Samurai Girl

In March I had a really cool experience being able to do a special tour guided day around Kurayoshi. A friend of mine advertised a cool event, basically $20 for an all day traditional Japanese ‘experiences’ tour. To start the day we went to an old shrine and were dressed in traditional samurai wear. It was pretty epic, we also walked around town dressed in the armor so we got a lot of stares. It is not common to dress like that, and we were 95% foreign, so it was a sight! Next we went into the mountains and made fresh soba noodles from scratch. It was a lot of work, and was fairly delicious. I probably wouldn’t roll out noodles again tho, I’m too lazy. Next we headed to a tatami shop and made small tatami mats. It was a cool memento of the whole day, and it’s in my apartment now with a candle and picture frame on it, it’s pretty cute actually.

Lastly we headed to an outdoor mixed onsen. Oh my goodness this onsen was stunning! The outdoor pools looked out onto the sea, amazing!! Thankfully this onsen was mixed so bathing suits were necessary, and since NHK was filming us the entire day this was a good thing!! Apparently the special aired all over southern Japan for about 20 minutes, it was meant to promote tourism in Tottori. I had teachers talk to me about it after, so I was definitely on TV J #Famous
I am pretty thankful for experiences like this, it is hard to believe that I live in this country sometimes. As hard as it can be to live in a completely foreign culture it is so special to think about the way I am getting a real taste of this culture. This is a really cool chapter of life, as I am starting my ESL career and fulfilling my wanderlust desires in part. 

 <--I made that!!

Finding Joy

This past week has been kind of hard. The constant humidity is frustrating, and the fact that the a/c is set at 28 inside my school doesn't help either. I don't like feeling so effected by the weather, so after a nice skype chat with my mom and my bf I felt a bit better and decided that a mini break was needed. A friend was heading into a nearby prefecture to take the JLPT so I decided to go with her, for the break. It was so relaxing! We trained into Matsue and enjoyed chatting and relaxing for about 2 and a half hours. Then we wandered over to the nearby movie theater and watched Malificent. It was a cute movie and such a nice way to feel like I was back home! There is a cinema here but it has played two English movies in 11 months. Yes, I am serious! After the cinema we shopped, ate a delicious curry dinner and got Starbucks. My train ride back was even longer but it was so relaxing to spend half my day on a train listening to music. I completely relaxed! Today I decided to go to church too. Some weeks it is hard to be motivated to go, as no one in my building goes. However every time I get to church I am welcomed in and the sweetest woman translates for me. It is always a blessing! There are two foreigners- myself and a lady from Finland who is a missionary. It is nice to have found a home church here, even though it is sometimes lonely to go by myself it is also important. At home a big part of going to church was the social aspect and here if i go to church it is truly because I want that to be a part of my week. I want to fellowship with other believers and learn something. So as hard as it is to get out of bed I know that without this Christian connection I would probably feel even more down.
God always walks with us, even when we feel alone. Even when I feel upset about my life here God is there. He is there in skype dates with my family, conversations with friends here. He is in the setting sun as I run along the river and he is present as I share cute moments with students. He cares about me, even when I don't deserve it. 
I have a lot of good things to look forward to. In two weeks Dan comes to visit and in a month I will be in England celebrating my best friend getting married and visiting my old YWAM base! I can't wait to be drinking a beer again at the Jolly Tanner!