I have some new-news-going-old that I think I already mentioned, but just in case I did not I will bring it up again:
I have shrunk.
I have shrunk on my mission. Now, this is WONDERFUL news for me. I'm not slim yet by any means, but I have reduced in size just enough that my clothing is rather loose, and my shoes are now like little boats that would probably save me in the next Big Flood.
The shrinking is great news. The need for new clothing as a direct result of the shrinking is not good news. Why? Because Japanese clothes don't fit me, of course!
...
...Except now they kinda do. I now officially can wear the Large size clothing in Japan. Crazy, huh? I am now officially considered large by Japanese standards.
So I can buy clothes. Expensive crazy awesome amazing clothes.
Shyeah, except I won't be using them for that long and I dunno how many I would still wear after my mission.* I think I will stick with just keeping my eyes out for a new pair of shoes. I saw some shoes I really liked the other day and considered picking them up when I casually looked at the price tag. Yeah, $200 shoes is a little high.
All is well here. Kofu smells wonderfully like Fall and I persuaded the ward to have a Halloween party. Missionaries can't dress up but we are in charge of the games. Werewolf, anyone?
---
*Yes, many many thanks to my dear friends who have all kindly pointed out to me that I have 3 months left. I am also looking forward to seeing you again, but rather than saying I only have three months left, may I remind you that I still have three months left? It's such a little word and yet it makes a very big difference. I will happily make plans to visit and spend time with all of you -- IN three months.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
I have now hiked TWO mountains
We went with the ward and a few investigators back up the mountain trail. It was a lot of fun. I took a few pictures that it looks like I may actually be able to show you all next transfer. I am discovering that I actually enjoy hiking. The Y Trail just isn't a very fun hike.
Not much new to report in Kofu. I am trying to write letters back to people, but it is taking time -- sorry. I really do appreciate hearing from you. Every time I get a letter from one of you it makes my day. Thank you.
Not much news this week. Next week I am not sure if I will be able to e-mail; we have a pretty busy p-day. Next Sunday is transfers, by the way, so we'll see what happens.
Talk to you all again later!
Not much new to report in Kofu. I am trying to write letters back to people, but it is taking time -- sorry. I really do appreciate hearing from you. Every time I get a letter from one of you it makes my day. Thank you.
Not much news this week. Next week I am not sure if I will be able to e-mail; we have a pretty busy p-day. Next Sunday is transfers, by the way, so we'll see what happens.
Talk to you all again later!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
I cannot wait to be able to upload pictures again
I am still looking forward to getting personal computers, if for no other reason than I will be able to upload some of the cool pictures I have been taking lately. As it is, I am afraid you simply get a wall of text yet again.
Today before we came to the library we stopped by a store really quickly to buy new pens. As we were going into the store, I noticed an older woman heading for the door to leave. Without thinking about it too much I held the door open for her so that she could pass through. She stopped and waited for me, so I motioned her through. Her face lit up in surprise and delight and she bowed several times, thanking me, as she walked through the door. She then waved before turning the corner to the street.
I am not going to turn that into a sermon or a comparison of cultures, it was just something that made me think "huh" and remember, yet again, that I am not in Kansas anymore.
Things are going rather well this week. I managed to keep my bike tires free of flats, taught a lesson, met someone who might be interested in having us come back around, and climbed a mountain.
Which of those would you like to hear about first?
The bike tire being free of flats makes me incredibly happy, considering I have had 3 flats in the past week or so. I'm just glad I know how to fix a flat tire, or else I would REALLY have been in trouble. I am also careful to avoid riding in the areas where I am pretty sure I got flats last time. This makes for some interesting twists and turns and dancing with traffic, but it's quite fun.
You know what else is fun? Missionary work! Especially when you actually find people, but I've gotten to the point that just talking to people is fun, too. My companion disagrees (and I would have, too, when I was only 6 months old) so I am trying to make it more fun for her by introducing a weird game. The game has no name, but I shall call it the "Kekko" game. Kekko means "No thank you" in Japanese and it's the simplest way to turn someone down. We hear it a lot as missionaries. The game goes something like each companion chooses three different kekkos, and then if someone says one of them you get a point. So my kekkos were "I'm buddhist," "I'm too busy," and plain ol' "kekko," and my companion chose "I am part of another religion," "I don't like Christianity," and "I am hurrying home to my kids." These are all pretty common excuses given as people run the other way, but it's kinda fun to try and get bingo or something similar.
Of course we also focus on having really good conversations, but this is just something to try to make it more fun.
The lesson we taught was to an older person that wasn't really too keen on hearing from missionaries but agreed to listen once out of obligation to a friend. The lesson went decently well, but it wasn't brilliant (which is a shame). Still, it was infinitely better than having no lessons.
The person who may not mind having us come around was someone we met knocking on doors. She was nice and said it might be okay if we came back sometime when she was free, but she wasn't particularly fascinated. We will do our best to have the Spirit teach her better than we ever could.
The mountain was Mount Takao, one of Japan's "Top 100 Mountains" and therefore a neat touristy area. Our whole zone got together to climb it together. It was kinda interesting. Lots of gentle hills with very pretty forests. I had a bizarre experience, though. I had kinda thought we were hiking to the base of the mountain and then a little over an hour later, we were on top of the summit.
Huh.
It was pretty weird to climb a mountain when I didn't realize I was climbing a mountain, but it was fun. Not the easiest hike in the world (there was one point of endless tall stairs that I would not like to climb again in a hurry) but it was vastly different from the Y Trail, which I am gradually coming to realize is actually a pretty rough climb.
After we reached the summit one of the Elders who had climbed Takao before invited us all to get some incredibly famous ice cream. Intrigued by this fascinating prospect we took a different route home. The route home was full of GORGEOUS temples and amazing artifacts, with souvenirs available for purchase at every corner (I actually did pick up some postcards after remembering I collect those). The funniest part was when the Elders stopped and pointed out Lehi's dream was sculpted on one of the temple walls. What do you know, a guy underneath a tree eating a pale fruit as water and hideous dragons rage all around him. You could argue that one of the wooden support beams was the iron rod, but that might be taking it a bit far, seeing as the actual story was something completely different. I took a picture regardless. After the temples we came across a food shack which was indeed selling milk gelato, the famous ice cream in question. It cost $3.50. Yow, thought I, that's some famous ice cream. Still, I figured I wasn't going to be back this way again so I took the bait and bought the ice cream.
It was a $3.50 milk flavored ice cream cone. Whoopee, Elder. As the cone was passed into my hands I stared at him in betrayed disbelief, at which point he pointed out why the ice cream was so great. He took his own cone (4 in all bought this stuff), and marched over to the condiments. He then picked up a salt-pepper shaker, shook it all over his cone, strode to a nearby bench, sat down and ate it.
Intrigued I investigated the condiments myself. What do you know, there's a picture above the table of kids doing exactly what he just did to their ice cream. And what I had thought was salt and pepper was actually white and black sesame seeds. Huh. I sprinkled some on and tasted it.
It tasted like milk ice cream with sesame seeds in it.
Not altogether a bad flavor, but I no longer trust that Elder's tongue and sense of value. Still, perhaps if I were more adventurous I would have tried sprinkling fish flakes, dried tofu, or seaweed, all of which were also available. In the end I just swallowed my loss along with a pretty tasty ice cream cone. You might want to give ice cream and sesame seeds a shot, but I wouldn't say it's worth $3.50 for a cup of ice cream.
It was a pretty fun day, although I am surprisingly sore now. Not from the climb, but the descent! The different path we took was MUCH faster (20 minutes), but also at a very steep decline the entire way down. It was very hard on legs and toes, and I was happy and tired when it was over. My legs are now stiff and a little painful, which is refreshing in a way.
In other news, General Conference is this weekend here in Japan. I hope they have English available at the Kofu building; I am not sure if they will. The only people who speak English are me and the two Elders, and we all speak Japanese very well as well. Still, I am excited for conference.
I am having a beautiful, gently windy, nice and cool fall. It's exhilarating and I am in paradise.
In other news, I am noticing something I should like to rant about a tiiiny bit. It goes something like this:
HYPOTHESIS: Men are jealous of women.
Here's my reasoning:
So there is my reasoning. It's rather flawed, but I gotta admit the number of make-up companies using male models is rather alarming. Possibly MORE alarming is the number of Japanese companions I have had who see absolutely nothing odd about it.
Okay, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed this rather tall wall of text! Farewell until next time!
Today before we came to the library we stopped by a store really quickly to buy new pens. As we were going into the store, I noticed an older woman heading for the door to leave. Without thinking about it too much I held the door open for her so that she could pass through. She stopped and waited for me, so I motioned her through. Her face lit up in surprise and delight and she bowed several times, thanking me, as she walked through the door. She then waved before turning the corner to the street.
I am not going to turn that into a sermon or a comparison of cultures, it was just something that made me think "huh" and remember, yet again, that I am not in Kansas anymore.
Things are going rather well this week. I managed to keep my bike tires free of flats, taught a lesson, met someone who might be interested in having us come back around, and climbed a mountain.
Which of those would you like to hear about first?
The bike tire being free of flats makes me incredibly happy, considering I have had 3 flats in the past week or so. I'm just glad I know how to fix a flat tire, or else I would REALLY have been in trouble. I am also careful to avoid riding in the areas where I am pretty sure I got flats last time. This makes for some interesting twists and turns and dancing with traffic, but it's quite fun.
You know what else is fun? Missionary work! Especially when you actually find people, but I've gotten to the point that just talking to people is fun, too. My companion disagrees (and I would have, too, when I was only 6 months old) so I am trying to make it more fun for her by introducing a weird game. The game has no name, but I shall call it the "Kekko" game. Kekko means "No thank you" in Japanese and it's the simplest way to turn someone down. We hear it a lot as missionaries. The game goes something like each companion chooses three different kekkos, and then if someone says one of them you get a point. So my kekkos were "I'm buddhist," "I'm too busy," and plain ol' "kekko," and my companion chose "I am part of another religion," "I don't like Christianity," and "I am hurrying home to my kids." These are all pretty common excuses given as people run the other way, but it's kinda fun to try and get bingo or something similar.
Of course we also focus on having really good conversations, but this is just something to try to make it more fun.
The lesson we taught was to an older person that wasn't really too keen on hearing from missionaries but agreed to listen once out of obligation to a friend. The lesson went decently well, but it wasn't brilliant (which is a shame). Still, it was infinitely better than having no lessons.
The person who may not mind having us come around was someone we met knocking on doors. She was nice and said it might be okay if we came back sometime when she was free, but she wasn't particularly fascinated. We will do our best to have the Spirit teach her better than we ever could.
The mountain was Mount Takao, one of Japan's "Top 100 Mountains" and therefore a neat touristy area. Our whole zone got together to climb it together. It was kinda interesting. Lots of gentle hills with very pretty forests. I had a bizarre experience, though. I had kinda thought we were hiking to the base of the mountain and then a little over an hour later, we were on top of the summit.
Huh.
It was pretty weird to climb a mountain when I didn't realize I was climbing a mountain, but it was fun. Not the easiest hike in the world (there was one point of endless tall stairs that I would not like to climb again in a hurry) but it was vastly different from the Y Trail, which I am gradually coming to realize is actually a pretty rough climb.
After we reached the summit one of the Elders who had climbed Takao before invited us all to get some incredibly famous ice cream. Intrigued by this fascinating prospect we took a different route home. The route home was full of GORGEOUS temples and amazing artifacts, with souvenirs available for purchase at every corner (I actually did pick up some postcards after remembering I collect those). The funniest part was when the Elders stopped and pointed out Lehi's dream was sculpted on one of the temple walls. What do you know, a guy underneath a tree eating a pale fruit as water and hideous dragons rage all around him. You could argue that one of the wooden support beams was the iron rod, but that might be taking it a bit far, seeing as the actual story was something completely different. I took a picture regardless. After the temples we came across a food shack which was indeed selling milk gelato, the famous ice cream in question. It cost $3.50. Yow, thought I, that's some famous ice cream. Still, I figured I wasn't going to be back this way again so I took the bait and bought the ice cream.
It was a $3.50 milk flavored ice cream cone. Whoopee, Elder. As the cone was passed into my hands I stared at him in betrayed disbelief, at which point he pointed out why the ice cream was so great. He took his own cone (4 in all bought this stuff), and marched over to the condiments. He then picked up a salt-pepper shaker, shook it all over his cone, strode to a nearby bench, sat down and ate it.
Intrigued I investigated the condiments myself. What do you know, there's a picture above the table of kids doing exactly what he just did to their ice cream. And what I had thought was salt and pepper was actually white and black sesame seeds. Huh. I sprinkled some on and tasted it.
It tasted like milk ice cream with sesame seeds in it.
Not altogether a bad flavor, but I no longer trust that Elder's tongue and sense of value. Still, perhaps if I were more adventurous I would have tried sprinkling fish flakes, dried tofu, or seaweed, all of which were also available. In the end I just swallowed my loss along with a pretty tasty ice cream cone. You might want to give ice cream and sesame seeds a shot, but I wouldn't say it's worth $3.50 for a cup of ice cream.
It was a pretty fun day, although I am surprisingly sore now. Not from the climb, but the descent! The different path we took was MUCH faster (20 minutes), but also at a very steep decline the entire way down. It was very hard on legs and toes, and I was happy and tired when it was over. My legs are now stiff and a little painful, which is refreshing in a way.
In other news, General Conference is this weekend here in Japan. I hope they have English available at the Kofu building; I am not sure if they will. The only people who speak English are me and the two Elders, and we all speak Japanese very well as well. Still, I am excited for conference.
I am having a beautiful, gently windy, nice and cool fall. It's exhilarating and I am in paradise.
In other news, I am noticing something I should like to rant about a tiiiny bit. It goes something like this:
HYPOTHESIS: Men are jealous of women.
Here's my reasoning:
- We must first assume that people will attempt to imitate things they respect, admire, or wish to become like.
- Women wear dresses and make-up.
- These items are considered "women's clothing" and are thus found with women's clothing in stores.
- Like purses, there are now male equivalents coming out for the manly counterpart.
- Nonetheless, these are still considered pretty girly.
- Make-up is for girls.
- Mascara is definitely make-up.
- Men wearing mascara, therefore, are imitating women.
- Mascara companies WHO USE MALE MODELS IN ADVERTISING emphasize this.
- If Japanese companies use it in their advertising, it is either considered normal or desired to become the new normal.
- Japanese make-up companies want men to wear make-up.
- Japanese men who wear make-up are doing what women have been doing for years, and (I reiterate) are thus imitating women.
- Japanese men are totally jealous of Japanese women.
So there is my reasoning. It's rather flawed, but I gotta admit the number of make-up companies using male models is rather alarming. Possibly MORE alarming is the number of Japanese companions I have had who see absolutely nothing odd about it.
Okay, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed this rather tall wall of text! Farewell until next time!
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