Yamadera

Our Japanese teacher, Nobuko, and her husband took me, Dan and their chinese friend to this area called Yamadera. It's famous in Japan because there are three temples that were built high up on the side of a huge mountain. There are over 1000 steps that you have to climb to get to the top of the mountain and see out over the beautiful valley. We climbed all of them, then went back down! It was a good challenge! Dan ate it up, he loves climbing. I bought this Japanese umbrella at the base of the mountain as a remberance of this trip. We had a nice time!

Changing Shoji

We have a traditional Tatami room in our house. We recently decided to change the paper on the Shoji doors and make them look like new! It was a big project, but we were up for the challenge. We were so happy with the results and are glad that our tatami room is now completed.

Korean Dress-up

One Sunday afternoon one of the ladies from church invited me and some other ladies over to her house. She is from Korea and married to a Japanese. She thought it would be fun to dress me up in her traditional Korean dress. It was fun, but very hot!

Thanksgiving in Akita

It was a happy Thanksgiving here in Japan for the two of us. We went to Akita, about 4 hours north of Sendai for a nice celebration with the other English teachers and the Bengtson's. We were about 10 in all and we had a great time being altogether. We took a bus up to Akita, so it was a nice chance to see all the colors of the changing leaves. The Bengtson's prepared a big Turkey that they got from the states and all the fixins. We ate like true American's yesterday, it was sooo nice! Linda even made pumpkin pie! After our noon time feast we played Risk, Pit and chatted. Everyone had alot to be thankful for. We hardly had a chance to miss our families, so it turned out perfect!

Pizza Party!

On Sunday evenings there is a young adult youth group. One evening Dan and I invited everyone over to our house for pizza. It was a hit! We had about 18 people come and it was packed. We had one of our friends bring 4 of his friends with him. They all like trying to speak English and really like being in an American's house. We had a fun evening and enjoyed pizza.

The Seminary Church

Here is a picture of one of the church that we serve. It's right across the parking lot from our house, so it's nice and easy to get to classes. On a typical Sunday there are about 30-40 people that attend. Some are seekers and many are members. The sanctuary is not huge, but the whole church is a pretty good size. Every Sunday everyone stays into the lunch hour and has lunch together. We usually stay for lunch unless we are at the other church we serve. The congregation is about 50/50 for younger and older people. It's a pretty lively church bunch!

Lunch with Asami

This is our new friend, Asami. She is from Northern Japan, but has recently moved to the Sendai area. One Saturday the three of us got together and had lunch in Sendai. She brought us to this great authentic Japanese restaurant. The servers wore kimono's and we were given a very private booth. Each booth is seperated by high booth back and hanging curtains. (like the one you see behind us) We really had a great time together. I added a picture of what our lunches came out looking like because I was shocked. They were so elaborate and decorative. Inside each small container there was something different. It was a new experience for us!

Sushi Resturant

One of the first resturants that we visited with our Pastor was a sushi resturant. Japanese people LOVE sushi and if you tell them that you like it they will serve it to you one way or another. Dan can eat many kinds of sushi and I can only eat one or two kinds.
This type of sushi resturant is called Kaiten sushi. It's a big counter with a sushi track that constantly goes around the counter. It's really great and very cheap! Each plate of sushi is 100 yen or 105 yen. It's about $1.00. So, if you like sushi, this is the place to go!

Fileo Camp

In August the Seminary church that we work with had a camp for young adults and high school students. We went along with them and had a great time! We went to this secluded beach, made a bonfire roasting hot dogs and mashmellows. We played a bunch of games and got to know many of the young people. After lunch many went swimming and others went exploring in the surrounding mountains. This was the first time we saw the Pacific ocean from Japan. It was a little drizzly out, but it didn't damper our time! We had many different languages spoken at this event; there was korean, japanese, english and indonesian. Our Pastor, Sasaki sensei, was along and he had a small message prepared for us later in the evening. After the beach everyone went to an Onsen, which is a public bath house, to clean up and relax. It was a great experience. Then we all headed back to the church for singing and sleeping!

All Moved In

We were so excited to move into our first home after a long
training stint. Being married just over two months we were so happy to finally have a place to call OURS! We started by cleaning the inside of the house and moved our way out...literally. There was a lot of work to be done. Our house was built by missionaries from America about 20 years ago, that's why it's doesn't have a very Japanese-style look. Once we started working on the yard, we really went to town. Lots of bushes and trees hadn't been trimmed for years, so we went for it! This is me in front of lots of our hard work. Who knew I did hard work!! Not me that's for sure!

Now the place looks great and we feel right at home! Check back with us in the spring to see how all of our freshly planted flower bulbs are doing!

Teaching Classes

Here we are finally teaching our classes. Dan is teaching 7 kids classes and 2 adult classes. I am teaching 3 kids classes and 6 women's classes. We use a series of books that we teach directly from which makes it easy to plan our lessons. Most of our students have had some English in their lifetime. Every child in Japan begins learning English in 6th grade. After WWII, it became a requirment for English to be taught in school. So, even though our students are shy to admit that they know English, it is true, they do have some background in the language.
We don't use a lot of Japanese in our everyday life. This is partly because we don't know a lot of the language and partly because we are teaching English all the time!

Tanabata Festival

After all of our training was finished, towards the end of August, we went into Sendai city with Hannah Olson. She was here for the summer as a fill-in teacher until we arrived.
The city of Sendai puts on the Tanabata festival every year and thousands of people attend the various events everyday. During this festival everyone wears their summer kimono called a "yukata" and strolls through the streets looking at all the decorations and eating the festival foods. We enjoyed ourselves so much! One of the biggest attractions are the streamers. The streamers are a part of a contest that is held between businesses, clubs and organizations. Every year people make these HUGE streamers that hang about 10 feet tall. There are HUNDREDS of them. As you are walking through the big Arcade (Mall) the streamers gently sweep arcoss your face. It's like walking in a dreamland.

At the Waterfall

Tomoko's family took us all around the Northern part of Akita prefecture to see many of the tourist sites. We visited a waterfall, temples and shrines and a National park. We had a picinic for lunch and enjoyed some authenic Japanese green tea. By the end of our day we were exhausted and ended up falling asleep on the train back to Akita. We had such a nice time with them and look forward to visiting them again.

Visiting Tomoko

While in Akita, Dan and I were able to take a train on our night off from training and visit my dear friend, Tomoko. She and I have been friends for five years. We spent the night with her and her family and fiance in my old city of Noshiro. We went out for dinner the evening we arrive and had a marvelous time! What a treat to see her and her family again. We had so much fun!

Meeting Ayako

During our training with Dean and Linda Bengtson we had some free time, so one evening Dan and I met up with one of my old friends, Ayako, at a nearby Starbuck's. I met her 5 years ago, the first time I taught English in Japan. After I left Japan, she moved to Minnesota to go to college in the Minneapolis area. We have kept in touch ever since!

Training Weeks

During our weeks of training, we did a lot of traveling around the whole Northern part of Japan. We visited Akita, where Dean and Linda Bengtson (LB missionaries) live. We stayed there for one week, then went back to Sendai, a 4 hour bus ride, for the weekend. On the following Monday we went to Takanosu to do some training with Bonita Nordaas. She and Arnie, her husband (LB missionaries) are great! We had a nice time with them and learned some things in the process.
This is a picture of the rice fields in Takanosu, on the Japan Sea side.

Move to Japan

In August, we packed up all of our things and moved over to the wonderful Land of the Rising Sun, Japan. Our first few days were spent in Tokyo with my cousin, Lila and Kenny Josef, who have been missionaries in Japan for over 50 years. We also spent some time with my very good friend, Tomoko Kato and her fiance, Uwe. Tomoko and Uwe took us to the Tokyo Dome for a baseball game, then out to eat for Okonomiyaki. It was really fun and an easy transition into a new country. After being in Tokyo for a three days we took a bullet train to Sendai, our new home. We were welcomed with open arms!

Married in June!

This past June Dan and I were married in my parents backyard in Fergus Falls, MN. There were eight bridesmaids and sevens groomsmen. My Maids of Honor were my twin sisters, Julie and Jane. Dan's best man was his long time friend Rich Buch, from New York. We had beautiful weather. It wasn't too hot; it was just the right tempature. We enjoyed seeing all of our friends and family gather to help us celebrate our special day.