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Friday, 11 July 2008

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Thursday, 23 November 2006

The Ownsend (for the sake of not knowing how to spell it, i will call it an Ownsend)

alright, so if you go to japan, you have to find an ownsend (given first find a friend that you feel comfortable being naked around) :) ok, so there is this thing here called the ownsend. it's pretty much just a public bath/hot tub thing. so what you do is you take your shoes off (you always take your shoes off in japan, its very disrespectful to wear shoes in buildings that are informal, such as homes, or in the ownsend) and when you get inside this room, you strip to nothing but a long, thin towel by which you cover yourself with. the towel being a foot wide and about 3 foot long (not enough to truly cover yourself) and for the girls, i don't know exactly how you use such a towel to cover yourself but.... it will forever be a mistery to me. but then you go into this shower house in which you sit down on a bucket in front of the shower head thing and soap and shampoo, and you wash off, just like a normal shower, except in front of 50 of japanese guys, and sitting on a very short bucket. (somewhat awkeward) and so after you clean yourself, now you walk around to about 10 different styles of heated pools (all of these were natural hot springs) and you just sit and talk with the guys that you went with. of the 10, we ended up only going to 2 of the outdoor pools. but it was pretty cool, the guy we went with said they would go to the ownsend to relax after a long days work, and it was actually in only 2 places in which the employer could speak freely in front of the boss, 1 was in the bar when they would get drunk, and the other was in the ownsend. (understand that in japan, those who are in higher power than oneself are held in hi respect and are never talked to poorly) so it's a big culture thing to be in the ownsend. kinda weird but yet, really cool to be able to be a part of japanese culture. if you get the chance, go to an ownsend

Tuesday, 21 November 2006

Bidets are amazing!!!!

The Flight Over (Tuesday morning Nov. 21, 12:44 a.m. Japan Time)
So flying is pretty stinkin amazing. I especially liked taking off in the small plane. i liked it in the big plane too, just not as much. its amazing that a plane that big, with wings that look that heavy can even stay up in the air. especially when i can feel the pilot letting off of the throttle. the only thing i didnt like was the pressure change from the landing. it gave me a really bad headache and made my nose stuff up way worse than normal. but other than that it was a pretty good flight, not to mention the food wasnt too bad. but it kinda stunk because once we got into houston, we found out that the plane from europe was delayed so we had a 6-7 hour layover. so we didnt get into tokyo till late, and we missed our train. we just went to supper in this motel and we ate some kind of soup, none of us had any idea what it was, but it was thick and creamy, and had mushrooms in it. we decided dont ask dont tell. :)
ok, so really quick, fun story with the bidet. we dont have bidets in ogallala (if you dont know, a bidet is a toilet that pees backÂ (according to my dad) or .... shoots water back at you and cleans your tush. so we walk into this motel room in Narita (Tokyo) and in the bathroom is this toilet. never staying at a nice expensive motel like this, none of us knew what a bidet was, and so we pushed the buttons and this little plastic thing just appears out of the back of the toilet bowl like a worm coming out of the ground, and shoots water right at us all. ok, so picture the 4 of us Cami, Momma, Daddy, and me all standing around this toilet looking at it in ahhh (were in a foreign country, give us a break. everything seems cool when its different) and some foreign object pops out and shoots us. it was hillarious. :)
ok, i think im gonna go to bed. jet lag isnt too bad but the headache is. so untill next time!!
First post from Japan

wow, ok, so this was a pretty amazingly LONG trip to get here. but i guess it's halfway across the world, what else was i expecting. so, we ate curry yesterday. it was actually pretty good, i just had curry and pork and cheese, with of course rice (rice comes with everything here, even our hamburger on the plane). ummm, ooo, cultural thing. so far everyone has wood floors in their entrance and then in other various room they have some kind of a weaved mat. so what erica told us was, anytime you change a level, you have to change the status of your foot situation. so whenever you step in from outside and you take the first step into the house, you have to take off your shoes, and put on slippers. slippers provided, japanese size. :) i had to put on slippers that were about a size 5 in mens because that's the biggest they had. but more culture, when you go onto the weaved mats, you can't even wear slippers, you have to go stocking feet. ummm, ohh, no heaters. none of the homes use central heating, so when it get's cold at night, it just get's cold. you can't really do anything about it. but other than that, jet lag wasn't too bad, i'm hoping i can be able to stay up a little later tonight though. but things are going good, i'm sooooo happy to see my sister. it's amazing to be here. well, i'm off. (you get to hear a bidet story in my next entry) :) ttfn
Towellboy
p.s. (not as many people bow as i expected. but when they do it's really awkeward cause we don't know how to bow so we just opted not to bow. we stand out. not to mention the fact that in the train station, everyone (literally everyone except like 4, out of the hundreds) is wearing black suit and tie (including the women) and we're wearing colorful shorts and t-shirts)

Monday, 06 November 2006

Currently Watching
Save the Last Dance
By Julia Stiles, Terry Kinney
see related
so yeah, this last weekend i went to WOC, pretty fun, not the most amazing thing i've ever gone to but it was pretty cool. and plus i got to play a fun game of soccer with Ben which was great. but i'm still just as much of an idiot as i was before, (yes i've been an idiot for awhile) and i'm still not faithful to my creator, and i can't figure it out. i want to so bad, i want to be faithful, i want to be able to have complete trust in Him, but.... like Paul says, what i want to do, i do not do, but what i hate, I do... it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me." everytime i sin, it always seems like, there's nothing else i want more that moment than to sin, and so i follow through in my sin, and after i have committed the sin, nothing changes, it's like i was made content by my sin, and i finally realize the consequences of my sin. but i can't get away from it, it's not me, it's not what i want to do, it's not who i am, but yet it most definately defines parts of my life. it's like.... the end of a race, when you've finished, but you didn't push all the way, and you get 16th place, 1 away from medaling, and you think, if i had only kicked with the other person in the end and finished strong, i could have got a medal. and so the next race, you run, and you don't kick again and wonder why you didn't learn from the last time. i sin, and i realize, i didn't have to, there was nothing good about it, but yet within a short time, i commit the exact same sin, and nothing changes. so is it possible that it really is satan telling me what i want and trying to control my brain? "it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me" it's a tough thought, but, just needed to write instead of getting mad at myself.