They say if you look upside down at this island, it looks like a bridge to heaven (hence our heads between our legs)
We also rode a rollercoaster...it was a blast
Sloppy Joes
3 months ago
Monday, May 25, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Email update from Jamie - Swine Flu Scare
We move to Tokyo saturday.. They are really worried about swine flu. So much that they cancelled school for the next week for public schools, cancelled church, and cancelled our trip for tomorrow... :( Oh well, i guess i have already been to the himeji castle... its actually kind of scary because my family and all the yokohama families want us to wear masks but every store in Japan is sold out. Scary huh? I have to go to school this summer, stinks but i have to.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Feeling better - May 16th
Saturday May 16th, 2009
I woke up this morning and was surprised that I had slept so well. I made a deal with sensei that I wouldn’t push it if I didn’t feel good but I felt fine. I went down and ate breakfast and told them that I felt fine and so Marcy and I
left at about the same time to go to Kyoto eki to meet with everyone. We got our rail passes for next week. They are cool looking. I had fun telling everyone my story and promised to tell sensei if I felt anything that was wrong. I did fine but was exhausted after climbing any stairs. It was really weird, I guess my body was just tired from last night. We all rode a train to Osaka and looked at Osaka castle. It was cool on the outside but I think almost everyone was disappointed by the inside because it was a modernized museum. I thought I had gone to this one when I came last, but it must have been the castle we are going to next Friday. We had to walk up the last three flights of stairs to the 8th floor a
nd I was so tired my legs were about to give out. I would randomly get a sharp pain in the same spot but for the most part it was fine. On the eighth floor we were able to look out over Osaka. It was an overcast day but it was beautiful! J
After leaving the castle we went and ate lunch. They had a lot of the head pictures (where you stick your head in) so we took a bunch. I had chicken curry which is one of my favorite things I have eaten here. I LOVE it. J I also had a mix of strawberry and vanilla ice cream cone and tried someone else’s Hokkaido milk cone. It was good. I went and stood by a bunch of school boys so I could get a picture. They were taking school pictures. One of them (the one that is closest to me on the top row) told me that the castle was his house in English. It was pretty funny. Haha
We then ran into this group of kids who were dressed very strangely and so we
got a bunch of pictures with them. Some other kids took some very funny ones of me, so I will have to get them later.
We went back to the church for their investigator’s BBQ which didn’t end up being a BBQ but was still fun. The like 14 missionaries set up a representation of Lehi’s Dream in the “gym” and chapel. They told us that we couldn’t do it because they didn’t have enough apples but then one Elder told me I could go. He was my “guide” and I had to listen to his voice because I was blind folded. It was really tempting to take the chocolate but I decided I should be good and that my guide might kick my butt if I did. It was funny though because I was tempted in English and Japanese. I made it all the way and held on to the
rod to get my chunk of apple. It was hilarious. I thanked my guide and then went and talked to this little girl named Clara whose English is AMAZING. She is five and goes to an English day care. It is so cute. I talked to her mom in half English half Japanese later—she says now that it is really hard to hear a lot of sounds that the English language has because their ears aren’t trained for it. It is really cool that the Japanese people all learn English. Well, cool for me anyway. I talked to a lot of the missionaries for my project that I will talk about later. There was one native Japanese sister and the rest were white. Well, there was one tongan and one Brazilian there too. That was cool. But yeah, I had a great time. We ate dinner with the members and investigators and we talked to this adorable Japanese boy who we all fell in love with because he was so shy and like a cute kid. He was so funny and I think we all danced with him at the dance.
We had a dance at 6:30 and it was really funny to see the elders standing there watching and listening to the music. I asked them if they were tempted to go in or wanted to. Some of the newer ones did but only really when they heard a song that they knew. Haha. It was quite amusing. I talked to one elder who
commented on me running in and out of the beginning of the dance. I guess it 
was just like home when I was flittering to different places during the dance. I talked to him for a while and he told me to get back in there and go dance with some Japanese guys. The dance was SO cool because they all do what they call the “jitterbug” or the “blues” during every dance. So fast or slow, they were always partner dancing. It was really neat and I danced a lot. It was so fun and I wish that they did this in America. I danced with both investigator boys that I knew about. One of them was supposed to be baptized today but he went home last weekend and his parents want him to wait until he is twenty. So his new baptism date is October 4th, his birthday. J The other one came to EiKaiwa (the English class) and they invited him to this so he came. He told Tuchiya that he was having a lot of fun so that was cool. Me and three other Japanese kids sang “My Heart Will Go On” at the dance so that was amusing. One of them was a boy and if you get the video I am going to send he is the nasal voice that is singing as high as all of us that is really loud. It was very amusing.
After the dance we went to McDonalds and I got a burger and orange juice and they got me fries. It was really good and I would even say that the fries are better here…We got home and I took a shower and then Yumiko, Okaasan and Otoosan helped me write my talk for tomorrow. Yes, I am giving a talk. AHHH. In Japanese. AHHH. Haha. We were up until midnight doing that and then I went to bed exhausted.
I woke up this morning and was surprised that I had slept so well. I made a deal with sensei that I wouldn’t push it if I didn’t feel good but I felt fine. I went down and ate breakfast and told them that I felt fine and so Marcy and I
left at about the same time to go to Kyoto eki to meet with everyone. We got our rail passes for next week. They are cool looking. I had fun telling everyone my story and promised to tell sensei if I felt anything that was wrong. I did fine but was exhausted after climbing any stairs. It was really weird, I guess my body was just tired from last night. We all rode a train to Osaka and looked at Osaka castle. It was cool on the outside but I think almost everyone was disappointed by the inside because it was a modernized museum. I thought I had gone to this one when I came last, but it must have been the castle we are going to next Friday. We had to walk up the last three flights of stairs to the 8th floor a
nd I was so tired my legs were about to give out. I would randomly get a sharp pain in the same spot but for the most part it was fine. On the eighth floor we were able to look out over Osaka. It was an overcast day but it was beautiful! JAfter leaving the castle we went and ate lunch. They had a lot of the head pictures (where you stick your head in) so we took a bunch. I had chicken curry which is one of my favorite things I have eaten here. I LOVE it. J I also had a mix of strawberry and vanilla ice cream cone and tried someone else’s Hokkaido milk cone. It was good. I went and stood by a bunch of school boys so I could get a picture. They were taking school pictures. One of them (the one that is closest to me on the top row) told me that the castle was his house in English. It was pretty funny. Haha
We then ran into this group of kids who were dressed very strangely and so we
got a bunch of pictures with them. Some other kids took some very funny ones of me, so I will have to get them later.
We went back to the church for their investigator’s BBQ which didn’t end up being a BBQ but was still fun. The like 14 missionaries set up a representation of Lehi’s Dream in the “gym” and chapel. They told us that we couldn’t do it because they didn’t have enough apples but then one Elder told me I could go. He was my “guide” and I had to listen to his voice because I was blind folded. It was really tempting to take the chocolate but I decided I should be good and that my guide might kick my butt if I did. It was funny though because I was tempted in English and Japanese. I made it all the way and held on to the
rod to get my chunk of apple. It was hilarious. I thanked my guide and then went and talked to this little girl named Clara whose English is AMAZING. She is five and goes to an English day care. It is so cute. I talked to her mom in half English half Japanese later—she says now that it is really hard to hear a lot of sounds that the English language has because their ears aren’t trained for it. It is really cool that the Japanese people all learn English. Well, cool for me anyway. I talked to a lot of the missionaries for my project that I will talk about later. There was one native Japanese sister and the rest were white. Well, there was one tongan and one Brazilian there too. That was cool. But yeah, I had a great time. We ate dinner with the members and investigators and we talked to this adorable Japanese boy who we all fell in love with because he was so shy and like a cute kid. He was so funny and I think we all danced with him at the dance.We had a dance at 6:30 and it was really funny to see the elders standing there watching and listening to the music. I asked them if they were tempted to go in or wanted to. Some of the newer ones did but only really when they heard a song that they knew. Haha. It was quite amusing. I talked to one elder who
commented on me running in and out of the beginning of the dance. I guess it 
was just like home when I was flittering to different places during the dance. I talked to him for a while and he told me to get back in there and go dance with some Japanese guys. The dance was SO cool because they all do what they call the “jitterbug” or the “blues” during every dance. So fast or slow, they were always partner dancing. It was really neat and I danced a lot. It was so fun and I wish that they did this in America. I danced with both investigator boys that I knew about. One of them was supposed to be baptized today but he went home last weekend and his parents want him to wait until he is twenty. So his new baptism date is October 4th, his birthday. J The other one came to EiKaiwa (the English class) and they invited him to this so he came. He told Tuchiya that he was having a lot of fun so that was cool. Me and three other Japanese kids sang “My Heart Will Go On” at the dance so that was amusing. One of them was a boy and if you get the video I am going to send he is the nasal voice that is singing as high as all of us that is really loud. It was very amusing.
After the dance we went to McDonalds and I got a burger and orange juice and they got me fries. It was really good and I would even say that the fries are better here…We got home and I took a shower and then Yumiko, Okaasan and Otoosan helped me write my talk for tomorrow. Yes, I am giving a talk. AHHH. In Japanese. AHHH. Haha. We were up until midnight doing that and then I went to bed exhausted. 
Drama on Friday May 15th
Today we had our midterms. I thought that mine went well so that was nice. I talked to my friend Cameron and my mother again this morning. It is so fun to talk to her. J I got dome with my midterm long before anyone else besides Hannah and so we talked and sat downstairs. We all ate lunch and then headed over to the river to watch the parade. While we waited Alyssa and I walked down to the post office and got some money out of the ATM for next week’s travel week. The post office one is one of the only ones that would take foreign cards.
We then watched the Aoi Matsuri Parade, that was pretty cool. J Japanese parades are dead silent though so that was weird. A century ago, a famous Japanese wom
an wrote that this parade was something not to miss. It has been going on for 1400 years so that is pretty incredible. It in English, is called the Holleyhock parade—apparently a long time ago, the emprorer or someone decided that the gods were mad at the people for not giving enough to them because there was a really bad famine. So he had all of his priests go around and give money at all the shrines and encourage the people to do the same. They did and the famine ended, so, they called this parade the hollyhock parade. It was really neat and colorful and we had fun seeing all the horses and oxen. The oxen looked really mean though, so I was glad the people were holding tight. It was really interesting to see a silent parade, can I say that again? American parades 
are always loud and have many things going on. This one was so quiet and peaceful. I laughed too because I got a lot of stares from people, being one of the only blondes around.
After the parade Alyssa, Marcy and I went to the Tori gates. It was beautiful. I was really glad that we went because it was really neat. And they had cool stores along the way as well. The Tori gates go on for 4km and were in the movie “Memoirs of a Geshia.” The little girl runs through them. It is said that if you can run through all 4km without stopping your wish will come true. Interesting eh? We did not make it that far because it was getting to be really late. For once though, I wasn’t dragging Marcy up stairs and climbs up the mountain, she was dragging me. I started to feel a sharp pain in my abdomen on the right side. It
was like a running cramp, one of the really bad ones so I wasn’t going very fast. Alyssa and I wanted to go back home because it was already six and we didn’t want to get home too late. We had to drag Marcy away from going higher. It was worth going even if we didn’t do all of it so that was cool. And it was one of the few places that had free admission so that was really neat. We went back to the densha and waited for the next one to come to take us to Kyoto Station. I was still hurting in my side and was exhausted so it was kind of weird. We got on the train and had to run from that one to the next one that would take us to our home stop. I almost couldn’t run because my side hurt so bad. It was excruciating. I kept rubbing my stomach.
We got on the densha and I had to crouch down because it relieved some of the pain. I asked Marcy to go grab any seats if they opened up and she found one for me. By then I was in large amounts of pain. I got to the point of excruciating pain and I looked up at Marcy and said, “I think I am going to pass out.” I was so dizzy and hot and fuzzy that I could barely say that. She came over and put her hand on my back while I put my head between my legs. The poor people sitting next to me were really wondering what was going on. I felt like I was going to throw up so I kept my sweatshirt in my hand. I was almost in tears it hurt so bad, I didn’t know if I would be able to get off the densha. I was feeling a little better so I was somehow able to get off the densha. When we got off I felt a little better. Marcy carried my bag at first while we got out (I felt bad because it weighed so much) and then I felt fine so I took it back. I felt a lot better but was still in pain, just not excruciation. We were mad because we didn’t have my family’s phone number on us so we couldn’t call for a ride so we walked back but it ended up being ok. We got home and had a fun time trying to explain. Marcy said my stomach hurt and shooed me to the bathroom so at first they probably thought I was constipated or about to throw up. We explained and my mom had me call Warnick sensei. We were all worried that it might be my appendix…Warnick sensei asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital, but I told him I didn’t have my insurance card so I couldn’t. I didn’t want to have to use dad’s insurance for it. I don’t think he would have been too happy. J So I just told him I was going to wait for a little bit and see if I got any better. I took Tylenol when I got home hoping that that would help. They gave me a cold pack for my forehead, which was hot, and put a blanket over me. They tested me for a fever (which was weird because you put it in your armpit) but I didn’t have one. Warnick sensei said that he would try to get a hold of BYU and get my insurance inform
ation. Poor guy, I felt awful that I was making him do this when I should have figured it out before I came out. Anyway, my father asked if I wanted a blessing.
My dad gave me a blessing and I only understood like three words, but it doesn’t really matter the language, I still felt that God loves me and most of my pain went away. I knew that everything would be okay. I cried, which probably surprised him because he probably thought that maybe I did understand it. I really didn’t understand anything though. After the blessing I slowly ate some soup and rolls and then took a shower and am going to bed a little earlier. I was feeling a little bit better and was able to sleep through the night. It was quite the day.
We then watched the Aoi Matsuri Parade, that was pretty cool. J Japanese parades are dead silent though so that was weird. A century ago, a famous Japanese wom
an wrote that this parade was something not to miss. It has been going on for 1400 years so that is pretty incredible. It in English, is called the Holleyhock parade—apparently a long time ago, the emprorer or someone decided that the gods were mad at the people for not giving enough to them because there was a really bad famine. So he had all of his priests go around and give money at all the shrines and encourage the people to do the same. They did and the famine ended, so, they called this parade the hollyhock parade. It was really neat and colorful and we had fun seeing all the horses and oxen. The oxen looked really mean though, so I was glad the people were holding tight. It was really interesting to see a silent parade, can I say that again? American parades 
are always loud and have many things going on. This one was so quiet and peaceful. I laughed too because I got a lot of stares from people, being one of the only blondes around.After the parade Alyssa, Marcy and I went to the Tori gates. It was beautiful. I was really glad that we went because it was really neat. And they had cool stores along the way as well. The Tori gates go on for 4km and were in the movie “Memoirs of a Geshia.” The little girl runs through them. It is said that if you can run through all 4km without stopping your wish will come true. Interesting eh? We did not make it that far because it was getting to be really late. For once though, I wasn’t dragging Marcy up stairs and climbs up the mountain, she was dragging me. I started to feel a sharp pain in my abdomen on the right side. It
was like a running cramp, one of the really bad ones so I wasn’t going very fast. Alyssa and I wanted to go back home because it was already six and we didn’t want to get home too late. We had to drag Marcy away from going higher. It was worth going even if we didn’t do all of it so that was cool. And it was one of the few places that had free admission so that was really neat. We went back to the densha and waited for the next one to come to take us to Kyoto Station. I was still hurting in my side and was exhausted so it was kind of weird. We got on the train and had to run from that one to the next one that would take us to our home stop. I almost couldn’t run because my side hurt so bad. It was excruciating. I kept rubbing my stomach.We got on the densha and I had to crouch down because it relieved some of the pain. I asked Marcy to go grab any seats if they opened up and she found one for me. By then I was in large amounts of pain. I got to the point of excruciating pain and I looked up at Marcy and said, “I think I am going to pass out.” I was so dizzy and hot and fuzzy that I could barely say that. She came over and put her hand on my back while I put my head between my legs. The poor people sitting next to me were really wondering what was going on. I felt like I was going to throw up so I kept my sweatshirt in my hand. I was almost in tears it hurt so bad, I didn’t know if I would be able to get off the densha. I was feeling a little better so I was somehow able to get off the densha. When we got off I felt a little better. Marcy carried my bag at first while we got out (I felt bad because it weighed so much) and then I felt fine so I took it back. I felt a lot better but was still in pain, just not excruciation. We were mad because we didn’t have my family’s phone number on us so we couldn’t call for a ride so we walked back but it ended up being ok. We got home and had a fun time trying to explain. Marcy said my stomach hurt and shooed me to the bathroom so at first they probably thought I was constipated or about to throw up. We explained and my mom had me call Warnick sensei. We were all worried that it might be my appendix…Warnick sensei asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital, but I told him I didn’t have my insurance card so I couldn’t. I didn’t want to have to use dad’s insurance for it. I don’t think he would have been too happy. J So I just told him I was going to wait for a little bit and see if I got any better. I took Tylenol when I got home hoping that that would help. They gave me a cold pack for my forehead, which was hot, and put a blanket over me. They tested me for a fever (which was weird because you put it in your armpit) but I didn’t have one. Warnick sensei said that he would try to get a hold of BYU and get my insurance inform
ation. Poor guy, I felt awful that I was making him do this when I should have figured it out before I came out. Anyway, my father asked if I wanted a blessing.My dad gave me a blessing and I only understood like three words, but it doesn’t really matter the language, I still felt that God loves me and most of my pain went away. I knew that everything would be okay. I cried, which probably surprised him because he probably thought that maybe I did understand it. I really didn’t understand anything though. After the blessing I slowly ate some soup and rolls and then took a shower and am going to bed a little earlier. I was feeling a little bit better and was able to sleep through the night. It was quite the day.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
May 7th
Thursday May 
7th, 2009 Went to school
Allergies were bad
Ate bread for lunch
Bus and train with Alyssa and Stacie
Yatsuhashi
Hyper
Walked back
Benkyoed (studied)
Music
Kumiko’s back—showed her stuff
Played my little games
Showered
Helped yumiko with her mission letter
Journal
7th, 2009 Went to schoolAllergies were bad
Ate bread for lunch
Bus and train with Alyssa and Stacie
Yatsuhashi
Hyper
Walked back
Benkyoed (studied)
Music
Kumiko’s back—showed her stuff
Played my little games
Showered
Helped yumiko with her mission letter
Journal
Monday, May 11, 2009
May 7th-10th
Didnt do too much but learned how to make some cool Japanese food called Yatsuhashi :) Then i helped my sister write her acceptance letter for her mission call. It was nice to be able to help her because she always helps me. :)
Friday May 8th, 2009 and Saturday May 9th, 2009
Today we woke up two minutes before breakfast and then ran downstairs to eat. Okaasan drove us to the densha and we got to school early. We both brought our computers to email, but mine only works some of the time so…I only got to email for like five minutes. Class was good, I was tired, but wasn’t as tired as yesterday—that’s for sure. I wasn’t as fuzzy today. After class Tsuchiya sensei and I went to a different store by school and there was better food there. It was his birthday so I got him a small treat. We bragged about it when we got back to school. After lunch we took three comparative tests. They are standardized, but one was the BYU bypass test so that was interesting. I had to wait for the last one for a long time because everyone was using it, so by the time I started that test some of the people had already left to go home. Oh well, after I finished I went downstairs and played Ping Pong with Tsuchiya sensei and Seth. Then Warnick Sensei came in and we played around the world ping pong so that was fun. I gave him some nasty shots so he probably will fail me, but oh well, just keeping the family pride alive. ;) After that Marcy and I left to go home. She was grumpy again so we didn’t sit by each other. Actually I wanted to sit but she didn’t so that’s why. I sat by a rebel Japanese boy with earrings and chains, it was quite amusing. He was very polite to me though, so that didn’t fit…We got on the densha and with one stop left to go realized that we had taken the wrong train, it didn’t stop at our home stop. SO, we got to the next station and had to wait for the train that would take us back to Umahori Station. That was quite amusing.
We got home and packed and studied and then ate dinner at 6, way earlier than any other night. We showered and then finished getting ready. I French braided Marcy and my hair and they were so impressed by it. It was amusing. They kept calling me skilled, but it was embarrassing. It’s just a braid. Haha. But Japanese people don’t braid their hair as much I guess.
Kumiko was coming because she is sick, and Okaasan and Obaasan stayed home as well, but Yumiko, Otoosan, Marcy and I were going. Okaasan packed us breakfast for tomorrow and some snacks for the ride and then we went and picked up one more girl (I cant remember her name) and then hopped on the bus to go to Tokyo. It was a good eight hours and we stopped every two hours. So we left at 8:30pm and stopped about every two hours until we got there at 5am. It was long, but Okaasan gave me a small blanket and one of those neck pillows so I could sleep. I slept okay, but got up to go to the bathroom at every stop. At five we got to the church right next to the temple and sat there for an hour and a half until we could do baptisms. We ate breakfast and sat there exhausted. But at 6:30 we went over to the temple and did baptisms. It is amazing to see what the Saints have to do here to get to the temple. Pretty amazing. I do take the temple for granted, having it five minutes away in Provo and 30 in Seattle. I am so blessed to not have it cost time and money to get there. These Saints truly are amazing. It is really hard to be Mormon in Japan, that’s for sure. There are so many sacrifices in a world where drinking Green tea is ceremonial and served everywhere and it is custom for men to go out to drink as a company after work. I know that my little explanation doesn’t really explain how it is here, but it’s a little taste. Everything here in Japan in done for the good of everyone, for unity. It is nothing like the United States. Anyway, sorry for the little tangent. We got dressed and did baptisms. This was a stake activity and so there were probably 20 girls and 4 boys. I went fourth and it was amazing to be confirmed and baptized in Japanese. The language was so beautiful and I enjoyed it immensely. After I was done I got ready and went and sat in the lobby of the Temple until my host sister was done. Then we went back over to the church for a while and sat there and snacked and were bored. Haha. I played with my electronic dictionary.
We decided that the church had to have photo shopped the picture of the temple. There is no way to get a good picture of the temple because it is in a tiny little place with power lines, and there is a forest across the street. The church is so sneaky J
After a while a bunch of us decided to go for a walk. All of the adults were doing their sessions and so we left and walked around Tokyo. We walked to this giant spide
r statue—it was funny. 
We took pictures there.
We then went to the channel five building and looked around there. They has some fun things in there. It was a beautiful day there and It was really fun to talk a lot in Japanese. We headed back and then walked down for some food. After looking at all of the restaurants, we decided just to go to a convenience store and get some stuff. And when I sat decided, I wasn’t really part of that because I didn’t know what they were really saying. Haha. I just got a sandwich and some water. After that we went to their small distribution center store. It was tiny! I got the Children’s Song Book and accompanying CDs in Japanese and scripture mastery cards in Japanese. It was fun. We went back to the Church and ate our food. It was good. I tried my phone to see if it would work in Tokyo, but once again I have full digital roam bars but cant text…Mom if you want to text you should call about it. J
At one we left the church in the bus and started the right hour drive
back to Kyoto. I was woken up after 30 minutes of a nap by someone poking me saying “Fujisama! Fujisama!” and telling me to look right. Just waking up I was confused when I only say green topped mountains thinking, “they lied! Mt. Fuji in all the pictures has snow on the top. It doesn’t! It all green.” Luckily, I woke up a little more and decided that I must have missed it. I was glad I was right because later I saw it and it was incredible! We stopped an hour and a half into the drive to look and Fuji-sama, or Mt. Fuji. He is GINORMOUS! It was majestic to see the large mountain. I was immediately reminded of how God loves his children so much—giving us beautiful things like that to see. Many of the students I came with are impressed with the greenness and beauty of Japan. Not me though, it is just like Seattle, beautiful and green. And smells really good with rain. Anyway, Mt. Fuji reminded me of beautiful Mount Rainier. Mt. Fuji is way taller and slopes more. It was incredible to see. J We stopped a half an hour later too because the view was much better. I got some pictures, but sometimes the top of the mountain blends in with the cloudy sky. 
After stopping the second time I slept for about 30 minutes again and then couldn’t sleep anymore. I decided to study and got Monday’s homework mostly done so that was nice. I also practiced some more phrases and listened to my ipod. We stopped a couple of times and I got a lot of food and then ate it on the bus. I jammed to my music and some of the Japanese kids knew Enrique Inglasis “Do you Know (the Ping Pong Song) so w passed my ipod around to listen to it. That was fun. I was starting to get a big headache though so
I was nervous about that. We stopped one more time and Otoosan bought us Ramen for dinner. At 
this stop there was a feet only Onsen a “ashyu” (ashi—meaning feet, yu—meaning hot water). It was wonderful to soak my feet in hot water for a while.
We got back on the bus and drove the two hours until the next stop. We stopped one more time at about 8:30 and then finally were arriving to drop people off. We were the last stop, since I think my Otoosan was in charge of it and I was exhausted and my head hurt really bad. But I was annoyed because Marcy was grumpy and being kind of rude. We got home and then Marcy went almost straight to bed. I took a shower so my hair would dry, its still in French braids, so I can take them out tomorrow. I went to bed and it felt nice to get a
good night’s sleep.
Friday May 8th, 2009 and Saturday May 9th, 2009
Today we woke up two minutes before breakfast and then ran downstairs to eat. Okaasan drove us to the densha and we got to school early. We both brought our computers to email, but mine only works some of the time so…I only got to email for like five minutes. Class was good, I was tired, but wasn’t as tired as yesterday—that’s for sure. I wasn’t as fuzzy today. After class Tsuchiya sensei and I went to a different store by school and there was better food there. It was his birthday so I got him a small treat. We bragged about it when we got back to school. After lunch we took three comparative tests. They are standardized, but one was the BYU bypass test so that was interesting. I had to wait for the last one for a long time because everyone was using it, so by the time I started that test some of the people had already left to go home. Oh well, after I finished I went downstairs and played Ping Pong with Tsuchiya sensei and Seth. Then Warnick Sensei came in and we played around the world ping pong so that was fun. I gave him some nasty shots so he probably will fail me, but oh well, just keeping the family pride alive. ;) After that Marcy and I left to go home. She was grumpy again so we didn’t sit by each other. Actually I wanted to sit but she didn’t so that’s why. I sat by a rebel Japanese boy with earrings and chains, it was quite amusing. He was very polite to me though, so that didn’t fit…We got on the densha and with one stop left to go realized that we had taken the wrong train, it didn’t stop at our home stop. SO, we got to the next station and had to wait for the train that would take us back to Umahori Station. That was quite amusing.
We got home and packed and studied and then ate dinner at 6, way earlier than any other night. We showered and then finished getting ready. I French braided Marcy and my hair and they were so impressed by it. It was amusing. They kept calling me skilled, but it was embarrassing. It’s just a braid. Haha. But Japanese people don’t braid their hair as much I guess.
Kumiko was coming because she is sick, and Okaasan and Obaasan stayed home as well, but Yumiko, Otoosan, Marcy and I were going. Okaasan packed us breakfast for tomorrow and some snacks for the ride and then we went and picked up one more girl (I cant remember her name) and then hopped on the bus to go to Tokyo. It was a good eight hours and we stopped every two hours. So we left at 8:30pm and stopped about every two hours until we got there at 5am. It was long, but Okaasan gave me a small blanket and one of those neck pillows so I could sleep. I slept okay, but got up to go to the bathroom at every stop. At five we got to the church right next to the temple and sat there for an hour and a half until we could do baptisms. We ate breakfast and sat there exhausted. But at 6:30 we went over to the temple and did baptisms. It is amazing to see what the Saints have to do here to get to the temple. Pretty amazing. I do take the temple for granted, having it five minutes away in Provo and 30 in Seattle. I am so blessed to not have it cost time and money to get there. These Saints truly are amazing. It is really hard to be Mormon in Japan, that’s for sure. There are so many sacrifices in a world where drinking Green tea is ceremonial and served everywhere and it is custom for men to go out to drink as a company after work. I know that my little explanation doesn’t really explain how it is here, but it’s a little taste. Everything here in Japan in done for the good of everyone, for unity. It is nothing like the United States. Anyway, sorry for the little tangent. We got dressed and did baptisms. This was a stake activity and so there were probably 20 girls and 4 boys. I went fourth and it was amazing to be confirmed and baptized in Japanese. The language was so beautiful and I enjoyed it immensely. After I was done I got ready and went and sat in the lobby of the Temple until my host sister was done. Then we went back over to the church for a while and sat there and snacked and were bored. Haha. I played with my electronic dictionary.
We decided that the church had to have photo shopped the picture of the temple. There is no way to get a good picture of the temple because it is in a tiny little place with power lines, and there is a forest across the street. The church is so sneaky J
After a while a bunch of us decided to go for a walk. All of the adults were doing their sessions and so we left and walked around Tokyo. We walked to this giant spide
r statue—it was funny. 
We took pictures there.We then went to the channel five building and looked around there. They has some fun things in there. It was a beautiful day there and It was really fun to talk a lot in Japanese. We headed back and then walked down for some food. After looking at all of the restaurants, we decided just to go to a convenience store and get some stuff. And when I sat decided, I wasn’t really part of that because I didn’t know what they were really saying. Haha. I just got a sandwich and some water. After that we went to their small distribution center store. It was tiny! I got the Children’s Song Book and accompanying CDs in Japanese and scripture mastery cards in Japanese. It was fun. We went back to the Church and ate our food. It was good. I tried my phone to see if it would work in Tokyo, but once again I have full digital roam bars but cant text…Mom if you want to text you should call about it. J
At one we left the church in the bus and started the right hour drive
back to Kyoto. I was woken up after 30 minutes of a nap by someone poking me saying “Fujisama! Fujisama!” and telling me to look right. Just waking up I was confused when I only say green topped mountains thinking, “they lied! Mt. Fuji in all the pictures has snow on the top. It doesn’t! It all green.” Luckily, I woke up a little more and decided that I must have missed it. I was glad I was right because later I saw it and it was incredible! We stopped an hour and a half into the drive to look and Fuji-sama, or Mt. Fuji. He is GINORMOUS! It was majestic to see the large mountain. I was immediately reminded of how God loves his children so much—giving us beautiful things like that to see. Many of the students I came with are impressed with the greenness and beauty of Japan. Not me though, it is just like Seattle, beautiful and green. And smells really good with rain. Anyway, Mt. Fuji reminded me of beautiful Mount Rainier. Mt. Fuji is way taller and slopes more. It was incredible to see. J We stopped a half an hour later too because the view was much better. I got some pictures, but sometimes the top of the mountain blends in with the cloudy sky. 
After stopping the second time I slept for about 30 minutes again and then couldn’t sleep anymore. I decided to study and got Monday’s homework mostly done so that was nice. I also practiced some more phrases and listened to my ipod. We stopped a couple of times and I got a lot of food and then ate it on the bus. I jammed to my music and some of the Japanese kids knew Enrique Inglasis “Do you Know (the Ping Pong Song) so w passed my ipod around to listen to it. That was fun. I was starting to get a big headache though so
I was nervous about that. We stopped one more time and Otoosan bought us Ramen for dinner. At 
this stop there was a feet only Onsen a “ashyu” (ashi—meaning feet, yu—meaning hot water). It was wonderful to soak my feet in hot water for a while.We got back on the bus and drove the two hours until the next stop. We stopped one more time at about 8:30 and then finally were arriving to drop people off. We were the last stop, since I think my Otoosan was in charge of it and I was exhausted and my head hurt really bad. But I was annoyed because Marcy was grumpy and being kind of rude. We got home and then Marcy went almost straight to bed. I took a shower so my hair would dry, its still in French braids, so I can take them out tomorrow. I went to bed and it felt nice to get a
good night’s sleep.Busy in Japan May 6th
Me and Kyoto and the mountains.
Today I woke up 15 minutes after my alarm and read my scriptures. Marcy got up and was annoyed that she didn’t set her alarm because she wanted a lot of time to study and get ready in the morning. Oh well, she was fine after a grumpy second. J WE went down and ate breakfast and I realized my second big mess-up of the trip. I mistakenly ate too much the first week being here for breakfast—so this morning, when I couldn’t eat as much, Okaasan thought I wasn’t feeling well. But I had eaten two pieces of toast, a small bowl of cereal, a banana, a small yogurt, some little mochi balls and kiwi. She thinks my stomach is a lot bigger I guess. She made sandwiches for both of us too and I just didn’t want to make myself sick by eating it. She drove us to the station because she didn’t have work today and we traveled to the second stop away from our place—saga-arashiyama. There we walked for a bit to arashiyama station where we were going to meet the others. We were really early, and so we shopped around a little bit. I almost bought Jonathan a little Yukata, but couldn’t make myself take out the money so I didn’t buy it. I wasn’t really in the mood. Oh well, next time.
The others came and then we walked over a famous old bridge to the other side. The monkey park was on the other side, but we practically had to climb up the mountain to get to where the monkeys were. Poor Marcy was very unhappy about that but honestly, I think all the walking and climbing are good for us. Haha. Anyway, we got to the top and there were monkeys EVERYWHERE. They would let you get really close to them too. It was amazing. We were told not to make eye contact with them as they would feel threatened by that and that theory was proven several times when we got hisses and scowls from the monkeys. We got there for feeding time. They played the can-can song while the monkeys flocked to get the food. They people who worked there offered to take a picture and they would feed a monkey right in front of us and then it would sit there for the picture. It was awesome. The landscape was beautiful and since we were on the top of one of the mountain peaks, we could see the entire city of Kyoto. It was beautiful. The monkeys would sit on everything and anything and I got some very amusing pictures. I videod part of the feeding time and it is sooo funny. J I just watched it. Anyway, we could go in this resting room and feed the monkeys if we wanted too. Marcy and I split and bought apples to feed to them. They were feisty and you could feed them right from your hand, it was awesome. J
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