights off and were getting ready for the long list of pre-game performances. My second thought that quickly followed was, THIS GYM IS SO TINY. Smaller than my college basketball gym by far.

Another surprising thing was watching the pre-game routine. The players go through very detailed team stretching. Something you rarely see in the NBA. I thought it was cute seeing all their unity and effort. The Chiba Jets were wearing pink uniforms to celebrate ladies day (no idea what that is) and I was laughing so hard at the fact that there were AT LEAST 10 sponsors on their uniforms! HAHAHA. Funny considering the whole debate to put one NIKE logo on NBA uniforms.  

It only took 5 minutes into the first quarter for me to learn that the CHIBA JETS are NOT good, and would not be winning the game...so I quickly turned my attention to another entertaining mission - find the cutest guy to cheer for! I soon settled on #27, Naoya Kumagae who happened to be on the opposing team -OOPS. hahahaa

Also noticed David Wear on the Osaka team, who played at UCLA. Anyway, Kumagae I love you! He's 26 and 6`4 by the way, just sayin.

Guess I'm an Osaka Evessa fan now HAHAH. They ended up beating us by 20 points, yikes. I waited for Kumagae to exit and noticed a bunch of screaming girl fans waiting to give him gifts they had surely handmade. Guess I have some stiff competition!

After the game, we walked 15 minutes to Bernie and Toms place and they fed me the most amazing steak dinner! They made me hot tea, served me the yummiest food, gave me a warm bed to sleep in, and even made me a fresh smoothie and french toast for breakfast in the morning when I woke up. These people are heaven sent! Then, Sunday morning, they drove me to church. Wow thank you LORD. 

After church, I quickly jetted out of there (in the approaching typhoon mind you) to get to another church service. One of my students here at Ichikashi goes to a Filipinio church near Kashiwa and they were celebrating their 27th anniversary. 27 years!! How incredible is that?! I knew I wanted to check it out and see what God was doing over at Lord Of The Harvest Global Ministries!! 

First things first....GRUB on the most amazing Filipino food!!! 

You got your Lugaw aka warm rice porridge and Tokwat Baboy aka PIGS EAR with tofu and vinegar sauce. That lugaw...man, I could eat that every single day. 

I ate SO much food...people kept bringing me plate after plate to try and I really forgot that I was in Japan for a second and was convinced I had stepped straight into a Filipino church in the heart of Manila or something! I even tried the Dinuguan, which is pork cooked in pigs blood...WHAAAAAT. Never thought i'd eat that. 

After church, I hung out with my student's mom...YES this is his young and beautiful mom! We had a great time and it felt like being with family. Very thankful for the body of Christ and HIS global church!

What a weekend that was!

On Monday morning the Typhoon Lan hit Japan mainland and we were all in for a rainy and windy day. The timing was a bit ironic since this week is mid-terms at school!  The staff at our school decided to move back the start of school til 1pm and resume testing as planned. Every time it is mid-terms or finals at school, I jump on the opportunity to shoot some hoops. This is because the clubs are not supposed to have organized practices during testing time, so the gym is free! 

.No place i'd rather be than in the gym shooting around with these girls (4 of them I teach in class). I told them, "I went to the Chiba Jets game on Saturday!" and to my surprise three of them said, "we did too!" HAHA. These girls are hardcore ballers, and have some of the quickest ball handling and footwork skills i've ever seen. We all shot around together and it was a blast. 

Very thankful to experience the game I love, in the country I love. God knew I needed a sports outlet in Japan, and he also knew I needed to watch/play basketball every once in a while...GOD provides!!!

A SWEET SUNDAY

Since I started working as a teacher, I have grown increasingly aware of the necessity for the Sabbath. Every day, I leave my house at 6:40am, work a full day, then arrive back home somewhere between 6:00pm and 7:00pm. My days are full of lesson planning, printing papers, grading, chatting with students, looking over my schedule a thousand times, and walking up and down the hallways at school from the classrooms to my office. As much as I love my students and the place I get to call "work", there is something so glorious about a day off. Especially Sunday!

Sunday is definitely my favorite day of the week. I look forward to it like it's a gift waiting for me around every corner. It has become my sacred day of fellowship, refuel and rest. Hallelujah! 

Every Sunday I go to my home away from home - HOPE church. God has been so gracious in blessing me with my church family at HOPE and I am eternally grateful for the faithful servants who have obeyed God and built this church in the heart of Japan. 

Sunday service starts at 10:30 am and worshipping with my sisters and brothers here in Japan is a gift I will treasure forever! A true taste of heaven! 

Worship is mostly in Japanese, with a few English phrases here and there...but they put Japanese, Romaji and English on the screen for all to read. Singing corporate worship songs in Japanese is POWERFUL! 

Once a month, after service, we have a Professional Women's meeting. I joined this group when it first began, a year or so ago, and it has been amazing getting to know these women and build a sisterhood with them. 

We did a fun activity, The Marshmallow Challenge, where we were given spaghetti, tape, string and a marshmallow and has to see which team could build the tallest tower in 15 minutes. My team was so close to winning!! AHH. The Pro Women's leader, Sayumi, then walked us through a super interesting talk about how we work in teams, and what leads to successful towers and what leads to failed attempts. Research has shown that people who do the worst at this activity are recent Business school graduates - interesting. And the people who usually do the best are (get this)- children!! Apparently kids have the ability to problem solve and not get locked into ONE certain mean to an end and therefore have a higher chance of success in this game.  It was really insightful, fun, and a creative lead in to the message by my friend, Ami. 

Ami spoke about the story of two sister, Martha and Mary, in the Bible. She talked about how Martha was busy shuffling around the house getting everything prepared for Jesus, while Mary was simply at his feet. Martha complained, "Lord, Mary is not doing anything!" but Jesus replied, "Martha, you are worried and distracted by so many things. But only one thing is necessary. For Mary has chosen what is best." Ami reminded us to have the heart of Mary; a heart that is not swayed by the to-do list, the goal, or agenda, but a heart that finds complete purpose and peace in the presence of God. AMEN!!! 

I got to hang out with my dear friend Haruka and her baby boy Alan! How cute is this kid!? 

My good friend, Miri, has been coming to church with me recently and it has been so fun! She lives in Tokyo, so we headed back into the city together after the Pro Women's meeting. So thankful for Miri and her friendship! 

In the afternoon, I headed to the place I'd say I know best in all of Tokyo - Omotesando. This is truly my stomping grounds, and I could spend every weekend here if I could! 

Nothing compares to the architecture in Tokyo. So sophisticated, so creative, so dope! 

It was pouring rain all day, and I was tempted to complain about it. But then I remembered how umbrellas can make for some creative photos so I headed to one of the best photo spots in the area : the TOKYU building mirror escalator to get this shot. 

I then met up with my two good friends, Moe and Steph, both my former coworkers, and we ate pancakes!!

we went to MICASADECO&CAFE right on Cat street! This place is always crowded, so thankfully we only had to wait 20 minutes or so. 

Japan is ALL about the seasonal flavors...and this one was Purple Sweet Potato Mont Blanc! How beautiful is this!??

But, the main attraction is their fluffy ricotta pancakes. And Japan is so EXTRA for making everything themed and seasonal, take for example the HALLOWEEN decoration. These pancakes were the fluffiest things ever and basically melted in your mouth!! 

A perfect cafe afternoon with great friends!

After eating, we cruised Cat street, which I think has got to be the most fashionable little corner of Tokyo. I could sit on this street all day and photograph stylish people! 

I mean, LOOK at this storefront. W H A T. 

The design of this place...UHMMMM INCREDIBLE. 

TOO CLEAN. TOO COOL. TOO AMAZING. Tokyo is a magical magical land. 

And we ended the day with drinks and snacks at a place Steph recommended (she loves beer! ha). 

Every time I spend a day in Tokyo, I am so grateful for the experience. It is enriching me in every way and I know the Lord has given me this time in my life as a GIFT! I am so blessed to wake up on Sundays, spend the morning with my church family, and enjoy the rest of my leisure time with good friends in a city I love. WOW. What a life! Thank you Lord!