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!