A few days now.

I really don't have much time to write a lot because planning a wedding seriously is A LOT of work. Especially trying to plan it in pretty much 3 weeks. But, I did want you to see this picture of my new Obe (someone else's Kimono), which I wore for a Japanese traditional dance that I was part of for our reporting back time back in Kona.



13 days to go!

speedily approaching

20 days to go, 20 days to go, 20 days to go!

The DTS is over, and there are 20 days until the wedding!

last night in Tokyo

Yes, the fair city of Tokyo bids us farewell as we spend our last night in this quiet area of crazy Shibuya. We had our last day here today, and I spent five hours of it shopping. I love Tokyo! Countless earrings and necklaces for under $3. What a deal!

My delightful team got me an Obe (a belt) for my Kimono which was very sweet. I am very excited to learn how to tie it and then wear it with my Kimono that my SOTB friends bought for me from Japan. It's red to contrast the green of my Kimono. What? You're suprised? Of course, my Kimono's green!

Tomorrow, we get to experience a journey on one of the fastest trains in the world - the Shinkansen, aka bullet-train. We're pretty excited. Apparently you can see Mount Fuji from it. We then head to Osaka airport on a bus, and head out to Kona, Hawaii. I can't wait to get back and see my baby and get proper planning on the wedding!

FOUR WEEKS TO GO!

long time, no wireless

Yes, it's been a while since I last blogged and that's because we've gone back to the Stone Ages and have no wireless at the church we're staying at! Things are going well though, we've been doing all sorts of puppet ministry, children's games and events, working with the church and holding a youth night.　We just our school leader come and pay us a pastoral visit and it was really encouraging to have her here with us, especially for me as she really affirmed my leadership right when I was starting to get discouraged.

And we head back to Kona in just under a week. We have a few days of fun and debrief at the end, and then on Sunday 19th November, we fly back to Hawaii, where I am reunited with my fiance! I can't wait to see him.

I also can't wait to plan the wedding more. I feel like I have been a bit out of things being away on outreach, so it will be fun to be able to totally my time to the wedding! I keep having nightmares of things going wrong - last night I dreamt that I completely missed the ceremony and reception and was so mad at myself. The other night I dreamt that we had gotten the dates confused, and that the wedding was the first week back, and NOTHING was ready! I totally freaked out. All that to say I'm ready to do some serious work and planning on this wedding!

Time flying by...

This last week has gone by so fast. It started with a surprise day off as all our ministry was cancelled last Monday, so the girls and I went to Oriental Bazaar and I'm glad to say that I was able to buy all my souvenir/Christmas presents in one day, at one shop!

The week continued with usual ministry, at Keio University, then with the Church. Tonight we head back to Cafe Decision. We are hosting another movie-night tomorrow night. We definitely hit the "storming" phase of our relationship as a team last week, but I feel like we quickly dealt with it and moved on, which is so good, because we were seriously starting to drive each other crazy!

Yesterday, the English professor at Keio University took us to a hot springs here in Tokyo, and yes, you have to get naked. So, we girls trepidly stepped out in our towels, and after some discussion, decided to go for it and lose our inhibitions. It was actually a lot of fun and super relaxing. There were multiple bathing areas that had different healing benefits for different parts of the body. Apparently, going to the public baths or hot springs is considered one of those things you just have to do when you come here. So, now we can say we did it!

We're doing great and having fun and here ia a pic to prove it:
Posing in the subway station: