12.22.2005

Only for you, Kat.


Yes, she tagged me.
Ground Rules: The first player of this "game" starts with the topic "5 weird habits of yours" and people who get tagged need to write an LJ/blog/xanga entry about their 5 quirky habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next 5 people to be tagged and list their names.
So, here goes. 5 strange habits (grins only 5?).

1. This first one, I already know, is TMI. So, if you're not a girl, you might want to skip to #2. As Kat, Amy, and Carina would attest to, with some embarrassment at the hilarity of their odd roommate, at bedtime in the winter I tend to walk around in a sweater, my underwear, wool socks and the slippers that Amy got me that I spilled candle wax on. The strange part I guess, is the sweater and wool socks/no pants combo. Strange indeed, but my legs don't seem to get so cold as the rest of me.

2. I rip off the split-ends of my hair. I study the tips to see where the hairs are broken or frayed, and then I run my fingers along the strands until the split ones break off. And then I rub them together between my fingers because I think it feels cool. grins

3. I collect any scraps of paper of adds or leaves or train tickets or candy wrappers or anything that looks interesting because I love making collages. Thus I have tons of small little bags and boxs tucked here and there stuffed with interesting and fun and stupid and witty little tidbits from everywhere I go 'just in case' I might need them to make something later.

4. I don't eat Lucky Charms very often, but when I do, I ALWAYS eat the cereal part first and save the marshmallows for last. ALWAYS. The world begins to crumble if I don't do this. And so I often spend 10... 15 minutes eating one bowl of Lucky Charms (which is why I don't eat them very often).

5. I learned to brush my teeth and swallow the toothpaste while backpacking (I learned it first from Carina and then Dan pestered me until I did it - with much disgust and strange twisted faces of disgust). And now sometimes I brush my teeth and swallow the toothpaste because I'm too lazy to get up and spit. And it comes in handy when I brush my teeth in strange places like toilet stalls in public restrooms at the train station in Akita, Japan. I do this because I LOVE clean teeth. If my teeth feel gross, I feel gross, and it drives me NUTS.

yeah! now my turn to tag... (doshiyo?? [what to do])... what happens if I run out of friends (grins)
sorry all, but here goes. Dan Perrine (if you haven't already been), Rebecca Loaiza, Noel - he who never updates his blog, Deanna my sweet island friend who is currently living in HAWAII, and Amy when she decides to get her first blog. :)

So guess what Amy did to my ear. grins

hehehe

Yup!


aaaeeehhhh! (actually, it didn't hurt Amy. grins ok ok OR me.)


I have been pierced by one Amy Nordaas in the country of Japan where you can't go to the mall to get your ear pierced. You either buy a little gun and have a good friend shoot you in the ear (hehe)... or not-so-good friend and pray they don't take revenge on you for something you don't remember doing OR you go to the doctor's office and pay 50 FREAKING dollars (about 5000 yen) to get it pierced. crazy. I chose option numero uno.

And this is my last one. For real. I say this every time, but this time I MEAN IT! :) No more. Estoy satisfechada (I'm satisfied).

12.20.2005

Adventures in Akita with AMY!

I get to be a guest blogger on Rachel's fantastic blog. So actually, this post should be titled, "Adventures with Rachel!" And what adventures we've had...although too large a share has involved wandering around in the cold snow contemplating frostbite and mortality. To compensate, we have been chugging down ginger tea...it seems to be working. I love being here with Rachel and seeing her life here. I tagged a long with her one day to her English classes. Of course all the students love her (who couldn't?). Another day, I tagged along to her pottery class where within two hours, Rachel whipped out seven beautiful peices. The pottery teacher there told me that she has excellent sense and a good eye...he even went so far as to say that if she pursued her craft, she could probably make a living with it!! Yet again, strangers affirm what I (and you, since you're reading this blog) already know - simply that Rachel is AMAZING!



My one and only contribution to the pottery making was as photographer. I should have stayed behind the camera! He he he

As amazing as Rachel is, her sense of direction is not without flaw. We got a grand tour of a small town just out of Akita as we went in circles trying to find her friend's house. We did, and we had a wonderful time of tea, food, conversation, and prayer.

Tagging along to her English classes to see Rachel Sensei (teacher) at work. For those of you that know, notice the fact that I am wearing Rachel's sweater (and the blue jacket pictured above is also Rachel's)! I Love it! I Love Rachel!

12.19.2005

AMY'S HERE!!!

We walked back to my apartment from the train station (30 min)...

in a blizzard.


grins

A warm (?!) welcome to Akita!! ;)

12.17.2005

It's SNOWING!!!


So... a week ago I was complaining of no snow. Agonizing over the possibility of having a brown Christmas.

grins

Be careful what you wish for, eh? But I'M not complaining! ;)
(However, I think I would be lynched by the people of Akita if they knew that it was I who prayed for snow. hehe)

:)



mmmmmm... snoooowwww! (sorry to all of you in warm places) grins ;)

12.13.2005

amidst the craziness and demands of the Christmas season, a gift

This gift happened to come in the form of 2 traveling companions by the names of Katrina Joy Brion Lao (soon to be Shaffner in a few short months) and Amy Reiko Nordaas. The location? Sendai, Japan. The time? 24 very short hours. The occasion? Do we NEED an occasion to get together?! I think not!

So, yes, needless to say I had a wonderful time with the girls! I hadn't realized exactly how much I'd missed them!! I arrived in Sendai around 9:15 Saturday night, and as I stood up from my bus seat I heard screams and laughter coming from outside. I looked out the opposite window and there were Kat and Amy jumping up and down waving their arms. What a welcome! And of course we hugged and carried on and gave all surrounding Japanese people a very good reason to talk about the crazy foreigners. ;) That night we stayed up till almost 3am talking, laying across our futons in the tatami room we were staying in (we stayed with an English teaching couple with the church at Sendai - it was actually the house Amy grew up in!).

Church at Sendai. We got to meet one of Amy's childhood friends, Maya. A shame we couldn't have had more time with her.

Carrying on the tradition...

Me and Ames... there just aren't words enough

Naughty... kind of... grins

Nice (though don't be fooled) ;)

Goodbye so soon?! The 11:10 night bus. To Tokyo, Taiwan and beyond! And thankfully (for me), Amy comes back to Japan at the end of the week. Part of me really wanted to fit into one of their suitcases...

Good things CAN happen when you miss your 12:00 bus to Akita... good things like relaxing foot onsens in the middle of Japanese gardens... deliciously hot water seeping into weary travel-worn feet while the silence of the surrounding winter wonderland echoes back crisp bird songs and falling phoofs of white stuff from snow-ladden pines branches... and the company of a new friend and sister. Maybe I should miss my bus (on accident, of course) more often. :)

11.30.2005

letter from CARINA from TANZANIA

I can't express how unabashedly excited I was to get Carina's letter today! I'm in Japan, and she and Ben are in TZ, and we're no longer college students; we're out in the world (scary thought... watch out world) trying to make some sense of life and bring some bit of the good news to people in our own various and sundry broken ways. Thank God for friends with so many passions and dreams. Thank God for snail mail. Sometimes you just need the reassurance of something physical from someone you love... the reassurance that you are, indeed, loved, even though you've no doubt you are. People are funny that way. I'm funny. :) YOU'RE funny! haha
I love you Carina!

11.29.2005

I feel like the cookie (dough) monster

My first batch of cookies in Japan! The dough was definitely a success! I wish I had some girlfriends to share it with, along with a good chick flick. The cookies themselves didn't turn out half bad either!
Yeah! grins

11.27.2005

the BLESSINGS of the winter season

This was originally started as a post on Rebecca Loaiza's blog, but I decided that I wanted to share it with all because I think it's important. Rebecca asked how she could start to love winter, when usually it's a season she dreads. So...

The winter season is always one filled with wonder for me. Everything once so colorful is now white, completely white. But this isn't something which makes me feel depressed. On the contrary, the contrast of the colorfulness of spring, summer, and fall, makes the pure soft white all the more beautiful, and in turn the pure white of winter and the muted brown of leaf-bare trees (and an occasional mix of evergreen and holly) allows me to appreciate the colors of the rest of the year so much more. Also, snow is a joy for me. Sometime, take the time to gently pick up a handful, and just study the snowflakes. They're beautiful! Incredibly beautiful! The details and delicateness of each one is astonishing! Yet, am I so surprised?? Our Creator designed each one!! But the cold, you protest. Yes, the cold is indeed cold. But, it's such a fun sensation to feel your numb cheeks thawing, assuring you that you are very alive. The warmth of indoors is all the more cozy, and hot chocolate just isn't the same when you drink it in warm weather. I hope this helps give you a place to start. grins I love each season, but each for a different reason. You just have to look for the good, and let the bad fall away.
I can't wait for it to SNOW!!!!!!
grins

catching up... (is that possible??)

The past week... past 2 weeks, actually... have been rather insane.
Where to begin...?
Let's see. Last week (it seems like it's been a whole lot longer than just one week) I went up to Takanosu (where Amy's parents live - an 1 1/2 train ride from Akita). The plan for Monday morning was to catch the early train to Takanosu and off we would go (we being myself, the Nordaas's, Becki and her friend Asami) driving along the coast monkey hunting. A great Japanese custom! You drive along watching for monkeys crossing the road and if you see one you speed up (no guns allowed on this hunt). If you hit it, you get to keep it. You can tell who the experienced monkey hunters are by the number of monkey heads on their wall. Though I don't understand why you would want to put a monkey on your wall... I think they're ugly. I dreaded going to the doctor's office when I was a kid, not because I didn't like the doctor, but because they always had me go to the room that had the monkey poster pinned to the ceiling and I would close my eyes so I wouldn't have to look at it. And in case you're wondering how sane the Japanese are for hunting monkeys with their cars and hanging their monkey trophies on their walls, set your mind to rest. There's no such thing. grins Call it creative writing... overactive imagination... sleep deprivation. I was inspired, so I wrote. But we did go monkey hunting. Only not to hit them, but to take pictures of them (why, I ask, would you want to take pictures of monkeys?? but I guess there has to be some people in this world who like them. I like frogs. Some people think frogs are ugly... so I guess we're even...). We saw 3. Honestly, I was more interested in the breathtaking beauty of the coast of Japan.










But wait! I'm getting waaaayy ahead of myself. The early train... yes, well... the early train. I missed it. The first train I've missed since coming to Japan. So, Arnie (Amy's dad) looked at his massive train schedule book - something akin to our telephone books - and rerouted me. I was to get off at Noshiro (several stops before Takanosu) and they would pick me up there. K. I could handle that. Off to find the train. Find it I did, but found out from a friendly conductor type person that I needed some kind of reservation ticket... ummm... okaaayy... hm. Well, he must have read the look of slight confusion in my face (the look that comes when you think you might have an idea of what's expected of you, but you're not quite sure and not quite sure how to double check to make sure you got it right because there's that little thing called a language barrier) because he proceeded, with a smile, to escort me to the special train ticket reservation counter place (for lack of better words to explain it), told the man my destination, I got my ticket, and escorted me back to my train. Lord, thank you for gracious people. So, while I was riding on this special reservation train, I let myself wind down and got to playing with my camera. Oh the joy! grins Let's just say I had fun. ;) And I wrote a letter to my brother telling him of my little adventure.

So, yes, back to monkey hunting. The monkey hunting was more of an activity to occupy us while en route to a lovely place called Juniko (12 lakes - juni=12). And personally, the coast was much more mesmorizing. I love the sea. Anyway, of the 12 lakes, the last was the most unique. The water and the reflections were fascinating! Sometimes the water looked indigo, sometimes it was translucent picking up more of the brown and yellow of the leaves that had sunk to the bottom from being water-logged, and sometimes it was as blue as the picture below (except pictures never do justice to what is before your eyes) - the kind of blue that I dream the lakes of heaven (should heaven have lakes) might look like - the kind of blue I only ever imagine, never expecting to see, and after having seen it realize that my imagination didn't do it justice. Truly beautiful. It took my breath away... over and over again.






After spending a better part of an hour, maybe 2, we went in search of a ramen shopu to fill our growling stomachs with something tasty. Find one, we did. Just as the sea sky was opening up to drench us with freezing stinging rain, we pulled into a little ramen shopu in a remote coastal town. While sipping my very hot tempura miso shiru (a type of soup - very delicious) sitting on my knees (Japanese style) next to a toasty little kerosene heater, the sleety rain pelted against the window and every few minutes lightning would pierce the cloud darkened sky and the ensueing thunder would literally shake the little restaurant. The windows even rattled. A little eery, and oh so exciting! I love thunderstorms!
What a wonderful day! On the way home the weather cleared enough to step out of the car for a few more pictures of a now darkened, moody sky and reflecting sea.






11.26.2005

It's about time!

The developed world takes a closer look at fair trade. It's a start, at least!

11.24.2005

The Prayer Tree, Michael Leunig

We give thanks for our friends.
Our dear friends.
We anger each other.
We fail each other.
We share this sad earth, this tender life,
this precious time.
Such richness. Such wildness.
Together we are blown about.
Together we are dragged along.
All this delight.
All this suffering.
All this forgiving life.
We hold it together.
Amen.

11.23.2005

sometimes I really do love technology

because it lets me talk to 2 of my incredibly wonderful and amazingly beautiful roommates. with this wonderful new bit of technology (skype), I, in Japan, talked to Amy and Kat, in China, for FREE! I talked to them for free for 2 HOURS! or just about.
Kat and Ames, I can't tell you how nice it was to just laugh with you again. Talk and laugh and talk over one another and laugh some more. I love you so much!

11.16.2005

First SNOW!!


This morning (11/16) I experienced my first SNOW in Japan!! Exciting! (It was actually more like snow pellets... but still!) I looked out my window, saw the little pristine snow pellets poinging to earth, threw on my incredibly warm poofy coat, and ran to the top of my apartment building to have a more thorough and enjoyable experience of this first "snowfall." (Except, unless you look hard, you can't tell it's snowing at all.... oh well. I'm sure I'll have many more opportunities!) :)

11.13.2005

Koto Concert


Koto Concert
Originally uploaded by auro-borea-rs.
How to describe KOTO for those who have never heard its strings being plucked... Beautiful. As you can see from the picture, the instrument lays on the floor, a long "stringed" instrument... a combination of the strings of the violin, viola, cello and bass with a distinct Japanese sound... string plucking and strumming and bending. Their plucking hand has flat metal caps on each finger and the thumb. It was pretty amazing. And as the tempo and style and rhythm of music changed along the course of the song, different images danced around on the edge of my memories - stories following the music.

Koto - the final song


Koto - the final song
Originally uploaded by auro-borea-rs.

ice skating in Akita


ice skating in Akita
Originally uploaded by auro-borea-rs.
I love ice skating. Good times with Becki and her friend Rie (who came from somewhere to meet us to go ice skating). Also a good reminder that I need to iceskate more... ouch! ;)

the hats here are CRAZY


the hats here are CRAZY
Originally uploaded by auro-borea-rs.
This is Becki, the English teacher up in Takanosu - 20 yrs old from Minn - (with Amy's parents) brandishing a "sublime" hat. I don't know what you'd call mine. She's become a good friend and companion here in Japan and will be returning to college at the end of January. We get together every now and again and somehow manage to keep from getting into too much trouble.

11.10.2005

"the Dacks"


Picture 214
Originally uploaded by msafiri_kate.
as I will always think of them, got this abbreviated name from Carina and got their own special place in my heart and in my memories from 4 very special treks to Carina's cabin during the 4 October breaks of our 4 crazy years at Houghton. I found it on Kat's flickr photostream and decided that it needed to be blogged. :) I missed our trek this year, but I'm looking forward to what are future one's will look like... however varied and far between.
I miss you girls.

11.08.2005

so, I think this is pretty hilarious.

We could all use a little more quality free time to keep us young and full of grace and beauty, right? Well, come to Akita, Japan. It's for sale - a special discount. Hurry while supplies last.
grins
Engrish makes me smile... and laugh out loud. ;)

11.07.2005

more HAPPY BIRTHDAYs!

So Michelle gave me a great idea... HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAT! 11/7
As with Michelle, I really only got to know Kat this past year. Two incredible friendships I wasn't expecting, but will continue to cherish for the rest of my life.
I love you, Kat! You were an incredible blessing to me last year and continue to be!
I think late nights were characteristic of the great majority of our time spent together last fall... late nights in the Daily Grind, in the ISA, in the CAB office, in your room, in the kitchen, in the bathroom. grins I guess it didn't really matter where. And somewhere in the midst of all those late nights you grew from a friend to a sister.

I also want to wish AMY a very belated TANJOBI OMEDETO... 10/22
Ames, within the first hour of our first day of getting to know one another on Highlander, I wanted to be your friend. And as our friendship grew, I saw in you a beauty and grace that can only be God-given. I loved adopting you into my family (and so did my family). You were my first "international" friend, and you opened my eyes to so much, broadening my perspective, challenging my way of thinking, helping me become prepared for everything I would encounter throughout our 4 years at Houghton... And thank you for teaching me to appreciate baths. grins They will never be the same.
wow. And now I'm in Japan.

I love you both! Feliz cumpleanos!

11.06.2005

2 months into Japan... transitions.

the initial feeling of anxiety and disbelief that "I'm going to teach?!!!" to gradually settling into a teaching routine (if you can call it that! haha grins) complete with all the flexibility I can muster and the life-saving, sanity-saving grace of God... the initial feeling of heartache and loneliness and feeling of loss that comes with leaving people you love so much to realizing again that "there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1), and so my time to be here is good, and God never ceases to amaze me in the incredible ways in which he continues to bless me - a very small and weak "little girl" (as I often feel).
Thinking about "home" - home being the people - still often brings tears to my eyes as my heart lifts you all up in a prayer that catches in my throat - the kind of prayer that words don't suffice to express. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit "prays for us." But even so, Japan is becoming yet another "home" - bit by bit, person by person, name by name, face by face, relationship by relationship. I can't help but love each one.

11.01.2005

some reflections on prayer...

In the palace of the king there are many rooms and there is a key for each room. An axe, however, is the passkey of all passkeys, for with it one can break through all the doors and all the gates.
Each prayer has its own proper meaning and it is therefore the specific key to a door in the Divine Palace, but a broken heart is an axe which opens all gates.

- Arthur Hertzberg, Judaism

In prayer we shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender. God is the center toward which all forces tend. He is the source, and we are the flowing of His force, the ebb and flow of His tides.

- Abraham Heschel, The Prophets

Prayer, therefore, is far from sweet and easy. Being the expression of our greatest love, it does not keep pain away from us. Instead, it makes us suffer more since our love for God is a love for a suffering God and our entering into God's intimacy is an entering into the intimacy where all of human suffering is embraced in divine compassion. To the degree that our prayer has become the prayer of our heart we will love more and suffer more, we will see more light and more darkness, more grace and more sin, more of God and more of humanity.

Henry Nouwen, Reaching Out

There is a description of prayer that is more of a poem and meditation than anything else. Here it is:

The important thing about prayer is that it is almost indefinable. You see, it is: hard and sharp, soft and loving, deep and inexpressible, shallow and repetitious, a groaning and a sighing.
A silence and a shouting, a burst of praise digging deep down into loneliness, into me. Loving. Abandonment to despair, a soaring to heights which can only be ecstasy, dull plodding in the grayness of mediocre being - laziness, boredom, resentment.
Questing and questioning, calm reflection, meditation, cogitation. A surprise at sudden joy, a shaft of light, a laser beam. Irritation at not understanding, impatience, pain of mind and body hardly uttered or deeply anguished.
Being together, the stirring of love shallow, then deeper, then deepest. A breathless involvement, a meeting, a longing, a loving, an inpouring...

It sounds exciting, put like that.
It sounds real. An exploration.
A chance to do more than catalogue
and list the things I want,
to an eternal Father Christmas.

The chance of meeting you,
of drawing close to the love that made me,
and keeps me, and knows me.
And, Lord, it's only just begun.
There is so much more of you,
of love, the limitless expanse of knowing you.
I could be frightened, Lord, in this wide country.
I could be lonely, but you are here, with me.
The chance of learning about myself,
of facing up to what I am.
Admitting my resentments,
bringing my anger to you, my disappointments, my frustration.
And finding that when I do,
when I stop struggling and shouting
and let go
you are still there.
Still loving.

Sometimes, Lord, often -
I don't know what to say to you.
But I still come, in quiet
for the comfort of two friends
sitting in silence.
And it's then, Lord, that I learn most from you.
When my mind slows down,
and my heart stops racing.
When I let go and wait in the quiet,
realizing that all the things I was going to ask for
you know already.
Then, Lord, without words,
in the stillness
you are there...
And I love you.

Lord, teach me to pray.

- Eddie Askew, A Silence and a Shouting

10.31.2005

I am blessed...

Happy Birthday in Japanese is TANJOBI OMEDETO!
And I recieved so many of those today. :)
Nansaideska? (How old are you?)
nijusansai (23)
And something I haven't quite caught on on how to reproduce:
You're so young!!
hahaha grins
So, happy birthday to "young" Rachel. ;)
Today began, kind of, shortly before 7 am, when one of my dad's Mexican workers Pepe (also has partially adopted me as his gringa granddaughter) called me to wish me a happy birthday. I was way out of it (woke me up out of a very sound sleep) and I kept wanting to answer him in very broken and limited Japanese. It took me a little bit to get my mouth to follow my head in acknowledging that Spanish was being spoken to me and I needed to respond in kind. Poor Pepe.
I went back to sleep.
I was jolted out of sleep again by the evil alarm clock calling me to get ready for church.
I wasn't exactly sure what to expect out of the day, and what I got wasn't anything that I had come close to expecting. I enjoyed the church service (sitting next to my friend Keiko and the Pastor's son - married with a very adorable [menkoi] almost 3 yr old daughter - who translated the message for me). And afterwards we had the customary tea time with delicious snacks that always seem to run out too quickly. ;) Lots of tanjobi omedetos and nansaideskas and "you're so youngs". grins I stayed at church for a quick lunch, followed by Bible study. English Bible study. The first Bible study I've ever led. The first time with non-Christians. The first time with a group of Japanese people. Lots of firsts. Not the first time I wish I spoke perfectly fluent Japanese (hehe), though moderately fluent would have been just fine. Thankfully, there is a wonderful 24 yr old girl by the name of Ai who studied English for 3 months each in England and Malta and Mrs. T, the Pastor's wife, who has studied English for a number of years, and most of what I said was able to be understood. There is grace and blessing for you. I talked about milestones in my faith... trials, how the Lord brought me through and out of them... we looked at a lot of verses, and maybe I'll write it all out some time and post it. We had "Bible study" for 3 hours. It was an incredible gift to be able to share my heart with these women (there were 4 altogether plus Mrs. T). At the end of our time together, Junko - a new student, 40-something, who has been to my classes twice - said that she was very "moved." An older Buddhist lady, Tokiko, said that she was very touched by my story. And I know that those words were not my own. If Junko was moved and if Tokiko was touched, they were moved and touched by the power of the Holy Spirit. Another tanjobi omedeto.

Coming back to this on Halloween...
I went back to the church that night at 7 for a "birthday party." Delicious food, wonderful people (from church, English class, and friends I've met through friends), and wonderful fellowship... even though I could understand very little. ;) It was a very joyful night. After eating came music. One of my students, a 31 yr old woman, Isako, who is also deaf, picked up violin lessons 6 months ago because she decided she wanted to learn how to play (she doesn't let her "disability" keep her from doing ANYTHING). And she, accompanied by our friend Keiko on the organ, played a song for me for my birthday present. Her violin was badly out of tune, and the notes not-quite-right, but it was absolutely beautiful. One of those things that is beautiful because you know the heart behind it and in it and her heart is beautiful. It was beautiful to me. Then the lights went off and out came 2 little cake/pie/tarts lit up with candles, joined by a rousing chorus of 'Happy Birthday' and clapping. Delicious, of course. Then more fellowship, and finally presents. Surprise after surprise. Keiko asked me what my aspirations were for the year to come. And since most of that year - well, pretty much all of it - will be spent in Japan, I said: To learn Japanese well enough to be able to express myself (within reason) without needing an interpreter, and to build relationships with the people here. Eventually our group dwindled to the Taguchi's, Naoko, Keiko, Takaaki, and myself. The Taguchi's and Noako were talking together about Christianity (not sure exactly what because it was in Japanese, but I figured that's probably what it was because Naoko is not yet a Christian, but is SEEKING, super seeking.), and Keiko drew me aside. She and Takaaki were giggling and whispering and I thought... hmmm... And proceeded to be the first to know of their engagement and be invited to their wedding. Ah! hahaha They were so cute! Sorry, but cute is the only word that properly described them. For now their engagement and wedding plans are a secret. I'm not sure exactly why - something about not knowing which church they want to become members of or where they want to get married - something like that. So, wow! what a birthday present! After Takaaki said buenas noches, er um, I mean - oyasuminasai - Keiko and I joined the Taguchis and talked with Naoko till well after 11pm. Mrs. T asked me to share with her what I talked about during Bible study, I think Keiko shared with her a bit of her testimony, and that was my birthday. I couldn't have spent it in a better way here. It was a birthday full of blessings in all sorts of shapes and sizes and people. :)

TANJOBI OMEDETO!

tanjobi omedeta!


tanjobi omedeta!
Originally uploaded by auro-borea-rs.
the birthday crowd... minus Naoko, who was taking the picture and Taguchi Sensei who went somewhere... :)

feliz cumpleanos...


feliz cumpleanos...
Originally uploaded by auro-borea-rs.
PEACE!

hangera!


hangera!
Originally uploaded by auro-borea-rs.
woops! that would be the African continent, eh? grins Mrs. T and Taguchi Sensei are MENKOI. adorable. :)

happy birthday...


happy birthday...
Originally uploaded by auro-borea-rs.
friends are wonderful. what am i saying?! the God who gave me these friends is wonderful!

soon to be sister in Christ...

huge heart, soon to be doctor, already a friend...

the musicians!


the musicians!
Originally uploaded by auro-borea-rs.
friends!

10.26.2005

Teggs... grown-up?

I would like to feel like a grown-up (maybe)... fill the shoes I'm supposed to be filling. Right now I'm struggling to remember how much I get paid every month (my mom keeps asking me. I can never remember and don't care enough to check. Maybe that's bad.), I can't remember which utilities are paid for and which I have to pay for (it's way too confusing, even for a college grad), and I've discovered... well, rediscovered, that I really don't like washing dishes or vacuuming, so I do them as little as possible. It's easier to get away with not vacuuming. ;) And I stay up way too late. I can't kick college time. I like it too much.
*sigh*
Maybe I can grow up in a little while.

1000 words

flowers in Becki's hair
i wish i knew their name... (can anyone help me out?)



On top of the WORLD!!

er... well, uh... Kimimachizaka...
close enough grins



AKATOMBO

New Japanese word. It means red dragonfly (aka - red, tombo - dragonfly). They are my favorite bugs... bug isn't a noble enough word to categorize them. They're all over the place here, and I periodically hold my finger up in the air to try and get one to land on it (they're much braver than the dragonflies in the US).
There's a folk song about dragonflies - called Akatombo, in fact - that I REALLY want to learn. I've heard it a couple times and it's beautiful.


sorry for all the pictures (kind of... not really, but sorry)...
but a picture really is worth a thousand words
and today's culture is driven in many ways by images
so, here's to jumping on the visual bandwagon in a small, entirely innocent and most defintely beneficial way (so all of you can see a little of "my world")
it's a way for me to keep connecting to you from my end

10.25.2005

A series of adventures... :)


Well, life is an adventure isn't it?
Here are 3 weekends of my life.
The first being the exploration of
beautiful Taiheiko... which led to
the 3rd weekend. And sandwiched
in between is a bit of exploring
I did on my own - the highlights
being the beautiful sunsets.



The Japan Sea is about to sweep my feet with icy cold water....

Ahh! hehe I can't believe I'm looking into the sunset from Japan!

grins