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.