Today we went to two separate work sites. Anybody remember those highly dangerous weed whackers our chivalrous men desirous of stealing all the fun for themselves wouldn't let us women use last year? Yeah, well, some women got to use them this year. Cal Cummings even showed up and showed me how to. I whacked merrily away for about ten minutes and then got distracted by a tree frog.
Actually, we had finished our work for the day by then--I just like wielding dangerous objects.
Anyways, one team weed whacked somewhere and the other team (my team) went to a local pepper farmer's field and picked large rocks out of one small-ish field.
We came home, weary and filthy, to find Edie Cummings preparing yakisoba for us all; it was oishii desu (delicious)!
It was full of moyashi (bean sprouts), carrots, meat, mushrooms, soba (buckwheat noodles), and had pickled red ginger on top. Yet another popular Japanese dish I hadn't had before, but now have! It was awesome.
Edie is our hero. And for more reasons than the fact that she cooks us food! She and Cal are always so cheerful and encouraging and fun to work with. They're a great blessing to everyone who knows them.
On a semi-related note, Yui is sort of the acting head of the Nozomi center and a small force of nature. She works constantly and is always willing and enthused to help people in the area. This morning she and some of our team left early to help a neighbour in her garden. Yui has been getting to know this lady for a while now (her husband died in the tsunami), and was amazed that this morning the neighbour expressed interest for the first time in learning more about the Christian faith. This neighbour lady has felt that her duty is to encourage her neighbours by always staying cheerful, but she's had a hard time keeping up this facade. Now our team is here and has been encouraging her by helping her out, and that blessing has helped along God's work in opening her up to the gospel.
Hooray!
Yesterday we worked at the pepper farm and at a strawberry farm. I joined the strawberry team and the Otsubos (the farmers) set Amanda, JB, and me to potting stray strawberry plant runners while the rest of the team helped work in another greenhouse. To amuse ourselves we former three debated paedo baptism over credo baptism and talked about how annoying the general public can be (from a worker's viewpoint).
Monday (yesterday) was only a half-day because we were hosting a concert for the community featuring Rutsuko Honda, a nationally famous Japanese gospel singer. She was beautiful, very sweet, and had a very clear, lovely voice. For those of you who are keeping up to date on my posts, this is what the late-night cake-baking was for that I mentioned in my last post.
Yet again it is late and my brain is dying! Also, I have weirdly-mottled sunburn on my legs due to lazy sunscreen application early in the day.
So! Pictures!
At the concert. Joe, Anna, Ethan, Mike, Cal, and Honda-san with her guitar.
Concert in progress.
Lyrics for a couple songs. I was pretty psyched I could read a good deal of it. Understanding it was a completely different matter.
We were cleaning up and decided to lock Joe in the chair closet. He stayed quietly in there for a good ten minutes before we got bored and let him out.
This morning, getting ready to head out.
Ethan looking perplexed.
Anna looking cheerful.
Joe, Mike, Yui, and Amanda working at the pepper farm.
Ken doing karaoke.
Some of the appreciative audience.
*For those of you who don't know, Japan has toilets with so many buttons they'll soon be able to cure cancer with the push of a button, or send a small person to the moon...
The arm of your average toilet in Japan.
Still not enough buttons, you say? Japan has got you covered.
Japan also, though, has "squat pots"...
Not our idea of fun.
Now imagine the horror of a porta-potty... only with a squat pot. Ethan dubbed these terrors "porta-squatties," and has caused me endless mirth because of it. I had to share my joy with you.
Thank you, and goodnight.
Yakisoba is that microwavable noodle dish I always loved to eat in college... but I'm sure it's completely different from the real stuff. It seems like you tried it at one point though...
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to know what bean sprouts are! They're really common here. I believe the pickled ginger is called geri.
Honestly, you should be glad that you can't understand the gospel song. It's cheesy on a level that I doubt any other language can achieve.
A friend of mine who lives in Japan says that Japan has the best and the worst toilets in the world. Vietnam also has some pretty complicated toilets actually, but of course Japan still puts it to shame.
There's a recipe for Yakisoba in the More with Less Cookbook. However, it doesn't call for buckwheat noodles (which I'm sure weren't available in teh 70's but now are)or pickled ginger. I'll have to try that addition.
ReplyDeleteI think it's healthier to poop squatting. I read that somewhere. But I'd think it causes "pants problems," as in having to remove them entirely for the procedure!
I think I am more intimidated by the high-tech facilities than by what Miss Language tells me are called Squatty Potties in China. She assures me the ones on trains are just awful. I am content to take her word for it. :) If you know who I am, you can wave hi to Cal and Edie for me... we met them about 8 years ago at OPC youth camp and so I imagine you really ARE having a wonderful time.
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