Keep your head above water, but don’t forget to breathe. -Alexi Murdoch “Breathe”

The last several months have been an absolute whirlwind. Between the beginning of August and mid-September I visited family and friends in Ft. Worth, Dallas, Austin, Washington D.C., Keene, Boston, Lawrence, Great Bend, Wichita, and Denver. Using rough guesstimates, I figure I traveled around 6,000 miles via planes, trains and automobiles. After all that, I threw my entire life into 3 suitcases, hopped on a plane and flew another 7,000ish miles to the other side of the world. I thought things would slow down a little bit after landing in Japan and taking a few days to adjust to my new surroundings. ← Incorrect assumption. Today marks the 1 month anniversary of my arrival in Japan and, to be completely honest, I have no idea where the time went.

I've met some amazing people and experienced a culture completely different than my own. I've tried foods I'd never heard of before, eaten things I had previously not considered to be food, and consumed more coffee in the past four weeks than I have in 26 years (out of respect for others' hospitality, not an actual desire to drink coffee. Ick.) I've become the minority (both ethnically and religiously), and consequently been gawked at, laughed at, and whispered about. I've been happy, sad, bamboozled, confounded, frustrated, mystified, excited, apprehensive, elated, exhausted, overwhelmed, underwhelmed, shocked, humbled, sympathetic, empathetic, apathetic, exasperated, terrified, lonely, and content. But mostly I've been grateful, both for this program and for the people who have helped me get here. I have an amazingly supportive family and incredible friends who push and encourage me to want more from life. I hope you all know that, without you, none of this would have been possible. Thank you for being in my life, even when my life is thousands of miles away!

♥

Lessons learned this week:

• Yakisoba = super yummy and easy to make.
• Ikea looks the same no matter what country you're in.

The radio reminds me of my home far away. -John Denver "Take Me Home, Country Roads"

This Wednesday, Ally invited me to a calligraphy class at Tokyo Lutheran. A member of their congregation is a professional calligrapher and gives a class once a week. He showed us how to hold the brushes and guided us through a few strokes before letting us try it out on our own for a while.

Ally was a natural and all the older ladies participating in the class oohed and ahhhed over her work. :-) Before we left, the instructor made Ally and I each a piece of artwork to take with us.

Friday was the night of the J-3 potluck dinner. (J-3 is the moniker for the program I'm in. 'J' for Japan and '3' for the number of years of service.) The past and present J-3s in the Tokyo area get together a few times a year for dinner and fellowship. Christine knew several of the people from her previous stint as a J-3 and Ally and I got to meet many of the others we've been hearing so much about since we arrived, in addition to getting to hang out with the amazing J-3s we had met already. Everyone was incredibly welcoming and friendly. And funny. I can't leave that one out. I don't remember the last time I laughed so much in one night!

Saturday, a big group of us met in Yokohama to go to Oktoberfest. It was similar to Oktoberfest in the States, minus the rides. We were there on the second to last day, so it was really busy. There were lots of picnic tables set up outside and a tent that housed many of the food/beer vendors, as well as a band. Ally and I went to explore the tent and got there just in time for the band to play “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” The crowd went crazy! Picture several hundred mostly inebriated Japanese people scream-singing John Denver. If you can't picture it, check out the pictures on my flickr account. There are also a few videos on my youtube channel.  (Last week I forgot to upload my videos from Sports Day, so those have been posted now, too.)

On a much more somber note, I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my wonderful Great Aunt Rosie. She had been battling cancer for the last several years and lost that fight Friday. I am incredibly thankful that Phillip and I had time to see her and Uncle John over the summer before we both moved away. I am equally thankful for the wonderful memories from my childhood that were made in their house. While I take comfort in knowing that she is no longer suffering, her death has been a painful reminder of just how far away I am from my family. I will be thinking of you all Friday during the memorial service. Love you Aunt Rosie!

*Serendipitous side note: as I was typing out this last paragraph and uploading the photo, Susan Boyle's version of Amazing Grace started playing while iTunes was on shuffle.

I am also grateful for friends who will sit with you late into the night, make you tea, and distract you with laughter. Thanks Ally! :-)

Lessons learned this week:

• The timer on my toaster oven functions even if the device itself isn't plugged in, creating the disappointing illusion of toast.
• If my magicJack is plugged in to the computer, the sound on Skype won't work.
• Cheap chinese food is still expensive in Chinatown.

Your eyes are open wide. Let it come in. -Paloalto “Last Way Out of Here”

This past week was a week of firsts (which isn't surprising since I've only been here two weeks) and was quite eventful. Ally, Christine and I had our first week of language classes. I won't be able to take a placement test to see what level of Japanese I'm on until the first month of classes are over. Initially, I was a little irked about starting over at the very beginning, but parts of it have been very helpful. I hadn't realized how much basic everyday vocabulary/grammar I had forgotten and it's been eye opening, to say the least.

Yesterday was also my first Sunday at Ookayama, the church I will be attending for the next six months. I called the pastor last week to find out which service he wanted me to come to, but we encountered a bit of a language barrier as he spoke only a little English and my knowledge of Japanese “church language” was somewhat lacking. He was able to tell me that the church normally has 3 services: one for children at 9:30, one for middle and high school students at 10:00 and one for adults at 10:30. I was instructed to come to the middle and high school student service, but when I asked if I should also attend the adult service, he told me no. I went to the 10:00 service and after talking to a few other people, decided to stay for the adult service, which ended up being what I was supposed to do, despite being told otherwise. I was introduced to the congregation and, afterward, met some very nice parishioners.

Immediately following the service, the pastor's daughter came up to me and asked me if I had ever played hand bells. When I told her that I had, but only a few times, her face lit up and she said “Do you have time to practice right now?” !!!!!! I didn't want to be rude, but was also completely caught off guard by the question. What I was expecting to be traditional hand bells turned out to be hand chimes.

I was incredibly nervous because I had never played hand chimes before, but quickly discovered they are played the same way as bells. Most of the other women in the room had never played hand chimes either so it was a learning experience for all of us. And as it so happened, I understood more of the conversation and what was going on during the hand chime rehearsal than I did for the entire church service. Thank goodness music is a universal language!

The Summer Olympics of 1964 were held in Tokyo and in honor of the '64 Games, Japan designated the second Monday of October as Sports Day, so yesterday I experienced my first national holiday. We had the day off from school and the weather was beautiful! Ally's church, Tokyo Lutheran, was having a bazaar (also my first) and Christine and I went down to check it out. On the way over, we came across of group of Taiko drummers performing in a parking lot. There was also a parade that went down the street right in front of Tokyo Lutheran. Women in kimonos danced to the beat of another drummer who was playing from the back of a truck.

You  can check out more pictures from Sports Day on my flickr account.

I also bought my first decoration for my apartment from the bazaar. Up to this point, all the money I've spent has been on essentials: food, apartment necessities, things for class, etc. While my new candle isn't very big, it's the first personal touch I've gotten to add to my apartment and brings me one step closer to making this my home.

Lessons learned this week:

• Standing on the subway is not good for my equilibrium.
• Subways stop running a little after midnight.
• My kitchen knives here are sharper than the kitchen knives in Tulsa.
• I don't speak the way a Japanese woman “should” and need to learn to speak softly.
• It's better to do smaller, more frequent loads of laundry because there isn't enough space to hang it all to dry.

Decide what to be and go be it. - The Avett Brothers "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise"

And so it begins. After almost 13 hours on an airplane and a long car ride from the airport, I arrived at my new home Tuesday evening. Today marks the end of my first week here and, as silly and obvious as it sounds, I have discovered that Japan really is a different world. It's been almost 10 years since I was last here and it has been difficult to tell if things seem different because I've changed, the country itself has changed, the nature of my visit is different, or any combination of these.

There is no way to completely prepare yourself for moving to the other side of the world or all the changes that await you. People drive on the opposite side of the road. You can't read the labels on your food or the instructions for your washing machine. The toilet comes with an instruction panel and plugs into the wall. The shower is tiny/I am giant. Any American television is dubbed, and consequently, hilarious. For the next several weeks, adapting is the name of the game.

While most of the work I'll be doing will be in Tokyo, my apartment is located in a suburb that is clearly unaccustomed to foreigners. Small children point and chatter excitedly to their parents and neighbors peek in open windows. Grocery store employees and shop clerks often glace at you with a brief expression of panic, upon first seeing you in the check out line. What they don't realize is that the feeling is mutual. I haven't used my Japanese in over three years now and it's amazing how much I have forgotten. While I know this will only be a temporary problem, I'm still very much in “Oh, man. I don't remember the word for that” phase. Thankfully, language classes start Monday and with any luck, things will come back pretty quickly. Until then, I'll stick to short, simple, basic phrases.

I've also been absolutely amazed by the people. It's one thing to hear that the Japanese are polite, respectful, and helpful. It's another thing to experience it, repeatedly and on a daily basis. People on the subway move over so that you can sit with the your group. Subway attendants stop to pick up trash. Anywhere you go, employees greet you and thank you for coming to their establishment. Maintenance people sweep and mop the sidewalk and porch area in front of my apartment. Cindy, the woman who has been responsible for helping us acclimate to life in Japan (and is a god-send), not only spent an 1 ½ hours with us at the bank and another almost 3 hours at the cell phone company, she also then put 3 Americans she has only known for a few days on her billing plan because the phone company and the bank couldn't agree on how to bill us.If I had been in her shoes, that thought would never have even occurred to me, yet to her it seemed like the natural solution. 

This past week has been completely surreal. It's strange to think that something I worked so hard for and wanted for so long is finally happening. At the same time it feels right, like a normal progression of events. This could not have come at a better time in my life, and while I miss family, friends and relationships, I'm looking forward to the coming months and everything they have in store. Get ready Japan. Here I come!

Lessons learned this week:

• Tokyo humidity means it takes my hair 3 hours to air dry.
• Milk = whole milk; any other kind is harder to come by
• Aloe yogurt is...different.
• Getting lost is no fun, but is better when you are lost with friends
• The subway car isn't full if you can see through any part of it from the platform.