So, today's Sunday, so today's the first day of regular blog. But I overslept so it will be short. Koenji is really growing on me. I am really beginning to get a hang of where everything is. I recently found the outdoor mall thing. Its pretty much a normal line of clothing stores, but with a cover over it. Which is very useful since its in the middle of the rainy season in Japan. So its been raining a lot.

I hvae been lucky enough to try many new foods. I have really enjoyed Japanese curry, which is not nearly as spicy as Indian curry, which is a mild disappointment, but its really good none the less. Last night I went to a tempura place. I know tempura is not something that is new to me, but there were stuff that was tempuraed (is that even a word? I don't think so, but you should know what it means) like green beens, squid, and the oddest (but surprisingly the most delicious) pumpkin. I have also tried taiyaki, which I have heard great things about. It is a pastry (the outside of which that tastes kind of like pancakes) that is filled with various things, from bacon and eggs to chocolate. The thing that makes it interesting is that taiyaki is shaped like a fish. And not like a goldfish cracker, but it looks like real fish. I will upload pictures of it later. I have also tried epiyaki and takoyaki. Both of which are fried balls filled with some kind of creamy substance and a kind of seafood. Epiyaki has shrimp inside and takoyaki has octopus. I personally liked Epiyaki more. I also tried Natto, and I liked it. Most people don't because it smells...really bad, but I personally liked it. Which reminds me, I have some Natto in the refrigerator that I need to eat later.

Considering how sprawled out and large Tokyo is, I think I have quickly gotten use to making my way around the city. Most of the city is covered in train tracks. so the train is a very common mode of transportation. I have gotten very used to getting around on the train. When I first came to the city, I was kind of overwhelmed at the size of Koenji, let alone Tokyo itself. I remember passing a store covered in Evangelion (a japanese anime I watch) pictures, I was at first very glad, since I assumed it was an anime store. Turns out it was a pachinko parlor. Pachinko is a very popular place where people can get around the fact that it is illegal to gamble in Japan. People play games, and instead of getting money, they get little stuffed animals. Near the parlor, there is a man that will trade your stuffed animal for cash. So, I was disappointed. I also realized that Pachinko parlors are very popular and are the loudest store in Tokyo. Which actually tells you how quite Tokyo is. You see, when I imaged Tokyo, I assumed it was a large city like New York. Large skyscapers, too many cars, and very noisy from cars and people talking. NOT the case, there are few cars and even the ones that exist are VERY quiet. NOBODY talks, and even when they do, its very quiet, so you never hear people. So when I say that the Pachinko parlor is the loudest building in Tokyo, if an average loud American is a 5 on the loudness scale, then Pachinko is a 2.

Also, I have begun to go to Japanese Universities to meet fellow Japanese college students. My group goes to ICU (International Christian University) and GaiDai (Tokyo University of Foriegn Studies) luckily both universities require intensive english courses, so most people have a really good grasp of english. Many of the students of ICU are students that have spent several years in America. AT ICU, I met three Japanese students, Wataru, Yuta, and Taichi. The three of them were very interested in meeting us. They really want to meet us again and want to become friends. I am very glad, since one of the goals of this trip is to get to know Japanese students and become friends with them, so once they get to know us, we can share the gospel with them. This is a required process, since if we start BEFORE becoming friends, you can scare them off (yes, like cats and other small animals. You need to get to trust you or else you can scare them off, Japanese culture has made people really shy).

Yesterday, I had an amazing adventure. Most of the group when out together, but I spent the day with my roommates Kylan and Josh. We went to a soccer game that two people that Kylan and Josh knew were playing in. It took a long time to get there, but it was more than worth it once we arrived.

Well, I have to go, see you next time.

Ok, so posting pictures the way I was before was a HUGE pain in the butt. So I came up with a new way. I made a Flickr account (thanks SO much to Uncle Richie, who told me about the site)

So, here is a link to all the pictures I have so far. I will most here when more pictures are on the flickr account. Laterz!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38803450@N02/

Here are some pictures

This is the dorm room I stayed at during my time at debriefing. It was surprisingly nice and MUCH better than the dorm room I stayed at my freshman year. For those of you who do not know, I stayed in Manzanita my first year at college. The oldest and most infamous dorm on campus. We moved in and the window was broken. We never got it fixed. Also, our shower flooded into the hallway and the floor above us flooded and there were drip marks left over from that...yeah, this dorm was MUCH nicer



This was the desk I had in the dorms...also much nicer than Manzi

This was my bunk bed. I was far too tired after each day to use the top bunk, plus my fear ofThis was the view from the dorm room...SO NICE!


This was the outside of the dorm room. It was quite nice...and there are some people down there, all of them are nice, except that one over there. You know who you are.
We are completely excited and ready to go! From the left: Tim, Joe, Kylan, Jess, and Tracy
Andrew (left) and Sammy (right) chillaxing at the airport
Taking a picture of a picture! (left: Matt right)Middle: Emily right (with back to camera) Josh and rightmost (with ? shirt) KylanMore airport chilaxing (plus a side helping of Sammy being amazing) On the wall rom left to right: Joe, Andrew, Sammy and Jeremy

I am tired, more will be posted later

I'm here in Tokyo!

Hey everybody. So, here I am, in Tokyo, writing my first blog ever!

For those of you who may not know, the mere fact that I am here is a miracle in itself. I shall explain.

I moved out of my condo the day before I needed to head out to California for briefing (Getting to know all the people going as well, getting to know the customs, etc). I decided to pack for myself. I thought I had everything I needed, and then I left for Costa Mesa, Ca the next day.

Halfway there, Amy asked me if I had my passport. Which made me realize I had forgotten to pack it. After panicked consideration, we decided to have the passport shipped through overnight mail to a house of one of the directors of the trip that lived nearby. This was mainly because turning back and getting it would mean I would not arrive in CA until about midnight, and I did not have enough sleep for that to be a safe journey.

So I got to briefing and got to know my team. I later found out that the passport was given to the post office fifteen minutes too late, so the passport would arrive on Thursday, instead of Wednesday (This happened on Tuesday, in case you hadn't figured it out) since we do not leave until Friday morning, we figured that would not have been too much of a problem.

We thought wrong. Turns out, on Thursday, the postman delivered it...but NOT to the place it was addressed to go (the house of the director). Meaning that my passport was somewhere, lost in Costa Mesa. The director checked with all her neighbors and even several other streets that had houses with the same # as hers. It was no where to be found. Since the postman was in his first week of work, we had not filed his home phone number with the post office, so we could not contact him until 9 AM the next morning...even though we leave for the airport at 8 AM. So the only plan was to leave for the airport as scheduled and pray to God that it showed up before I had to board. We were faced with the harsh reality that I may have to be left behind.

But, everyone's prayers paid off when a neighbor of the director found my passport at their residence, ONE HOUR before we leave for the airport. Talk about close calls!

After that, it was a smooth ride to Tokyo. Each seat had a TV in the headrest, so each person could watch their own movie that they picked, and even had a selection of video games to choose from. Several people even played multiplayer against one another.

After we landed, we were quarantined since Japan is trying very hard to keep swine flu out. (Literally 1/2 of all people I see on the street are wearing little hospital masks over their face to) Luckily, the quarantine was only about 15 minutes and consisted of government officials walking back and forth through the aisles of the plane.

After that, it was just 3 short train rides until we reached Koenji (the prefecture of Tokyo that we are residing in) we had a short little orientation before we all crashed and fell asleep. We were all incredibly exhausted and several went to bed sweaty (it was quite humid when we got here) and tired, but were too wiped out to care.

The following morning (after a breakfast that was provided and several well-deserved showers) my and my roommates, Josh, Tim and Kylan went walking around the town, until we had to meet up with our team at 11. After that, me and Tim went to this restaurant we noticed earlier and got some curry. Which was difficult since the only english the woman knew (this was a nice little old mom and pop place) was "I do not speak english". So, since the menus were all in Japanese, we were stuck. Luckily, many Japanese restaurants will have window displays of the food and prices (kind of like what you would see in a clothing store, but they have plastic models of the food) and we led her outside and pointed at what we wanted.

The curry was AMAZING! It was probably the best curry I have ever had. The funny thing is though, it might have been store bought. I do not know for sure, but across the street was a general store. My roommates and I went through the store earlier that day, deciding ahead of time what we wanted to buy. We went though an entire row of curry. So, right after we ordered, the woman who took our order left the restaurant and came back with a box of food. I did not get a look at the front of the box, but it was about the same size and color that the curry boxes looked like. Good news is, that if it WAS store bought, i could get a couple boxes and make some for myself.

Well, that is all for stories. I have some pictures I want to upload, but my battery is ablout to die. So next post will hopefuly have all the pictures I have taken so far (all fifty of them!)