Some things I want to remember

• Prepping for an "English @ Work" class for young Japanese professionals using a Dutch version of Microsoft Word. Figuring out to insert a page break was sort of difficult...
• Trying to remember not to wear toilet slippers in the house or house slippers in the bathroom
• Shopping at the 99 yen store (twice!). 99 yen is about 90 cents. I think the stuff is better quality too.
• Stephanie and I trying to resist eating/drinking and walking at the same time (Japanese think it is rude/odd if you do that)
• Feeling like I was going to develop a British accent from hanging out with Stephanie and Kenton (Serve Japan coordinator) during the first few days of my trip. That'd be weird if I came back from a trip to Japan with a British accent.
• Taking trains (public transportation is not something we LA people do often). The trains are SO clean and it is kind of fun to people-watch. And it wasn't too terribly hard to figure out how to take the trains.
• Having German, Dutch, British and Korean OMF missionaries help translate Japanese into English for me so that I could understand what was going on!
• Thom de Boo (about 7 years old) did a great job in the church Christmas play. It is so interesting to watch a little Dutch boy reading his lines and doing his part to share the good news about Christmas! I have to say that I'm impressed with Berend (5 years old) and Thom's abilities to learn 3 languages so well (Japanese, Dutch, and English)! I think it is so sweet that they pretty much always used English when I was around so that I could understand.
• Dinner with the Aylings (British couple who take care of the guest home so well and make it so cozy). When Stephanie and I were over for dinner, there was a Korean couple who was also there. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to ask the Korean couple why they think that Korea and Japan responded to Christianity in such different ways. Among the factors they mentioned were historical factors and cultural factors (Japanese are more likely to be passive about some things and to conform to their surroundings and not stand out while Koreans are more passionate and more likely to act as individuals - I told them I heard it was because of the kimchee) :)
• During dinner with the Aylings and the Chungs (the Korean couple), they were trying to describe the taste of a certain kind of food. Both couples knew exactly how to say it in Japanese but were trying to find the right English word. After discussing it a bit in Japanese, they finally said "refreshing!". It was so refreshing to me to know that the reason why this British couple and this Korean couple could have this conversation in Japanese about the taste of this particular food was because both couples have been serving in Japan for 20 or more years. Away from the comforts and the languages of their home countries... To the point that Japanese has become so close to being a heart language for them...
• Japanese are normally reserved and usually do not start conversations with strangers. But one guy started a conversation with Kenton, Stephanie and I while on the train (he is a college student and is studying in the US - he was back for winter break). Another guy asked how old Julie was while we were in a restaurant. We gave him a Christmas CD. Julie is so good at using her cuteness to give us opportunities to have conversations with strangers!