Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Cherry Blossoms of Hirosaki
These are some pics taken at Hirosaki Park one morning around 8:00 AM.
The cherry blossoms on both sides of Hirosaki Castle's mote.I'm sure a million pictures are taken from this spot every year by tourists and photographers.
I thought this tree was interesting looking.
Us
We left Itayanagi around 7:30 in the morning and bought breakfast on the way to Hirosaki. At the castle park, we found a nice spot around cherry blossoms and ate crackers with cheese and fruit. We were the only people having a picnic early in the morning at the park, so some people walking by might have thought that we were strange, but we didn't mind. We had a nice time. 
After eating, we took a walk through the park.
Since we were so early in the morning, there were hardly any people. If we came a little later in the day or at night, this place would have been packed with people. Coming early made our walk easier. 
The hidden castle that actually only is a watchtower.
Naomi and I doing the undefined back-peace-sign(I don't know what it means. Maybe nothing. Any ideas?) in front of Hirosaki Castle(弘前城）.
Near the end of our walk we stooped by some swings in the park. My Mom took this pictures of me jumping of the swing. This day was the only time my family went to Hirosaki's Cherry Blossom Festival this year. The flowers were in full bloom and there was only a few people so it was very enjoyable. 
Monday, May 12, 2008
Cherry Blossoms of Itayanagi
On this post I put some pictures of cherry blossoms I saw in Itayanagi this year.
The cherry blossoms ready to burst into blooming.
One day, My Mom and Dad decided that all of us should go to the park in town for lunch. We all sat under a tree and had lunch. After eating we took a picture sitting on a low branch.
I used my terrific tree climbing skills and climbed a tree.
Some people from church on a Sunday afternoon
It's a great park with a Basketball court. I often come here to play.
This picture is my favorite one.Mt. Iwaki with the cherry blossoms and a ray of sunlight.
Tsugaru Church（つがる福音キリスト教会） building with the cherry blossoms.
This is a picture of the flower pedals that fell on the ground. It kind of looks like snow. The cherry blossoms are pretty, but they don't last for long.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Snowboarding in Hakkoda
On March 22nd, a Saturday, John Orme(from N. Ireland), Beat(Short-term worker from Switerland), Naomi(my sister) and I went Snowboarding in Hakkoda. I really like going to Hakkoda because you get to snowboard in nature, around trees.It was a really hot day. We could have literally snowboarded in our t-shirts.
The beautiful mountain at the top of the rope way.
Beat, John and Naomi at the top of the mountain with Mt. Iwaki on the left.
Chilling at the top 
me
John ripping the slopes
Naomi making her way down.I couldn't get Beat in action, he was to fast.
To get a feel of snowboarding in Hakkoda check out this video.
Aaron on the slopes winding my way down Mount Hakkoda.
John put this on youtube.
Mt. Iwaki looked AWESOME from Mt. Hakkoda.
It looked AWESOMER later on in the day.'Twas nice being on Mt. Hakkoda again.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Michael Mosnster!!
One night Michael Eastwood, who is from Maryland teaching English as a JET in a small village called Morita, appeared having 10 hands!! That's even more than an octopus!! Thursday, April 24, 2008
Easter
It seems to be that lately I'm posting about things that happened a month ago. It's either I don't have time or I'm not making time. I think it's mostly that I'm not making time. Anyway I made time to write about Easter this time. These are the activities and my observations of this years Easter.
On Sunday the 16th of March, we decorated the church with palm branches. Remembering Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey while people shouted "Hosanna" and swinging palm branches in the air. There was palm branches above the church entryway, in front of every window in the sanctuary and on the cross. It was pretty cool. 
Naomi and I were asked to decorate the front entrance of the church to make it look like we're having a celebration, so we got some streamers and balloons and did some decorating. It came out pretty good. We left the decorations up for a week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. It was nice. People walking by on the street must have wondered what the church was doing.
The pictures above are from the last supper meal we had in Kanagi Church on March 22nd. Since the Messers were still in Sapporo refreshing their Japanese, my Dad, Mom, Naomi and I went up to Kanagi and cooked a meal. We ate food the Israelites most likely ate while they were slaves in Egypt. Lamb meat, unleavened bread(flat yeast less bread), matsoball soup and some vegetables. The same food the Israelites ate for the Passover celebration. The same food Jesus ate with his 12 disciples the night before he was crucified. We also had grated apples with walnuts to show the mud the Israelites worked in to make bricks for the Egyptians while they were slaves. We had wassabi, parsley and eggs, too. Easter is basically the only time I get to eat lamb meat, so I quite like it.
Above are the kids I ate the last supper meal with on Good Friday, the 21st in Itayangi.
Above is a picture of people talking around tables right after the last supper meal in Itayangi. As for the program; we read the Bible, sang some songs, had an explanation given about all the food, ate the food and my Dad gave a message about the meaning of Easter and the passover. At the end we saw a short part of the "Jesus for Children" movie. The part from where Jesus was put on the cross to where he rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples. There was a lot of non-christians at the meal so I think it helped them understand at least a little bit about what Jesus came to do for us and the power He has. It was a nice meal and there were good conversations.
As a church we also had a kids Easter event. The cookies above are one of the things we gave to the kids that came. At this kids event I played Hosanna on the piano. It was my first time playing the piano in front of at least 40 people so it was exciting. I made a couple mistakes, but I think I was alright. At least the kids sang so that was good. 
At the kids Easter event everyone got to color and decorate an egg.
After Sunday school on Easter Sunday the church kids decorated eggs. 
You can't spend Easter without the Easter egg hunt.
On Sunday the 16th of March, we decorated the church with palm branches. Remembering Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey while people shouted "Hosanna" and swinging palm branches in the air. There was palm branches above the church entryway, in front of every window in the sanctuary and on the cross. It was pretty cool. 
Naomi and I were asked to decorate the front entrance of the church to make it look like we're having a celebration, so we got some streamers and balloons and did some decorating. It came out pretty good. We left the decorations up for a week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. It was nice. People walking by on the street must have wondered what the church was doing.
The pictures above are from the last supper meal we had in Kanagi Church on March 22nd. Since the Messers were still in Sapporo refreshing their Japanese, my Dad, Mom, Naomi and I went up to Kanagi and cooked a meal. We ate food the Israelites most likely ate while they were slaves in Egypt. Lamb meat, unleavened bread(flat yeast less bread), matsoball soup and some vegetables. The same food the Israelites ate for the Passover celebration. The same food Jesus ate with his 12 disciples the night before he was crucified. We also had grated apples with walnuts to show the mud the Israelites worked in to make bricks for the Egyptians while they were slaves. We had wassabi, parsley and eggs, too. Easter is basically the only time I get to eat lamb meat, so I quite like it.
Above are the kids I ate the last supper meal with on Good Friday, the 21st in Itayangi.
Above is a picture of people talking around tables right after the last supper meal in Itayangi. As for the program; we read the Bible, sang some songs, had an explanation given about all the food, ate the food and my Dad gave a message about the meaning of Easter and the passover. At the end we saw a short part of the "Jesus for Children" movie. The part from where Jesus was put on the cross to where he rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples. There was a lot of non-christians at the meal so I think it helped them understand at least a little bit about what Jesus came to do for us and the power He has. It was a nice meal and there were good conversations.
As a church we also had a kids Easter event. The cookies above are one of the things we gave to the kids that came. At this kids event I played Hosanna on the piano. It was my first time playing the piano in front of at least 40 people so it was exciting. I made a couple mistakes, but I think I was alright. At least the kids sang so that was good. 
At the kids Easter event everyone got to color and decorate an egg.Everyone liked placing their eggs in the dyed water.
These are two of the eggs that we drew on this Easter.
The one on the left is the one Naomi drew.
The one on the right is the one I did. It's simple, but I like it.
You can't spend Easter without the Easter egg hunt. You can see that the kids are really excited to find those eggs.
Even I got to go search. It was fun. I got three.
The candy stuffed eggs that the kids love.
Even I got to go search. It was fun. I got three.
The candy stuffed eggs that the kids love. Over all it was a great Easter remembering that Jesus came to die in our place on the cross to pay for our penalty of our sin and giving us hope by resurrecting from the dead. It's great to know that we Christians serve a loving powerful Saviour.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Satoru ＆Nobuko's Wedding
On March 8th, we had a wedding reception at church. They already had the wedding ceremony two weeks ago somewhere in Tokyo area, so we just had the reception. It was nice.
from left:Mom(the cake maker), Nobuko(bride), Satoru(groom) and Dad(the pastor)
Since Nobuko likes purple, the theme color of the wedding was purple. As a result my Mom made a purple wedding cake. It was actually Nobuko and Satoru that beat the cake and added food coloring to the icing, but Mom was the one that decorated it with Nobuko's sister. It was a chocolate cake. I've been to many weddings, but having a chocolate wedding cake was my first time. It tasted good.
This is a group photo of the groom and bride with the Tsugaru church members(everyone except Mary) that attended.
The main reason of this post was to talk about the food that was served at the wedding.
Everyone that came was served a box with two layers of Japanese food. I emphasize "Japanese" because, it was filled with food considered to be luxurious in Japan. Below is a picture of one of the layers.
The main reason of this post was to talk about the food that was served at the wedding.
Everyone that came was served a box with two layers of Japanese food. I emphasize "Japanese" because, it was filled with food considered to be luxurious in Japan. Below is a picture of one of the layers.
There was sashimi(raw fish), raw squid, raw shrimp, deep fried ship, crab, sushi, deep fried fish and fried salmon. Thankfully there was some food that was actually cooked like chicken and salmon that I like eating, instead of raw seafood. There was also cakes and pumpkin pie on the table so I didn't need to worry about starving.
I noticed that by eating luxurious Japanese food, you can learn a lot about sea creatures. Such as shrimp, squid, fish and crabs. I really found the crab interesting. They served a little amount of crab meat still attacked to its club. You can sort of see it in the top left corner two pictures above. It was funny, I could open and close the scissor part of the club, by pulling on the white part sticking out. Very amusing!! After the wedding when I was cleaning up, I managed to collect 4 crab clubs and keep them. I think there pretty cool.
Asamushi Aquarium（浅虫水族館）
I forget when it was but about a month ago, a bunch of kids and parents from my Mom's child rearing class and a bunch of kids from the church English class had an outing on a Saturday and went to Asamushi Aquarium(浅虫水族館).I had a very low expectation of the place, I didn't think it would be very interesting, but it actually was a very nice aquarium and very interesting. 
Naomi and Tomomi in front of the Aquarium
Naomi and Tomomi in front of the AquariumBethany and kids standing in a tunnel looking at creatures swimming all around them
Shark!! He was mean looking.
Shark!! He was mean looking.
Sting ray, there was a very big one swimming all over the tank
Seahorse, I'd never seen a real Seahorse before
the coolest fish!
Nimo and his friends
There also was a Dolphin Show. It was pretty amusing. The dolphins did flips, jumped through hoops, kicked a ball hanging maybe about 5 meters above the water and many other things. In the picture above, a dolphin is catching a frisbee.
There was a section in the Aquarium where we could touch such things as clams, starfish, crabs and things like that. It was very interesting. above is Naomi and Tomomi holding strange creatures.
Over all it was a very nice place. It reminded me again how creative God is creating so many different kinds living things. My favorite was probably the Octopus. If I had a chance I would definitely go back.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Japanese Snowmen and American Snowmen
On the last day of February(February 28th) of this winter me, my sister and 8 kids from Young Life made two snowmen. It happened to be that one turned out to be an American and the other Japanese. I don't know how this started but American snowmen always have 3 parts, but Japanese snowmen always only have 2 parts. Strange!? Maybe I shouldn't say American. I just looked at a picture of a snowman which New Zealanders made and there also was 3 parts. Maybe it's just the Japanese snowmen that only have have 2 parts.
Anyway, one of the activities for the Young Life sleep over we had was to make a snowman. Since we had a lot of people, we made two. That night the weather temperature wasn't too cold for the snow to be powder or ice and the temperature wasn't to warm for the snow to be really wet. It was just the right temperature to roll a small snowball and allow it to get bigger as snow stuck to it. The snow stuck very well. As a result we kept rolling and rolling until the ball got too big and heavy that we couldn't move it any more. It was ok for the first one since it just stayed on the ground, but we had a problem with lifting the second one on top of the first one. Even if two other boys and I tried, we still couldn't lift it high enough. So, we managed to think smart and make a ramp with 3 pieces of 120cm long wood. We laid them side by side 3 ends on the ground and the other 3 ends at the top the bottom snowball. Our plan worked! Instead of lifting the snowball, we rolled it on to the first one with the ramp. We were all happy that it worked. The third one was quite heavy too, but it was a little smaller so three of us lifted it to the top. To look at other pictures of us making the snowman and the other things we did at the sleep over check out Itayanagi Church's Young Life blog(it's in Japanese). The sticks we used for the snowmen is the same sticks we used for the ramp.
This is how our American snowman looked a couple days after we made him. Looking happy with a nice big smile.
This is how our snowman looked several days later.His arms had broken off and fallen to the ground, he lost his face and he also got a lot slimmer. I guess spring has to come sometime.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Pit Digging in the Snow
Ever since coming back from the summer of New Zealand and Australia I haven't posted anything, but a lot has happened. Especially things to do with snow. I've dug holes in the snow, I've built snowmen with church kids, and I've gone snowboarding on Mt. Hakkoda. On this post I will talk about digging holes in the snow. On the beginning of March, I decided to dig a deep square pit at the end of the church parking lot where we get our snow pushed aside. Since all of the snow that snows down on our parking lot gets pushed there, there ends up being a big pile of snow. It took 3 days for me to dig the hole that you see in the picture above. I managed to dig about 2 meters before I hit the parking lot cement. It was a lot of work lifting the snow up above over my head with a shovel. It sure helped me build my arm muscles. Since it was so deep I made a couple foot holes at different heights in one corner of the square where I could place my feet in and climb out. The finished hole turned out pretty cool.
I've actually dug a pit like this two years ago before I even started this blog. I probably would have done this last year too, but there wasn't enough snow so I couldn't. Instead I built a small igloo with the church boys. Here is a picture of the igloo. My friend, John wrote about the pit I dug two years ago on his blog. If you want to read about it check out flat3D.
I was even able to lie down in it with my legs stretched.
Not that I would want to spend a night in there, though.
When I showed the square pit to some kids from church on a Sunday, they wanted to contribute to my project in some way, so I suggested them to dig two more holes and connect them by digging a tunnel between them. So together with about 5 people we took turns digging a triangle hole and a circular hole. We didn't quite finish the circular hole before everyone had to go home, but we managed to finish the triangle hole and connect the square one with it by digging a tunnel between them. Everyone was willing to dig and lift snow so that helped us make progress. I thought making different shaped holes would be interesting.
This was where we dug. The first square pit that I dug is on the left and the triangle one is on the right next to my black gloves. You can't see the circular one in this picture, but it is where the middle shovel is.
By the next Sunday, the snow had melted quite a bit. Within a couple weeks the tunnel melted to this condition in the picture above. You can see that the roof of the tunnel could break anytime.
This is a picture from the triangle hole looking through the melting tunnel towards the square hole. Since I didn't start digging until March, the whole thing melted quite quickly. Even though this pit/tunnel digging project didn't last for long, it was nice to make worth of all the snow we had and have fun with it. At least I have pictures to show that the church kids and I dug a cool tunnel.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Bungee Jump in Taupo, New Zealand
I had a chance to go bungee jumping in New Zealand. The day was February 7, 2008. The place was Taupo and the river I jumped down towards was the Waikato River. The height I jumped from was 47 meters. Naomi and I both did it but I went first. The scariest part for me was standing on the platform right before jumping, when I was in the position of the picture on the left. To think that I was to fall straight down for 47 meters was terrifying. My heart was beating so fast! Even though I was scared, I conquered my fear and jumped!
After I jumped, it wasn't scary at all. It was actually fun. I got dipped in the river enough to get my head and half of my T-shirt wet. The speed when I hit the water wasn't very fast because the rubber rope slowed me down.After getting wet, I just bounced for a couple times in the air with the rope attached to my feet until a yellow rubber boat came and rescued me. It wasn't even 1 minute long, but it was great!!
Saturday, March 08, 2008
New Zealand
This was taken from a ferry on the way to Ragitoto Island. That is the NewZealand flag and the Sky tower in Aukland city. I don't know why the flag is red instead of blue.
This is a picture that was taken at Covenant church's family camp. Everyone is gathering right before Supper or tea. My dad spoke at this camp a couple times and my mom showed Japanese toys and talked about Japan to the kids. It was a fun camp. It was great meeting people in the church, going on a hike to the dam, going to the waterfall and swimming in the water, playing with other teens. 
I got a memorable injury at the camp which will remind me of NewZealand whenever I look at the scar. While playing spotlight in the forest at night with other teens, I ran fullspeed into a metal rod sticking out of the ground. It was around 11 o'clock in the night, it was dark so I couldn't see it. My leg was painful for a while, but at least it was worth an impressive looking cut.
Being in NewZealand, we saw quite a lot of sheep including the one above. This huge sheep was right by a sheep farm in Rotaroa. I managed to get on top of the stutue with the help from my dad.
Above is a picture of the waikato River(the longest river in NewZealand). It was very clear and pretty. This is what the river looked like at Taupo. This is the same spot Naomi and I went bungee jumping.
This is the famous Sky Tower in Aukland city.
Not so far from the sky Tower was this thrilling ride called the "reverse bungy" Including Naomi and me, 6 of us from Covenant church did it. It was scarrier than the bungee jump,I think. First, you sit in one of three seats in this ball shaped thing. Second, you get strapped in. Third, you get flung up in the air with the power of 5G. You get swung up and down for a while until you get let down. I sure had an adrenaline riush! It was freaky! I rode it with Naomi and Louise(she came as a short term worker ). The people in the picture above is Jonothan, Tadamitsu and Andrew.The "reverse bungy" is definetly one thing to do when your in Aukland area.
Above is Peter, Joshua, Gabriel, and Jonothan which are the people I went to Ragitoto Island with. The Island was off in the ocean 30 minutes by ferry away from Aukland city. It was cool hanging out with them for a day. We hiked to the top of the volcanic montain, which the Island is made of and went exploring inside lava caves. We didn't take any flashlights, so we used the flash on our cameras to see where we were going. It was fun.
On Waitagi Day(a famous NewZealand holliday), we went to Kawakawa bay to hang out at the beach. We took lunch and ate together. We also played in the sand, threw a rugby ball around, and went swimming. It was nice. 10 of us were there. The sea water was cleaner than the sea water in Japan I've been in.
This is a silly picture taken at Covenant Church in Manurewa the day before we left NewZealand.From left: Jono, Louise, Mat, Naomi, Priscilla ,me
These are some other people from church.From left: Jono, James, Gabriel, Tadamitsu, me
And a group hudle picture from the floor.The main reason for us going to NewZealand was for my dad to speak at the camp and also to encourage people to think about Japan. I had the great 10 days or so catching up with people that came on mission teams in previous years to Japan and making new friends. It was cool going bungee jumping and seeing cool places. The scenery reminded me of Scotland. It was also nice to be in two weeks of warm summer weather while in Japan it was the middle of winter. Now I know more about NewZealand and the culture(Maori/Kiwi) there. I was also introduced to one new christian music band, "Mumsdollar" and one new Rapper, "Rapture Ruckus" both from NewZealand, so that was cool. It was my first great trip to the southern hemisphere. Thanks for all the people that were nice to us.
Sydney Australia
From January 28th to February 12th we went to Australia and New Zealand. My parents, Naomi and I went. In Australia we just visited Sydney for a couple days on the way to NewZealand and on the way back from NewZealand. Tin-Lok, who was one of the members that came on the Australian team during the winter of 2005, drove us around and took us to many places in the city. The picture above was taken by Tin-Lok. We saw the Opera House at day time and at night.
Under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, we saw the city lights. The people in the picture above is Naomi, me and Tin-Lok's brother, Tin-Jon(I think that's right). This picture was also taken by Tin-Lok. We actually walked over the Bridge to go to the Opera House.
This is the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge taken from a distance. We actually went inside the Opera House, but didn't go very far.
This is me standing by a strange big plant which I've never seen before in the Northern Hemisphere at Torango Zoo.
After leaving Japan on the night of the 28th, we arrived in Sydney on the morning of the 29th. In the after noon, the same day we arrived in Sydney, Tin-Lok and Julie took us to the zoo. It was pretty cool. Since we were just going to be in the city, I didn't think that we would see Animals native to Australia, but we did! Obviously not in the picture above of Naomi, me, Tin-Lok and Julie with two gorilla statues, though.
We saw Kangaroos, Koalas, an Echidna,Wallabies and Wombats that are native to Australia. The sad thing was that we didn't see any Kangaroos hop. They were extremely lazy at the zoo. They were just lying on the ground not moving at all, probably because of the heat from the sun. I like the picture above of the Kangaroo. He looks like he's thinking because of the way he's folding his arms.
One of the things I think of when I hear of Australia is the Hillsong United band. They've come to Japan a couple times to do concerts. I've been to two of their concerts. I posted about one of the concerts on this blog earlier. They're a really great worship band. While in Australia we were able to visit the main Hillsong church and also the Hillsong church in the city. The picture above is of the church in the city. We were able to have a simple tour of the church. Both churches were very big. It was great to see where Hillsong United comes from after listening to there CDs a lot. At the church we bought three Albums, "In a valley by the Sea" , "To the ends of the earth" and "Everyday" They are great CDs.
This is a picture at a Chinese restaurant that Tin-Lok's mother took us to. You can see us, the Ghents, Tin-Loks brother and sister and Ms. Hayman(I think) who joined us for the meal after driving us back from Hillsong church.It was a delicious meal. We saw one of the restaurant staff cut up a cooked duck with it's beak still on.
We went to a prayer group that prays for Missionaries in Japan. My Dad spoke for a short time. It was nice meeting these people and talking.
These are the members of the Australian team that came to our church in Itayanagi during the Christmas season of 2005. We were able to see 6 of the people in the picture above again so that was nice catching up.
At one of the airports we actually had to walk outside and walk up one of those movable stairs to get into the airplane. For some reason I thought they stopped doing that, but I guess they still have to do that for small airplanes.
Australia was a nice place.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Snowboarding at Ajigasawa
On January 4th, on a Friday Micah, Naomi, I and the Harako family went to Ajigasawa ski slope. Everyone except Tomoko and Hikari went snowboarding. Hikari went sledding for a little.
It was my second time snowboarding this season. My first time was with karl before Christmas. This picture above is on the ski slope looking down on part of the Tsugaru Peninsula.
This is how it was like going down the Mountain. I like it when the snow falls on all the small branches of the trees. It really looks pretty. If you look closely you can see that the first person coming down in the greenish jacket and black pants is Mr. harako, the second person on the left of him in the blue and white is Naomi and the farthest person away behind Mr. Harako in the black is Micah. 
The steepest slope in the Ajigasawa ski grounds is called Nabemori(鍋森). This picture is looking down that slope with Mr.Harako at the bottom and Naomi near the top. It's almost impossible to go straight down this slope because of the steepness and the bumps on the way. I just slid down slowly sideways.
On another day I went snowboarding with my friend from Japanese school in the picture and also with Kris. This was my third time this season. My friend had short skis, but Kris and I had snowboards. It was great catching up with both my friend and Kris on the lift and Gondola.
Monday, January 14, 2008
New Years Eve and Day 大晦日と元旦
Here are a bunch of photos from New Years Eve and New years Day. The pictures may not appear nicely lined up.
This is what we did on the last night of 2007. 餅つき(pounding rice) in a tree stump
from left to right top to bottom: me, my Dad, Micah,Mary, Rie
from left to right top to bottom: me, my Dad, Micah,Mary, Rie
Here we shared Bible Verses for the new year and had a short Bible message. At the end we had a time of prayer right before it turned to be 2008.
This photo was taken the moment it turned 2008. Rie, Naomi and I were in the air.
This now New years day
Everyone had a chance of pounding that rice.
from left to right top to bottom: Mr.Harako, Matsuyama san, Mr. Munakata, my Mom, Naomi, Nobuko
ooops looks like the mochi is reeeealy sticky!
Yuya and Nozomi Kasai
Eating ozouni, oshiruko with the pounded rice while having fellowship.The rice pounding is still going on in the back.
This is the people that gathered at the New Years Day service（元旦礼拝）2008/1/1Christmas 2007
These are some pics from the Christmas of 2007. Most of them is me and some other people jumping in front of Christmas trees.
Naomi, Naemi(German Short-term worker) and meThis pic was taken right after the International chapel Christmas service
This was the group of people who gathered at the International chapel Christmas Service
Me and Naomi jumping in front of our sad looking Christmas tree(it started to dry up) in our living room. It actually isn't a tree. It's 2 branches set next to each other to make it look like a tree
This year's Christmas was quieter compared to previous years. Usually we have a team from New Zealand or Australia come during the Christmas season to help the church with special meetings, but this year we didn't have any team. Instead my parents and our short-term worker went around several preschools to read the Christmas story and talk about Christmas to the kids. They also gave each kid a cookie and a piece of cake. Other than that we still had special Christmas meetings at most of the places we had the Rocky and Marla Concerts. We had no team, so we had to think of things to do as a family, but I think most of the meetings went well and people enjoyed it, so that was good. For the International chapel we had the Christmas service a little earlier, because a lot of people were flying out of the country for Christmas. On the Christmas Eve we had the Japanese Christmas Eve Service. Each Sunday School class either sang a song or did a Christmas play of some sort. It worked out very well. We sang Christmas songs. Heard a message with candle light. At the end church members brought out cookies and cakes, so we had fellowship with the people that came after the service. Over a hundred people came to the Christmas Eve service so that was great. Later on in the night we opened presents as a family and on Christmas day we got together with the Elliots and shared presents. It was great to remember again this year that Jesus was born on Earth for us to die on the cross to pay for the penalty of our sins and save us. It's great to know that we have hope in Jesus.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Nabe night
One night when our parents were away for some reason that I don't remember, Emiri who lives in the church came over for a Nabe party. We had Sukisaki. It was so good. We cut up a bunch of vegetables and a pack of meat and cooked it on top of the table while eating it with rice. There's nothing better than a hot pot of Sukiyaki on a cold winter day. After we ate, we played some games. It was nice to have Micah back from Canada with us.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Mt. Iwaki
Mt. Iwaki always reminds me where my help comes from.I lift my eyes to the hills-
where does my help com from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1,2
Psalm 121:1,2
Rocky & Marla concerts and Thanksgiving
This year during Thanksgiving season we had special guest singers come from Kitakyushu city （北九州市）in Kyushu island. Their music was great and it was fun talking to them, especially Rocky. He's a funny guy.
Rocky is Japanese, but he went to Texas when he was young. He speaks very good English with a Texas accent, Which I think is very cool. He is almost totally blind, but he is very good in playing the guitar. Marla is American and she is from Texas. She met Rocky in Japan. She speaks Japanese quite well. She sings very well both in English and Japanese.They brought their 3 year old adopted daughter, Hana(華). I'm sure she will grow up being bilingual. It was fun playing with her. They have a website at http://www.aromaministries.org/.
They did about 5 concerts which came with a Thanksgiving turkey meal and several other concerts without a meal. They also led the worship service 2 Sundays in a row. They were great musicians and speakers. It was sad to see them leave. The picture above was taken on the day they returned back to Kitakyushu. The songs that I really liked were; "I have decided to follow Jesus around the world" in Texan, Mexican, Brazilian, Jewish, Indian and in Japanese music styles. They are surely talented to play one song in so many different ways. "Dareka"(だれか！）, "Think about his grace", "You satisfy my soul","Great is your love/主をほめたたえよ", and" たたけその手を". It was awesome having them with us.Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Kuroishi Momijiyama
As a family we went to see the fall colors in Kuroishi Momijiyama(黒石もみじ山）. We went near the end of October at night. The color on the leaves were very nice so we went at a good time.
My family without Micah(he's in Canada)
my siblings, we even left room for Micah
the night view of the colored leaves from the road
My Mom, sister and I also went on a drive one day to Goshogawara(五所川原）and went to this park where there were also nice fall colored leaves. These are 2 pics from there.
My sista and I balancing ourselves
us in mid-air on a bridge 
