The first week of school and a visit to Kawagoe

Academic building @ CAJ

So, it's Saturday, the first weekend after school started.  We had our first day on Thursday, August 23rd.  It was a half day, but it was nice to start the school year with an half day.  We did have to do the ladder drill, where each of the students have to go down the ladder from the second floor balcony.  It's in preparation for an emergency when we can't use the stairs, however we decided that should the stairway be blocked, we'd probably jump onto the vehicles' roofs below instead of waiting our turn to go down the ladder, but it was good practice.
The grade 6 students are new to the Middle School at CAJ and new to lockers.  That was the BIG thing, lockers and unlocking the locks!  We gave them time to practice opening them.  As we discovered on Friday, it was an obstacle for some students and since they only have three minutes to change from first period to second period, third period to fourth period, fifth period to sixth period and sixth period to seventh period, some were late to their classes.
The students are enjoyable to have in the class.  Many are quite polite and smile readily, although this was the first two days of school.  Please pray that I may develop positive relationships with the students, with their parents, and with my fellow colleagues at Christian Academy in Japan.

My Japanese breakfast

(noticed that I am using the fork and knife and no chopsticks?)

Saturday, August 25th, Brian and Bette Vander Haak took me to Kawagoe.  It isn't too far away, and this city has a number of temples and shrines.  We started out with stopping at a restaurant for a Japanese breakfast.  I ordered the breakfast with salmon, egg, rice, mizo soup, seaweed wrap and some vegetables of sorts.  YUM!

After we went to visit some temples and shrines.  It all is quite interesting.  We were at a Buddhist temple when they began some sort of service.  It was quite intriguing to watch but on the other hand it seems so futile, worshiping something that is not the God of the universe.  I did have a thought...the way they worship has been the same for many, many years, and Christians have changed styles of worship since the early church.  As a part of their belief system, they buy indulgences.  There are a number of places where indulgences can be bought and placed.  Here are a couple of indulgence options, paper or wooden. 

Paper indulgences

Wooden indulgences

We also went shopping.  There were some neat ideas for gifts, souvenirs and even possible decorating ideas.  I went mostly just to look around and probably will come back again sometime to purchase items.  We ended our sightseeing tour by stopping at Mos Burger for some traditional burgers.
As I continue my adventure here in Japan, pray for the people of Japan and the Christians God has sent here.  May we all be good salt and bright lights!  

Adjusting

So, how are things going, you ask? (ok, maybe you didn't ask, but I did for you.) They are going just fine.  I began teacher orientation at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ), Wednesday, August 15th.  If you have ever been at a teacher orientation or at any sort of orientation to a new company, sometimes the information is inundating.  I feel like my brain is just saturated with all sorts of information.
I am familiarizing myself to the lay of the CAJ land.  I will be teaching Science in the Science lab and Math and Bible in a regular classroom.

My Bible and Math classroom

The one thing I am trying to sink into my brain is the bicycle route from home to school and back again.  Bette drew a map for me and that has been a life saver.  The way to navigate here is to look for landmarks, which I'm not really used to doing.  It has required changing my thinking.  I have gone once to school and two times from school to home but still don't feel confident enough to go without a map.  Hopefully by next week that will be a different story.
Last evening I had the privilege to go with some folks from school to an O bon.  I had my first ride on the train in Japan.  What an all around fun experience!  It was dark by the time we arrived.  First we bought some food.

I had okononiyaki, which was fairly good, except it was burnt and that didn't taste so good.  Besides selling food, they have a raised platform where traditional dances are performed.

A number of people would light a lantern, bring it down to the river to set it afloat.  You can see two of the lanterns floating down the river.

There were also fireworks.  It was a great experience and I'm glad I went.

Thank you all for your many prayers!  I have been adjusting fairly well.  I have had opportunities to experience various Japanese foods and am getting used to things like not walking and eating at the same time.  I have been blessed with great hosts in the Vander Haaks.  They have been very instrumental in making my transition so smooth thus far.  The people at CAJ are a great supportive community!  God is good!

Learning a lot!

The last few days have been VERY informative.  I have been exposed to a lot of Japanese culture.
Monday I met Pam, at City Hall to register.  Pam speaks Japanese and is very knowledgeable of how the Japanese work.  I had received a card from immigration when I flew in and I had to take that to city hall to get them to write my address down and stamp the card.  It took about an hour plus.  The interesting thing there was that the Vander Haaks are the head of household and mail would be delivered here, but the postman would not know what to do with mail that was addressed to me.  Here the address does not specifically identify the house, but a neighborhood and with two different names with the same address could confuse the postman.  To resolve the issue, we agreed that we would put my name on the mailbox to the postman will know what to do with my mail.

  This is Brian and Bette's present mailbox.  They will have to add my name to it at some point. If you would like to know my address, send me an email and I'll let you know.
After the visit to city hall, I went with Naoko (whose son I will be teaching this year) to the Resona Bank to open an account.  I found things are very precise.  I have been writing LANGELAAR WINNIFRED DIANE on many a document, including at the bank.  What was really interesting is at one point I had to write my name in Katakana, which is one of the alphabets used in Japan.  This is what I had to copy onto the application form at the bank.  ランゲラア　ウィンニフレド　ダイアン  They wouldn't allow the person who was with me to write it. The one thing is they are very meticulous and check every single letter.  I had to write my full name every time because that is what is on the passport.  I love it that I get all these brochures explaining how to do things, like telephone banking, internet banking etc. but they look like this...

Any volunteers to help translate that for me?  I did end up with a bank book and will get a bank card in the mail sometime soon.










After completing all that, and heading back to the school, I went out for lunch with Brian and Rita (a fellow Canadian).  When we went I decided I wanted to try out eating with chopsticks. We went to Manshu and I had some cold noodle dish with seaweed, pork, and sprouts.  I did ok, but had some sort of dumpling as well, which was difficult to manage with chopsticks and I cheated, using a fork.  By the end of the meal though, it seemed like the fine motor skills were coming back to me and I was able to work the dumplings.  It probably was painful to watch me, but at least I am practicing.
Today was the day Jimmy (a person who works at the school) came with me to translate while I got my cell phone.  That only took two hours!  Again lots of forms, filling in full names.  I didn't have my name written in Katakama today and they were working through my name trying to figure out what characters to use.  It was a bit humorous listening to them trying to sound out my name.  Bette and I both had smiles on our faces.  I'm sure they will be smiling just as much when I try to speak!
By the time we were finished, it was lunchtime and we went to Saizeria, which is an Italian type of restaurant.  They didn't even have chopsticks, but the full set of cutlery.  Yes, I opted to use the fork.  :)
On our drive home from CAJ after lunch, Bette stopped in the Daiso, which is like a Dollar Store.  It has a wide range of things to purchase.

Inside the Daiso

Some items in The Daiso

This afternoon I took Hana, the Vander Haak's black lab, for a walk.  I was able to go down to the river and watch some of the older men fishing.  Sorry, forgot my camera.  I'll catch it next time.
For those of you who don't have Facebook or Twitter, I plan to upload more pictures on Flickr.  You can check them out here.  www.flickr.com/photos/wlangelaar

First 24 hours

Vancouver International Airport Gate 73

Air Canada Flight 003 to Narita/Tokyo

So, it has been a little under 24 hours in Japan and I have had very positive experiences so far.
Let me go back a bit. Friday on the west coast of Canada, I was sitting in the Vancouver International Airport at gate 73 for my Air Canada flight 003 to Narita/Tokyo.  The flight was about 9 hours from gate to gate.  I had 2 good meals during the flight and watched almost 3 movies.  Once I landed, it was an adventure as I had some language barriers which made me think, boy I wish I had taken some Japanese language studies.  I did make it through immigration, with the help of a person who was behind me and did some translation when I wasn't sure what I was being told. Customs was a breeze.  The VanderHaaks were standing there waiting for me when I walked out.  They had their van parked ready for all three of my suitcases and backpack.  

Freeway as we got closer to Tokyo

On the way to their place we stopped at a convenience store for something to drink.  That was my first exposure to what it is like to go shopping even for drinks and a snack. Brian and Bette were both VERY helpful in pointing out what certain things were.  I am grateful to have them and their experience to help me with my adjustment living in Japan. 
This morning, Bette and I bicycled to church. It was about a 20 minute ride.  The worship service was in Japanese but the sermon had a loose English translation available on headset. I had the privilege of meeting some of the Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) staff, parents and alumni who also attend that church.  Afterwards it was an American/Canadian experience of having a coffee at Starbucks!
Thoughts thus far... I am soaking in as much as I can, but it seems like a lot right now. A ways down the road, I imagine that I'll be used to a lot and also will be able to navigate knowing where I'm going and having things be much more familiar. Roads are narrow and I am amazed at how well everyone navigates them.  Riding on the left side of the road is a bit of a switch, but I found that the more I was bicycling, the more I was getting used to it.  Remember to look right first instead of left first when crossing the road because the closer traffic will be coming from your right.  Look for the mirrors at the intersections to see if anyone is coming down the road.  I have to learn to eat with chop sticks. I plan to do some practicing, very soon.
Tomorrow I go to city hall to register, I'll also open up a bank account, and probably get a cell phone.
Thank you to everyone who has been and continues to pray for me and the ministry here. God has answered many prayers and things have gone very smoothly.