Spring break has officially come. Yay!!! Another school year has been successfully completed. (The school year runs from April-March in Japan.) I can't believe that I only have one more term of school before I head back to the States. I'm sure that this time will fly bye.

It has been a time of goodbyes the past few days. On Monday, my friend Lena left to go back to the States. She has been serving in Shimonoseki with Pioneers for the past 2.5 years. She will be starting graduate school in the fall. The four of us that went to Korea this summer got together one more time for some fun and karaoke. We had a blast together! (And we are all decked out in green for St. Patrick's Day;)



On Tuesday, I had my graduated group of senior English majors over supper. Now that they are not official Baiko students they can wear make-up, dye their hair, pierce their ears, choose their clothes, etc. It was fun to see how they chose to dress. For supper, we made tacos together and then played Phase 10 well into the night. It was good to chat with them one more time before they scatter to different parts of Japan.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
May the rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

May there always be work for your hands to do,
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine warm on your windowpane,
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you,
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

We had a goodbye luncheon for Ono sensei today. She is retiring to take care of her elderly parents. I had the privilege of teaching chu-ich (7th grade) English with her. Ono sensei is kind and gentle yet full of energy and life. It is sad to see her leave. Students obviously enjoyed her classes. I will miss her too! She was fun to teach with and easy to work with. And she often brought treats and gifts to the English Lounge for the foreign English teachers. She's one of the most thoughtful people I've met in Japan.

As a side note, once we got to the wonderful Italian restaurant, the process of figuring out who was going to sit where started. It took a good full ten minutes to figure this out. Where you sit at a table is very important. It shows your importance. The honored guest and principal sat in the middle of the table, so the importance of people goes out from there. Needless to say, the foreign English teachers sat at the end of the table.

Happy White Day!!!

March 14, White Day, was invented by a confectioner in Fukuoka in1977. This is a day that men are supposed to give marshmallows to women in return for the Valentine's Day chocolate they received. Of course, many other confectionary shops have joined the band-wagon, so now White Day is celebrated all over Japan. Once Valentine's Day stuff is taken down, White Day stuff goes up. The red is replaced with blue.

I'm in mourning for my oven. It had been working just fine. Yesterday, I went to make cookies for my last chu-ichi special class. For some reason the tops were done but the bottom was still gooey. I couldn't figure it out, so I just switched to my microwave-oven. Well, tonight I wanted to make cookies for my last IIDE class tomorrow. I though I'd give the oven another try, but the same thing happened. I finally figured out the problem. The top heaters are working but the bottom coil isn't producing any heat. I'm not sure if anything can be done. I tried to wiggle the coil a bit but it didn't help. I guess I'm back to only baking cookies, and 4 at a time at that, in my microwave-oven. Zannen!

March 3rd was Hinamatsuri, Girl's Day. It is a day to celebrate girls in Japan and pray for happiness and healthy growth. Doll displays are set up in homes and special meals are had. Today I was invited for a Hinamatsuri party. We ate some special foods including a type of mixed sushi rice and a fish paste (with pictures of dolls on it). We ate a strawberry shortcake type cake for dessert. It was a fun time of talking, laughing, and music. The dolls in the pictures are about 70-80 years old.

Last night, at the Ladies Bible study we had a bit of a delay. Just as we were about to get started, the old man who takes care of the community center came in. He wanted to hear us sing. However, first he needed to show us the karaoke machine in the corner of the room. Then he pulled out some huge laser discs. He made sure to note that there were even some English discs for us. Next he turned on the TV, put the disc in the machine, plugged in the microphone, and started singing. Apparently, this old guy used to sing on the radio right after World War II.

Once the song was done and he started packing up the machine, we thought he was done. I went to the piano to start our Bible study time by singing a few praise songs. As I was finding a song, the old man hands me a piece of sheet music that he wanted me to play. We tried to tell him that maybe we could do it next week, but he would have none of it. So, I played the song and he hummed along. Then he gave me another song, which he sang along to. When he was done we told him that we would sing a song in English for him. We sang "Seek Ye First" and then started our study.

Our 30 minute delay was pretty hilarious! Hopefully, somewhere in all of it, we were able to extend God's love to this man.

Today was graduation at the high school. The service was 1.5 hours and involved many speeches and tons of bowing! It is sad to see these students go, but I'm also excited for them and the new adventures that are before them. Below are some pictures of students.

(On the left is a Japanese student with her mom who is wearing a kimono. On the right is a Korean student with her parents. Her mom is wearing a traditional Korean outfit.)