There's a bunch of the interns sitting here with me in the hall between the guys' and girls' apartments. I had been taking a nap/went to bed at around 7 p.m., but I was woken up by some raucous laughter, so I decided to get up. Maybe if I stay up a little later, I'll be able to stay asleep later- I woke up a little before 6 this morning, and then I couldn't go to sleep! I hope that the jet lag will stop in the next couple of days.
This morning, B, the missionary in charge of us, gave all of us the first part of our orientation. Another wave of interns came last night, so this time, we had to sit in rows in the guys' living room. I don't exactly know how many there are of us, but I'm guessing at least 24, because I know there are twelve girls. It was interesting having all of us in there with a couple of journeyman, two of B's kids, and a couple of other missionaries. Apparently these apartment buildings are owned by the organization, so a lot of missionaries live on the different floors.
I'm so excited; we got our Japanese-English New Testaments this morning. We also got our 'toolboxes,' packets that explain a lot of our questions about what we're really going to be doing. We went through Luke 10 with our new Bibles, and I know I learned a lot about why we are here. I partnered with Jeff, one of the missionaries, to practice going through our main tract, steps to peace. He gave me a lot of pointers that I hope I'll remember. He was a very good Japanese. ;)
Before going to our station, I went with my team for the day-Amy, Lindsey, Rebecca, James, and Randall- to a chain called Pepper Lunch in Shibuya where you cook your own food on a hot plate. I got the cheapest meal, bacon around a bed of rice and corn. Pretty good, although they weren't kidding about the pepper part. My mouth was still scorched for a while afterwards. By the way, at a lot of these restaurants(I can now say that now that I've gone to two haha), you order your food by pressing your order on a machine, kind of like a soda machine, and pay for it the same way you would at the machine. You then bring your card to where you order, and they bring your order that way. It definitely helps with ordering. We had to wait a couple of minutes to actually get in the restaurant, because it was a hole in the wall. Probably twenty seats tops around two bars. Good stuff.
We interns are going to focus on nine train stations in West Tokyo this summer; my team went to Tachikawa Station. Tachikawa City is where Rebecca and I will be staying the second half of the summer, so that's probably why we two were assigned it. It's a really long ride to Tachikawa City- I think it's about 40 miles west of central Tokyo. It was raining the whole day, so we faltered on what we wanted to do. Our two options for most of the afternoon: do 5 minute English or arcade ministry. First, we decided to prayer walk. Tachikawa is very sophisticated- there were a ton of crazy sculptures all over the place, like a whole set of realistic African chiefs. Too bad I forgot my camera memory card, but I'll be back.
The group wasn't feeling 5 minute English, so we decided to hit up an arcade to try to meet people. After searching on the opposite side of the station, on the north side, we found a Club Sega. We utterly failed in meeting anyone. I only said a couple of things to some people. It seemed to me like nobody else was really feeling it. I really wanted to do something else, something productive, but we never ended up doing anything useful. I did play Tekken 6 next to a guy(it was awesome, but Mokujin took me out). I couldn't resist the Taiko game, I must admit, so I played that as well. Taiko is a big Japanese drum. While standing around, I said like 2 sentences to a couple of girls going around the 'UFO Catchers,' which are crane machines. We also went across the street to another arcade, but that was a dead end, too. Japanese arcades are sooo loud! At the end of those hours we spent there, I was about to go crazy.
So I saw a lot more of Shibuya and the city in general, albeit in the rain. I was right across the street from 109 at one point, as a few of our group got Baskin Robbins in a pocket of a building.
And then I crashed back at the cave after catching a bite to eat. So that was my day.
This morning, B, the missionary in charge of us, gave all of us the first part of our orientation. Another wave of interns came last night, so this time, we had to sit in rows in the guys' living room. I don't exactly know how many there are of us, but I'm guessing at least 24, because I know there are twelve girls. It was interesting having all of us in there with a couple of journeyman, two of B's kids, and a couple of other missionaries. Apparently these apartment buildings are owned by the organization, so a lot of missionaries live on the different floors.
I'm so excited; we got our Japanese-English New Testaments this morning. We also got our 'toolboxes,' packets that explain a lot of our questions about what we're really going to be doing. We went through Luke 10 with our new Bibles, and I know I learned a lot about why we are here. I partnered with Jeff, one of the missionaries, to practice going through our main tract, steps to peace. He gave me a lot of pointers that I hope I'll remember. He was a very good Japanese. ;)
Before going to our station, I went with my team for the day-Amy, Lindsey, Rebecca, James, and Randall- to a chain called Pepper Lunch in Shibuya where you cook your own food on a hot plate. I got the cheapest meal, bacon around a bed of rice and corn. Pretty good, although they weren't kidding about the pepper part. My mouth was still scorched for a while afterwards. By the way, at a lot of these restaurants(I can now say that now that I've gone to two haha), you order your food by pressing your order on a machine, kind of like a soda machine, and pay for it the same way you would at the machine. You then bring your card to where you order, and they bring your order that way. It definitely helps with ordering. We had to wait a couple of minutes to actually get in the restaurant, because it was a hole in the wall. Probably twenty seats tops around two bars. Good stuff.
We interns are going to focus on nine train stations in West Tokyo this summer; my team went to Tachikawa Station. Tachikawa City is where Rebecca and I will be staying the second half of the summer, so that's probably why we two were assigned it. It's a really long ride to Tachikawa City- I think it's about 40 miles west of central Tokyo. It was raining the whole day, so we faltered on what we wanted to do. Our two options for most of the afternoon: do 5 minute English or arcade ministry. First, we decided to prayer walk. Tachikawa is very sophisticated- there were a ton of crazy sculptures all over the place, like a whole set of realistic African chiefs. Too bad I forgot my camera memory card, but I'll be back.
The group wasn't feeling 5 minute English, so we decided to hit up an arcade to try to meet people. After searching on the opposite side of the station, on the north side, we found a Club Sega. We utterly failed in meeting anyone. I only said a couple of things to some people. It seemed to me like nobody else was really feeling it. I really wanted to do something else, something productive, but we never ended up doing anything useful. I did play Tekken 6 next to a guy(it was awesome, but Mokujin took me out). I couldn't resist the Taiko game, I must admit, so I played that as well. Taiko is a big Japanese drum. While standing around, I said like 2 sentences to a couple of girls going around the 'UFO Catchers,' which are crane machines. We also went across the street to another arcade, but that was a dead end, too. Japanese arcades are sooo loud! At the end of those hours we spent there, I was about to go crazy.
So I saw a lot more of Shibuya and the city in general, albeit in the rain. I was right across the street from 109 at one point, as a few of our group got Baskin Robbins in a pocket of a building.
And then I crashed back at the cave after catching a bite to eat. So that was my day.
Keep at it Kelsey! I pray that you will use that God-given pereverance to bring at lest one person to Christ this summer.
ReplyDeleteLove, Marm
I meant "perseverance!"
ReplyDeleteI think that today God has already let me in part lead someone to Christ- praise God!
ReplyDelete