Chris & Abbie

The other day we went for a walk up the hill that is behind our house. After only a 10 minute walk we could see our whole town and we found some interesting Japanese Culture near the picnic area. Everything is so green here now that Spring has come!

We found this along the way, we're not sure what it is exactly.

This is our town - Funehiki

Our house is in this picture - the brown building, with the black roof. (Good luck figuring that out!)

This is what we found at the top of the hill

Last Wednesday was a national holiday here in Japan, so everyone had off school for the day! Our host family here took us to Nasu Highland Park, an amusement park. It was a fun day and it was nice to spend more time with our teammates! Since we all teach at different schools we usually just get to see them for Bible Study and team meetings.
These animals were close to the entrance - you paid 200 yen and it SLOWLY moved around for about two minutes. This is Adam having fun on the panda.

We were just posing - not actually riding.

This ride was called "Top Gun" and it flung you upside-down in circles so many times. I opted out of this ride, but this is Chris, Janelle, Adam, Ashley, Lanon, Lis and the Japanese friend (which they made on the ride), getting ready for the excitement!

This is Kono Sensei. He spent the day with us, and held everyone's bags while they went on Top Gun. What a good sport!

They don't have cotton candy for a snack...but they have some tasty looking fish!

This is Kawaai Sensei - she's kind of like our team mom and supervisor all in one. She didn't love the roller coasters, but she came on a few rides with us. We love her!

This picture was for Wesley - sorry it's blurry - but these cars were Fords...in Japan! So funny!

The whole group, with Woopy the bird.

The town we live in is quite rural, but as Chris says, "We have a super strip mall!" Everyone here laughs when Chris calls it the "strip mall" because really it's just a few small stores, but they definitely hold some good stuff!

The Super Strip Mall

All the stores at The Super Strip: Lion Dor - grocery store with granola and popcorn! Daiso - a great dollar store and the only store in Japan to have cute and decently priced frames! KFC - enough said.

Yes...we ate lunch at KFC...how could we resist? It was unfortunately $16 for one value meal - we won't be going back again too soon.

At the Bookstore: Harry Potter...

...and Enchanted

We finished our day with a game at the arcade - a Japanese drum game, kind of like Dance Dance Revolution, but with drums.

During the week that the Sakura were in bloom, we got up one morning at 5am to go see a Sakura tree, "Taki-Zakura", that is over 1,000 years old! It was so beautiful, and well worth the early morning! And besides, how often can you see something so old?

You can see the base of the tree here - it is huge

You can see the posts that they have put up, to help the tree from falling down!

People come from all over to look at the tree while it's in bloom - even at 6am!


Ashley Sensei, Kawaai Sensei & Abbie Sensei

In Japan, the Sakura (Cherry Blossom Trees) are a big anticipation. The trees only bloom for 1-2 weeks so everyone in Japan follows the blooming trees throughout the country - the blooming starts in the South and works its way North. We live in the more North part of Japan, so they don't bloom here until later, which means we got to see them!

We live right next to a river that is lined with the Sakura trees, so everyday we got to see the beautiful trees!

The river by our house

What they look like up close...

The city hangs lanterns from the trees

The lanterns at night

Woo-Hoo!
We have internet - we are so excited! Over the next few days I will work to post all of the pictures and updates we want to show all of you.
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We have been teaching for 3 weeks now and have pretty much settled into our schedules. Here's what we do everyday:

CHRIS
Chris teaches at a Jr. High school (7, 8 & 9 grade) about a 25 minute train ride from our house. He works with two Japanese teachers - Tami and Yuko - and assists them with their English classes. After school he has been joining some of the "club" activities - baseball, kendo and volleyball. He'll probably help the baseball team out on a regular basis starting next week.

Chris also teaches one evening class at the English School for 7th grade boys.

Chris' School

ABBIE
In the mornings I teach at some nearby Elementary Schools. There are 5 of us that go each morning and teach in 2-4 classrooms, depending on the size of the school.

In the afternoons, I teach at the English School. I have 2-3 afternoon/evening classes a day, and my classes range from 1st - 7th grade (students have a class twice a week).

The English School

We are having a good time getting to know the students and teachers that we work with. Our teammates here have been so helpful showing us different ways to teach the classes and helping us learn the curriculum. We are so thankful for all of them and feel so blessed by all of their help!

Hey everyone - sorry for the delay in posts. We still don't have internet at our house, so we don't get online too often. All is well here in Japan - we will post as soon as we can! (Lots of pictures to come!)