First Day of Class

First day of class! Yay?

Today I had my first Japanese class. I realize I’m terrible at kanji. But that’s ok! Maybe I will learn a bit while abroad.

This past week was pretty busy with orientation every day. I moved into my host family as well. I have a host mother and father as well as two older host sisters, though only one lives with us.

Here they are! They’re very nice. Actually the same family Mark Bocanegra stayed with last year.

Also they have a dog! His name is Kai.

Also went around to a couple places in Kyoto as part of orientation.

This is nanzenji (I think)

One of the auditors of my class is Yuuki, who I got to meet during orientation. There are auditors from Doshisha and Kyoto University taking some of our classes with us, so they had to come to part of our academic orientation. We then had to all go on a walking tour of Kyoto so that's when I got to chat with some of the auditors.

Anyhow, at the end there was a Buddhist blessing for all the students and Yuuki wasn’t participating so then I found out he was Christian and we both ended up just watching the ceremony from outside the temple. Anyhow, he’s a leader of a fellowship at Doshisha campus but his fellowship is really small, only 12 people. Only 0.5% of people in Japan are Christian.

But after the event, we were free to go but Jason Brown and I ended up hanging out with Yuuki for the rest of the day. We went to dinner where I got monjayaki for the first time.

We also had okonomiyaki. Yuuki ordered jumbo size. It was huge.

Also, after dinner, I found the most expensive dessert I have ever seen. It’s a parfait. The bottom one reads ￥18,000 (right now ￥100 is about $0.90).

Also, yesterday was Easter! I went to Easter service at Hope Chapel Kita. Service was good; a great reminder of the true meaning of Jesus’ resurrection. Service was almost Easter Bunny free but he made his appearance at the end as part of the snack ministry.

I went with Jason and my mom, though my mom had to leave shortly after service. Jason and I went to lunch with the church. This is the senior pastor, Pastor Ken.

Very suave guy as you can tell. Happy Easter!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16