Green Tea Ice Cream?

Ohio Goziamas,

This morning we got a lot of our laundry done. We do it very early in the morning out of necessity, because when it rains, it usually does it in the afternoon. So, if we wash early we have enough time for our clothes to hang dry outside before the rain. (That's the plan anyway). Kristina and I went to the store this morning before our readers came, and we picked up stuff for lunch. We had assorted fried and breaded cake things (mostly potatos inside), ramen noodles, and vegetables with cheese.

We all used our spare time very well today to get many things done around the church. We are leaving on Friday for Kyoto and Hiroshima for our days off, so we need to have many things ready beforehand. I am building strong relationships with some of my readers, and I am very excited about what God is doing here. It is amazing to watch him work in people's minds and hearts.

This evening Jake and I rode the train for Jake's second video attempt. It went pretty well, and on the way back we picked up some pastries with ice cream centers that Kristina likes. Today we got Strawberry, Chocolate, Vanilla, Banana, and Green Tea. I liked the Green Tea flavor, but Kristina didn't :(.

We also tried to transfer the video onto a larger tape for shipment, but the tape kept skipping...which was pretty frustrating. God must be trying to teach us patience. So, we decided to try again on our trip this weekend.

In all of this I forgot to eat dinner, so I am going to go do that now...

Have a great day,

walk in His footsteps,

Tsuyoshi

Jumping bean necklace and old Oni Giri

Konbanwa,

This morning, Kristina taught two Korean ladies the beginning of the alphabet (A,B,C,D,&E). They do not speak any English which made the lesson very interesting. They are coming back tomorrow to learn five more. Teaching English from scratch is not part of the LST thing, but she is doing it in her "Extra" time.

We both met with many people today... Mr. Okabe had many more questions, and we talked through them all. He says that he is interested in attending the camp that we are providing near the end of our project.

Some readers came in early today and we offered them the Oni giri (Rice Balls) that someone made for us on Sunday. They ate some of it very slowly and most of them wrapped it back up to take with them. We found out later that Oni giri should never be served cold, and it tastes bad after a day. We got them straight out of the refrigerator and they are over two days old. We felt horrible after we found out and we are trying to think of something we can do to make it up to them...Maybe big bars of chocolate...

Our lunch was very good again today: salad, meatloaf, and corn. Judith was able to come and share lunch with us today.

Also today, Mike invited us to watch him teach an English class to 1st graders. We were both very impressed with the kids and the effectiveness of his teaching. I wish I spoke Japanese as well as they speak English. Mike has been wearing a box of jumping beans around his neck since sunday. The kids love to watch them, and he said the adults have been the most surprised and skeptical. It's pretty funny to see someone wear Mexican Jumping beans as a necklace. :)

Most of my e-mails are posted everyday on the website: sims2japan.blogspot.com (www. is not necessary)
...So... If you want me to take you off of my e-mail list, you can still recieve my messages by looking there. :)

Thanks, and good night,

Tsuyoshi

Fear Factor Japan

Japan is never boring...

We had quite a storm tonight...Which was strange, because it is supposedly very rare that Japan has lightening (at least in this prefecture. Julie got wet on her walk home, but is ok...Jake waited until it was over to go home. I had planned on going to bed a little early, but after the worst part of the storm, I walked upstairs and stepped in a puddle of water. The windows were open in one of the rooms and there were gallons of water on the floor. There was water everywhere. There was water 10 feet away from the window and a few inches lower than the top of the window. The wind was incredible. Jake, Kristina, and I spent quite awhile cleaning up... You should have heard our rendition of "Wring the Message out, Wring it out..." :)

This morning our devotional centered on an excerpt from some of Martin Luther's writings. It was about prayer and was very interesting. We also sang "A mighty fortress is our God." Which Luther wrote.

We got many more presents today and the last couple of days...I don't know where these people find this stuff... Today we got some green bread that was made from Vegetables with sweet bean paste in the center...MMMMmmmm. We ended up giving most of it away to another reader. :)
For Lunch we ate baked and fried chicken, salad that contained organically grown cucumber that was a gift, and mashed potatoes and gravy. It was wonderful. For desert I ate a small log of cold sweet bean paste called something that sounds like "Uncle" It was a gift that one of my readers gave me from a particular region of Japan where uncle is famous and expensive. Kristina tried it and it was not an immediate favorite of hers. I have more to eat tomorrow. We also found something in the refrigeraor that looked almost like brain in a bag... it smelled horrible. We found out it is some kind of seasoning stuff used in soups, but that it had gone bad. We threw it away this evening. I also ate some kind of squash stuff tonight with pumpkin and carrot and potatoes... it was interesting, but not very appetizing...I ended up eating a grilled cheese sandwich too. I also bought some new things from the vending machine yesterday. Tonight I tried one of them... It was cold tea with milk...and I swallowed some of it before I realized it had gone bad. :( All in all, not the greatest day for food... maybe we will have better luck tomorrow.

My reading sessions went well. Another of my readers claimed to be Bhuddist today. She said that she prays every morning, but that she doesn't know much about Bhuddism. She said "I think I am a Bhuddist." She could not believe the virgin birth, but she is interested in learing more. She is very nice, and I am excited about getting to know her better, and letting her get to know Jesus. My high school reader came again today. We are in the beginner book, and it is very difficult to communicate with each other without the help of dictionaries. Please pray that God can work through me and that I can be a good example of a Christian to her, even if she can't understand everything I say. I have Mr. Okabe again in the morning...wish me luck. We are still studying Romans, and it is always interesting speaking with him.

Keep us in your prayers,
you are in ours...
Good night/Have a good day,

Tsuyoshi

sombreros on a train?

Good Morning to you,

We were invited by three of our readers today to go eat Indian Curry at a local restaurant. It was wonderful. They had several degrees of hot,a and Jake decided to go for the hottest. He survived and got his picture on the wall. There was also another Texan that had come in last week that was on the wall with him. :) We are making our mark in many different ways...

Kristina and I got to do a little shopping this afternoon, and then we all went over to Mike and Tomoko's house for dinner. (They run an English school in Taga, and are members of the church here) They served us pork roast, grilled chicken etc... It was wonderful. On the way over to their house we decided that we would wear our sombreros on the train... we got many giggles, stares, and some people even took pictures of us. After dinner we all played a game. It was a nice calm before the storm of activity that will be tomorrow. Jake talked Mike into bringing his guitar for tomorrow's party. He is going to sing Mariachi songs for them... Our Pinatas did not show up yet though...not sure what we are going to do instead, but I'm sure it will all work out.

Please tell everyone at church and elsewhere that we are doing very well, and that we are thankful for all of the support and prayers that we have recieved/are recieving.

Thanks also for keeping us up with what is happening on your side of the world....

Jamata, (See ya later)

Tsuyoshi

Prayer and Bowling

Greetings from Japan,

Our devotional this morning was great. It was about prayer. The author of our reading for today was John Baillie. After reading his prayer, it made me reevaluate my own prayers in comparison to his thoughtfulness. Here is an excerpt from our reading today:

Eternal Father of my soul, let my first thought today be of You, let my first impulse be to worship You, let my first speech be Your name, let my first action be to kneel before you in prayer.
For Your perfect wisdom and perfect goodness:
For the love with which You love mankind:
For the great and mysterious opportunity of my life:
For the indwelling of Your Spirit in my heart:
For the sevenfold gifts of Your Spirit:
I praise and worship You, O Lord.
Yet let me not, when this morning prayer is said, think my worship ended and spend the day in forgetfulness of You, Rather from these moments of quietness let light go forth, and joy, and power, that will remain with me through all the hours of the day;
Keeping me chaste in thought:
Keeping me temperate and truthful in speech:
Keeping me faithful and diligent in my work:
Keeping me humble in my estimation of myself:
Keeping me honorable and generous in my dealings with others:
Keeping me loyal to every hallowed memory of the past:
Keeping me mindful of my eternal destiny as a child of Yours.
Through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

John Baillie (in our excerpt) had a prayer for each day of the week which were each equally amazing and thoughtful. Our morning devotionals have helped me to see many areas in which I can improve in my walk to become more like Jesus. I am adding more thoughtful heartfelt prayer to the list.

Kristina and I had very light reading schedules today so after catching up on chores and project stuff, we went to the beach. I made a turtle out of sand, and Kristina made a frog. The frog was very life-like. You all would have been proud of her. We ate grilled cheese and leftovers for lunch, as well as left overs for dinner. We needed to get rid of a lot of things in the refrigerator. After everyone was through tonight, we cleaned and rearranged the church building and then went to Plabi-Bowl. It is the local bowling alley. We had a great time. Jake got a strike when a colored pin was in the center. They gave him some snacks for free for doing that. We all shared them, and they were very interesting. We said whoever got the best score got to pick the flavor they wanted first. I won, so I picked shrimp and mayonnaise, Jake got Teryaki, Kristina got corn potage, and Julie got Sarami (Salami). They were kind of like long funyuns, but with a whole lot of flavoring. Mine was actually very good, but I think I'm the only one who finished one.

We are getting up early in the morning to go to Nikko on our first off-day of the week. So I will stop here and go to bed.

Oya Sumi nasai and Ohio Gozaimas,

Jeff

gifts

Hello again,

Another very long day today...I really enjoy reading all of the e-mails that you all are sending. Thank you so much, it's nice to communicate with someone who speaks english.

Today held many interesting things: After our devotional this morning, Kristina, Jake, and I went to Yama-Ya (the foreign food store) to get groceries and luch stuff for today. I cooked macaroni and cheese with sausage in it (Thanks for the idea Jeromey :), and we had soy beans on the side. (Thanks to everyone else who sent lunch ideas too, I'm sure I'll use them.) After lunch we met with some readers and one of my readers (Mrs. Moriya) offered to take me to the beach. Julie came with us. It was beautiful, but there were tetrapods (huge jacks-shaped concrete wave barriers) everywhere. After the beach she gave us a driving tour of the coastal side of town. She also took us to a Buddhist Temple site. It was very interesting to see, but I felt very strange being there. Then she offered to drive us to the grocery store where she helped translate for our shopping and insisted that she buy cold coffee with soy milk, and miso and soy flavored fish. (she had also brought cherries that she had picked for us from an area in Japan famous for cherries). When we returned to the store, Kristina told us that one of the Japanese church members had been at the church for the last hour trying to make an appointment to read with Julie. She spoke no English at all, so Kristina had to communicate with no translator present. She had also offered Kristina a present of dried seaweed with sesame oil, and insisted that she try it. :) Kristina was not impressed. I thought the seaweed was good. I reminded me of pork rinds for some reason. We found out later that she thought we taught Japanese people how to speak English (from scatch)...Kristina is going to work with her anyway. I think it will be good for both of them, but a very slow process I'm sure. One of Kristina's readers also brought us homemade wheat bread (I could get used to this gift giving culture).

Jake and I finished recording and editing his video, and Jake practiced his Asian driving skills again under Sugao's supervision. I got to ride along this time. I'm glad I wasn't driving, It is utterly impossible on many of their roads for two cars to pass. I don't know what happens yet in this situation, but if I find out I'll let you know.

Tonight we walked Julie home (to Judith's house), and we found a vending machine with a large bottle of Dr. Pepper on the way home. We are very excited about drinking it tomorrow.

Another intersting cultural adjustment today was when Kristina bought Yaki Tori (chicken on a stick) from the grocery store. She thought she was buying chicken with different kinds of sauces, but instead it was different parts of the chicken. She bit into one, and found out it was a whole skewer of skin. It was pretty gross. We gave those to Sugao. :)

Goodnight all,

Have a wonderful day,

Jeff

June 21

Hello all,

The weather today was very nice, and we just heard news that the Typhoon
will miss us today/tonight. :) Our reading sessions went very well today.
Kristina has a reader that wants to be a rock star, and she brought music by
the artist on her mp3 player for us to listen to. Very interesting... It
was Jake's day to cook lunch (always a good thing) and he went to the
foreign foods store and he cooked chicken tacos today with chips, salsa,
queso, and guacamole... I felt like I was in Texas again. Our daily team
devotional was very interesting today...it was based on writings by Henri J.
M. Nouwen and it was about the importance of solitude. It hit home with all
four of us, and we all spent some time today alone (with God).
We did laundry for the first time today, and we're not sure how clean the
clothes actually got because the dials on the machine are all in Japanese.
That was the fastest I have ever done laundry (5 minutes for a load) We're
not really sure what happened, but the clothes seemed ok anyway. :) It did
rain today however, so we had to scramble to bring in the clothes very
quickly that were hanging up outside to dry. We created a contraption with
tables and chairs to hold up the clothes rack so that they would have a
chance to dry inside the church.
Jake had a reader today that asked him if he was dating anyone...and another
ask him what his blood type was...were not too sure what her motive for that
question was... Jake also told Sugau that if Sugau got Kristina to try a
Mochi cake (made from rice and sesame seed paste) which looks like an
eyeball, that Jake would buy his dinner. Sugau had to work on it for about
15 minutes, (kristina didn't know about the stakes) and she finally tasted
it. (she did not like it at all) It was very gooey. So now Sugau told
Kristina that he will buy her dinner at the Jumbo Gyoza (Giant Chinese
dumpling) place in return for making her try it. I kind of liked Mochi, it
tased almost like a small gooey peanut butter and jelly ball.
Many of my readers have never heard of Jesus before, and others are asking
important and difficult questions like "how can Jesus be a man and God at
the same time." Some are Buddhist, and others said they have no religion.
How hopless they must feel. Pray that they will see God's love and promise
through us.Good night, and God bless,Jeff Sims :)
P. S. Wednesday is my day to cook lunch if anyone has any quick, easy, and
good recipes.