Christmas at HBC

We feel so blessed to have found such a wonderful church here in Himeji. The pastor and his family have quickly become part of our family and we enjoy our time together on Sundays. The Sunday before Christmas was extra special as they had a baptism and we got to listen to the Children's choir sing a couple of our favorite Christmas songs. These little girls are so adorable and they have beautiful voices. Pastor Haruta shared the Chritmas story and we really enjoyed our time of fellowship with the members of Himeji Baptist Church. A couple days later went to the candlelight service. After the service we all stat around and ate Christmas cake, drank coffee and fellowshiped. Just as we got ready to leave a couple of the little choir girls, whom we have become fast friends with, decided they wanted us to help them decorate a cake in the kitchen. Haruko, the youth leader/interpreter informed us that they had bought a cake for the girls to decorate and that they wanted us to help. Audrey and I, of course were very flattered and looked forward to hanging out with these little ones. We had so much fun as we were able to use some of our broken Japanese and they practiced the English that Haruko would help them with. Thankfully, you don't really have to know the same language when it decorating cakes with little ones, we just kind of went at it. After the cake was decorated there was still a bag of icing that had not been used. Not wanting to be wasteful I grabbed the bag and started squirting some of the icing into my mouth. Now in my family there was rarely a time that we had whip cream in the house and one of us kids didn't grab the can, tilt our head back and fill our mouths with the fluffy goodness. After seeing the looks on these girls faces I'm not sure that they had ever seen anything like that before. I decided that I should share so I started offering it to them. The first couple girls were still taken aback by this crazy maneuver and they backed away really quickly, but one girl was ready! She cocked her head back, closed her eyes and opened her mouth about as wide at it could get. So I squirted a little frosting in there and she popped her head forward and closed her mouth and started to giggle. That moment was priceless. It was a moment of sheer ecstasy. Once the other three girls saw the look on her face they made a mad dash to be the next in line. All three followed suite... head back, mouth open, eyes closed and all three had the same look on their face as the sugar went down their throat and started coursing through their veins. It was awesome! After about 3 or 4 rounds of this, the frosting was gone, but I'm sure the sugar highs lasted well into the night. We each then ate our piece of cake, played for a little bit until Audrey and I headed home for bed and left their parents to deal with the aftershocks. All in all it was a great way to end the night. We feel so blessed to have made such wonderful friends here in Himeji and we will always cherish little memories like this.

The little angels singing

Haruko and the little ones decorating their cake

Everyone loves frosting!!!

Pastor Haruta getting ready to baptise this young lady

The way the Japanese people use space is pretty amazing... they pulled up the floor and underneath there is a small baptistery... Brilliant!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Well, Christmas this year was unlike any we have ever experienced before. They definitely celebrate Christmas over here... just in there own way. We loved walking around the Miyuki-Dori because they had a bunch of Christmas lights and Christmas music playing for the better part of the month. That being said there were a lot of little things that we really missed. Things like spending time with family, decorating our Christmas tree together, going to Christmas parties, 6 weeks of continuous Christmas music on 99.9, driving around and looking at Christmas lights and Mexican food on Chritmas day. Audrey did find some Christmas decorations and we put up a little Charlie Brown tree back in November so it was nice to have a little Christmas spirit in our apartment. We decided not to buy much for Christmas because we knew that anything we bought we would have to pack and bring home with us. We had to pay weight overage fees at the airport on the way over here so we are trying not to add to that. My wonderful parents sent us 3 boxes over about a weeks span of some of our favorite foods we cant get here and also a couple gifts for us. I scored an awesome Cubs hat that has a Japanese flag on the side and some slippers, while Audrey got a sweater, a pair of gloves, a scarf and some really fluffy socks to keep her toes warm.  Audrey's parents sent us some money to travel and we also got a box from a good friend at church (thank you Matt), filled with all of our favorite candies! Audrey and I have been trying to eat better and exercise more since we have been here but all of our good intentions have gone out the window as these boxes continue arriving. Audrey is blessed with a metabolism that allows her to eat a couple pieces of candy every day with out her gaining any weight. I on the other hand, just have to look at a couple pieces of candy and my butt jiggles for a week! Thank you for your thoughtfulness, we definitely felt loved! On Christmas Eve we had a pot luck with a bunch of our favorite people from Shirasagi. We had yakisoba, fried rice, curry, chips and salsa and other tasty cuisines from all over the world. The food was delicious and the time with friends was even better. After dinner Audrey and I watched a Christmas movie together and got ready for bed because we had to teach on Christmas day. Thankfully we didn't have to go to our High Schools, instead we chose to teach community lessons in the meeting room of our apartment complex. Being that it was Christmas day we decided to teach our students Christmas songs, some Christmas traditions back home, we played Christmas Bingo wrapped it up with a Christmas party. They really seemed to have a nice time and we really enjoyed working with them. All in all we had a nice Christmas season, nothing too exciting, but we really enjoyed our time together and the opportunity to build relationships with new friends. We hope you all had a merry Christmas and that things are going well in your neck of the woods. We miss you all and think of you often during this holiday season!

This is just half of the candy that Matt sent...

"Oh Christmas tree Oh Chritmas tree..."

Thank-you mom and dad... We love you very much!!!

....and the other half from Mr. Rotty!

The Holiday Season

Well, the Christmas season is definitely upon us here in Japan. Our first party was on the 10th of December. My Shogai students talked me into letting them out of class a little early on a Wednesday afternoon so that we could celebrate Christmas together. We went to a cute little restaurant around the corner from the school where we enjoyed coffee, cake and a gift exchange. There gift exchange system was pretty great. We all sat in a circle and started singing a song... in this case we sang the classic "one little two little three little Indians." As we sang we passed the presents to the right and when the song stopped we were supposed open the present that was in our hands. I have to admit I hadn't sung that song since the early 90's but it came back to me real fast. My class also presented me with a special gift. It was a huge box full of little heat packs. When you crush the chemicals inside of the little packs it causes a reaction... that reaction makes these little packs warm for hours. It was a very thoughtful gift as Audrey and I have been experiencing cold weather unlike any we have had in Az. The next weekend was our GLORY Christmas party. Glory is a wonderful company here in Japan that offers low cost English lessons to Japanese elementary school students. Audrey and I have really missed working with elementary age students since have been in Japan so we talked to our boss over here and he found a program for us to work with some kiddos a couple Saturdays a month. We started our new job at the right time as we were able to take part in their GLORious Christmas party. We played games, sang songs, had a snow ball fight (with white paper), read "The Night Before Christmas" and passed out tons of presents. It was so wonderful. The kids were so cute and we all had so much fun! A few days later one of Audrey's co-workers asked her if she thought I would be willing to dress up like Santa Claus, or as they call him here in Japan "Santa-san", and visit an elementary school in a neighboring city. How could I refuse such an offer. Unfortunately, the job went from visiting the school to singing a song, teaching them a song, answering some of the letters they had written to Santa and passing out presents. Now I was feeling the pressure! So on Saturday morning they picked us up around 9:00 and we headed to the school. There they had Santa costumes, not only for me, but for Audrey also. Everything seemed to be going as planned until we realized that my pants were about 20 sizes to big. Even after stuffing them with towels and such to help me "look the part", there was still no way those things were staying up! So being the resourceful people they are they quickly jumped into action and started wrapping me in plastic wrap and when that didn't seem to help they pulled out some tape to try to tape my pants up. It was a pretty surreal moment as I stood there in this tiny room in Japan, in a Santa suit, with three little Japanese girls swarming around me trying to wrap/tape my pants up. I'm just so thankful I had left my pants on under the suit or they may have gotten more than they bargained for! Once they were pleased with their handy work it was just about show time. And when I say show time I mean show time... I had a microphone and I was about to walk out into a court yard to serenade hundreds of 3-6 year olds with a classic rendition of "Jingle Bells." It was go time... out the door I went with a rousing "dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh..." Within 30 seconds these little ones started pouring out of their classrooms by the hundreds, screaming "Santa-san" "Santa-san" and I just kept on singing "...over the hills we go laughing all the way" I must have sung that song 5 times before the kids finally calmed down. So then I asked them to sing it with me... so they sang in Japanese as I continued in English... it was so cute! After we finished it was time to sing "head and shoulders, knees and toes" Now this was the song of choice because we wanted to do the motions with them as we sang... both educational and physical. So Audrey and I teach them the song and they follow along as we touch our head and our shoulders and our knees and then... we'll stop right there... remember how I said my pants were plastic wrapped and taped up... well its safe to say that the knees and toes part pretty much undid whatever had been done. The next thing I know my pants are falling down. Now mind you I had other pants on underneath, but that was kind of a blessing and a curse because while it was great that the kids didn't have to see Santa's undies, it was bad because I couldn't feel my pants falling down. Thank goodness I had Mrs. Claus out there with me to let me know that I was losing a layer of clothing. You should have seen the look on the other Japanese teachers faces... you know.... the ones that had tried to plastic wrap and tape me together. We will just say that facial expressions are transcendent of language. I may not know exactly what words they were thinking, but in English it probably sounded something like "WELL CRAP"! So we finished the song with Santa holding onto his pants for dear life and not touching his knees or toes for some strange reason. After the song they read some of the questions that the students had written to Santa and I answered them and they translated them back to the children. After that I passed out some presents and said Sayonara. What a crazy day!

Me and Audrey with my students at our Christmas party

Me and Wayne in our Christmas hats at the GLORY Christmas party

Merry little Japanese Children

Pauls goodbye lunch

Santa-san and Mrs. Claus

Kobe Luminaries

Last Friday, Audrey had a seminar to go to in Kobe, so I snuck out of work a bit early so that I could meet her there. Every December there is a light festival held in Kobe. It began in 1995 and commemorates the Great Hanshin Earthquake of that year. Legend has it that the lights were donated by the Italian Government to help cheer up the people of Kobe after the horrific disaster. The lights are kept up for about two weeks and only turned on for a few hours each evening. It is a huge attraction and many major streets in the vicinity are closed to auto traffic during these hours to allow the multitudes of people fill the streets and enjoy the lights. Before heading for Kobe I tried to get directions to the light display. In true Japanese fashion they would say " just follow the crowd." The Christmas holiday here in Japan is not so much one of spending time with family, but rather with your boyfriend or girlfriend, which left the streets filled with teenage lovers. So as we headed out of the station we did exactly what we were told... we followed the crowd. There were barricades set up all over town and there were police officers with megaphones shouting at the top of their lungs. Now this is one of those times where it was a blessing and a curse not to understand a word that they were saying. So as we "followed the crowd" Audrey and I were trying to decide if we should eat first or look at the lights first. Long story short, we decided that we were pretty hungry and that we should find some food before we embarked on this journey through the lights. Well by this time we had been "following the crowd for about 5 minutes and somehow had been herded in between some gates with no way out. We thought about jumping a fence, but thought better of that since we didn't really want to feel the wrath of a Japanese police officer, and Audrey's fence jumping days have come and gone. So rather than trying to back track through the masses we just kept on going, expecting to find an opening so we could go find some food. Well 30 minutes later we had no opening, nor were we moving. We were stuck! Once we started moving again we realized that it was well worth the wait. The lights were magnificent. It was so nice to just hold hands and enjoy the sights as we strolled down a beautifully lit street. At the end of the street there was a court yard filled with more lights. Then, much to our surprise we stumbled upon a whole line of street vendors. We were so hungry we would have settled for pretty much anything by this time. We both decided that we wanted okonomiyaki and after surveying the 100's of vendors we decided on the type we wanted. Man was it good. Audrey has some kind of sonar for crepes, so once we finished dinner we headed strait for the crepe stand. This was probably the most unhealthy meal that he have eaten in the 4 months that we have been here... but you wont hear me complaining! After desert it was off to the main shopping area where we did some window shopping and Audrey got some more warm socks. All in all it was a great evening. Japan always has something new and exciting to offer and we feel so blessed to have so many new experiences in our short time here.

Our view when we walked around the corner
Halfway through the street of lights
Lovers in Japan
The display at the end of the street
A little taste of home:)