Hi everyone, Sorry it has been so long since the last time I wrote... A lot has happened but I haven't had much time, nor have I felt like writing, recently. Today I feel better than I have in days... Last Saturday when Jenna and Melanie were here, they seemed to be suffering from a mild cold. Then on Monday I started feeling like I was getting a minor cold. After that it developed in to what felt more like the flu! Thankfully I only felt really, really bad for one day. After that I started feeling a little better very gradually. By Thursday I still wasn't feeling great. But God gave me the strength to help prepare for our Thanksgiving meal with friends, and allowed me to really enjoy the holiday. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday anyway, so I'm immeasurably glad that I felt well enough to enjoy the time!
On last Saturday I went to Chiba for the CCSI school bazaar. It was really amazing! I enjoyed it a lot. I bought a really cute white coat for the equivalent of $0.50! I also bought a hat that goes with it for $0.10! I found lots of great books as well. For instance, I now own the first two books in the Lord of the Rings series and paid $1.00 for both of them! I was so happy when I saw them! I had actually gone into the book room looking for books by Tolkien, but hadn't expected to find any. So you can imagine my elation when I stumbled upon the first two in the series (which have become my favorite books for the present)!
Monday night was the victory part for Abi's soccer team, as they had won their tournament the previous week. So we prepared a meal for the entire team, and had them over. It really was lots of fun! I enjoyed meeting and talking to her team mates. I had so much food! I couldn't have held another bite, and the ladies were still urging Jenna, Melanie, and me to try this or that native delicacy. Later that night Roger went to pick up two musicians who graduated from Julliard. One is an organist, and the other a violinist. While they were settling in and unpacking, the girls and I went down the street to buy Dr. Pepper (since it just so happens that that's our favorite soft drink). After that we watched Ponyo. It was the first time I'd ever seen it.. It was very good, but I think I still like Princess Mononoke better. Perhaps I'd like Ponyo better if it were in Japanese, but it just doesn't seem right to see the film, and hear English...don't ask me why...
I don't remember much of what happened on Tuesday, since I wasn't feeling great by that point. I do, however, remember Wednesday!!! On Wednesday Abi, the boys and I went to Chiba for the concert of prayer and the team Thanksgiving dinner. I got to see Melanie and Jenna that day too, and watch a Japanese lady instruct her students in the art of one of the Japanese dances. It was interesting to see how she moved, held her fan, and even the way she was looking seemed important. Then we had the team dinner. After that Jenna, Melanie, Micah and Seth (two of the missionary family's children), several of the school students and I went back to the school building and played hide and seek in the dark. It was so much fun!
I already gave you a snippet of Thursday. What I didn't say was that several families we know came over to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. One family from church came, and then two families who have a child going to each of the boy's schools. Also a Taiwanese couple, friends of Roger, came. The two musicians played some for us. They played several Japanese folk songs, a Taiwanese folk song, a hymn medley, and some good old fiddle tunes. It was really enjoyable.
Friday was a little different for me... I woke up feeling just awful (partially due to the fact that I wasn't able to go to bed until after midnight the night before, and partially because of my cold). So after I helped everyone who had to leave, leave, I went back to bed. :) I slept for nearly four hours, and woke up a different person. I felt 97% better than I had that morning. I guess all my body needed to help fight off this cold was a little more sleep. After that I was able to do some reading with the boys after they got home from school, and I even washed a few dishes for the first time since the Sunday before. (Oh. I didn't mention that.... On Sunday I nearly chopped off the end of my thumb. :) I was chopping carrots for fried rice, and chopped a large gash in the end of my right thumb... It really hurt, but is doing a whole lot better now... :) )
So yesterday, Saturday, was lots of fun too. I was able to sleep relatively late (8:15), and then go to Chiba to help with the school work day. We ended up finishing by noon, so I went back to the team leader's house with Jenna and Melanie, since that's where they live. We had lunch there, and had lots of fun together. After a while Micah, Jenna, and I made chocolate chip cookies and shared them with everyone... Then last night we girls came back to Tsukishima, got hamburgers from MosBurger, and watched The Emperor's New Groove together. About half way through it, Melanie made us some hot chocolate from the instant mix her mother sent her. It was very good! I enjoyed our day together!
Today was good as well. Coen actually fell asleep on my shoulder and slept most of the way through church! He hasn't done that in a very long time... Then after church the girls and I went back to LaLaport since we all had a specific gift to buy for someone... (Mostly family back home..) So now, I think I'll pop me a bag of popcorn, and watch The Dick Van Dyke Show before it gets too late... :)
Good night, Happy Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas!!!!! :)
All my love,
Hannah
Nov 28, 2010
Nov 18, 2010
A Whole Week!
Hi all, I can't believe it's been an entire week since the last time I wrote! Time does fly. I kept thinking that I should write, but just haven't... A lot has happened in the last week, but I can't remember exactly what happened each day, so I'll just do my best to get it in order. :)
I don't remember what happened last Friday, so I'll skip to Saturday. On Saturday morning Abi had a soccer tournament. (It turns out that her team won the entire tournament, but I didn't know that until later in the day.) Anyway, She had to leave at 6:00 am Saturday morning. I got up at 6:45 to wake Aidan up. He had a music performance. He played the marimba. So he was at school from 8:00 until lunch time. Meanwhile, around 8:00 Jenna and Melanie arrived from Chiba. Grace City Church was taking the children in the church to the zoo, and we three older girls were going along for fun. The DeBoos were there, Fukuda-San, Mitsuo-Kun, another family from the church, and several friends of church people. We all carried lunch and had a picnic at the zoo. The weather was perfect, and we all had a great time! There are pictures but most of the good ones were taken with Melanie's camera, so I don't have them yet. Then after we got home from the zoo, Eastin plugged in Kung Fu Panda, and we all tried to watch it. Melanie and I fell asleep for most of it, though... :) After Abi got back, Jenna, Melanie, and I went out for dinner. We visited one of the many monjayaki restaurants. It was the first time they'd ever had real monja from a restaurant, and probably my last for this trip. :( We had a great time laughing and talking together, and didn't get back here until 8:15. Then we decided to take a walk along the river since it's so pretty at night. We took some melon pan with us (or, melon bread in English) and split one small loaf as we sat beside the river watching ducks swim and local fishermen fish. Then we were all craving hot chocolate since it was a bit chilly outside. So we came back here and Jenna made hot chocolate for us. We drank it while we watched a movie.
Then they stayed over for the night and we all went to church together on Sunday. It is truly wonderful to have them here on Sundays. It makes my whole day better to have someone to talk to like them. On Sunday we had communion at church, so I made bread. I actually forgot it was in the oven and left it in for about 10 min. too long. But it turned out fine... We had 7-11 meals for lunch, and went to church in the afternoon. Then
the other girls had to go back to Chiba to prepare for the next school week. Abi, the boys, and I came back here for a quiet dinner. After dinner Abi and I watched the first half of Return of the King. I popped a bag of popcorn to eat during the movie. I finished the popcorn, but fell asleep soon afterwards. :)
Monday was one of those good, but nondescript sort of days. I don't remember much of what happened in it, except that I actually beat Aidan at chess. He came down with a 24 hour virus Sunday night, so he didn't go to school on Monday. He and I did more or less productive things all day together. We made bread together, folded and put away laundry, read English lessons, and played lots of board games. We played several games of othello (otherwise known as reversi). We also played one game of chess. Aidan is really good at chess, and I don't believe I've ever beat him before. (I am really bad at chess usually.) But for the first time, I actually won! Well... sort of... I think it was more like an inevitable check-mate. He had his king left, and I had three pieces left. So after about 10 minutes of a game of catch, we decided that I won. :)
On Tuesday afternoon Roger arrived back home! He's been gone for three weeks and flew into Tokyo Tuesday afternoon. Abi went to the airport to pick him up, and they got home around 8:00 pm. Everyone was so glad to see him back. The older two boys ran and jumped up onto him, and Coen was smiling too big to say anything. He just kept grinning and holding up his arms until he was picked up and hugged. :) He gave his Daddy a big hug, and patted his back. Then we all went to bed pretty early.
On Wednesday, the regular Japanese lesson was re-started. I did lots of laundry folding that day. I hadn't done any on Tuesday, and the entire couch was loaded! :) So I sat down and folded it all up. I like folding laundry. There's something satisfying in knowing that you've taken dirty clothes in the morning, washed, hung, dried, folded, and put away clean clothes by the afternoon. Even if you don't get much else done in a day, laundry is always there to make you feel better about yourself. :) Then after the Japanese lesson, the clarinetist who is the third part of Roger and Abi's trio came to practice Christmas music with Abi. They practiced for a long time. Meanwhile Eastin was getting totally bored before Aidan got home from school. Every five minutes he would ask "Now how long until Aidan gets home, Mommy?" I tried to occupy him by reading, coloring, even playing with him... He just wanted to play with Aidan... So I started crocheting. That actually interested Eastin for the longest time of anything. I helped him make several stitches, and then he held my skein of yarn and gave me more when it was tight. He wanted me to make a sweater for him, but I explained that I couldn't very well do that with only one skein. So then he wanted a scarf. I told him that I would do my very best to make a scarf for him. I've been working on it, but it's still only about 8 inches long. I've already ripped it out to the bottom twice. I couldn't decide what pattern to use. Finally I settled on a simple half-double crochet. This yarn really is a little thicker than I like it, but it's not bad. It just took a little getting used to.... For dessert on Wednesday I made a peach cobbler. I added a new secret ingredient that I discovered from my Grandfather on my week vacation home. Only Abi and I know what it was! (And I won't tell even if you beg me!) :) After we finished cleaning the kitchen, we three older people watched half of a movie. We were all tired by that point and decided to go to bed and save the rest for a later date. So I fell asleep in bed listening to a great audio book I downloaded. It's one of my favorite books, though it's not the reader I'm used to... It's one of G. A. Henty's. He was a great author!
Today was kind of different. Roger and Abi left this morning at 7:00 for Chiba. They were leading worship at a meeting. So I got up at 6:30 to help make lunches for the boys. After we finished that, Roger and Abi had to leave, and I sent Aidan off to school at the appropriate time. Then I did reading with Eastin, and took him to school. Today was really cold, and I got to wear my new down coat for the first time! I like it a lot. I'm going to be very glad I bought it by the end of the year! Then Baby and I came back to the house. He played for a while, and then went to take a nap. While he was napping I was able to talk to my family, including my grandmother! I have not had an opportunity to email or chat with her in some time, so it was really great to have that time! Then at 2:00 Coen and I went to pick up Eastin from school. We came back here and I finished getting ready to have our English lesson with Hinako. We had a great lesson today and had fun. Then Aidan got back from school and Abi arrived from Costco. Aidan and I went down to help bring up groceries. We had sushi and salad for dinner, and finished off the rest of the peach cobbler. After washing the dishes I sat down here and haven't moved, except to change positions because my back is a little sore. :(
Well, Now I have filled you in on the past week, and my computer battery is nearly dead, so I'd better close for now and go plug in my computer... I hope you all have a wonderful day, week, month, and rest of the year! Enjoy your blessings, and whether or not you overlook the holiday of Thanksgiving (like Japan does), I encourage you to count your blessings, and thank our loving Father in Heaven for all of his blessings!
All my love,
Hannah
I don't remember what happened last Friday, so I'll skip to Saturday. On Saturday morning Abi had a soccer tournament. (It turns out that her team won the entire tournament, but I didn't know that until later in the day.) Anyway, She had to leave at 6:00 am Saturday morning. I got up at 6:45 to wake Aidan up. He had a music performance. He played the marimba. So he was at school from 8:00 until lunch time. Meanwhile, around 8:00 Jenna and Melanie arrived from Chiba. Grace City Church was taking the children in the church to the zoo, and we three older girls were going along for fun. The DeBoos were there, Fukuda-San, Mitsuo-Kun, another family from the church, and several friends of church people. We all carried lunch and had a picnic at the zoo. The weather was perfect, and we all had a great time! There are pictures but most of the good ones were taken with Melanie's camera, so I don't have them yet. Then after we got home from the zoo, Eastin plugged in Kung Fu Panda, and we all tried to watch it. Melanie and I fell asleep for most of it, though... :) After Abi got back, Jenna, Melanie, and I went out for dinner. We visited one of the many monjayaki restaurants. It was the first time they'd ever had real monja from a restaurant, and probably my last for this trip. :( We had a great time laughing and talking together, and didn't get back here until 8:15. Then we decided to take a walk along the river since it's so pretty at night. We took some melon pan with us (or, melon bread in English) and split one small loaf as we sat beside the river watching ducks swim and local fishermen fish. Then we were all craving hot chocolate since it was a bit chilly outside. So we came back here and Jenna made hot chocolate for us. We drank it while we watched a movie.
Then they stayed over for the night and we all went to church together on Sunday. It is truly wonderful to have them here on Sundays. It makes my whole day better to have someone to talk to like them. On Sunday we had communion at church, so I made bread. I actually forgot it was in the oven and left it in for about 10 min. too long. But it turned out fine... We had 7-11 meals for lunch, and went to church in the afternoon. Then
the other girls had to go back to Chiba to prepare for the next school week. Abi, the boys, and I came back here for a quiet dinner. After dinner Abi and I watched the first half of Return of the King. I popped a bag of popcorn to eat during the movie. I finished the popcorn, but fell asleep soon afterwards. :)
Monday was one of those good, but nondescript sort of days. I don't remember much of what happened in it, except that I actually beat Aidan at chess. He came down with a 24 hour virus Sunday night, so he didn't go to school on Monday. He and I did more or less productive things all day together. We made bread together, folded and put away laundry, read English lessons, and played lots of board games. We played several games of othello (otherwise known as reversi). We also played one game of chess. Aidan is really good at chess, and I don't believe I've ever beat him before. (I am really bad at chess usually.) But for the first time, I actually won! Well... sort of... I think it was more like an inevitable check-mate. He had his king left, and I had three pieces left. So after about 10 minutes of a game of catch, we decided that I won. :)
On Tuesday afternoon Roger arrived back home! He's been gone for three weeks and flew into Tokyo Tuesday afternoon. Abi went to the airport to pick him up, and they got home around 8:00 pm. Everyone was so glad to see him back. The older two boys ran and jumped up onto him, and Coen was smiling too big to say anything. He just kept grinning and holding up his arms until he was picked up and hugged. :) He gave his Daddy a big hug, and patted his back. Then we all went to bed pretty early.
On Wednesday, the regular Japanese lesson was re-started. I did lots of laundry folding that day. I hadn't done any on Tuesday, and the entire couch was loaded! :) So I sat down and folded it all up. I like folding laundry. There's something satisfying in knowing that you've taken dirty clothes in the morning, washed, hung, dried, folded, and put away clean clothes by the afternoon. Even if you don't get much else done in a day, laundry is always there to make you feel better about yourself. :) Then after the Japanese lesson, the clarinetist who is the third part of Roger and Abi's trio came to practice Christmas music with Abi. They practiced for a long time. Meanwhile Eastin was getting totally bored before Aidan got home from school. Every five minutes he would ask "Now how long until Aidan gets home, Mommy?" I tried to occupy him by reading, coloring, even playing with him... He just wanted to play with Aidan... So I started crocheting. That actually interested Eastin for the longest time of anything. I helped him make several stitches, and then he held my skein of yarn and gave me more when it was tight. He wanted me to make a sweater for him, but I explained that I couldn't very well do that with only one skein. So then he wanted a scarf. I told him that I would do my very best to make a scarf for him. I've been working on it, but it's still only about 8 inches long. I've already ripped it out to the bottom twice. I couldn't decide what pattern to use. Finally I settled on a simple half-double crochet. This yarn really is a little thicker than I like it, but it's not bad. It just took a little getting used to.... For dessert on Wednesday I made a peach cobbler. I added a new secret ingredient that I discovered from my Grandfather on my week vacation home. Only Abi and I know what it was! (And I won't tell even if you beg me!) :) After we finished cleaning the kitchen, we three older people watched half of a movie. We were all tired by that point and decided to go to bed and save the rest for a later date. So I fell asleep in bed listening to a great audio book I downloaded. It's one of my favorite books, though it's not the reader I'm used to... It's one of G. A. Henty's. He was a great author!
Today was kind of different. Roger and Abi left this morning at 7:00 for Chiba. They were leading worship at a meeting. So I got up at 6:30 to help make lunches for the boys. After we finished that, Roger and Abi had to leave, and I sent Aidan off to school at the appropriate time. Then I did reading with Eastin, and took him to school. Today was really cold, and I got to wear my new down coat for the first time! I like it a lot. I'm going to be very glad I bought it by the end of the year! Then Baby and I came back to the house. He played for a while, and then went to take a nap. While he was napping I was able to talk to my family, including my grandmother! I have not had an opportunity to email or chat with her in some time, so it was really great to have that time! Then at 2:00 Coen and I went to pick up Eastin from school. We came back here and I finished getting ready to have our English lesson with Hinako. We had a great lesson today and had fun. Then Aidan got back from school and Abi arrived from Costco. Aidan and I went down to help bring up groceries. We had sushi and salad for dinner, and finished off the rest of the peach cobbler. After washing the dishes I sat down here and haven't moved, except to change positions because my back is a little sore. :(
Well, Now I have filled you in on the past week, and my computer battery is nearly dead, so I'd better close for now and go plug in my computer... I hope you all have a wonderful day, week, month, and rest of the year! Enjoy your blessings, and whether or not you overlook the holiday of Thanksgiving (like Japan does), I encourage you to count your blessings, and thank our loving Father in Heaven for all of his blessings!
All my love,
Hannah
Nov 11, 2010
If at first you don't succeed, try try again!
Hi everyone! I just had to drop a quick note this evening to let you know that I feel quite pleased with myself! After a day which was not very productive, I made myself feel like I accomplished something today within the past 1 1/2 hours. Aidan got a set of origami paper the other day and has been begging to open it. I have never had much luck with the art, but decided to give it a try since he was having trouble figuring out his lion. I helped him with his lion, made one myself, and then made one for Eastin.... (Then Eastin decided to make a zoo, so he numbered the lions... Mine was number 3, hence the large '3' on its side.) After that, I decided that our zoo needed a pink elephant. I found instructions online for an origami elephant, and tried to make one... It turned out well enough, but I think that somehow the head got folded in upside down... Don't ask me how on earth that happened! I admit I myself burst out laughing... :) Then and there I decided that pink elephants were a little beyond my expertise. Feeling a little beaten, I found something simpler... A nice butterfly... The butterfly worked, and looked good. After that I wanted to make a cube... So I found directions for a cube and got started.... The cube turned out well! The odd thing about it was that it was a 'magic cube'. The cube turns into a rose! I can not only make it from a rose into a cube, but more impressive, I can turn it from a cube back into a rose! Being my first attempt it is not very neat, but it still looks pretty if you ask me! I am quite pleased with it! While I still don't know how to make a paper crane, I can make a lion, a greenish-yellowish ugly colored butterfly (the color really does look better than it does in the picture), and a magic rose cube!!!
All my love,
Hannah
Nov 9, 2010
Another Week
Well, I can't believe it's been a full week since the last time I wrote anything! In a way it seems like it's been two weeks, and in another way I can't believe it's been that long! Time does fly... In the last week, lots has happened, but not much has happened outside the ordinary.
I did have my calligraphy lesson on Wednesday morning. It went well I think. Eastin and Hinako soon tired out and left me writing all by myself. Below, you can see two examples of my work... The first one is the word (or kanji) for dog. The stroke on the bottom right hand corner of the character is very difficult to master. If you had seen my first attempts at it, you would be proud of my achievements with this one... Also, the two small characters on the left hand side represent my name - ha-na - spelled in katakana. On the second page of kanji that you see, I've written the words for 'one', 'two', 'three'. The word for 'one' is a single line... 'Two', is two lines, and 'three' is three lines. The numbers get much more complicated after that. I am quite proud of my work. It doesn't look nearly as good as my teacher's, but she's been doing it for a long long time. She gave me, as a gift, one of her pieces of work. She gave me the kanji for 'dream'. It is quite lovely. I just have to find a way to get it home undamaged!
I suppose the next big thing that happened was the vision fair on Saturday afternoon. I think I went well. There were some people there I never imagined would come. It was great! Most of the people from church came, and lots of people that we know from around here. I was able to stay outside on the deck most of the time with the boys so that they didn't have to sit still in that little room. I also managed to see both videos that Colin made while he was here. Everyone seemed to enjoy them...especially the one where they interviewed random people on the street!
On Sunday Jenna and Melanie came from Chiba to go to church with us. It was great to finally get to meet Melanie! (She is a new teacher for the missionary school, and just arrived last week.) I think the three of us are going to have lots of fun together. We have already planned how to spend every weekend together until I leave for Christmas. :) It's gonna' be great!
I don't think I've said anything about Eastin's "railroad tracks." Eastin got hurt two weeks ago, and had to have seven stitches on his forehead. On Thursday he gets to have them taken out! His cut has healed amazingly! He will only have a very small scar left afterwards. The first time he saw himself in the mirror after getting the stitches he said, "Mommy, I have railroad tracks on my head." :) So now I always refer to them as his 'railroad tracks'.
Well, I finished my share of a big bowl of popcorn and a glass of milk, so I'm as happy as happy can be. Now I'm pretty tired because I feel like I've been going like the energizer bunny practically all day, even though I don't guess I've done that much... So since it's 9:00, I think I'll hit the sack, turn in, go to bed, or whatever you want to call it! :) You know... I didn't feel that great when I started writing... I felt like I should write something, but didn't really know what or where to begin. Now I feel great, and feel like I could keep going except that I'm so tired. :) Writing makes me happy! It doesn't matter to me that I'm no Charlotte Bronte or Louisa May Alcott. I just enjoy writing down my thoughts and sharing them with others! :)
May God bless you and make His face to shine upon you and give you peace.
Good night!
All my love,
Hannah
I suppose the next big thing that happened was the vision fair on Saturday afternoon. I think I went well. There were some people there I never imagined would come. It was great! Most of the people from church came, and lots of people that we know from around here. I was able to stay outside on the deck most of the time with the boys so that they didn't have to sit still in that little room. I also managed to see both videos that Colin made while he was here. Everyone seemed to enjoy them...especially the one where they interviewed random people on the street!
On Sunday Jenna and Melanie came from Chiba to go to church with us. It was great to finally get to meet Melanie! (She is a new teacher for the missionary school, and just arrived last week.) I think the three of us are going to have lots of fun together. We have already planned how to spend every weekend together until I leave for Christmas. :) It's gonna' be great!
I don't think I've said anything about Eastin's "railroad tracks." Eastin got hurt two weeks ago, and had to have seven stitches on his forehead. On Thursday he gets to have them taken out! His cut has healed amazingly! He will only have a very small scar left afterwards. The first time he saw himself in the mirror after getting the stitches he said, "Mommy, I have railroad tracks on my head." :) So now I always refer to them as his 'railroad tracks'.
Well, I finished my share of a big bowl of popcorn and a glass of milk, so I'm as happy as happy can be. Now I'm pretty tired because I feel like I've been going like the energizer bunny practically all day, even though I don't guess I've done that much... So since it's 9:00, I think I'll hit the sack, turn in, go to bed, or whatever you want to call it! :) You know... I didn't feel that great when I started writing... I felt like I should write something, but didn't really know what or where to begin. Now I feel great, and feel like I could keep going except that I'm so tired. :) Writing makes me happy! It doesn't matter to me that I'm no Charlotte Bronte or Louisa May Alcott. I just enjoy writing down my thoughts and sharing them with others! :)
May God bless you and make His face to shine upon you and give you peace.
Good night!
All my love,
Hannah
Nov 2, 2010
Safe!
Hi everyone, I just wanted to thank you for praying for Colin as he traveled home. I also wanted to let you know that he made it home safely, and the rest of the family loved having him back. I could hear the pleasure in Momma's words as we were chatting over email after they got home from the airport.:) I'm sure it was very different at home with both of us gone ...
Last Tuesday was a good day overall.:) It was a full day, and I stayed busy most of the time. That morning started early for me. I got up at 6:30 and fried some eggs for everyone's breakfast. Then at 6 : 45 I woke up Aidan so that he could get his homework done and eat breakfast. Although I set my alarm clock for 6:30, that isn't what woke me up. Colin jumping out of bed to take pictures of the beautiful sunrise is what woke me. That was the most beautiful day that we had had since we had gotten back from the states ... Then around lunch time, Colin and I left for the airport. We got there in time for some looking around. It took about an hour and a half to get there ... We walked around for a while just chatting and laughing at all the little souvenirs you could buy. I think the only thing we ended up buying green tea kit-kats. (I do believe that you can only buy those here.) Then after he walked through security I walked up to the 4th floor and out to the observation deck. I found his gate and took pictures of his plane. I would put some of the pictures on here , but haven't taken them off of my camera yet ...
Since Wednesday and Thursday were relatively dull days, I'll skip on to Friday when something exciting happened!:) On Friday afternoon I left Tsukishima and traveled an hour out to Honda. After arriving at the station I walked half a mile to Honda Chapel and the missionary school where Jenna teaches. She met me there and together we walked to Bob and Sharon's house. We had planned to watch a Dr. Who episode called 'Blink'. I have heard that is is the scariest episode featuring David Tennant as The Doctor. I must admit that at one point I think we all screamed.:) You can't blame us though ... If you have ever watched it you know what I mean ... Imagine all three of us sitting around in a dark room - two on a sofa and one in the chair on the other side of the room ... I, the only one who had never seen it, was the lucky one to be separated on the other side of the room! It wasn't so much scary to me as just startling. It was fun to get to see it though. That night Jenna and I spent in the guest bedroom there.
On Saturday morning (after a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast) Jenna and I decided to walk over to the Chiba mall. She wanted to show me how different it was than LaLaport ... I must admit, it was very different . We had intended to ride bikes there and back since it was within easy riding distance. Well, it just so happened that a typhoon came through the night before and it was still raining by the time we left. So we walked the nearly 2 miles there under umbrellas, and got pretty well soaked. On the way back it was raining even harder! We had waited until around 2:15 to leave, hoping the rain would stop ... So now we had to go back in the rain! We got to the house around 3:00 and changed out of our wet clothes. They looked like we had fallen into a swimming pool! Then we made a lunch that we had picked up at a little grocery store. Then we headed back to Tsukishima. On the way back here, we were sitting on the train and Jenna suddenly said, "Look, there's Captain Jack." I thought that she meant the Captain Jack from Dr. Who, because there were people standing in front of me and I couldn't see anyone out of the ordinary ... Then I happened to look up, and I said "Jenna! There's Captain Jack!":) So when he happened to get off at the same station where we were changing trains, Jenna asked if we could get his picture ... As most Japanese guys are, he was kind enough to oblige us.
Sunday was a good day. I can't really remember anything extraordinary that happened, but I do remember that it was a very good day. We had choir rehearsal here after church, and Fukuda-San, Iori, Keiko, and Mitsuo-Kun came. Jenna and I had made chicken stew for dinner, and we had hot chocolate for dessert. I think it was all good! After that Jenna, Abi and I watched Pride and Prejudice.
Jenna stayed over on Sunday night as well. On Monday morning she and I went to LaLaport. (Don't worry, we had no intention of buying anything!) We went, because we wanted to talk to one of the girls we had met who works at Perfect Suit Factory. Her name is Keiko, and she lives in Tsukishima. We wanted to invite her to the vision fair that Grace City Church Tokyo is having here next Saturday. After we got back, we stopped at a Mos Burger for lunch . That was absolutely the best fast food hamburger I think I've ever had! Simply delicious!!! Then Jenna and I planned out our Saturdays until I leave Tokyo in December! I think we have every Saturday packed, and we're still trying to squeeze in some things that we want to do together ...:)
Today she and I took Coen to the Imperial Palace with us for a guided tour. The whole tour was about 75 minutes long, and covered approximately one and a half miles! I had lots of fun there, took tons of pictures, and learned lots of interesting stuff. For instance, I learned that the most beautiful keep on the palace grounds, the Fushimi-yagura keep, was originally built in Kyoto, disassembled, and rebuilt in Tokyo during the reign of the third Shogun in the 17th century! I would never have guessed! Then we came here and all took a nap since we have stayed up until midnight for the last three nights, and we got up unusually early this morning!:) After that Jenna had to go back to Chiba, and I did reading with the boys and made supper. Pray for Coen, because I don't think he feels well today for some reason ... I don't think it's anything serious, but do pray for him ... Perhaps he will feel better in the morning.
Tomorrow morning I have my next calligraphy lesson. This time Hinako's grandmother is coming here and bringing Hinako so that she, Eastin, and I can all write together!
So, now I think I'll go to bed!!!
Good night (or morning as the case may be) to all of you!!!!
All my love,
Hannah
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