My Trip to a Japanese School and Fun Other Things

December is wonderful. I love the Christmas season with all the merry lights and music. It's sad here though that in Japan Christmas is purely a commercial holiday...like Valentine's Day. But December seems to just be flying by. I have been working with the girls on their Christmas program, making Christmas cards (Japanese style), making Christmas cookies and decorating. The cards turned out great. I took pictures of them because I want to remember each one. Here's the link if you want to see them: http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/gallery/3969610#230672912.

One of the opportunities I had this month was visiting the Japanese school of Natsuki, one of my English students. It was so neat. Rebekah and I stayed Thursday night at Owada-san's (Natsuki's mother)house and then went to school with her and her mother in the morning. I also teach Owada-san English in my adult class so she stayed with me to help translate. The school was very nice. There were some interesting differences though, one of which was the rows of shoes. Japanese children wear special indoor shoes for school. The school was very beautiful and very large for an elementary school. It had a huge outdoor area for the children to play. All the classrooms have the same layout, but are decorated by the different classes. They hang their latest artwork in the hall for everyone to see. Some of the projects were very neat. The day I came was a special day for the children because Macha, the Asian Champion for jump roping was performing and then teaching the children how to jump rope. He actually is a senior at Tsukuba University, the next town over, and is studying to be a teacher. It was amazing the different things he could do. I got to talk to Macha after he performed for a bit, but then had to run off to teach Natsuki's class a American jump rope rhyme, so I taught them "Teddy bear, Teddy bear." Rebekah helped model the actions for me. Lunch was very different. They eat in the classroom, but have hot lunch brought to them, then the children take turns serving each other. It was so cute to see everyone using chopsticks. After lunch all the children brush their teeth, an idea we should use in America. Every Friday afternoon, the students clean. It is the students who take care of the school. hey clean their classroom, the halls, and also the school grounds. The kids all wear the cutest matching yellow hats so the teachers can easily see their students. I had such an interesting experience and the teacher invited me to come back when they have a more normal day! If you want to see more pictures click the following link: http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/gallery/3969728#230680972.

November

I can't believe November is already almost over...and this is my first post... Well once again I have been busy. So here's an update on what I've been doing. At the end of October, I had Halloween parties for my English classes. November 3, the LECC (Lutheran Evangelical Christian Church) celebrated 50 years of being in Japan. I was quite busy cleaning and helping get everything ready for the event because there was a special service at my church in Tsuchiura. I also had many guest staying with me for the event. The Valleskys and Gurgles stayed with me the Friday night before, and then the Valleskys spent about the next week at my house. Rachel Foelske and her friend Chieko spent that Saturday night at my house. It was nice to have so many people around. November 9 was my birthday. I had lots of fun celebrating my birthday with the Stahmanns and the Kondos, and even got my birthday apple pie and flowers. Tuesday, November 13, I went on another field trip with the girls to the Ibaraki Nature Museum. It was so much nicer for me this time because the Kondos also went. So I had lots of help watching the girls. Here's a link to see pictures from the field trip: http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/gallery/3888676#225427550ugmug.com/gallery/3888676#225427550. The girls had so much fun! The next weekend I went into Tokyo and spent Sunday night at the Wordells' house. Monday, Rachel and I went Christmas shopping. It was great, I got almost all my gifts bought. I had to rush back to Tsuchiura that evening though to meet Michelle (Piske) and Derek Most who came to visit me for Thanksgiving. They stayed until Thanksgiving day and we had our Thanksgiving meal Wednesday night. I had the Missionary Thanksgiving meal the Saturday after Thanksgiving at the Wordells' house. It was good to get together with the Stahmanns, Wordells and Habbens. The food was excellent. We even had turkey! (Japanese people don't eat turkey...I don't know why.) I spent the rest of my Thanksgiving break setting up my classroom for Christmas and putting together the Christmas service. I have a feeling December is going to fly by. I have put up some other photos from things I talked about earlier in my blog, so feel free to look through the different albums: http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/Family/351064.

So Much To Do, So Little Time

I'll admit I have been terrible at keeping up my blogs lately. In my defense, I have been very, very busy. I'm sure you've be wondering what I've been up to, so I'll start by listing all the things that I've been doing recently, starting with the last weekend in September. I'll try to give more details and pictures in later entries.

Saturday, September 29, I had the privilege to see my new friend Mika be baptized at the Tokyo church. I also attended a young adult movie party and potluck before the evening service. Sunday, I took the train to Mito and attended the Sunday morning service there as well as the potluck afterward held in my honor. Monday I spent preparing for the coming school week. Tuesday through Saturday, I taught school as well as English class on Wednesday and Friday evening. I also have dinner at the Stahmann's house on Tuesdays and spend most of the evening there cooking, eating, and cleaning. On Thursday, I started Japanese classes. They are great; however, after two hours of class, my head hurts.

Saturday, October 6, was the Tsuchiura Fireworks Competition which was amazing. Sunday, I went to church in Tsuchiura and then went to a gyoza (Japanese dumplings) party, in which I learned how to make homemade gyoza. They were very good, but take forever to make. Monday, I went up to Mito for a barbecue (very different than in America). Sometime during the weekend, I got my planning in for next week. Tuesday through Friday were the same as the week before.

Saturday, October 12, I taught school in the morning then went up to Mito to teach English for the first time. I had three classes: preschool, elementary school, and jr high school. I think Saturdays will be my most tiring day of the week. Then Sunday, I went with the Stahmanns to the Chiba church and then to Costco. I love Costco, but the trip does take all afternoon and most of the evening. Finally, Monday I had nothing scheduled, except a bit of time to finish planning coming week of school. So I slept in, went to the grocery store, cleaned the house, and talked on the phone all day. Then my week started again.

Today was a bit different though. I had the worst night battling a bug (I didn't get much sleep.), then went into Tokyo for the CAJ (Christian Academy of Japan) thrift shop sale and the SSS (an association for private schools in Japan) spelling bee for Rebekah. After that was over, I had to rush back to Tsuchiura for my adult English class. Thankfully, I made it ten minutes before class started. Now that I've finished writing this, I'm going to bed (even though it's only 7:30).

Asian Giant Hornets

About a week ago, I found out my house was infested with some really big wasp looking-like bugs. When I say really big, I mean HUGE! They were flying around outside my house, and Pastor Stahmann noticed that they seemed to be going into the door to the balcony. So he did some testing and we could hear them in the walls upstairs and the ceiling of my laundry room downstairs. These hornets are very dangerous and serious. They can kill people. So we called an exterminator to get rid of them.

I left the house when the exterminator arrived because I didn't want to be around the bugs when they got angry. Pastor Stahmann thankfully oversaw the whole thing. The exterminators at first couldn't figure out where the nest was to remove it. Finally they figured it was in the ceiling of my laundry room and to get it out they would have to punch a hole in the ceiling. So they did and they found not one, not two, but three different nests. Apparently I had been housing thousands of wasps. The nests filled up three whole plastic sacks. The exterminators had never seen such an infestation. Thankfully all the hornets should be gone now, and I never got stung! Here is a link if you would like to read more information on the hornets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet.

Beginning My Adult ESL Class

On Friday, I had my first adult ESL class. ESL stands for English as a Second Language. I was very nervous because it is one thing teaching children, but a completely different thing teaching adults. All of my students are older than me, ranging from early thirties to sixties. So I wasn't sure exactly how things would go. Everything however went very well. I have 6-7 students in my class, and 4 showed up that day. I started the class by introducing myself and then talking about what I liked to do and had done over the summer break. Then each one of my students did the same. Sometimes it was difficult to understand them, but most of the time I at least got the overall gist of the conversation. By the time, we had finished chatting and telling about ourselves the hour was up and class was finished, and I didn't even start the lesson I was going to teach, accepting and declining invitations. It would have been interesting. In Japan when you are declining an invitation, you don't give a reason for the decline. You can just say "I'm busy" or "I have other plans." It's also rude for the other person to ask why you declined. Whereas in the United Stated, it is the opposite. People expect to be told the reason and it is rude not to give one when declining an invitation. Anyway, I was looking forward to hearing my classes thoughts on this topic. Oh well, I'll just have to wait for next week.

Kareoke

A couple weeks ago, I got to experience Japanese kareoke. I went with Pastor Stahmann and his family and my friend Rachel. We had so much fun. You get a little room with a table and everyone sits down around it. There is a screen on one side of the table and a couple microphones that can be passed around. You then type in which song you want to sing, and the words are shown on the screen. We ordered food and got drinks while we were singing. I really enjoyed the experience. The girls love having their pictures taken! Here are the pictures: http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/gallery/3335050#185729509.

The First Week of School

Wow. I made it through my first week of teaching alive. Not only alive, but extremely excited! Everything went so well. Rachel, my preschooler, even cried at the end of the first day because she didn't want to go home. The rest of the days went just as well. I made sure I was prepared for each day, and my work definitely paid off. The girl seem to really be enjoying school as well as learning. Just this first week, Hannah, my kindergartner, has become an excellent sorter; Rachel has painted some beautiful pictures of flowers with her watercolors and become a magnificent counter (she can make it to past 60); and Rebekah, my 2nd grader, is a spectacular estimator and has figured out how to play the computer game Treasure Mountain.

I have learned many things this week as well. I have gotten to know my students more. Rachel loves to sing. Hannah is very sweet, but needs to be encouraged to speak up, especially when her sisters are ready to talk for her. Rebekah likes to be up and moving. She makes it all over the classroom while sitting in her desk. Don't ask me how she does it. I am also learning how to balance my time with the younger girls, who still need lots of personal attention, while still being able to teach lessons to Rebekah. I have also realized sometimes it's just better to go with the flow. The girls had been begging since the first day of school to paint, so today for art I changed my plans and we painted. Hopefully that gets it out of their systems. I have also learned to be thankful for small blessings. The computer ON switch broke Thursday. This was spectacular. No more children asking me every 5 minutes if they will get computer time today. Well I'm sure I could write pages more about this week, but I am exhausted; so I'll stop here. I love teaching and my students, and I am so thankful for everything God has done to get me here.

Day Before School Starts

I can't believe it is finally the day before I start teaching school. I am very excited! I finally have everything finished and set up. The classroom looks great (at least I think so)! Anyway, here's the link if you want to look at the pictures I took of my classroom: http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/gallery/3373400#188331682. Enjoy!

Trains and Subways

So, I haven't bogged in a while, but I have a good excuse. I've been doing a lot as well as working a ton because school starts in less than a week. AHHHH!!! At least that's how I feel inside. So anyway, sorry this entry might be a bit short. I have decided after using the Japanese trains and subways, I can travel anywhere. Bring on New York City or Washington DC. At least those places have English to tell you where to or when a train leaves. The good thing is that all the different lines are color coded, so it's easy to at least be going in the right direction. Actually it could be a lot worse. When you ride the trains you buy your ticket right at the station. It's very easy. You just go up to the machine, throw some change in (literally, it counts it for you) and press how much the ticket is. In Japan, you don't pay for a ticket to a place; instead, you pay for an amount. Hopefully you know the amount ahead of time, but if not you can always just pay the cheapest amount and fix it when you get where you want to go. If your wrong, the doors won't let you out of the station and you look like a dumb tourist...it happens (really). If you're on the train during rush hours, then there is no room to sit and barely enough room to stand. I've seen girls stand for hours in heels on the train, even sleeping...I don't know how they do it. If your not in rush hour then the trains are never too full, because there are a lot of them. Trains come normally ever half hour, while subways sometimes every five minutes. Just make sure you're not sitting in a reserved area. The best part is when you're totally lost or confused, just show it on your face and a nice person will gladly help you...at least this has worked or me. So I have survived the trains and subways of Japan. For some pictures just click on the link: http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/gallery/3340562#186119879.

My Installation

Yesterday I was finally officially installed as the teacher at Nozomi Lutheran School. Yeah, I'm now Amanda-sensei! It was very simple, but nice. I went up to the front of church and the pastor read the parts to me in English and the parts to the congregation in Japanese. After the service, we had cake and I got to talk with some of the members...mostly just saying good morning, ohio gonzi imas (not sure if that's spelled right). Most of the members speak a bit of English, but not very much and it hard to understand. Hopefully I'll get better at Japanese quickly.

Trip to Costco

Last week I went with Lynnette (Missionary Stahmann's wife) to Costco. Costco is about 2 hours away, so they only make the trip once every couple of months.

Going to Costco was like stepping back into America. Granted everyone was Japanese, but it all basically looks the same. It had American brands and most things were written in english too. I was able to get instant brownie mix, frozen waffles, and other things you can't easily find in a Japanese grocery store such as block cheese. I also bought lots of meat at Costco because it is incredibly expensive to buy meat at the grocery store. Good thing I have lots of freezer space.

Well here are a few differences I found interesting. Since there isn't alot of land, Costco has multiple levels. The food is on the bottom level and everything else is on the second floor. All the parking is on all the floors above it (floors 3-5 I think). Another difference is getting from one floor to another. So you can take your shopping cart with you, there are inclined escalators that your cart will hook into once you get on it. It is the neatest thing how they just lock in.

So I really enjoyed my trip and got lots of yummy things to eat!

Summer Bible Camp

Last weekend, I had the pleasure to go to Summer Bible Camp. This is a gathering of members and their families from all the churches in Japan, as well as most of the pastors and missionaries. The camp lasted three days, starting Friday afternoon and ending Sunday afternoon. This year the camp was held at a hotel, which with so many people coming, pretty much filled up the whole thing. There was about 80 total people in attendance.

On Friday, I arrived with the Stahmanns at about 12:30pm so Pastor Stahmann could set up. Everyone else would be arriving throughout the afternoon. Since we had time, Lynnette, the girls, and I explored the hotel and found our rooms. Rachel Foelske arrived around 3pm (she shared the hotel room with me) and I showed her around and then we had tea in our room. Next there was a brief opening for the camp and then dinner. For dinner, everyone went to the hotel restaurant and we had traditional Japanese food as our buffet. I loved that it was a buffet because I could have a bite of everything. It was all delicious!

After dinner we had bible study. At the camp the was a variety of bible classes one could attend each day. The main focus this year was evangelism. I went to the English study which had about 6-7 people in it. There was also a Japanese study, a basic bible study, a kid's class, and a young adult class. After bible study, everyone was pretty tired fro traveling and such. So Rachel and I both went to the Japanese baths and then to bed. We had fun talking though until late in the night.

Saturday started with a quick trip to the baths, and then breakfast. Breakfast was served at the table in traditional Japanese style. We had rice, with some stuff to put on the rice, salmon, strawberry yogurt (not as sweet as in America), Miso Soup, bread rolls, pickled radish, and a sweet egg dish. I tried everything and liked most everything.

After Breakfast, there was another bible study, a snack break, and then another bible study. After that was lunch. Lunch was made up of rice, a soup, a meat, a salad and noodles. All very good. After lunch there was free time. I had met some new friends and we went to play volleyball with Pastor Haga and some other people. I was lots of fun, but very hot! We all went to the baths after that. Both Rachel and I went to the choir practice in which we learned to sing in Japanese. We sang the song in three parts. Then there was dinner (a buffet) and another bible study. After bible study, all the Stahmann girls were dressed in their kimonos. They were so cute, especially Naomi. Then everyone went outside to play with fire works and sit around the bonfire. After singing some hymns and shooting off some fireworks, all the children got to wave around sparklers. Then Rachel and I went to bed.

The next morning, we woke up and showered before breakfast. Breakfast was similar to the day before. After breakfast we had our last bible study and then a quick choir practice. After the choir practice, we all gathered for the ending service. The choir sang first and then the service commenced. It was difficult for me because the whole service was in Japanese, but Pastor Stahmann gave me a sermon to read while he was preaching, which helped. After the service everyone packed up and had a quick lunch. I said goodbye to all my friends as they left and then went back to Tsuchiura with the Stahmanns.

If you want to look at pictures from the Bible camp, here's the link: http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/gallery/3228853#178385055.

Driving in Japan

Driving in Japan is very disorientating. Everything in backwards. You drive on the left, always park by backing into a parking spot, and ignore a police car with flashing lights. Even the turn signal and windshield wiper levers are on opposite sides.

The roads are very narrow...sometimes their two lanes are only as big as one lane in the US. This becomes a problem for me sometimes because I am driving a van bigger than a US sized minivan.

The way the signs are interpreted is also very interesting. All the speed signs are in kilometers and these are more like suggestions. Then there are signs that say no stopping on the side of the road, but if you leave your car for only 5 minutes or so, that's ok. It also doesn't help that I can't read the signs that tell you what city the road goes too, but hopefully I'll get better at that. There are no street signs, so when going places you have to remember landmarks such as turn right after the McDonalds. But I am getting better at figuring my way around Tsuchiura.

My House in Japan

It didn't take too long and now I have completely moved in to my new house. One of the missionary families used to lived here before they moved back to the US and now it is the teacherage. If you would like to see pictures you can see them at http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/gallery/3179377#175021567. Enjoy!

Getting to Japan

When I first found out I was going to Japan, I thought all I really needed was my passport and clothes and things from home...no big deal. Well I soon found out there were many steps to get to Japan. I must note though, Missionary Josh Stahmann and his wife Lynnette were very helpful in talking me through and sending me all the information I needed to get ready for Japan.

I did have a passport already so that made step one easy. Step two though was getting my visa. This was a bit more difficult. There are quite a few documents that you are required to send in to get your visa. Thankfully most of them were just sent to me and all I had to do was get some passport-size photos and create a resume. So when I got everything in the mail and put the packet together, I sent it all in to the Japanese consulate in Houston. Not too bad. Then I found out that they needed some more documents to verify the information. This would have been fine too, except one of the documents I needed was from one of the missionaries who was on furlow in Hawaii, not the easiest place to track someone down. But eventually I got everything I needed sent in and the consulate was very quick to send me my visa.

The next thing I had to get was an international drivers license. This was very easy to get. All I did was go down to an AAA office, give them my drivers license along with some passport-size photos, and they gave me the new license. Easy.

Next I had to get plane reservations. I first went to places like expedia or travelocity. These were no help at all. They had one way tickets costing the same as a roundtrip, anywhere from $1,300 to $1,800. Luckily the Stahmanns new of a Japanese travel agency that normally had very low prices. I called them and found a nonstop flight for a bit over $700 which is a great price.

The hardest part for me was figuring out how to put everything I wanted to bring into three suitcases all weighing no more than 50lbs (70lbs if I wanted to pay $25 per suitcase). Well I had one large suitcase and ended up buying two more huge suitcases. Then I had to decide what I needed to bring, what I wanted to bring, and what I was leaving behind. I then packed and squeezed, folded and smushed as much as I could into my suitcases, as well as weighing them every so often to make sure I hadn't gone over my weight limit (which ended up to be 70lbs each because there was no chance I'd be under 50lbs). I did get all my essentials packed and most of what I wanted to bring too.

When the day finally came for me to go to Japan, I was very ready and prepared. The flight was very smooth although also very long. I made it through immigration and customs fine. The whole Stahmann family was there to greet me when I got to the main lobby. I was finally in Japan.

Where it all started...

My dad told me the hardest part about writing a blog is starting. So I finally decided I should just take the plunge and start. I would assume that most people who are looking at this site already know that I was called to be teaching in Japan. However writing this blog, I figured it would be best to start it at the very beginning...May 17th, two days before graduation.

On the Thursday before graduation, everyone graduating as a teacher was required to attend an all day seminar basically introducing us to the real world. So my roommates and I grudgingly got up earlier than usual to attend this seminar. We get there, grab some juice and coffee, and all crowd around a table waiting to begin. The seminar started with a devotion and then we talked about transferring from being a student to a teacher. Shortly after this section finished and the next began, Dr. Melendy (my college supervisor) walks over to our table and taps me on the shoulder and asks me to get my things and come with her. Now I should note, apparently every MLC student knows that when you get tapped on the shoulder you are going be asked to serve in a foreign place. All my friends were thinking this. I had no clue. I was wondering what had I done wrong or forgotten to do before graduation. Well they took me as well as another student, Bethany, out into the hallway and VP Shone came up to us and told me I was being asked to serve in Japan and Bethany to serve on the Apache reservation in Arizona. I was shocked. I didn't even know Japan was on the call list. I didn't know what to think, but somehow I felt I would take the call. Dr. Melendy gathered us up and drove us back to campus so we could talk to the district presidents. The whole way she talked to us and assured us that whatever happened, God had a plan for us. I am so thankful she was there to calm me down.

We were brought into a room in the library and told to wait for the district president associated with our call to come meet with us. While we were waiting VP Shone talked to us and asked us what we thought. Well I still had no idea what to think, it was still just so unbelievable. Finally my district president arrived and was none other than Pastor Glaeske, the South Central District President. (I remember being very young and being scared to death after listening to a sermon from Pastor Glaeske. My mother also liked to remind him whenever she could that she would like me to be brought back to Texas.) He sat down with me and began to tell me about the call. When he finished he told me that he needed to know if I would accept the call ASAP. Then he left me to think.

The first thing I did was call my dad. He told me later that when he first heard me on the phone, he thought I had wrecked my car or something. But when I told him the news, he was very supportive and told me what a great opportunity this would be. Then I had to call my mom, and I was a bit more worried about how she would react. But she too was very supportive. So after much thought and prayer I decided to take the call, after all it was only a year or two. So I told Pastor Glaeske and took the call to Japan. Needless to say, Call Day was a breeze for me.