Number 16

Dana is goading me to write this before we leave for Guam. It is a little after 7am and I am not a morning person, so we will see what happens.

Well, Operation Turkey was a success! The turkey came out good and if I didn’t know how it was cooked, I wouldn’t have known any difference. Several of the guys from Dana’s work came over including one who was traveling to Japan and got in around 8:45pm. He thought the McDonalds across the street from the hotel was going to be his Thanksgiving dinner, but Dana had left him a message to call when he got in and we brought him over to our apartment.

Sunday with Dana, we went to mass in Japanese. I really like the pastor and I enjoyed mass even though I couldn’t speak the language. Catherine was asked to help bring up the offering and the lady sitting next to us was helping us follow the music. I was pleased to notice that the music was written in hiragana rather than kanji.

Later in the day, we went to a park that has a slide that is rather like a bobsled. It was 877 meters long. (Someone else can do the conversion for his or her math lesson!) We sat on this little thing that had a hand brake that you could lift to accelerate and use to slow down. Dana and Catherine rode together, I rode with Charlene and Christina went on her own. It was so fun! I convinced Dana to go on it a second time. He videotaped both trips including his almost falling off. All of a sudden, you see Dana’s foot on the video!

After the park, we went to see the largest suspension bridge in Japan for pedestrians only. It had a great view. The thing that intrigues me is that I can see no logical reason for building the bridge in this location. I would think that you build a bridge so you can get to the other side, but when you get to the other side all there is to do is turn around and walk back. It seems this bridge was built for one purpose, to collect the 310-yen per person to cross! Oh well, it was a beautiful view.

I think we had a quiet week this week, although it went by rather quickly. Outside of our schoolwork, we spent some time doing some extra cleaning, although you wouldn’t know it now, and thinking about our upcoming trip.

We went to our Japanese lesson. I think we are doing pretty well. The big project for me in this area is to learn to read hiragana and katakana. These are basically the phonograms for Japanese. There are many signs that use more hiragana and katakana rather than kanji. My book for my lessons is written in hiragana and katakana so I have been trying to learn what the symbols mean. I’m not sure how much of the language and writing I will master in our time here but given enough time, it doesn’t seem impossible.

I was also given a penmanship lesson. Practice writing hiragana symbols. I guess I am being reminded of how the girls feel when I give them their lessons. I’m not doing to bad, but penmanship was never my forte even in America! At first, it was very difficult to do and there are still a few pen strokes that are uncomfortable, but when I relaxed, stopped trying to draw and allowed myself to write it was easier.

One cute little thing that happened this week was while we were at the park near Dana’s work. A little boy named Codomo who was three wanted to play with the girls. Most of the littler children here have been very shy and not too sure what to make of us. I have even seen them run in tears.

This little guy was not at all shy! He followed the girls around and was very talkative. His mother or grandmother whom he was with didn’t speak any English, but apparently someone at home does. He would ask us questions in Japanese, of course. When we would respond he would say “Okay, very good!” I can’t describe the way he said it in type, but it was so cute. I was laughing like I was being tickled.

Fortunately the questions of a three year old are within my comprehension of Japanese. The only misunderstanding came when he asked the girl’s ages. I used the word for ‘floor’ like in a department store rather than years. He kept repeating us and then asked the question again. I finally realized what I had done and was able to clear things up. He of course responded “Okay, very good!”

I guess that is it for now. We are off to Tokyo for the day before we leave to Guam. That is as soon as we can get the girls ready.
Blessings and prayers,
Marion