Goodbye Sydney...HelloooOO to a new beginning :)

So my epic 5 month holiday came to an end on the 4th of April when i finally flew off for Japan...sad and exciting at the same time. It was really nice to be able to go to ETC and catch up with all the awesome Credo people :) Still really sad that i couldn’t make it for the whole thing though :( And sad that i won’t be seeing any of you Credo peeps for like a year (except for the awesome Japan mission team! Thanks Kat, J, Fi, Kev and Masaki for coming to see us off at the airport, that was really awesome :D). So after saying our goodbyes, it was time for us to jet! Praise God that we were all able to arrive safely here on Japanese soil :)

5/4/10 - Day 1

I've only just realised upon arriving in Japan that i probably won't be able to blog very much...things are probably gonna be quite busy (with awesome stuff of course :D), and i feel that i'm going to find it really hard to find time for everything...so for those of you who are concerned, please please pray that i can get settled in and get everything important done (like alien registration, setting up a bank account, getting necessities, learning how to live independently)! On top of all that, it appears that the courses provided here at this university are very intensive, and so it won't be the holiday that i once thought it would be. I'm actually going to have to put a whole lot of effort into study as well as building strong relationships with the people here. It's an amazing opportunity to learn and grow, so please pray with me as i grasp every opportunity and make the most of them!

Anyways, so negatives aside...I'M IN JAPAN! xD Sure, i wasn't very excited before i left, but once i got here i realised how awesome this year was gonna be :) Yeah it's been a long time coming, and some of you are probably thinking "about bloody time...your farewell was like 50 years ago", and so i say to you, just be quiet :P So before the excitement dies down i decided i should blog about my very first day here in the lovely city of Kofu (and Alen, if you happen to be reading this, this place is NOT rural!).

The plane trip sucked...the food wasn't too bad but the trip sucked! It's just i'm not a very big fan of planes :( So i tried to watch hurt locker (coz apparently it's an awesome movie) and my eyes started failing about 60% through the movie so i stopped and attempted to sleep but couldn't :( This is exactly why i hate planes :( Anyways, upon arriving at narita airport, the excitement gradually settled in (as the air-sickness died down slowly). The 3 hour bus trip down to kofu city was a pretty drowsy one, but although i drifted in and out of sleep throughout the trip, i could not help but marvel at some of the amazing views along the way. Can i just say firstly that cherry blossom trees are friggin awesome and i wish i could grow one in my backyard :) Seriously though, so many of the streets of Japan, from Narita airport, through Tokyo, and on the way to Kofu City throguh Yamanashi streets, the streets were just lined with these amazing trees. If you watch dramas or anime and your idea of cherry blossom trees comes from those, then you should actually try and come to see it for yourself. It's quite amazing :) Also, our international students guide was telling us that the weather here is unusually wet as compared to normal. Although it was gloomy, the weather actually added to the effect, in that the mountains were much more misty and awesome looking. My camera aint so great, and i didn't get to take many pictures coz i was on the bus when the awesome scenery was about, so forgive me for not showing you what i'm talking about! Some things you just gotta see with your own two eyes :) Anyways, going through these parts of this country like that made me think of God's presence in all of creation, and His amazing creative power. I just can't imagine how any of this could have just popped into existence without some sort of awesome power behind it - and not just some awesome power, but a loving power - a loving creator who wants His people to enjoy His creation :)

So i was told before coming to this uni that the place was a hole, but those were the words of a city lover, so i wasn’t convinced. When we arrived at the city centre, i was amazed! The city looked about as city-like as Sydney, but much nicer and less busy :) Now this is my kind of city! When we arrived at the bus stop in front of Kofu Station, and we were wondering if the person who was coming to pick us up would know that we were the studentsfrom UTS. Turns out we stood out like sore thumbs (sore ASIAN thumbs that is :P), so it wasn’t hard for Ono-sensei (our supervisor, who is very nice :)) to find us as we hopped off the bus. So she gave us some instructions to wait somewhere while she ran off somewhere else, and we were like “what the heck why is this little jap woman moving so fast?”, so we lost her for a bit. So we waited where she left us, and after about 5 minutes she pops up again outta nowhere...with a mini-truck of some sort. We all looked at each other and were like “wait...are we getting onto the back of this thing? o_O”. That would have been pretty funny :) But unfortunately it was just for our luggage lolllll...true story :D

Didn’t take us very long to settle in at all. The dorm mum Yamamoto san greeted us warmly and gave us a quick room tour and uploaded some rules into our heads...if only the rules were in English! So yeah...if i break any rules, it’s not my fault at all *angelface* :D So the rooms are kinda small and cramped but man the Japs are efficient with space! A 2m x 1m bathroom with a toilet, sink AND shower! Now “how is that even possible?” i hear you ask. Basically, the toilet is tiny, the sink is moveable and so’s the shower :D

Anyways so it seems like this is gonna be an awesome place to practice my speaking, coz the people here can barely speak any english! Of course, the other international students can speak english though, so that should be fun and relaxing :) And by the way, the other international students are awesome :) We’ve got some from Britain, Germany, America, France, China, Malaysia...and others too that i haven’t really met yet, but i’ll get round to it :) So the first person we met was a nice German girl called Susie. When she saw us she was like “oh are you the guys from Australia? we’re having a party tonight at 8pm to welcome you guys!” Yeah i know, how awesome is that :D It’s gonna be an awesome year :) The British girl (Jo) and guy (Mark) are also very friendly - they were some of the first we met. And Jo’s Jap is pretty amazing :0

Before the party, us Aussies went hyaku-en shop (hundred yen shops - similar to our bargain stores, but a hundred times better and probably cheaper too :D) hunting :) We bought HEAPS of stuff from that store, and although it was quite far to walk there and back, it was fun and worth it :) Never thought living on your own and going out to buy necessities could be so fun :D Anyways so when we returned we dropped everything in our rooms and were welcomed by the others with dinner :) The french guys coordinated the dinner with some frenchish food, so that was nice! It was awesome spending time talking to and getting to know the other people in our dorms :) These are definitely relationships i’m going to need to build on!

6/4/10 - Day 2

I started my day off with a bit of prayer and Bible reading, something i was unable to do the day before due to tiredness and trying to settle in. So i’ve decided to go with intensive study of Ecclesiastes for much of my trip, since the Credo peeps are doing that in small group, and also coz i’m fascinated by it :) It’s gonna be pretty awesome methinks! I also need to start reading “A call to spiritual reformation” soon. I mean i’ve had it for ages and i’ve been wanting to read it coz i hear about how awesome it is - apparently the best book EVER on prayer, so i should get started soon coz prayer is certainly something i need heaps of over here for the duration of my stay.

So the UTS students from last year left us a bunch of stuff to use...if only we had known that BEFORE we went to buy heaps of stuff :( But anyways there was still heaps of stuff there that we could use :) We’ve yet to get our bikes but it looks like we have a bike each xD Hopefully we can get them tomorrow! Yay for biking everywhere! Praise God for wheels :D

A few of us needed to grab passport photos for some applications, and man oh man the passport photo booths are amazing :) 700yen (about 8 bucks) for 14 passport photos (which is actually much cheaper than it is in Sydney) coming in 4 different sizes, and they can be stuck onto anything like sticker photos (this is something not done in Sydney) :D trust the Japs to be efficient hey?

Anyways, it seems everytime i walk into stores here there is always something i wanna buy. It’s not that i need any of these things, but the layout of the stores, the packaging of everything and just the aesthetics in general were so enticing compared to how they are in Australia - i was fascinated! I mean this isn’t my first time in Japan but it’s been a while!

At 1pm we were due for our placement test, and none of us really studied for it, so we were really unprepared, but we managed to get through. But man the test was insanely difficult - stuff i’ve never learnt before at all! I’m just happy that i wasn’t put into the intensive jap learning course :) I actually get to do jap and also pick electives :D I gotta choose 2 more subjects (or more if i’m feeling awesome), one which will probably be sport and the other maybe something bludgy :) I’m really thankful that my Jap speaking ability has not really gone down as well :D

After meeting with my tutor and supervisor (who both seem quite nice...i’ve forgotten my supervisor’s name though -_-“) i went back to our dorms to meet up with the other UTSers and Jo....and got lost on the way...and when i got back, Ben, one of the French dudes, told me that the others were waiting for me at uni :0 This is what happens when you don’t have a phone lol. We really do rely on phones and technology too much though hey? Just like how i’m typing up this blog entry instead of writing it down! I mean technology is a great gift from God too, but we probably shouldn’t use it so much that we become heavily reliant on it. Anyways, so Jo decided to take us out to eat at Gusto, which was pretty nice and cheap for dinner (about 10 bucks each), then we went grocery shopping with her across the road from Gusto. You may have heard elsewhere before but DUDE the fruit and veg here is SO expensive! Also there’s a shortage of meat, so i might be craving food from home eventually :( We did see some pretty interesting stuff at the store though! Like a cute little watermelon about twice the size of an orange for 1280yen (about $14!) and rockmelons for 2280yen (about $25!). Once again i was intrigued by the layout and aesthetics of the store, especially by the very neatly packed...everything lol. Seriously everything was packaged so nicely, i couldn’t help but think that it was all very wasteful. Still, we Aussies can be very wasteful as well, and we don’t recycle nearly as much as the Japs do. they separate their garbage into like 6 different categories to be recycled :0 It’s probably something we need to learn, but Aussies are way too lazy to do anything like that...even if we call ourselves green lol.

Oh yeah, and Jo showed us a picture she took of “uma-sashimi” (horse sashimi i.e. raw meat from a horse!) and we were like “WHAT!?” Yeah...i don’t think i could ever bring myself to eat cooked horse meat, let alone raw...

Anyways, so it looks like it’s gonna be a very interesting year full of exciting experiences and new people, so i’m really really looking forward to it :) Before leaving i wasn’t excited at all, but now it’s finally hit me and i’m looking forward to each new day. I feel that God has given me a real appreciation of everything He has given me, and He is constantly teaching me more and more each day. I’m amazed at how He’s been working in me to change me. I feel like i’ve become more of an extrovert - something i never thought possible, but hey, everything is possible with God :) It’s actually been something i’ve been praying for - i.e. the ability to talk to people and associate with them better. That is gonna be the biggest part of my stay here - developing strong relationships with people - relationships that aren’t just shallow, but relationships in which God can be working. So please pray for me so i can be a good witness to those around me and shine Christ’s light out to everyone i meet :)

Prayer points:

- Praise God that we have arrived here safely!

- Praise God for His awesome creation and providence

- Thank God for allowing me to settle in so quickly

- Pray that i get the important hings done and get used to uni life (which starts next week!)

- Pray that i can build strong relationships with the people here

- Pray that i don’t get lazy and that i make the most of my time here

- Pray that God will continue to grow me through His Spirit and His word

- Pray that i will know how best to handle difficult situations in a strange culture

- Pray that my language ability improves

- Pray that i can settle into one of the local churches (i think i have two to choose from!) and KGK (the Christian group at Yamanashi University)

Thanks for reading my update! Dunno when the next will be, but please stay tuned :D

Love from Japan! :)