Trip to the Peninsula

 

So its been a bit since I wrote a blog so I am going to give you a bit of info about what I have been up to these last couple of days at the Center and in Kesennuma.

Feb. 4 – This was the first day that Pastor Nadaira was not in Kesennuma with me. I opened the center up at 10 AM and by 11:00AM I had already had five visitors. Needless to say my brain was drained after that. My Japanese still needs a bit of work but I was able to understand enough to know what they were asking. Any thing I had difficulty saying I choose to have "Google Translate" help me with. Since this is Google supported I am able to use it at the Center. (FYI the Center does not have its own Internet. I could plug my computer in downstairs to use the internet but that’s not very convenient. I also didn’t have a router to bring with me as the Jaspersens recommended. There is however a an open WIFI signal but I can only use certain sites such as any thing Google supported… This could change if I decided to become a member of what ever organization it is run by but…That’s not going to happen while I am here. Let me make it clear though. I am not stealing internet…it says I can use the Google supported sites for free and with out being a member.)

So besides the five visitors in the morning the rest of my day was pretty chill until about 3:00PM. I had a man by the name of Suzuki San stop in at the center. He explained that he was interested in ESL. We talked for a little while. He has explained that he had not used his English that he had learned in school for a very long time. When I asked him when he wanted to study he replied; “Every day!” I was completely fine with this so we agreed that starting Wednesday of next week we would begin ESL class. He also explained though that he was unable to pay very much for the class so he may not be able to do it every day. I told him I would give him a good discount and would do this class for free. He seemed very excited about this. Don’t worry though I told him later that no one has to pay for this and that the ESL classes are all free for every one. He still seemed pretty pumped about it though. I am excited to see what happens with this.

Later that evening I was scheduled to have English class with Mrs. Sato and her friend. Unfortunately her friend was unable to attend because of the bad weather so Mrs. Sato and I had a one on one session. Mrs. Sato explained to me that she wanted to do English class but she also wanted to do Bible class. It was Mrs. Sato who had the idea to have Bible class in English so that we could cover both objectives. We started with the story of Moses. Mrs. Sato explained that she has always been very interested by this story and this is why she wanted to start here. We went ahead and used the “Bible stories in Pictures” booklets that are here at the Center. The class went very well. We had a great discussion about Moses; in fact we went fifteen minutes over our time. Mrs. Sato and I agreed to figure out a time next week to continue with the bible lessons. God is awesome!

 

Feb. 5

Sunday was a rough day at first. The center was scheduled to be closed but I was not feeling so hot so I decided to sleep a bit. This obviously did not last very long though. I couldn’t stand to see my day off go to waste with me sleeping in my hotel. So I put on an excessive amount of layers and decided to take my first shot at driving in Japan… YIKES!!!! I wasn’t that good at driving in America… so I bet you can guess how this experience went down! Actually it wasn’t all that bad. I made one mistake… which I will not tell any of you. All you need to know is that I am fine and the van is fine. Although the van may be suffering from a mild case of PTSD.

Anyway I went and checked out the Peninsula out here. There were some really cool shots except I realized once I was out there that the battery on my camera was dead… no worries though I went back the next day for another hike and this time I have some awesome shots to show you.

 

Feb. 6

MONDAY, FUNDAY!!!

The Fliers from the Tokyo church arrived today!!! The fliers explain what the center’s hours will be for the rest of the month. I spent the morning distributing these to the Temporary housing units. A shout out to the Jaspersens for leaving me a map that had all the temporary housing locations on it… with out it I would have been lost. Also today the Van was re-traumatized, but don’t worry there is no cosmetic damage J.

After distributing the fliers I figured I would go for a bit of a hike back on the Peninsula. This time to the very tip of the Peninsula where there is a shrine and some excellent hiking trails (There is also a campsite so I wanted to go check that out to see if it would fit my winter camping needs J).

Here are some pics of the spot!!! It’s pretty awesome!

Gate to the Shrine

This box is where you would put your offering to the gods in. You would then ring the Bell to wake the god so that they could hear your prayer.

Looking out at the Pacific Ocean

There is a small pool of water there that seems to be fed by ocean water but there doesn't seem to be any obvious inlet or outlet. I promise to make my way down there and get some better shots of it for all of you!

This is what the rock formations looked like up close. It looks like a bunch of tortilla Shells stacked next to each other...

My awesome Keen shoes

Feb. 7

It was raining today in Kesennuma. Today the center is closed again to give me time to hand out the rest of the fliers. Success!!! Reminds me of the good ole days when we were forced as children to walk miles and miles in dangerous conditions to deliver fliers. Just Kidding Dad!!! It was good training!!! 

Any who, after handing out fliers I got to have my first attempt at shopping in a Japanese grocery store… things are a lot different when you don’t have a bilingual mother to get the groceries.

This marked the top of the mountain.

After that wonderful experience I figured I would try to get in a bit of a work out. The other day I had noticed there was a parking area just before entering a tunnel on one of the highways. I figured this might be a good spot to park and attempt a hike up one of the mountains. I was right!!! Here are some shots of the hike.

I was pleasantly surprised when I reached the top of the mountain. In fact it was one of the most gorgeous views I had ever seen. I plan to make that hike a few more times before the end of this trip. Hope you enjoy the shots. How cool is that sky right? It actually started to rain while I was up there so the trip was a bit freaky on the way down. Narrow muddy paths with an almost straight down drop…maybe next time I will do better planning. Then again it was a rush so probably not.

 

Feb. 8

The Center is open and I am over my Jet leg. Still working on the cold though. Mrs. Sato just brought me some medicine for that though so I am hoping it works some miracles. I will let you know how today goes once it is over. Our hours today are 10AM-12PM, 1PM-5PM and 7PM-8:30 PM.

Hey so I decided its time we get a few more followers of this blog! I know there are lots of you looking at it so why not just take that extra lil leap and become a follower. For every follower this blog gets I will bring back a lil souvenir. Now there will be some restrictions... I decide the souvenir (I will not let you down) and you need to meet up with me, in person, to get it... so that I can personally thank you for your support. Now if you are already from Japan well then I don't have a lot of good news for you but I would still love to meet up with you in person to thank you!