The speech

 
Laura and I were special guests, since Niigata is not considered part of the Tokyo area that this camp was for. Each church shared the main points of their ministry, and at the end they invited me to tell about the ministry in Niigata, so I shared the highlights of VYM related ministry: the praise service, coffeehouse, and special events at Shibata. Yes, I said everything in Japanese, with certainly many mistakes! 

The food

 
No potlucks here! Everyone was served an elaborate meal for breakfast and dinner and a simpler meal for lunch. This was dinner from the first night. As usual, I ate everything... okay well so I didn't eat the entire whole fish, just the meat from it! 

the dining hall

 
All these people are Lutherans! There were about 90 participants in the summer camp representing 14 different churches in Tokyo and the surrounding area. 

Prayer retreat

 
On Wednesday we went to another part of Nasu and stayed in this cabin. This picture actually makes it look much more isolated than it was. It was the first cabin in a cluster of several; there were also many families camping nearby. 

Our "campsite"

 
Our cabin was in the woods, and the area had both cabins and regular tent camping. Here I am on the small porch we had in front of our cabin. 

On the way home

 
Becky, Laura, and me at the restaurant where we ate lunch on the last day. After that we boarded a train to Koriyama, waited to get on a bus back to Niigata, took a local bus back to Nozomi lutheran in Niigata, and drove home from there. It was a great trip, but all good things must come to an end! 

How do you put on a yukata?

 
Last Thursday, the day after the fireworks, I bought myself a yukata, at an end of season sale. (Yukata is the name for the summer, cotton kimono.) Then I asked my friend H to teach me how to put it on. She and two other friends, Y and Laura, came over to my apartment and we all put on yukata once. Then we took them off again and Y and I practiced putting ours on all by ourselves. My yukata came with a short, easy-to-put-on obi, but H loaned me a real one in the same color so I could practice. After adjusting the length of the yukata, I had to tie cloth 'cords' around my waist and around my rib cage to make sure it stays in place. 

How many hands do you need?

 
The one part has to stay up on your shoulder and out of the way, but you really need both hands to wrap the obi around you. Laura gave me good advice; 'use your chin!' That worked, but it also looks really funny. Thank you Laura, for taking so many great pictures! 

Tying the obi

 
When you put yukata on by yourself, your arms can't reach behind you where it is supposed to be tied, so you tie it in front, and then twist it around to the back. But it is a very wide piece of cloth, and it can be rather difficult to get it right, especially when you forget to tie it off like I did. My good friend H taught me well, but I don't know how much I will remember. 

The back

 
Almost done... just a few more minor adjustments now that the 'butterfly' has been twisted around to the back... and... 

I did it!

 
I put this yukata on almost entirely by myself. After sitting and chatting awhile, the four of us decided it was time to go out to dinner. Two of us (me and one Japanese friend) went in yukata, and two went in western summer clothes, just casual. We went to a Japanese family restaurant, and it was fun to see people trying to control their reactions. It was a really fun day. 

Niigata fireworks

 
Today I went with a few friends to see the fireworks in Niigata city. The show was so long that we did quite a bit of talking in the midst of it. There were scads of people wearing yukata, the summer kimono. Mostly the women were dressed up, but I saw a few men wearing the men's version. These girls I do not know; they plopped down right next to us and I thought it made for a nice picture. 

Tokamachi trip (8/8)

 
Today I went to Tokamachi to see a very large art exhibit that was spread all over the city. This piece was set up in the mountains among farmers. The pond probably existed to begin with, but it looks like they did some re-shaping and possibly controlled drainage. Being outdoors, the weather adds much to the mood of the artwork. My friend N, from the orchestra, took me around. Of the hundreds of works, we saw about twenty. 

form? function? both?

 
At first glance I thought maybe this was one of the pieces. N explained that this was probably a place the farmers were cultivating Shiitake mushrooms. I decided to take a picture anyway. 

charred wood sculptures

 
Not all of the pieces were outside. There were several in houses, stores or buildings, and at this place we had to wait until 10am when they opened.

Tokamachi is N's hometown, and along the way she showed me where she had gone to junior high and high school. The weather looks nice, but it was quite hot and humid, well near 100 degrees F.
 

Me in front of the mirrored house

 
After we had seen several art pieces in the exhibition, we went to lunch and ate a type of soba noodle that Tokamachi is famous for, plus some tempura. Then we saw a couple more pieces on the way to her parents' house. I met her mother and grandmother who welcomed me warmly and we had iced tea together. They were nervous about meeting a foreigner, but were set at ease when they learned that I can manage conversation in Japanese. After a while, and seeing their koi pond and gardens, we left with freshly picked tomatoes and an open invitation to visit again.
Then we went to the huge sunflower field. 

Me and N at the field of sunflowers

  

Amazing day (8/6)

Today was an absolutely, incredible, wonderful and amazing day. If you want the simple version, I'll give it in one paragraph here. I went to Chuetsu church in Sanjo this morning and several prayers were answered in a big way. Then I went to the band competition in Joestu, had some very good bonding with band members, and we won first place. I came home, made dinner, then went for a walk and watched the Sanjo fireworks from afar while spending some incredible quality time with God. It was truly an amazing day.

The longer version here will include a bit more detail. It's only been a month since I last went to Chuetsu, but it still felt like a long time since I had seen many of them. I arrived a good half hour before Sunday School, and pastor let me warm up on my horn first. Then he and I had a very good, insightful talk.

Sunday school was nice, especially since I sat with a good friend: a little girl in first grade whom I used to be very close to when she was at the kindergarten and in whom I had seen genuine faith. She is still as sweet as ever, but I almost felt like her mother, helping her find the page and reminding her to fold her hands rather than fidget with the bible when we were praying the Lord's prayer.

After Sunday school finished, I turned around to see the newest teacher at Sanjo kindergarten sitting in the last pew! I haven't gotten to know her very well yet because she wasn't here all the times in the past when I would have the teachers over for dinner. So I chatted with her for a little bit and learned that she's interested in joining the band as a percussionist.

I turned around again, and there sitting next to me was a young Japanese lady whom I had never seen before. So naturally I greeted her and introduced myself in Japanese. She also introduced herself in Japanese, but then began speaking in fluent English! She explained that she had lived in Indiana for four years and went to Pastor Going's church, and now she's back in Sanjo and attending Chuetsu, which happens to be Pastor Going's former church. I learned that she is a Christian, and told her all about our cell group, and she's excited about coming this week because she's been looking to connect into a bible study. Two prayers answered at once!! I've been praying about potential Japanese Christians for our group since the one we have had is moving to Korea as a missionary as early as next month.

By then it was time for worship to begin. The sermon text was the story of Abraham's servant going to find Rebekah for Isaac, and even though I've often had difficulty understanding this pastor's Japanese, God spoke to me in spite of it. And the poor pastor lost his place in his sermon notes and couldn't find it again, to his great embarassment, and so he completed the sermon time by talking about something totally different impromptu that I couldn't understand, but it gave me time to process what God had revealed. I fought my fears that the service would go too long and make me late for the bus to Joetsu: God provided for me in a similar situation not two months ago, so I could confidently trust that it would all work out today, too. And it did, but I still had fears creeping in that needed fighting.

The service ended by 11:30am and then announcements and I exchanged contact info for both ladies and promised to ask someone in the band about the one who wanted to join. Since I'll likely forget, I'll skip ahead to say that by the end of the day, it was established that we do need another percussionist, that my teacher friend will come to the next rehearsal this Friday, and that she and I will go out to dinner together that day before rehearsal.

So after exchanging contact information, I took off to meet the band and get on the bus. I arrived in plenty of time (okay, ten minutes early), but they didn't leave exactly on time either. There was a flurry of activity, Kay was there and went with us to help out, and I got to help carry our bass-clarinetist's chair onto the bus.

On the bus I sat next to a young lady whom I had started to get to know, but she has seemed a bit distant over the last several months, so I was nice to chat and connect with her. Once we arrived, everything went very quickly. We went in, pinned the tags on our sleeves, and got our instruments out. Before long, we lined up and went up to our 'tuning' room. When it was time, we went back downstairs and backstage. We waited nervously while the band before us played.(As it turned out, they only got silver. There were four golds.) We went onstage, set up, played our best, and went off. Then it was outside for a group picture, back inside to put our instruments away, and into the audience for the awards ceremony. For some reason we were the last group to perform, maybe because we are the biggest. In any case, we took first place and will continue to the regional competition, which is being held this year in Niigata city, and coincidentally on Kay's birthday.

At various intervals, I also saw other people there, which may be why the time went so quickly. When we first arrived, I saw another horn player friend of mine from the orchestra, her group had just finished performing. I saw and chatted with her later too; her group took second place, so they will also go to the regional competition. She also introduced me to a friend of hers who has good English and has been to Nozomi Lutheran church for coffeehouse. When we were lining up to go to the tuning room, I saw a Shirone church member whose daughters were performing in the competition.

Another general highlight of my time with the band today: they light-heartedly joke that 'Betsy is Japanese.' The way that I use the language constantly when I'm with the band, down to even saying 'oops' and 'ouch,' my mannerisms and the fact that I can eat anything, prompted one of the horn players quite a while back to begin saying that, even though I may look like a foreigner, I'm really Japanese. That began maybe almost a year ago. Today several other people said a similar thing. I've always taken it as a compliment, and it's encouraging to feel that I'm fitting in to their lives and their culture while still retaining my 'saltiness.'

That's a prayer that God has been answering more and more day by day since I came to Japan nearly four years ago: may I become like the Japanese to win the Japanese for Christ.

Shibata students' summer sunday school

 

July 30, 2006
Me with one of my students.
First we had Sunday School. The program started at 6:30pm. We sang 'what a friend we have in Jesus' in Japanese. Then we watched a powerpoint version of a storybook that was read aloud and accompanied by music. Then Pastor Shtan gave a short message, talking about how the story relates to Christianity. After that, the three of us VYMers taught "This little Gospel light of mine" in English, and we also sang it in Japanese. After the offering, Lord's prayer, and blessing, we went outside to light sparklers. When those were all done, we went back inside for ice cream and brownies. 

Concerts!!

I just finished two major concerts in one week! Now that I'm in both the Sanjo Symphonic Winds (two years now) and the Niigata Symphony Orchestra (since January '06), I've been busy and having a great time.

June 11th was the orchestra concert. The whole program was:
Magic Flute overture (Mozart)
Piano Concerto (Schumann)
Symphony #4 (Tchaikovsky)

I was originally slated to play only the Symphony, 3rd horn. However, about a month and a half before the concert, our section leader learned that he could not play the concert due to a work conflict, so he asked me to replace him on the Schumann, 1st horn. I attended every rehearsal, but they only rehearsed the Schumann twice between the time I learned I would be playing and the concert. It was a far cry from a flawless performance, but even so, many people were impressed that I was able to fill in so late.

June 18th was the band concert. The whole program was in three sections:
Section one: formal concert music
- Festive Overture (Shostakovich/Hunsberger arr.)
- Legendary Prelude (Yamauchi, Masahiro) This is our required piece for this year's competition
- La forme de chaque amour change comme le Kaleidoscope (Amano, Masamicz) This will be our free piece for this year's competition

Section two: pops
- South Rampart Street Parade (Baduc/Haggart; arr. Naohiro Iwai)
- Henry Manicini Medley (Arr. Toshio Mashima)
- I Need To Be In Love (Carpenter/Bettis/Hammond; arr. Kazuhiro Morita)
- Soran Funk (Arr.Takashi Hoshide)

Section three: A premiere performance of an original work for Taiko soloist and band by our conductor, Masaru Tanaka. In four movements or chapters, it begins subtly with sparse percussion (a single bell, rustling leaves, rain stick, etc.) moving toward the stage from the back of the audience, then formally opens with a piccolo solo that is probably supposed to resemble an ocarina, a type of ancient Asian flute.
The second movement is charaterized by irregular meter, the third movement has a challengingly high horn part (first horn peaks at high concert F) (which, I in fact, nailed during the performance :-), and the fourth movement has a lot of duple vs. triple rhythms. And then of course there is the drum soloist, with a couple of spectacular cadenzas. My description doesn't really do it justice.