I don’t know how to start this one. We’ve… uh… we’ve done things since I last posted.
Now that we’ve got the ball rolling, I feel like I can proceed.
We were at Northstar for Tuesday-Thursday morning. We taught English lessons and played around with the Japanese kids. I’ve got a lot of pictures from while we were there, and I’ll try to get them posted in the morning. (It’s 1:50 AM on Friday here; I made the mistake of drinking caffeine with my dinner.) I think Justin took a lot of video, also, though that may not make it online until we get back to the USA. Northstar was a lot of fun! Aside from our English lessons, we got to go on a “night hike” with the kids, go mountain biking with them (legit mountain biking, like, on a mountain) and do some low-ropes-course things as well.
On Thursday afternoon, Jon took us to “Viking Restaurant” where you can basically pick out a bunch of meat from an all-you-can-eat buffet and then grill it over an open flame at your table. This was pretty inexpensive, AND they offered free refills on drinks, which is pretty uncommon here.
After lunch, we went to Yoshino-san’s Christian Book Store and looked around, and we had another orientation meeting upstairs. This was a real treat, because the Christian Book Store is air-conditioned! We talked about the ways that religion factors into Japanese culture, and about the importance of starting the Japanese off with the basics of the Old Testament before even trying to share the gospel with them, because they lack the sort of pseudo-Christian framework that is ingrained in our culture.
After our orientation we stopped by the grocery store (we went to Beisie this time, think Japanese Wal-Mart) to pick up enough breakfast food to last us until Monday morning, when we take the train to Tokyo. We went back to the church and did some laundry until 8:45, when we left to meet Eric (Justin’s brother) in Shiojiri, where he is beginning a new teaching job. He showed us his apartment, and then we ate at a Japanese Denny’s. There may be more Denny’s restaurants in Japan per capita than there are in the USA.
Denny’s was an interesting experience. The menu has NOTHING in common with the menu at an American Denny’s. You can walk into a Japanese McDonalds and get a Big Mac. You cannot walk into a Japanese Denny’s and order a Grand Slam or a Moons Over My Hammy. I’m just saying, if you’re wanting something resembling an American breakfast, your options are french toast or finding a different restaurant. (Jon recommends Royal Host.)
Anyway, I think the caffeine from my soda at dinner is wearing off, so I’m going to try to sleep.
Oyasuminasai! (Good night!)
