Dig Teal

This month is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month.  Our High School girls volleyball teams have taken on raising money for a couple of families in the Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) community who are dealing with ovarian cancer.  They raised money by selling cupcakes, cookies, and key rings.  They also set up informational presentations for those interested in learning more about ovarian cancer.

Today was DigTeal day at CAJ.  Many students and staff wore teal colored shirts.  This evening Seisen International School brought their JV and Varsity volleyball teams to play CAJ's teams.  The gym was quite full with many fans wearing teal coloured shirts.  Before the Varsity team began their games, one of the moms shared her journey with ovarian cancer.  It was quite a powerful presentation.  Here are a few pictures of the evening.

Teams are wearing teal shirts for the occasion.

Selling cupcakes, cookies and keychains.

One of our varsity players selling cupcakes, cookies and keychains.

Senior concession

Explaining what this event is all about - Ovarian Cancer 

One of our parents sharing her story of Ovarian Cancer.  

It was quite an event.  It is a great way to raise awareness.  If you are not familiar with Ovarian Cancer and would like more information you can check out this website:  National Ovarian Cancer Coalition.

Floods and Island Vintage Coffee

It has been about 4 weeks since school started.  Boy, time is just zipping by!  So, what's happened in those four weeks?

Well, first we had a couple of weeks of lots of rain.  It rained and rained and rained and rained.  I almost felt like it was we were going to have 40 days and 40 nights of rain.  It was amazing how different it felt when it was not raining and WOW! how amazing it was when the sun came out!   The area here in Higashi Kurume was able to manage the amount of rain.  The rivers were high, but not a lot of flooding in our area.  North of here was quite a different story.  You may have seen some of the news broadcasts of the flooding.  The rains from the tropical storm Etau was quite devastating.  Please, pray for those who have lost loved ones, lost their homes and are struggling to get back to "normal."

Today I went to the 11:00 am worship service at Tokyo Union Church (TUC).  After attending a class, I arranged to meet up with a former student, Elizabeth, who is in Yokohama, Japan studying Japanese at Inter University Centre for Japanese Language Studies.  This week is Silver Week, a Japanese holiday which consists of Respect for the Aged holiday on September 21 and Autumn Equinox day on September 23.  Tuesday is also a holiday because of the Monday and Wednesday holiday and thus we end up with Silver Week.  That tidbit of information meant that Harajuku, the area where I met up with Elizabeth, was a terribly busy place.  Originally, we were going to go to Ben and Jerry's for an ice cream, but there was a line up outside the store.  I have never seen it that busy!  We decided to try for a coffee place.  I had seen this place called Island Vintage Coffee on my walk from the train station to church, but had no idea what it was like.  I suggested to Elizabeth that we go there.

I did not realize it, but this coffee place serves Hawaiian coffee and the food has Hawaiian flavors.  I ordered an Island Latte.  

The latte was absolutely delicious!  We also had a sandwich.  I ordered a bacon and avocado sandwich with a little side of lettuce, pineapple and balsamic dressing.  Is your mouth watering yet?  

Don't you love that flower!  

 The 5A was so they knew where to bring our sandwiches. 

This is Elizabeth.  You can also see a bit of what the Island Vintage Coffee is like.  It was a great afternoon and am glad we found this terrific place.  What a blessing Sundays can be!  

Now back to writing a Philosophy of Leadership paper...