Unlikely Papists

In addition to challenging our ideas about acceptable food condiments (mayonnaise on pizza) and cold medication (Chinese herbs instead of NyQuil), living in Japan has forced us to rethink the North American notion of church shopping. A couple weeks ago, Kellyn and I decided to resume our search for a church home. Previous Sunday mornings spent trying to bumble our way through sermons and praise choruses in Japanese caused us to opt for the only English language church service in Sapporo: 12:30 mass at the downtown Roman Catholic cathedral.

Despite our attempt at an inconspicuous entrance, a 6’6’’ African acolyte approached us less than 45 seconds after we sat down in a pew near the back. After a warm hello, he asked if we would lead the Old Testament and Epistle readings for the day. Our perplexed stares caused him to open our service bulletins for us, point to the passages in Isaiah and Thessalonians, and repeat his question. We sheepishly consented and moments later found ourselves processing toward the altar in the company of the priest and said acolyte. Kellyn and I now made up two of the four people leading the mass. Wondering how we ended up here, I remembered someone once saying that we don’t find Jesus, he finds us. It must be roughly the same with Catholicism.
We stood altarside awaiting our cue. I glanced out at the pews and tried to guess how many of the 40 or so congregants knew that Kellyn and I had no idea what we were doing. Following the opening lines of the liturgy, Kellyn read from Isaiah and led the repository psalm as if she’d been a papist since birth. I then voiced my best rendition of Pauline prose into the microphone, after which we scurried back to our distant pew and spent the remainder of the service comfortably out of sight.

At the conclusion of the service, we were called to the front, asked to introduce ourselves to the congregation, and invited to practice Christmas carols with the international choir for Christmas Eve mass. Our acceptance of this invitation led to a meal and a three-hour practice during which I learned that I don’t know how to sing any other part but the melody, which isn’t helpful because I’m a baritone. We left the cathedral not sure if we were fully prepared to sing in the Christmas Eve mass, but, then again, we weren’t prepared to help lead the mass on our first visit either.

I’ve often heard that churches outside North America function more like families than country clubs, but, until two weeks ago, I didn’t understand that this might make church shopping a little more difficult. Our friends at the cathedral viewed us more as participants than onlookers, and I don’t think it would make much sense to them for us not to come back. This is perhaps a much-needed challenge to our conception of church hunting.

Thanksgiving and Christmas

We had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas! The season wasn't quite the same without our friends and family, but all in all we had a wonderful holiday season. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to send us various holiday items that helped make our celebrations so special. In addition, we are truly blessed every time we are able to talk with or receive an email from anyone back home.

Our non-turkey dinner turned out to be rather delicious. We weren't able to find all the necessary ingredients to make a complete traditional dinner, but we came pretty darn close. We had a chicken (thank you Costco), mashed potatoes, German potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and rolls. We also started with an appetizer of cheese, olives, and crackers and finished off the meal with pumpkin pie and yukimi daifuku (You might know yukimi daifuku as mochi. Mochi is actually just the rice that covers the ice cream.).


Christmas was just as memerable. For those of you who aren't aware, Joe was born on Christmas. We decided to celebrate his birthday a couple days before. Kellyn took Joe out to dinner then they returned to their house for birthday cake and presents. Christmas Eve was spent Christmas caroling (see next blog for more info). On Christmas day we made french toast for breakfast, read the Christmas story, opened our presents, went to the fish market to pick out our crab, then prepared dinner. Cooking and cleaning the crab was a new experience for both of us, but it went better than we thought. The crab was scrumptious as was the garlic mashed potatoes, salad, and chocolate pie (until the pie fell on the floor).

We had a wonderful holiday and we hope all of you did as well. You are in our thoughts and prayers. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Holidays in a Box

Last night we both got home after a rather long day at work and were looking forward to relaxing when we got our second knock on the door. The first knock was a plastic bag salesman. He came in the middle of cooking dinner... perfect timing. And about a hour after the first knock came the second. Initially, we thought Plastic Bag man was back for more. Thankfully, we were wrong. Since we were in the middle of dinner and we thought it was another salesman we dragged our feet in opening the door. When Joe finally did open the door what he saw was no salesman but our glorious mail carrier. He was just about to get back on his bike when Joe popped his head out. Thank you Lord for split seconds.

Turns out we had a rather hefty sized packed from our wonderful brother and sister-in-law, Chris and Kai. We had no idea what was inside so we tore into it with great excitement and curiosity. Like two children on Christmas day. The first item out of the box was a book. At that moment it became clear this box was indeed a care package. Kellyn could have stopped there; it was enough to know that the box was stuffed with little treasures, most of which can only be found in the States and it was stuffed full of love (cute line, huh?). Of coarse we didn't stop there. Within minuets the surrounding floor was covered with all kinds of treats. We won't name everything in the box, but here is a sample: pumpkin pie mix, taco seasoning, Christmas stockings, packages of thank you cards, salami, sharpie pens, books, DVD's, games, pictures and notes from them, and lots more.

We couldn't believe our eyes. All we could do was look at each other, laugh, and say "this is crazy." We truly feel blessed by their generous and thoughtful gift. THANK YOU CHRIS, KAI, OLIVIA, ANNA, AND MARY!!!

And thank you to everyone who has taken the time to send us a card, an email, or given us a call. It truly does mean so much us. Life is really good here and we aren't planning on rushing home anytime soon. However, we miss our friends and family as well as those "comfortable" things back home that we often take for granted.

The Hunchbacks of Hokkaido

At first, we thought it was kind of funny that our house was a little to small for our dinosaur sized legs but now we are a concerned for our health. No joke, we are afraid we might return to the States with hunchbacks. We realized most of what we do when we are home (besides sleeping) involves us hunched over. Our kitchen counter top, as you can see, requires no explanation.
Our living room table is the perfect height for a coffee table but not for a dinning table, computer table, movie screen, and an "all purpose" table. In addition, all the mirrors, sinks, and the fridge in the house require hunching. And finally, Kellyn gets the added bonus of sitting in chairs built for elementary school children the entire time she is at work.

Just so everyone is aware we are not complaining. We love it here. Our purpose in posting this blog is so that no one is frightened when we walk off the plane making Quasimodo look like Frankenstein compared to us.

Field Trips Equal Getting Kicked in the Crotch

Last Saturday Kellyn's place of work took a field trip with about 100 students to a Hokkiado fruit farm. Due to the large amount of kids and the small amount of teachers (100 kids, 8 teachers... and a couple bus drivers) Kellyn's boss, Mr. Ohtani, asked if Joe would be able to join the team. Since Joe doesn't work on Saturdays there was no way out for him.

We woke up at 5:30 on Saturday morning, hauled ourselves over to the office, drove another half an hour to meet our bus load of kids at their school. We were in charge of 20 students (Kellyn only knew about 6 of them from her classes). We eventually met up with the rest of the groups at a "fruit" park were we played "organized" games then had lunch. After a tour of the facility we headed off to the fruit farm where we were all allowed to pick apples off the tree and grapes off the vine. Although, we were quite exhausted by the time we reached the farm, picking the fruit was a unique experience. Since we have never had real/natural grapes straight from the vine this was the best part of the day. We never imagined that eating grapes would expose us to cultural difference as well. In Japan (and possibly other parts of the world) one doesn't eat the skin of the grape and all grapes have two or three seeds inside a very chewy and slimy nucleus. It took a while, but the grapes grew on us.

Now you might be wondering why going on this field trip equaled getting kicked in the crotch. Well, despite the adorable exterior of the children Kellyn works with lies a force of energy that manifests in the form of a punch or a kick. In addition, most of the arms of these children are in perfect position for punching a sensei dead on in the crotch. We haven't quite figured out why it is acceptable for a child to punch their teacher in the crotch, the stomach, the leg, or anywhere else for that matter, but it is. It is possible that these kids are an acception, but either way we knew a trip like this would not end without at least one child catching us off guard and making full frontal contact. Thankfully, not every student is this rambunctious. Some of them just want to hug you, some just want to play, and some just want to talk. Kellyn is getting use to this environment and has gotten pretty good at blocking the attacks. Unfortunately, there was one child in particular that seemed to have it our for Joe. This kid was a five year old wizard at the surprise attack. One time this child was blasting Joe from the back so Joe pulled him around the front thinking "If I have him in front, I will be able to better defend myself." Wrong. As the kid was being swung around he wound up his fist and let if fly. PUNCH to CROTCH.

Kellyn's now just waiting for the Holloween parties that are fastly approaching.

Izakayas and Explosions

This weekend was once again full of adventure.

Upon arriving to work last Friday Kellyn received an invitation to go out with her co-workers after work that night. Since Kellyn had no plans, since it is culturally important to accept and be a part of gatherings outside of work, and since she has no friends in Japan and is looking for friends under rocks and behind bushes she was in. Later that day during a break between classes her co-workers extended an invitation to Joe and the plans were made. This sort of a gathering meets at an Izakaya. Basically, a bar of sorts where friends or co-workers get together to eat and drink... a lot. They decided the best plan of action was to find a place that had a decently priced "all you can eat and drink." Apparently, many of these bars have a chunk of time in the evening where either food or drink or both are "all you can consume." They found a place in Susukino for 2,500 yen (about 25 dollars) per person and we decided to meet at 9:00 later that night. Joe had already been to a place like this during his training in Tokyo. He was not all that impressed. But, nonetheless we were excited about the chance to hang out with people who spoke English and were closer to our age. Once the whole group arrived they turned the night into a "welcome Kellyn and Adam to Give Us English Academy" shindig (Adam started working at Give Us about a month ago). The whole night was a lot of fun. There was lots of food, some new things, some interesting things, and some delicious things. Everyone was forced to give a speech, joke were told, and Kellyn really felt like she got to know her co-workers better. What a great way to start a job!

Now for the explosion: Sometime late Sunday morning Joe went to start up the shower. Now, starting up the shower is no easy process. It involves multiple steps, many tries, and some tears from time to time. Kellyn was in a different room but could hear Joe give the shower a second or third try. Then all of a sudden KABOOM!!! Kellyn rushed to the shower to find everything intact but a very worried look on Joe's face. We are not quite sure what happened but something inside the shower heater blew up. Since it was Sunday there was nothing we could do. On Monday Joe told the proper authorities from work and they came over to the house to take a look. Within seconds they told Joe to not touch it and they would call a professional to fix the shower. Please God, let them fix the shower today! Tomorrow is a Holiday so if they can't fix it today, we're looking at either going four days without a shower or shampooing our heads in the sink. Neither are positive options.

A Three Day Weekend

We just finished a three day weekend and boy was it fun. Although nothing drastically out of the ordinary, it was simply a great end to one week and a perfect beginning to another. We have found ourselves enjoying classic movies as of late so we took the extra time to knock out a few more. We watched Cleopatra, Psycho, and Lifeboat. All three were good, however Cleopatra was insanely long (Joe fell asleep for about an hour and a half in the middle). Joe loved Psycho and the conversation that followed the movie was worth the fright for Kellyn. Lifeboat was interesting but maybe not a movie we would run out and buy for our personal collection. The rest of the weekend was spent lounging around, sleeping in, going grocery shopping, experimenting with new foods, trying to make Kellyn's computer run better, exploring Nakajima Koen, and playing poker. The last two were the most fun.

Nakajima Koen (park) is quite near our house. In fact, when we get off the subway we are on the edge of the park. While we have walked through a small section of the park we have never fully explored it until this weekend. Within the park lies the Sapporo Concert Hall, a museum of literature, a place to rent rowboats, a Shinto shrine, a beautiful hotel, and of coarse the park itself. While walking through the park an older woman stopped us and had us take a huge handful of chestnuts from a bag. She spoke no English and either didn't care or ignored us when we said we didn't speak much Japanese. She kept talking and talking to us in Japanese and then wanted us to respond. All we could do was hold onto our chestnuts and laugh. Eventually, she gave up and we walked in the opposite direction. Thanks for the chestnust! Apparently, the park was built when the Olympics blew through Sapporo. We say, "Well done city of Sapporo. It's a beautiful park."



Now for the poker. Kellyn has never played poker before but we had a deck of cards and it was about time that we start playing with them. Joe had a basic knowledge of the game and brought up some directions for Kellyn to glace at if needed during the first few rounds. Well turns out Kellyn is a natural poker shark. The current score: 3 to 0. For our second game we decided to make it a little more interesting. We bought some of our favorite snacks and used them as our chips. Butter-Bread sticks were worth 1, white chocolate filled pretzles were worth 5, and milk chocolate covered almonds were worth 10. Kellyn won that game with a four Kings, but she shared her winnings with her teacher, husband, and greatest fan.

Our Home

This is a video of our house. The quality is pretty bad because we had to compress the file so it would load, but you get the basic idea. Our house is old but we love it.

Kellyn's New Job!

Yes the rumors are true, Kellyn now has a job in Japan.

Around the time we first arrived Joe found a posting on a JET forum website looking for an American or Canadian native speaker, living in Sapporo, and who is preferably a female. The job was teaching English to primary school children. We immediately emailed this woman but we didn't hold our breath since the post was put on the forum last spring. Well about a week or so later we received a response, not from the woman Alison, but from the director of the school. The director explained the position was already filled but he still wanted an interview. We sent him Kellyn's resume and set up an interview. We ran out to UniQlo to buy a "profession" outfit, practiced formal Japanese greetings, and thought through how to answer all the typical job interview questions.

Well, the interview was on Wednesday at 1:30. The subway ride took about 45 minuets and right before Kellyn left thunder, lightning, and a whole lot of rain hit Sapporo like a bag of rice. Thankfully, the building was easy to find and Joe didn't take the umbrella that morning. Kellyn arrived to early to be "professionally" early for the interview so she found a quiet corner to sit and fanned herself (terribly humid that day). Then 1:15 rolled around... it was go time.

Kellyn asked around until she found the director's office. He was not back from lunch but arrived moments later. When he walked in Kellyn expected the typical Japanese formal greeting but no such greeting happened. In fact, the director simply confirmed is she was Kellyn then walked away. When he came back he ushered her into his office for the interview. They ended up chit-chatting about everything from hobbies to the differences between Seattle and Sapporo. Apparently, he lived in the States for five years and goes back every year to visit. The interview was very informal and probably shouldn't even be called an interview. After they were done chatting he jumped into wages, hours, and a small description of the job. It was at this moment Kellyn realized the job was hers if she wanted it. Once the details had been established Kellyn was informed that her training would start that day. She met with another teacher who taught her TPR (Total Physical Response) a teaching method for ESL children. Then Kellyn was handed over to another teacher who was about to teach a class that Kellyn was meant to shadow/assist with. There are about four other schools that the teachers travel between so they hopped into a van and took off for this other school.

The class had five students all around the age of 5 and they were adorable! For the most part Kellyn just copied what the two other teachers did but she was expected to hold her own when it came to TPR. In fact, the director drove over to the school (a 20 minuet drive) to observe Kellyn in the classroom. The class went well and the one of the teachers was very encouraging. The director then drove Kellyn to the nearest train stop and confirmed she could start on Monday.

Training last 7 days and if Kellyn passes she will have a secure job and one that pays well. The position is only for 16 hours a week but hopefully more hours will open up.

We are very excited and thankful this job came along. It was the first one we looked into but it sounds perfect. Thank you Lord!

Our First Guest

A few months ago Kellyn ran into an old friend from high school at the mall. While talking they discovered they would be in Japan at the same time. They made plans for Sarah to come up to Sapporo and stay with Kellyn and Joe for a few days. We took Sarah through Odori Park and while we were there we noticed a camera crew from a local TV station. They had gathered a bunch of kids from the park and were getting shots of them interacting with the characters. When the crew saw us they decided to gets shots of us as well. They had the characters, Five and Finee, stand behind us while we shouted in unision "We love Hokkaido!" Only we said it in Japanese.
Sarah was with us for two days and three nights. We had such a blast. We took her through Odori park, to see the Eiffel Tower TV Tower, to Ramen Alley, all around Susukino, to the Nijo Fish Market, the Factory Mall, and around our neighborhood.


Probably the most exciting element our her time with us was completely unplanned. The first morning Sarah was here she asked if we could take her to a hospital. Sarah's throat had been sore for a while and now the left side of her neck was a little swollen and sore. Sarah had just come from Thailand where she volunteered for a month. In about a week she would meet up with a friend and they would spend the next three months traveling throughout S.E. Asia. We didn't want her condition to worsen before she left Japan so we went to the hospital that morning. Apparently, hospitals are not "open" on Sundays. They have a limited staff for emergency situations. Thankfully Sarah had travelers insurance and we were able to find a nurse that spoke decent English. In addition, while we were waiting for the doctor to arrive a couple visiting a patient walked through the lobby where we were sitting. All three of them spoke English (although the man had lived in Australia for a while and spoke English fluently). The couple went with Sarah to her appointment and translated between her and the doctor. While we waited the Japanese patient waited with us. Turns out this woman has traveled through the States and attends a Catholic church in Sapporo. She was wonderful! We enjoyed our conversation with her so much we are planning on meeting her at her church next Sunday. She gave us her phone number, directions to the church, and then bought us drinks from the vending machine. The doctor explained Sarah has a viral infection in her lymph nodes and gave her some antibiotics. We returned to the hospital the next day for a check up and the doctor ushered us not to be worried.

We enjoyed having Sarah with us so much. She was the perfect house guest, it was fun taking her around, we loved having someone to talk to, and Kellyn loved having an old friend to catch up with. It's possible we may have smothered her a little, but we were just so excited to have her.

We Have Found the Mother Ship

All of our wildest dreams have come true. We're talking peanut butter, salsa, muffins, and Costco pizza. It was strange wondering through the land of bulk foods, we really almost felt like we were back in Kirkland yet there was something distinctly different. For starters, the place was rather empty and very quiet, we were still the only white people in the building, and there were no samples. We were so thankful when we got off the bus and saw the big, block, letters that read "Costco." However, this all came at a price and we're not just talking yen (although our total was pretty chu-ching). We were very proud that we were able to find it. The subway ride was rather complicated and the bus ride took over a half an hour. The return excursion was a whole other story.
After we had our dinner (the pizza taste almost exactly the same) we packed up our goods into our backpacks, with the exception of a pie and box of macaroni that wouldn't fit, and headed out the door. Now this night was our first night riding the bus, since we were so excited to get to Costco we didn't stop and think about figuring out the rules and routes for bus riding. Turns out this was our first mistake.
Basically, we got on a bus that headed in the right direction to start but within a few blocks had us going in the opposite direction of our subway destination. We made the decision to get off the bus and walk to a route we knew wouldn't fail us. This walk turned out to be a hour hike, in the dark, and carrying our Costco sized groceries. In addition, not only we were weighted down but strolling at a leisurely pace was not an option. We were concerned that if we didn't move quick enough we might not make it to the subway before it closed for the night which meant either spending a lot more money on a cab or walking four hours to get home.
At one point, while walking through a dark and quiet neighborhood a cabdriver spotted us. At first we kind of laughed because he clearly was trying to get our attention by slowing down and waiting for us to catch up with him. We were not interested in paying that kind of money so we walked passed. However, this guy was persistent. He drove up and down the street maybe three or four times and each time waited for us to catch up to him. One time he even turned around, drove down a driveway, waited at the end of the driveway until we passed, and then drove back out on the street. We both were a little freaked out by his aggressive approach but he eventually got the hint and took off.

Thankfully, we used our skills in reading a Japanese map and made it to another bus stop that was sure to take us to the subway. We got a little nervous when it was late cause we knew if it didn't come we were literally going to sprint to make the subway. But it came and we made it to the subway with plenty of time to spare.
In the end, it was all worth it. The little jar cost us almost $5 on sale at the foreign food store whereas the larger jar is about $8 and almost four times as much. What a great deal! It's a little embarrassing how much we love Costco right now.

Bring on the Snow!

So we don't really mean that, but whether or not we want it winter is coming. Today's date is August 23, 2008 and we no longer feel cozy going outside in a tee-shirt and shorts. After walking ten feet out of our front door we turned around to grab our coats. Sad but true, summer is over and before we know it the snow will come. One of Joe's students told him Sapporo gets about four to six yards of snow each year. Insane. We'll let you know if this student was right in about seven months. One might wonder what Sapporo does with all that snow. Well apparently, the snow is loaded up into dump trucks that transport the snow to a magical land outside of the city.It's possible the snow will reach the top of our house. It'll be fun living like Eskimos.

Nothin' like a chilled August walk to the grocery store. We are beginning to think we are a couple of weenies.

Success. Full Sucess!

There have been a handful of victories that we are particularly proud.

First, figuring out how to hook up our internet even though most of the directions and prompts were in Japanese. We are increasingly thankful for pictures and drawings. Second, Joe's first day at work. He was prepared, the students were great, and the whole day went smoothly. Third, becoming better and more confident in ordering food at restaurants. After Joe's first day at work (and receiving our first paycheck) we thought it was time to celebrate. We left behind our day to day meals of rice or noodles in exchange for Japanese Domino's. The cheapest pizza was the American Special, which we were already excited about since it was pepperoni and onions... perfect! Fourth, getting better at riding the subway/public transportation. When Joe got home after his first day of work we decided to try and make it to a government office downtown before it closed at 5:00 so we could pick up some paperwork that was ready. We were able to make it from our home to the building in about 15 minutes. Of coarse this meant sprinting from our house to the subway, then trying to weave our way through the hundreds of business people and students at our transfer, and then sprinting again once we reached the street. The best moment was when we realized the office didn't close until 5:15. Nonetheless, we were proud of our subway riding capabilities. Finally, being able to take out money from the ATM and not having our cash card removed. Since Joe doesn't get off work until the ATM's and the banks are closed Kellyn was in charge of taking out the necessary funds. Apparently, Japan works mostly in cash. In addition, our ATM is not open 24 hours a day. Since Kellyn does not have her own cash card, doesn't have the same last name as Joe, and doesn't speak Japanese it didn't seem like a good idea to try and convince a teller that she could indeed take out money from Joe's account. This left the ATM. In all confidence Kelly ventured to the ATM, walked up to the machine, and did her very best to extract the proper amount of money. However, she failed. After pushing a handful of mysterious buttons the machine froze. Thankfully, the ATM's are easily seen by bank employees and one very nice lady came to her rescue. After some time the machine unfroze and she walked Kellyn through the process. Success!

There are many more experiences left to conquer... like tackling the post office, figuring out how to speak Japanese, finding a church, and wrapping up our cleaning project. We are quite pleased with ourselves, as is obvious by the Domino's celebration, yet we look forward to the adventures that are still before us.

Raindrops on Roses and Something with Mittens...

A list of some of our favorite things (in Japan):

• The Engrish we encounter. "Facial tissue, nicer to your skincare. All comfort and contentment are yours."
• The random summer festivals
• Instant ramen
• Playing two-person Catch Phrase
  
• Reading Silence together
• Riding the subway
  
• Having a western bed to sleep on
• Bowing in place of speaking Japanese
  
• Japanese ice cream, fizzy drinks, 1$ snacks, and the convenient stores where we purchase these treats

• 

• The internet
• Exploring our neighborhood
• The bakery at Tokyu
• People who speak English to us
• And the over sized crows. Okay, we don't actually like those, but they are crazy to look at.
  

I'm sure our list will grow as time goes on.

Craziest Night So Far

It's story time...

A few days ago we decided to run down to Tokyu (our favorite grocery store) to buy some groceries. When we got down there around 4:00pm the street in front of the store was closed off and we soon realized a summer festival was in the works. There were beer and food vendors along the sidewalks, two tall towers in the middle of the street set up for the musicians, and over our heads zigzagging across the street were multicolored streamers. Although the festival had not started yet we new it was going to be a night we didn't want to miss. So we decided to buy our groceries, take them home, and come back for the festival. We thought it would be fun to find some dinner at the festival, taking our chances with the local festival food.

When we got home after grocery shopping we were both pretty tiered and talked about staying home, however Kellyn insisted on venturing out and eating dinner at the festival. Well, when we arrived this is what we saw.

Basically, both sidewalks were lined with people eating, drinking, and watching the dancers. Apparently, the entertainment at this festival consists of a giant circle of people repeating a traditional dance. At this time, it was mostly children dancing with their parents helping them along as can be seen in the picture. We were standing at the end of the street where the line of people turned to go down the other side (they put that yellow crate there so the kids would keep the circle). After watching the dance for a while we decided to wander through he vendors and find our dinner. Within a minute of walking through the crowd we were stopped by an older Japanese man who handed us two robes and lead us out onto the street. He spoke no English but made it clear that he wanted us to join the line of dancers. We had no idea what to do so we put the robes on and followed his every move.
Thankfully, the dance wasn't that hard and we repeated the same moves over and over again. The foot work was a little tricky, but at least we were smart enough to figure out that as long as you take a step forward on beat we'll survive. At the center of this group of dancers was a tall tower with the musicians, mostly Japanese drummers, pictured below.
This is the man that gave us the robes and lead us to the street. He started out in front of Kellyn but after a lap or two moved behind Joe and left Kellyn to copy the woman in front of her. He put us in between a group of women that had the same robes on as us. We still don't know why they were all wearing the same robes... maybe some kind of club. We have no idea but for the rest of the night we stuck real close to them and pretended we were a part of their group.
Eventually, the dancing stopped. We thought the whole thing was over and started to take of the robes. Our mistake. The man motioned to us that we were not done yet. The break was for the the children to receive their treats. All the kids sat on the ground and waited patiently for an adult to present them with a bag of what we assumed was candy. While this was going on we stood in the street and waited for our next instructions. After a few minuets we decided it was okay to once again try and find something to eat. We noticed one of our clan was waiting in line at a booth so we thought it was fine for us to do the same. We were wrong, the man stopped us again from breaking loose. A moment later, a woman (one of our group) handed us two cups of beer then gave the change back to our friend. We thanked him very kindly for the gift but were once again confused as to what we were suppose to do next. So we moved out of the way of onlookers and drank our beer. Eventually, the dancing started again. Only this time no kids were involved and all the dancers appeared to be wearing some kind of traditional dress. However, the dance was the same. Well, we weren't even halfway done with our beer when our friend motioned us to join the line of dancers once again. So we ditched our beer and began to dance.
After a few laps another Japanese man approached us and made the universal sign to us for camera/taking a picture. What did we do? We handed him our camera and proceeded to dance while he followed us through the crowd of people trying to get that perfect shot of us dancing. Success. Full success! Every so often the music would die down and someone on a microphone would make an announcement in Japanese. Each time we hoped he was saying the dancing would stop but that didn't happen. As before we were placed in between our club with our friend dancing two club members in front of us. At one point, our friend tried to step out of the dance but the woman behind him had perfect reflexes and grabbed his robe swinging him back in line. We think its safe to say she was looking out for us and didn't want him to leave the foreigners to fend for themselves. We have no idea how long we danced (the same repetitive dance) but we think it went for about a half an hour. Imagine doing the Electric Slide for a half an hour and thats kind of where we were. After a while we gave up hope of this dance ever ending, but it finally did. Our friend approached us and motioned for our robes. We handed them back and assumed the night was over. We were wrong. As we started to walk away, he stopped us and had us wait until he handed off the robes to another member. He motioned us to follow him. Again, we had no idea what to do so we went with him, thinking we were going to end up on a Japanese game show or something of the like. Thankfully, we didn't end up on a game show, but we got pretty close. He led us down the street to a small bar where a couple of his friends were already waiting. By the end of the night the bar was filled with his friends/acquaintances with us as the center of entertainment. Of coarse as Japanese hosting goes, our friend bought us a round of beer followed by a plate of Japanese bar specialties. The plate included a slice of watermelon, some kind of deep fried bean, and squid. Thankfully, we were able to eat everything on our plate (and finally get some food in our stomachs). After we were done eating the bartender put a little gadget in front of us. It looked like the credit card machines grocery stores have in the States, only we knew right away thats not what it was. We pretended to play dumb for a while but after the entire bar insisted, Joe embarked on his first karaoke experience. They figured out how to find the songs in English and Joe sang "All You Need is Love" by the Beetles. Kellyn of coarse was terrified and only sang on the chorus. There were three screens through out the bar with one directly in front of us.
After Joe sang his song, he passed the microphone to our friend who initially refused but the bartender (who seems to be friends with this group) insisted. Needless to say, our friend got up and sang a song in Japanese. We didn't get the memo that when you sing karaoke you stand up so everyone can see you.
Through out the rest of the night various people sang, usually after being prompted by a friend. One guy actually sang a song in English, we didn't recognize the song but he seemed very pleased with himself. One of the best parts of the evening happened when they were trying to make conversation with us (the bartender and another man had a decent amount of English and were able to translate a little bit). Apparently, the group thought we were brother and sister. To communicate that we were married Joe gave Kellyn a kiss on the cheek. They crowd went wild for this, then our friend did the same with his wife sitting next to him. After this they made us slow dance while someone sang a love song. As the Japanese way goes, they kept offering to refill our glasses. We were able to refuse a few times but they were quite persistent. One gentleman who joined the crowd a little late ordered us another round, to which we said "we're okay." The bartender said, "It's a gift" and poured our glasses. Turned out, we saw this man at the festival. He was wearing a gold sequined kimono with no undershirt. It was awesome! This should give an idea of what kind of people they are.

Well, after another beer and many refusals at sake we decided it was time to go. Joe had the bartender explain that he had work in the morning so we must be off to sleep. But, before we left they wrapped up some watermelon for us and made sure we understood to come back tomorrow at 7:30 to meet up with them. We said goodbye, bowed, shook hands, and left. We were to scared to return the next day, we're pretty sure they would have put us on a game show if we went back.

By far one of the craziest experiences of our time here. But, it makes for a good story.

Just a Quickie...

We've been dying to blog about some of our crazy stories (we promise the one about the karaoke bar is amazing) but today is not the day.

We returned to our favorite grocery store, Tokyu (toek-u), to stock up on groceries. And when we say stock up we mean fill up one of those "single person" baskets. We have yet to find an American sized shopping cart... they just don't exist. Winco seems to be a figment of our imagination. Oh well. We bought some chopsticks, snacks (we have no idea what the snacks are, but they taste good), ingredients for stir fry, and instant ramen (basically Top Ramen). MMMmmmm, yummmie. Only today we did notice that wheat bread does exist in Japan. However, the bag had three slices in it. Not a good selling point for us.

In a short while we will head downtown for a little exploration. We want to check out whats called the Nijo Fish Market and the Sapporo Factory Mall. Kellyn is very excited about the fish market! Think the fish section of Pike Place Market.

This is our last day before Joe has a few days of training and then officially starts work. No more vacation.

Also, we contacted a women regarding a job that might be a good fit for Kellyn. We'll see.

No Pictures Quite Yet... But Soon.

So we ran into some problems with my computer which means for a while our blogs will be without pictures (since all of our pictures on on Kellyn's computer). Sorry for the inconvenience, but here goes:

For Kellyn the plane ride went well. No major problems. In fact, everything went better than expected. None of the airlines charged Kellyn for the extra piece of checked luggage and once she landed in Osaka her bags were checked through to Sapporo. Joe waited for Kellyn at baggage claim in Sapporo with some dinner and a cardboard sign that read "wife". It was a great moment! However, Kellyn had to wait on one side of a glass wall for her luggage while Joe had to wait on the other side with dinner and the sign. But once the luggage arrived we were reunited and everyone at the airport cheered. Well, that last part didn't really happen but it was still a great moment.

Our home is wonderful! It is a little old and not totally up to our cleanly standards but it's a good size and has everything we need (including a guest room for visitors). However, the first few nights were kind of rough. We didn't have a bed for the first week or so, which meant sleeping on the floor. For the first night Kellyn slept on the couch and Joe slept, well, on the floor with our winter coats for padding and warmth. The next day Joe's supervisor, Watanabe, drove us to a home furnishing store, Nitori, where we purchased a bed. Although we bought our new bed along with pillows, a comforter, and mattress pad the bed would not arrive for about a week. This meant we were camping out on the floor with our mattress pad. Needless to say one of the best moments since we have arrived was when our bed came.



So far we had done some exploring and experienced many "firsts." For instance, our first sushi and ramen, our first home cooked meal, our first time in Susukino (the downtown area), our first taste of Japanese ice cream, our first summer festival, our first time exploring our neighborhood, and our first time in a karaoke bar (and yes Joe sang). Some of these stories will be explained in more detail in up coming blogs. But for now we must be off to more exploring.

We're Finally Here!

So this has been long overdue but we are finally in Japan and life is going well. No major problems yet, just trying to settle in. We feel really excited about our small accomplishments like setting up our internet (even though everything was in Japanese), getting a bed (the floor was starting to get uncomfortable), buying groceries (food is out of control expensive), and finding our way through the subway (they don't have subway maps posted at any of the stops). We are the minority and as the title of our blog suggests we stick out like the tall, white, oddities that we are. However, every person we attempt to talk with has been friendly and to our knowledge we haven't socially offended anyone yet... we hope.

We already have plenty of stories and pictures we will post in blogs soon to come. But, for our first official blog we would just like to say: we are happy, healthy, and looking forward to the new adventures that await us.