Epic post! (sorry no pictures...)

so currently my brain is currently not really functioning properly - possibly due to the electrocution that I experienced tonight. But more on that later...

DAY 2 (二日)
Friday we had some orientation in the morning and then preparation for Young Life (their youth group) in the night time. At Young Life Danny ran some games (murder in the dark, introduction game and ninja destruction) and then gave his testimony. We sang songs and got to know the kids. Some kids who stick in my mind were Masato-kun who is a massively tall 16 year old. He has two siblings - Nonoka-chan and Tomoki-kun. All three of them are great kids who have been coming to church for a long time but aren't Christians yet. Please be praying for them. I think that Danny, Roy and I are making a connection with Masato and Tomoki. Masato plays guitar and so I taught him the introduction to an HY song - AM11:00 and then proceeded to hear him practising it for the rest of the night.

DAY 3 (三日)
Saturday started out relatively laid back. The guys set up some lights outside of the church and on the nativity scene out the front and cleaned up the front section. After lunch when we prepared for Cross Village - an outreach event involving many town people (church and non church) setting up stalls and selling various things in a bazaar in the church. Young Life kids had a stall selling heaps of goodies like home made lemonade, Chicken karage and hot chips. Ruth, Roy and Judy were baking most of the afternoon to make many goodies for sale - apple pies, pumpkin raisin twists etc. They were a real hit and we didn't see Ruth for most of the night as a result. This was also a great opportunity to meet church members for the first time. I had a great conversation with Hiroshi and his wife, Ritsuko. Ritsuko does flower arranging for the church and is a house wife. Hiroshi is the principal of an elementary school of about 280 children. We will be visiting Hiroshi's school on the 14th Dec. Cross Village overall seemed to be a great success. There were many many people from the town around but not too many church members around to have good conversations with them. Please be praying that God will be giving church members a burden to use events such as Cross Village (which happens a few times a year) to reach out to the community in Itayanagi.

DAY 4 (四日)
Sunday is in Martin's words our one work day. In the morning we started with prayer at 8:30am, 9am was English Class, 11am was Service at Itayanagi where Pete and I gave our testimony. Judy played the piano for us for a couple of hymns too. I met a family - the Haroko family - Fumiyaki (father), Tomoko (mother) and little Hikari-chan their daughter. They are apple farmers who have been at church for almost 20 years! After service there was lunch - Japanese Curry. We then had to leave straight after lunch to Harvest where we did it all over again! Dinner was Mapo Tofu made by Junji. I also met Junji's wife, Keiko and their three children, Kaeda, Nire and Enju. Keiko lived in New York for 1 year and so her English was very good. We wolfed down dinner and then headed back to Tsugaru for the English service at night. We had a really relaxed time in the cafe singing Christmas carols and giving testimonies - this time without the need for a translator!

DAY 4.5 (四.五日)
We went to Erumunoyu Onsen after all was done. It was great! I can only comment on the men's bath seeing as guys and girls were split up.
Jacuzzi - straight hot water with bubbles - very therapeutic.
Normal Temp - nice warm bath. pretty straight forward
41 degrees - slightly hotter (this was the first bath I went into)
43 degrees - you might not think it but 2 degrees is a LOT hotter! This one was quite hot but this was my favourite one
Outside - normal temp but outside so your head is cool and your body is nice and warm=)
Cold - this was great to go into to cool off and then to jump into the 43 degree bath!
Electrocution - this was definitely the most interesting of the baths. There are two electric places to the right and left of you which pulsates electricity through your butt and is supposed to therapeutically contract your bowel and other muscles. We used this as a mini initiation ceremony - to sit all the way back between the plates - Roy was the only one to not make it to the back.

Anyways I am going to sleep now - it is about 1:46 at the moment and I am feeling quite brain dead but we have a day off tomorrow! Stay tuned to hear more about that!

oyasumi!