1100 hours; The frozen North.
I transferred from the city up to
the most northern place in the island. It’s called Aomori which means blue
forest. There is a lot of snow and the snow is perfect for skiing. (Not that
I ever sometimes think about snowboarding.) My companion is a total
stud for Arizona. He is a wrestler and can do over 50 pull-ups. He has lats
that are ridiculous. He is super genki and loves to say hi to everyone. You
will all like him.
Fun food fact:
I am starting to forget what I have
told you about... but bear with me if you have heard this because I love it.
It’s called Nabe. Nabe is actually
just the name of the big pot you cook it in. It’s so basic... a giant pot of
boiling water that you put some type of flavor in. It can be anything from
Shoyu (soy sauce) to kimuchi (korean spicy pickled cabbage) and everything in
between. Then you put meat and cut up vegetables like cabbage, mushrooms,
greens, carrots, potatoes, tofu, sometimes noodles, meat... anything! Then when
it is done you eat it with a bowl of rice. It’s hot and fast and feeds lots of
people and can use all the leftovers in your fridge and its super good. My
favorite way is sukiyaki which has a flavor made with tons of dashi (bullion)
sugar, and soy sauce. Then you put in meat and hakusai (napa cabbage) and these
giant mushrooms, and then you take a bowl and you mix up a raw egg (I remember
when I thought that sounded so gross too but just trust me and try it) and you
take out the cooked meat and vegetables and you mix it in
the egg and you eat it... i am telling you it is sooo good!
Culture point:
So I am in an internet cafe right
now (this is the first time I have ever used one in my life) and there is
nothing very interesting or different (I think) about it. But next store is an
arcade and those are so exciting in Japan. There are normally like 50 little
kids running around all over and the machines are super packed and the volume
is turned up full blast on all the machines and it is just sooo loud! Japan
made Nintendo and so they obviously love games just as much as America. (they
don’t like shooting games as much as America I think but they like adventure
and "cute" games waaaay more) and you know those little robot arms
that you can use to grab a little toy? (We are eternally grateful alien guys)
those are way more popular here. But the prizes tend to be waaay better than
the ones in America.
Spiritual thought:
It’s Christmas/ :-) everyone check out
the "He is the gift video" here is a link! http://www.mormon.org/christmas of all the experiences in the scriptures of people in the
scriptures with Christ I find myself most similar to the experience of Enoch...
his is more exciting than mine, but I know from my own experience that through
Jesus Christ we can receive the forgiveness for our mistakes and the strength
to overcome our weakness. I recommend the whole chapter but some key verses
are:
4 And my soul hungered; and I
kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and
supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea,
and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the
heavens.
5 And there came a voice unto
me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.
8 And he said unto me: Because
of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many
years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go
to, thy faith hath made thee whole.
I know through Jesus Christ’s name we can receive peace.
Funny story:
So we came into town and didn’t
know anything about the area at all except for the fact that there was a Christmas
party that night at 5:30 and we were in charge of the game. But that the game
had already been prepared all we had to do was present it. So we get to the church
and find our game. He was in the back room waiting. It was a dark night, so I couldn’t
make out more than his general 2 and a half foot stature growing bigger
from the bottom to the top.... the name was frosty and he was cold.
A piñata was the Christmas game. (This
is what happens when you put a bunch of Americans and Australians in
charge of the Christmas party game in a country with no Christmas
traditions... they choose Mexican fiesta games. But he was pretty
impressive and I was stoked. (If we are all going to be honest everyone
loves a piñata no matter the time of year.) So I give him a heft... and I saw a
flash back of the Pocahontas of 96...
After 1 broken coat rack, 2 dented
ceiling tracts, and a couple chairs stacked up old frosty was dangling a bit to
the left but still dangling away in the middle of the stage. We had 3 bats
lined up and not a blind fold in site. This was not a game of tricks, this was
an exercise of strength... we call up the kids. First is lil Shokun he is like
3, but pretty coordinated, strong. We give him the bat and tell him to whack
away about ten times... the poor little guy takes a big back swing lets her go
and... thunk... his poor little hands hurt too much after 6 swings to want to
continue.. next comes the 4 year olds... the first bat broke around the 2nd
graders... frosty started to at least swing from the strikes of the 5th
graders... by the time the 7th graders got to him his nose did break to the
ground... everyone had stopped clapping around the 8th graders and the cheers
went from "candy candy" to "give it to him Johny!" "Pulverize
him!" Then came old Aichan (freshmen girl) and she just started wailing on
the top of his head over and over and over and bam... his rope snapped and he
just sat on the ground slightly bunched up unharmed sneering at us through his
broken nose with those little black eyes.. Aichan had destroyed the second bat
so it was on to the high school boys with the last bat... I won’t go into too
much detail but once he was on the ground like that only his head was a good
shot and the students finished it off....
His body was say to strong so I had
to break out a knife and just cut him open and throw the candy to all the
sweaty blistery handed children. Duct tape and cardboard are the worst idea for
piñatas!
Christmas pictures!
Christmas pictures!
Merry Christmas! Love each other
for me!
Law Choro
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