Monday, October 17th, 1988

Note:  This is a series of journal entries from my two years living in Himeji, Japan (1988-1990).  I'm archiving them electronically through my blog.  Last names have been deleted and replaced with first initial only.  For details on this series of blog entries, see this post.

Saturday was really busy.  Yukari came for my Japanese lesson at 10:00.  I had a kanji test, and it went pretty well.  Kimberly came at 11:00 for her lesson and I went to the bank to get cash.

Yukari left, Kimberly & I ate & talked, then at 2:00 Manna & Meg came for their lessons.  First, I gave Meg an English lesson.  It's hard, because I'm not used to advanced students.  Next was Manna, no problem, beginning stuff.  Then hour #3 was my Japanese conversation lesson...ugh!

Mike, Resa, & the kids picked us up at 5:30 & we went to Sato for dinner, then to Higashi Kakogawa to Hiraki shopping.  I only bought a few things, believe it or not!

We got home around 9:00, talked, then went to bed.  It was a busy day, but fun.

Sunday, Kim and I left for Sannomiya around 10:00.  First we went to Mikage to drop her stuff off.  We ate okonomiyaki at that quaint restaurant at the bottom of the mountain in Mikage.

We talked to two ladies from Okayama on the Shinkaisoku.  One was an author of poems and worked at NHK, the other made kimonos.  It was fun. They were on their way to a high school reunion.

After lunch we shopped.  We went to an office supply store.  I bought a calendar.  It was neat to think that when this calendar is used up, there'll only be 5 months of my stay left!

We went to Maruzen, then to a futon shop.  Kimberly & I decided what our big purchase would be...a wedding futon set (complete with 4 mattresses and covers, sheets, 5 summer & winter pillows).  They'll even ship it all to America.  It'll be really expensive, but I've decided I was a strictly Japanese room in my home in America (bedroom).

Like this:

Sunday night we went to KIBC.  Rev. B. has a bad cold, so the message didn't have the usual impact...poor guy.

I went to my first singles fellowship.  It was really fun!  We talked about negative comments, gossip, slander, etc.  Very informative.  To begin with the lesson leader had us throw bread crumbs over the terrace railing behind B's house.  Afterwards she explained that these crumbs were like gossip & negative comments.

She asked us to go out and try to pick those bread crumbs up, and, just as we couldn't pick those crumbs up again, we can't "take back" negative comments once said.

I stayed over at I's.  Got there late, left early.