Finished

So I will officially be home for two months in a week. It has been a great two months, but obviously, finishing my blog was not a top priority. I have been meaning to finish it up these past two months and it is finally happening tonight, Monday, July 23. I'm sorry that it took so long to write this. I feel that it is appropriate to stop because my blog is titled "Jeremy-in-Japan" and I am no longer in Japan. I don't like leaving things unfinished, but with this last post I feel that it is complete. I don't know if I will blog again, it will probably happen, but at this point it has been too much of a struggle to finish this one and I think it would be a waste to start a new one until I get pumped about blogging again. I've enjoyed writing and I hope you have enjoyed reading. Thank you for following my time in Japan and for faithfully praying for me and supporting me. God has truly blessed me in this past year. Reading through my blog has made me miss Japan and all the people and experiences even more. Sayonara!

I'll post again if I start a new blog!

Coming Home

So after a month of non-stop craziness and then some, I got on a plane in Tokyo en-route to Los Angeles. It was a very sad time, but by the time I got on the plane I was ready to go. I remember sitting at lunch with Nate before leaving and he said, "I think you're at the point where you have nothing left to say, you just need to go." That was exactly how I was feeling. I wasn't over Japan and trying to get out of there as soon as possible, but after saying goodbye to so many different people and doing so much in the last month, I was tired and ready to come home to be with my family and catch up on some rest.

Anyways, after the 9-hour flight and so on, I arrived in LA. My family was there to greet me in very blog-worthy outfits. It has become a tradition in my family to dress up when we pick people up at the airport. This time they went for the blow up costume look and they definitely got some looks from people at the airport. I remember my sister telling me how some people from Texas asked them if they could take their picture. Anyways, this was the party for me at the airport. I was glad to be home, but so tired. That's all I have about this. I'm home, and I've been home for about two months. Sorry it took so long to get to this one.

My Last Day at the Park

One of my favorite things to do with Ellie and Kara was take them to the park. They loved going to the park and I loved to take them. We would always run around and play different games. Usually we played chase and hide-n-go-seek. I think every time I went over to the Johnson's house Ellie would ask me, "Jeremy, do you want to play with me?" Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't, but most of the time I said, "Yes." After that I would always ask her, "What do you want to play?" (I already knew the answer to this, but I liked to ask her anyways.) She would always respond with, "Let's play chase." She loved to run around the house with me chasing her. After a little while we would get tired and Ellie would take a little rest. However, playtime wasn't over yet because we had to play game #2, which was usually hide-n-go-seek. She would always tell me, "You count, I hide!"


So on Monday of my last week in Japan, I took Ellie and Kara to the park. I think Nate and I played catch for a little while, but I'm pretty sure that we played a little bit of chase and little bit of hide-n-go-seek. I miss these girls. They're so cute!

The Japanese Sunrise

About a month before I left Japan, I decided that I wanted to see the Japanese sunrise. I thought that since Japan is the land of the rising sun that it would be a cool idea to see the sunrise before I left. I probably should of thought of this idea earlier because the sun was rising at 4:30ish. It would have been better to do this during the winter when it was only rising at 6:30. Anyways, I decided that in order to see the sunrise I would need to get to the beach, but in order to get to the beach I needed a ride. The trains in Japan don't run until 5:00 and there was no way I would make the sunrise if I left on a train at 5. So, I decided that Rebekah would need to come with me, well rather, she needed to drive me. Rebekah wasn't too keen on the idea at first and got even more aggravated as I kept bugging her. After a while I got over it and stopped asking her and decided that I would just go to the top of the hill by the Lighthouse and watch it from there (all by myself...tear.)

Then comes my last weekend in Japan. I hate packing, I greatly dislike getting ready to leave places and at this point I had been staying up well past 12 to finish things before I left Japan. I think our group of friends ended up hanging out till about 10 or something, but then I stayed up till 1 finishing up a video for Nate. At about 3 o'clock in the morning I woke up to some noise in the hallway and the bright lights of my bedroom. To my surprise Rebekah, Kimberly, Derek, Liz, and Bridgette had planned on waking me up and taking me to see the Japanese sunrise. It was a good surprise, but with a full day coming up, it was a little bummer that I only got two hours of sleep. (It was worth it though.) All I can remember from the waking up part was that I kept saying, "I'm so confused. What's going on?"

So after I got dressed we piled into the van and drove out to Kamakura. It just so happens that Kamakura is on the other side of the peninsula that we lived so we didn't get to see the sunrise over the ocean, but I'm not complaining. It was an awesome little getaway before I left Japan. The planning committee brought firewood and supplies for smores. I've never had smores at 4 in the morning, but I can tell you that they are still as good as they taste late at night. Derek brought along a guitar and we sang some worship songs and hung out on the blanket for a little while. Soon after, our party was crashed by a Japanese fisherman who said, "No hire." We are concluded that he meant "No fire." and so we buried the fire in the sand. After that we took to taking pictures and walking up and down the beach.

When I think back about Japan, this is one of the moments that I wish I could go back to. It was a great time with friends and something that I really miss as I'm sitting here writing this. Rebekah, Kimberly, Liz, Derek, and Bridgette, thanks for waking me up to go and do this.

Day at the Park

On my last Saturday in Japan I took a trip with the Lighthouse up to a park in Tokyo. This park was super cool. Japan doesn't have a whole lot of parks and in there is a part it’s about a 75% chance that it won't have grass. This park had it all though. You could rent rowboats, ride bikes, play a bunch of different sports, run on the grass and much much more. If I had known about the park earlier than I definitely would have gone back again.
Anyways, my friends and I all decided to rent row boats first. We spent an hour on the little pond rowing around and trying to run away from the giant fish that lived in the pond. After that, we all rented bikes and rode around the whole park. (I think it had like 14 kilometers of bike path.) Everyone in our group got their own bike, but two people decided to get a tandem bike together. We all passed the bike around, but after a while the bike got kind of tired. My buddy Derek and I were just pushing off to get started and the bike feel apart. Literally, the spokes on the back wheel all came out and the bike was finished. It was kind of an old bike and both Derek and I probably were over the weight limit, but we didn't think this would happen. We spent some time trying to figure out how to get the bike back to the rent station and what to say to the workers there. However, we ended up talking to some of the park security and they told us to leave the bike where it was and not worry about it.
After that, our time at the park was pretty much over and so we all walked back to the entrance and took naps on the grass.

My Last Night at Youth Group

Wednesday and Thursday nights for the last year have always been youth group nights. On Wednesday nights we have middle school youth group from 4-5:30 and high school youth group from 6:30-8:00. Then on Thursday nights from 6:30-8:00 was what we called Q2, which is high school and middle school together. Throughout my time in Yokosuka, all of the groups changed and grew in some really cool ways. This particular Wednesday night, we had the biggest group ever. I think total for middle school was 32 and total for high school was 35. Now, the numbers aren't a big deal and that was definitely not what Nate and I were after, but it was exciting to have so many students show up because it meant that students were excited about youth group and inviting their friends.
On both youth group nights (wed. and thurs.) we played my favorite games with each group and I had the opportunity to share my heart with each group. The students also had the opportunity to share with me about how I had impacted them in one way or another. Overall both of the nights were a lot of fun, but it was difficult to believe that my time with them was over. The whole last week was a big blur for me as I said goodbye to students and their families.

Sumo Wrestling

One of the last things on my list of things to do while I was in Japan was to go and watch sumo wrestling. After being in Japan for about 8 months I decided that if I didn't buy tickets soon that it probably wouldn't happen. After some research I bought tickets and Nate and I had a great time at day #10 of the sumo tournament in Tokyo. Each tournament is 15 days long and each wrestler wrestles once a day. The day starts at 8:30 a.m. and runs till 6:00 p.m. Nate and I were warned not to go too early because it becomes quite boring after you watch the wrestlers throw salt for a couple of hours. We went at about 3 and left at 6 and honestly I thought it was a lot of fun. I left wanting to watch more and that is probably a better place to be than wanting to leave after a little while.
The actual sumo wrestling in each match last about 10 seconds. The other 5 minutes or so that the guys have in the wrestling ring, which is called the dohyo, is them showing off. Each wrestler's name is announced by the announcer in his super, poetic, sumo name that I could never understand. Then they enter the ring and do ceremonial stuff that includes: leg-raising and stomping (Each guy would almost do the splits vertically and then all the crowd would cheer.), slapping themselves, stretching, and other stuff. When they decide that it is time to wrestler they get into their squat position as if they are going to wrestle, but then one of the guys decides that he is not ready and so he gets up and walks to his corner. At this point he grabs a towel and wipes down his face, grabs some salt and throws it on the mat. Both wrestlers do this about 3 or 4 times and then they finally wrestle.
Overall, the whole day was a lot of fun. I would definitely go back and watch some sumo wrestling and would even consider going into the sport. (Yeah right!!) All of the common beliefs that sumo wrestlers are huge guys and wear this tiny loincloth to wrestle in are correct. I would definitely recommend this if you ever have the chance to go to Japan.

More Bad Mexican Food

This past weekend a buddy of mine from Northstar came down to visit. He hadn't been to Tokyo much so we spent part of a day up there seeing what there is to see. In Harajuku, we came across this little Mexican food joint. I don't want to spend much time on it because it totally isn't worth my time, but it definitely was blog worthy. The place is called "Taco Derio!" and claims to have homemade tortillas. They may be homemade, but they need to switch the recipe around. I wasn't even going to try it, but my mentality had changed because I knew that I would be eating good Mexican food very shortly. Anyways, the two tacos I got tasted more Japanese than Mexican and their hot sauce had some weird tang to it that tasted more like a chemical than a hot pepper. Being that this is the third place I have tried I know for sure now that Japan doesn't have good Mexican food! (I knew this before I went there. I should've eaten sushi or something instead.)

Camping Trip

Two weekends ago I took my middle school guys' Bible Study camping. It was the last thing that our Bible Study did together as we finished our study. We have been studying John for the past 12 weeks and spent the weekend talking about making disciples. We studied the story of Gideon in Judges 6-8 throughout the weekend and had a really great time talking about how to live for God.

I don't know what it is about camping, but I love it. Once you get all set up and settled in all there is to do is sit back and enjoy the quiet. Japan is a very loud place and even though the campground is not far from the city it still felt like we were way out in the boonies. If we weren't camping in Japan I would have loved to take the rain fly off of the tent and fall asleep under the stars. (For fear of giant spiders and bugs crawling in your sleeping bag and a thunderstorm hitting in the middle of the night, you wouldn't want to camp without a tent or a rain fly.) We had some great times sitting around the fire and talking. Sitting around the fire is my favorite part of camping. It is so amazing to sit there and look at the fire and watch it burn. We found a good amount of wood for the weekend and had a great fire on Saturday night.

For those of you who don't know, bamboo is a lot of fun to put into the fire. Because there are different chambers on the piece of bamboo, at some point the bamboo is going to explode. You can hear the wood sizzle as all of the sap is being burned and then not shortly after a big explosion. We had a lot of fun this weekend and made sure to keep everyone away from the fire while the bamboo was burning. God blessed us with a beautiful weekend and a great time camping. We enjoyed hiking, playing games, shooting fingerblasters, and so much more on the trip. This is definitely one of my favorite highlights from my time here in Japan.

Shorebreak '07

On April 8th, twenty-eight students and six staff traveled from Yokosuka to Okinawa for our high school spring break trip, which we call Shorebreak. Shorebreak is a camp that relates most to Hume Lake or Forrest Home back in CA. We had three different youth groups from all over Japan (Yokota, Yokosuka, and Kadena) and had around 180 students and staff. It was an awesome week. In the past, the camp was run by the Malachi staff, such as Nate and the other youth leaders from Yokota and Kadena, but this year and I guess for the past couple of years Azusa Pacific University has been sending out a team to run the camp for us. To say the least, APU did a great job. I was blown away by the all that they had prepared for the camp and was even more at amazed at how God worked in the lives of our students while at Shorebreak.

The theme for this year was "MARVELS" and was focused on the miracles of Jesus. The whole camp was about super heroes and it all built up to the fact that super heroes don't die; they tend to come as close to death as possible and then somehow escape. However, our true Superhero came to this earth and died for us. He came and conquered death for all of us when He rose from the dead. This was powerful for a lot of the students and really moved them to make decisions about their relationships with God.

Every night we had small group time with our specific students. I had 4 guys in my group and thoroughly enjoyed every evening with them. I prayed throughout the whole week that God would demolish my expectations and he totally did. So many of our students opened up and really responded to the Gospel. It will be exciting to see how Shorebreak affects our youth group. Nate and I are both pumped about how much unity this week brought to our group and we are so excited to see the students connecting more. Please be in prayer for all of the students and staff as it is tough to come back into your normal life and change things.

Shorebreak was an awesome trip. I had the sunburn to prove that I had a little too much fun at the beach. We were on Tokashiki Island the whole week and had two beautiful days at the beach. I'm working on the Shorebreak '07 video right now and it should be finished in the next couple of days. You can check it out soon on our youth group website www.yokosukastudentministries.com. Thank you for praying for us while we were at Shorebreak. Praise God for all that He is doing in the lives of the students!

Cherry Blossoms

About two weeks ago Japan's most beautiful and shortest season ended. This is the two to three week season when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. It was beautiful! People make special trips to different parts of Japan to view these trees and they are definitely worth the trip. Japan would look a lot prettier if these blossoms stuck around the whole year or even half the year, but after some rain and some good wind all of the blossoms are off of the trees. It literally looks like it is snowing when a bunch of blossoms fall off of the trees. Anyways, here are some of my pictures that I took. Enjoy!

Ramen Sweaters

At this point you should have figured out that I like to eat ramen and fried rice. In fact, I know that I like to eat it a little too much. Also, you know that my favorite place to go for ramen and fried rice is Eigi san's. If you noticed that the title of this blog is ramen sweaters than you are probably wondering where the whole sweater part comes in.

One day a group of us from the Lighthouse were planning on going to Eigi san's. Before we left I went into my room and changed my sweatshirts and when I came out people asked me why I changed my sweatshirt. I was a little embarrassed because it is was a stupid reason, but I told them "I needed to put my ramen sweater on." I was thinking that I would receive some scrutiny from the rest of the group, but before anyone could say anything Rebekah blurted out, "You have a ramen sweater too!" For those of you who don't know Rebekah, she is Hope and Jenna's teacher. She lives on the fourth floor of the Lighthouse and has become my big sister here in Japan. She takes good care of me and has been a great fill in for Sara for the time being. We've had some really good conversations and it has been a blessing to live in the same house as her, even if she does pull some pranks every once in a while.

I didn't specifically pick my Hume sweatshirt as my ramen sweater, it happened by default. You see, here in Japan it is not impolite to slurp, as a matter of fact, I think that you are considered more Japanese if you can slurp. I've been eating ramen for the past 8 months now and I still haven't perfected the art of slurping; my ramen sweater is proof of that. What happens is when I slurp and when Rebekah slurps and most other foreigners slurp, the ramen tends to swing up, hit your chopsticks, and put a nice dark stain on whatever you are wearing. Most Japanese come into the restaurant in suits and walk out without any sort of mess, but I always seem to come away with more spots on my sweatshirt. These spots don't come out and so it’s always a bummer when you get ramen spots on whatever you are wearing. That is the reason that Rebekah and I have ramen sweaters. I think both of us thought that we were the only ones and so we both agree that it’s pretty cool that we have them. Its will be a great souvenir to bring home and I'm planning on showing it off (along with my slurping skills). The pictures are from a recent visit to Eigi san's.

A love discovered in Japan!

Since being in Japan I have discovered my love for..........chocolate milk. I don't know what it is, but the smooth chocolaty taste of chocolate milk in my mouth is amazing. Before I came to Japan, I wasn't a huge fan of chocolate milk. I mean I liked it, but it wasn't something that I drank very often. However, that changed when I came to Japan. I don't really know how it started or where my first taste of such goodness occurred, but after the first couple of glasses of chocolate milk I was hooked. Almost every shopping list that I give to Louise has chocolate milk on it and if it doesn't, her or Nate will ask me if I still want it. Normally, the answer is “Sure, if you must.”

Many of you know that on Thursday nights we drive out to Ikego for youth group. It’s about a half hour drive out to Ikego and Nate and I always have fun conversation on the way over there. Q2, the name of our youth group in Ikego, is awesome right now and really is a highlight of my week. I always look forward to going there because the group of students that come are a lot of fun. They are asking really good questions right now and just have a lot of excitement when we play games and when we study God's Word. It has been cool to see each of them grow as individuals as they learn more about God.

A confession that I have and Nate can attest to this also, is that I also look forward to Thursday nights because I get to have chocolate milk. The little shoppette there always has chocolate milk (Well not every single time. One time I went there and they didn't have it and I almost cried. j/k) and its such a great snack before youth group. I also enjoy buying an extra one to stash in the refrigerator where our youth group is to bring home with me after. Many of the people at the Lighthouse have become fans of chocolate milk because of what I have shared with them, but all of them know not to touch my chocolate milk because I always write a big, "JEREMY'S: DON'T TOUCH!" Its necessary to write this because my food is in the big refrigerator and anyone can grab it at any time and get away with it. When my sister came and visited we went through a couple of cartons of chocolate milk and she too agrees that it is very good. I already told my mom that she will need to put chocolate milk on her shopping lists when I return home. If she doesn't though, I think that I will buy it myself. Wow, I didn't know I had very much to say about chocolate milk. It's good. You should try it sometime. But make sure you get the "California Sunshine Ultrafresh" kind because it’s the best!

Peter Pan!

I like Peter Pan. Many people ask me what I what to be when I grow up and I say Peter Pan. (Which can't really happen because Peter Pan never grows up.) I've put together a Peter Pan costume and even have video tape of me and my buddies watching Peter Pan back in the day.

Anyways, I recently got my own copy of Peter Pan. I remember one day about two years ago when I wanted to watch Peter Pan and I couldn't find the video. I looked all over the house, asked my whole family, but we couldn't find Peter Pan. Before I went home in December, somehow I found out that Disney was coming out with a two disc platinum edition Peter Pan and I couldn't wait. I put it on my list for Christmas, but soon found out that it wouldn't be released till March. I soon forgot about Peter Pan, until I went to youth group in Ikego and found it sitting on a rack in the little shoppette. I could hardly keep my excitement in. Nate and my sister can share with you about how excited I was. (I admit it. I really was acting like a little kid.) I walked out of the store with my own copy of Peter Pan and am so excited that I can watch it any time I want. It's such a fun movie and even though I haven't had a ton of time to watch it, I know that there are many times ahead of me where I will be able to sit back and think about not growing up.

Some Stylish Dogs

Another interesting thing about Japanese people is the way that they dress their dogs. As far as I understand, most dogs have a winter coat and a summer coat, but here in Japan the dogs are given their winter coats (even if they already have one of their own). I've seen more dogs here with coats and or little outfits on than I've seen in my whole life back in the States. Its kind of funny when I walk down the street and see a bunch of dogs all dressed up. You have to realize too that none or few of these people have yards and so all of these dogs are inside unless they are taken on walks. Anyways that's about all that I have on dogs for now. I hope you enjoy the pictures that I took of these stylish pets.