Funny happenings in the country of the rising sun

So I’ve been trying to remember all of the funny things that have happened on our little excursion here in Japan so I could share some of them with you. I really am not familiar at all with Japan and was going on this trip purely because I haven’t been here before and I like to experience other cultures. Well, right from the get-go our group of Taiwan English teachers realized that we had picked up some bad habits whilst being in Taiwan. We’ve been whistled down a couple of times by policemen when we’ve crossed the road when there were no cars coming but not when the crosswalk said walk. All of us (even me!) have accidentally said our little “xiexie”s and our “buhaoyisi”s realizing immediately afterwards that we were speaking the wrong foreign language. I think the funniest moment of Taiwan faux-pas was when we were going to take a bus to the Imperial Palace. In Taiwan when a bus stops that is where you load so if it stops a long ways off because there are many buses already stopped you have to race to the place where it is unloading so that you can get on before it takes off again. So when the bus that we needed stopped a little before the bus stop because there was a bus that hadn’t left the loading place yet all of our party started to quickly move in the general direction of the bus which immediately drew stares of bewilderment from the long line of Japanese people waiting patiently at the loading area. That kind of stopped us in our tracks and embarrassingly we realized that the bus would probably be nicer than the buses in Taiwan and actually pick up passengers at the designated bus stop area. Japanese people apparently do things by the rule book.

In the hostel we were staying at there was another very unique experience that I found fascinating. I kind of am a fan of hostels now. They are such an interesting atmosphere of different cultures, ages and travelers that are put in a space without much room and privacy and yet have an immediate camaraderie that you just can’t get anywhere else. We met three girls who were staying there from Taiwan who were thrilled to meet Americans who were teaching in Taiwan. I also met some guys from America there working for their vacation (they were studying in Mainland China) and also a group of vacation workers from Australia. I think the Australian accent is pretty much the most attractive accent out there. I was talking to an Australian while doing laundry and I swear I could have made out with her on the spot! The most interesting guy I met was a dude from Turkey. Who would have thought you would meet a guy in Japan from Turkey? He spoke the language pretty easily it seems and he was a pretty interesting fellow. We talked a lot about how I don’t know much about that part of the world and how that was a shame and he told me about how where he lives there really wasn’t much hostility towards America at all as far as he could tell. I found that heartening, but also depressing that the media paints such a bias and untrue picture of the middle-east.

All in all I have really enjoyed being here in Japan. It has been a very liberating and fascinating trip. The culture here is so much like Taiwan, and yet it also has its own little corner in the world and really is its own entity. I would really like to come back to Kyoto to visit again. There was so much that we didn’t get to see. Maybe someday.

New Years!!

This week my post is a video! Hope you enjoy it.

The night before Christmas

Short post today because I am really trying to enjoy myself during this season. Well, it took a lot of Christmas music, lots of church videos and preparing to give a talk on Christmas day to get me through it but I think that I'm doing just fine this year. Yes, this is the second year in a row that I have not been able to be home for Christmas; something that hasn't happened since I went on my mission ten years ago. The only difference between now and then is that I was crazy busy every day doing the work of the Lord and now I'm only crazy busy doing the work of the Lord part-time and kind of sucking at it as of late. But there has been something special about this Christmas. Again I have felt the love of the Lord pulling me through not being able to be with my family, which feels so terrible, but this year I have started to feel a reliance on the Lord that I haven't felt in a while. One thing I learned on my mission was reliance on the Lord because if you didn't have that, well you just about went crazy. But ever since being back I guess I didn't feel so much like it was just me and the Lord in the world and I started putting my trust in others, not forgetting about the Lord of course; at first. You know if there is one thing that I really put forth a big effort in doing in my life is keeping in contact with the people who I've become friends with whether or not it has been in the past or the present. Now I'm not the best at it but I really try stay in contact with people that I care about and try not to miss important dates and things. Staying in touch with the Lord shouldn't be as hard as staying in contact with people but sometimes it just is. Through this Christmas season I have had to rely on something other than the relationships that I've had and the relationships that I have now. I've had to rely more on myself, more than I ever had before and whenever I do that I realize how terribly short I fall. That is when I remember my primary and Sunday School lessons which has taught me that whenever I fall short that I always have somewhere to turn to. That's why I've made a resolution this year that I'm going to make sure that I come home for Christmas every year. Now I might not be able to come to my earthly home with my brother's and sister and my Mom and Dad but I can come home to the place that I know that I will be always welcome no matter what I do or who I am. I know that I am always welcome in the arms of the Lord. Just as the prodigal son, if I return to him then I know that every time he will come running to the rescue. This has never failed me in my life and has been the only constant in this unreliable world. I love the Lord and the things he has done for me. Merry Christmas everybody.

Yes ladies and gentleman, It's time for another Good Idea, Bad Idea

Good Idea: rewarding yourself for a long eventful and productive day by eating a piece of pizza. Bad Idea: trying to make up for a long day of not eating and staying in bed because you felt sick to your stomach by eating a whole medium size pizza along with garlic bread and three spicy drumsticks. The End, at least I wished. I have realized that the more I stay in this country that has little to no meals based on anything dairy, the more I become intolerant to lactose. Eating all that food was definitely not the satisfying end to a hard day that I wanted. The happy ending is that I did actually get to sleep eventually and woke up feeling loads better.

I've gotten a lot better at staying on top of things and keeping myself busy with little projects this week. I'm getting really excited for Christmas not because I'm doing anything special for Christmas but for the observance of the holiday. Living in a country that doesn't have all the Christmas hullabaloo during this time of year, you really have to wait until Christmastime to see anybody getting into the holiday at all. I find myself going to American stores like Costco so I can see the tree and feel a little bit of it's magic. I remember Christmases when I was going to BYU. When I was coming home for Christmas during my first year at BYU I was driving on the cold and snowy road that I had driven down so many times before but there was a new excitement this time. I was listening to the radio to catch the Christmas tunes to put me in the Christmas mood and I remember one song came on that brought tears to my eyes. I know it's a kind of sappy memory but bear with me. It was Kenny Loggins "Celebrate me home." I've always loved soulful songs where you can make up your own melodies to sing in the background with a gospel choir to back you up and this just gave me an excuse to start singing at the top of my lungs. Ever since that Christmas it has been a tradition of mine to play that song whenever I am traveling home for Christmas and even though last Christmas and this Christmas I have not been able to get home I love listening to the music of this season because it inspires us and brings back the memories that make this season so magical. I feel that among the many lessons and principles that this season teaches there lies one that rings a special tune, and that one is of remembrance. Not only remembrance of Christmases past, of family togetherness and memories of dear friends and family who have left this world, but also of the way the first Christmas was passed and the incredible gift of love that was brought to this earth that night. I hope that everyone really does have a great Christmas this year and is able to spend it with the people that they love because it is the people in this life that make it sweet.

Ok, preachy sappy post is now over. I shall now get down from my proverbial soap box.

I am now officially inactive!!!

I have now not been in the area of Daliao for church for three weeks! I feel really bad because I have to keep asking the Bishop to help me organize the lesson for the Young Men. Three weeks ago was the Singles Conference, last week I woke up with a terrible headache and was exhausted from coming back from the Singles Conference without stopping for a breath and then this last week I remembered on Thursday that I had a School paid for trip with all of the other teachers that was traveling back home on Sunday so I would have to miss another day. I made sure that I read some General Conference talks to try to get a little of the spiritual nourishment that I need to get through this next week.

The trip was really cathartic though. We went to Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan which is the biggest lake they have there up in the tall mountains. It looked just like one of those wistful Chinese paintings with the gargantuan mountains leaping out of the ethereal mist wandering through the lower valleys. We went on a lot of scenic little excursions including a little ferry ride across the lake with a tour and a nature walk up in the mountains surrounding. It was all so magical and just gorgeous! My favorite was a little metal pathway called the skywalk that started from a ridge and made it so you were walking among the tops of the trees. It was awesome! I felt like I was on some kind of Swiss Family Robinson house or something. The best thing I got from the trip I think is that I got to become closer friends with some of my non-American co-workers. More and more I am feeling like a regular part of the staff and not some foreign piece of garnish that isn't included in the stuff that matters and doesn't know how to do the stuff that doesn't.

All in all I'm now officially excited about Christmas, except for the fact that I won't be spending Christmas with my family, again. I really hope that they know that I love them dearly and think about them all of the time. Here's wishing everybody that reads this the best Holiday season.

Hiding in Bed, not fun

So hiding in my bed with a headache after a long week is not as comforting as it may sound to some people who are wishing they could catch a break like this. Sometimes I wake up so tired for work and just wish that I had some kind of ailment so I could validate staying at home but when it really happens I have to deal with the pain and annoyance of being sick which makes the rest a very non-enjoyable activity.

Anyway, at least this gives me time to write on my blog and catch people up on exactly why I have my head swimming in Acetaminophen. Last weekend I got to have a lot of fun. I went to my first ever Single's Conference. For all of you who don't know what this is, it's when a bunch of church-going single people get together and rent out a hotel and have a fun weekend full of hearing inspirational messages, doing service in the community, while all at the same time trying to exchange as many phone numbers as possible and complaining to your buddies why so many girls are completely ignoring them and how are they ever going to get married if the girls don't do their job of realizing how sexy they are (overheard conversation in bedroom, Ha!). Well I didn't plan on going, in fact I really didn't pay much attention to this activity until the church leader who was organizing it, who just happens to be my boss at work as well, asked me to provide a little night music (pardon the musical pun) for the singles to dance to. He said that he wanted me to be one of the choices on a night where the singles had free time to participate in a lot of different things. My boss wanted me to put on a romantic night of live Jazz music so the Singles could dance to it but have it be more of a romantic atmosphere instead of a night club atmosphere. I didn't think that Taiwanese people really connected to Jazz music, which I later found out that I was correct, but I jumped at the chance to perform especially since it was one of my most favorite music styles. Well it was a big hit! I mean they couldn't figure out how to dance to it, which most Taiwanese people in my experience don't really understand how to dance to anything but line dancing, but they said that they really thought the night went well and they met a lot of people. I was surprised because I thought that they were going to act like the youth at a dance, just a couple of people having fun while the rest of the people sit in their little groups on the sidelines. The majority of the people were on the dance floor dancing, talking and otherwise socializing. I also met some awesome people there too as well. I went to be able to find more people my age that I could get to know better and I think I accomplished that.

Needless to say I didn't get much sleep that weekend and this week I have not been doing much to make up for that loss. Between catch up grading, catch up playing and catch up tv shows I haven't been very nice to my body this week so it is taking it's revenge. Hopefully this next week I'll be more responsible. Love you guys and hope your Thanksgiving preparations bring you joy and the feelings of gratefulness.

All that Jazz

So I was in my office, minding my own business, probably wasting my time, when a big event's reminder decided to disrupt my very restful time and hit my heart with such force that I gasped and almost fell out of my chair. "I have to perform that single's Jazz night next weekend!!" I exclaimed. Don't you just love it how you plan for things that are so far in the future that it seems like they will never actually happen and then all of a sudden they are here? Well, gratefully I had been preparing here a little bit and there a little bit so I was not completely at my wits end but it certainly has made this weekend a nerve-wracking experience of continual practice and memorization of lyrics. I would normally be completely no worries. I always have one or two jazz songs that I can perform at the drop of a hat but this performance is for a National Singles Conference and I have to fill around an hour and half of time. *gulp* Now the upside is that this is no concert. I'm just providing "background music" for a romantic night. There will also be cameo appearances by the presiding Stake Presidency, and another girl that sang with me on the theme song for the Conference. So I do have some help to fill up the time but that still leaves me with a lot of material to practice and a lot of programming to think about so that people don't get too bored or feel like I'm singing too much. I'm already thinking of some Chinese jokes that I can use to lighten the mood a little bit because since this is a Mormon Singles Conference you know that there are going to people out there who are gonna be sweatin' bullets! I on the other hand am avoiding the awkward night by being the one in the spotlight which is a great compromise.

I'm so ready for this season to be here though. Even though I live in a foreign country where they don't celebrate the upcoming holidays I still can feel the peace and feelings of gratefulness that they remind me of. This Holiday Season is going to be special, I just know it.