But as for me it is good to be near God" Ps. 73:10: Spring Break 2013

Spring Break

CAJ's spring break is now in session so I have about a week of rest (and catch up grading!) before school starts up again. The last couple weeks have been busy with finishing Japanese taxes, creating sub plans, being a chaperone for the 2-day 8th grade Kyoto Trip, meeting up with friends, reading, coaching track, and grading. Below are some pictures from the Kyoto Trip, my dinner with two UTSS students from last year, and the Thai restaurant that I went to with Caleb & family last night.

Kyoto Trip

The Kyoto Trip was a whirlwind tour and though I have been to Kyoto twice before it was definitely enjoyable in a different way having now finished college and being on the non-student side of the spectrum. I didn't get as many photos as I would've liked but I very much enjoyed my time there and the 9 guys I was supervising. Among the different places we visited were the deer park, Todaiji temple, Kasugataishiya, and eigamura.

The pagoda

"Enter through the narrow gate..."

Begging monk on street

Bambi's relative

Buying deer senbei

"We have deer senbei!"

Hungry deer

Taking photos with the deer

Todaiji Temple

"This will bring eternal happiness." v.s. the Living Water

Fortunes and good luck charms

The bus I would take just a few days later to get to Gifu....

My morning devotions before giving the 6AM wake-up call to the students

The wildlife made for difficult conversation at the restaurant

My AMAZING nihon teshoku!

Bowling!

The Golden Pavilion (kinkakuji)

Use that fine toilet!

The lady chaperones

Photo ops at eigamura

Our travel bus

Man returning from shrine

Our last stop of the trip

Buddhist monk with the Nike swoosh

Beggar/pilgrim in Kyoto

Beautiful mozaic table at coffee shop

My ¥600 黒砂糖とうふdessert. Soft tofu with brown sugar syrup drizzled on top and soy flour sprinkled over. Piping hot brown tea to wash it all down! Yum yum!

UTSS Student Reunion

I had the pleasure of meeting up with two of my former students from UTSS when I was doing ALT work last year. Both Shin-chan and Mona (nicknames) are now graduated from high school and will be going off to colleges in a week or two. Shin-chan wants to be a teacher and if I'm not mistaken I believe Mona wants to be a hair stylist.

Left to Right: Shin-chan and Mona

We met up at Honkawagoe which is the end of the Seibu-Shinjuku line and went to a all-you-can-eat shabu shabu restaurant. The food was great and it was good to be able to see each other after it having been a year. Both of them are not Christians so my prayer is that they will both accept Jesus as their Savior. We hope to keep in contact via email throughout the year and perhaps get together again sometime in the future.

Shabu Shabu Restaurant

Gifu Trip

On the first Sunday of Spring Break I woke up and listened to a Timothy Keller sermon with mom and dad in the morning. Dad had a wedding to do that day and I was needing to catch my bus down to Gifu so mom later went to ICCS on her own.

I traveled to Ikebukuro with Dad and then took the train to Shinjuku where I stopped at a Starbucks to do some grading. I caught my bus at 11AM and did grading on the bus all the way down to Nagoya. At Nagoya I stopped in at a McDonald's and bought a chocolate shake and 5-pack of McNuggets with ume sauce before meeting up with Caleb, Amy, and Enoch. We then went to a Thai restaurant in the area since there was a goodbye party for Bethany Travis and we were invited to join. Below are some of the pictures from the restaurant. Enoch had a great time.