This post has no title because honestly too much happened this past week for me to cleverly come up with an all-encompassing one.  Let's review the past week starting from where I left off - trying not to get lost on the trains... again. (Recent story of my life.)

On Monday, I went to Harajuku with Amanda and Liz for shopping and sushi, both of which were amazing.  It was good to just get out and walk around and for that, one of the best places is Harajuku!  Being the center of Japanese fashion, it has the best people-watching in all of Tokyo!  After hitting up some of the stores on Takeshita Street, we went to kaiten zushi, a sushi bar that has a conveyor belt that circles the room that carries sushi right in front of you.  The plates are different colors and the colors correspond to how much the sushi costs.  At the end, they just add up your plates and pay that way.  Very entertaining (and delicious!) experience. :)

Tuesday, I worked cleaning the office with Pastor Shelley in the morning, cleaned the upstairs of the Mission House for the Snider's who returned that night, worked on my sermon for Sunday, and prepared for Wednesday night youth service!  Whew!

Wednesday began with working outside (only for a short time since it was close to 100 degrees and about a zillion percent humidity).  The rest of the day was spend finishing preparations for youth at Yokota, traveling to the church, and having a blast with some of the best teenagers in Japan.  I was sad to leave them but it was a good experience that taught me a lot.  (I hope they learned a little something, too, lol)

Thursday found me furiously working on my sermon for Sunday as it had to be sent to the translator by the end of that day.  That afternoon, I went to help the lovely Miss Amanda Fosburg teach her last English class of the year at Megumi church.  It was sad again, leaving the kids, but they were so much fun I can't help but smile when I think of them.  You'll have to see my facebook for the cutest pictures of them.

Friday dawned a little too early for my taste (after I had stayed up late finishing my sermon...) and I found myself again on the road up to Tohoku for relief work.  It was a lovely day that made for great pictures of the mountains that rose up out of the rice fields and clear pictures of the devastated city of Shichigahama once we arrived.  The pictures from my previous trip were blurry due to the perpetual rain that weighed down the mud we dug up out of the rain gutters.  This trip was for a different purpose: bicycles.  We arrived Saturday at Higashi Matsushima at 10:00 in the morning to discover that 70 adult bicycles had already been delivered and were standing in neat rows (very Japanese) for distribution.  In the course of the morning, we installed a bunch of baby seats, unloaded a truck full of 70-some more children's bikes, correctly distributed each bike to it's new owner, took a ton of pictures, and got some unfortunately nasty sunburns.  (Lucky for me the Mission House sports three lovely aloe plants for which I am eternally grateful.) 

Sunday was another scorching hot day.  I preached in both the morning and afternoon services which were translated line by line into Japanese.  I'd never preached to a real congregation before, nor to an international congregation, nor with translation, nor an entirely scripted sermon.  In some ways, it was great since all I had to do was basically read what I had written, but in other ways I missed the spontaneous creativity of extemporaneous preaching.  Glory to God though, several people told me later that it was just what they needed to hear and they identified with what I had said.  Knowing that my words somehow made a way for people to get closer to the Lord is the greatest congratulations I could wish for.  

Monday was a blissful day off after a long week of traveling and preaching.  I met up with Amanda Fosburg and Liz Dunagan in Shinjuku for shopping and my first purikura (photo booth) experience.  Japanese photo booths are possibly the most fun/entertaining thing I've seen since I discovered DDR my freshman year.  Speaking of DDR, I couldn't leave the arcade without dragging Liz onto the game with me for 4 complete songs of awesomeness.  After that, we went shopping for some souvenirs (since we're all leaving somewhat shortly) and then off to this amazing burger place for dinner with some more friends.  I'll never forget the inspirational conversation that happened afterwards at Starbucks, however.  You'll just have to wait for a few years to hear the completion of that story, Lord willing. ;)  Good stuff.

Tuesday and Wednesday required my utmost concentration and detail-oriented attention (which is difficult to get for more than 5 minutes at a time).  I addressed envelopes for a mailing Pastor Shelley is doing soon for Teen Challenge in Japan.  Some days you preach, some days you address envelopes.  Such is the life of a missionary intern.

Thursday (today) is the day written about in my last post.  It was chilly today as a cold front replaced the super hot weather after the typhoon swept through the country.  I wasn't complaining even as goose bumps broke out on my arms as I walked down the sidewalk today.  It is a welcome change from the sticky-hot days of last week.

Tomorrow may foretell another COSTCO adventure.  Lord preserve me, but this time I will get pictures!  Ever day this week, I've been trying to get out of the house at least once a day and have a convenience store adventure.  There are so many unique foods to try, some of which should remain untested.  One of my snack attacks led me to buy a small bag of chips that were supposed to be sour cream and onion flavored (as opposed to their seaweed and shrimp-flavored neighbors).  I just wanted something crunchy to go with my old favorite: a bottle of milk tea. Well, either the milk tea and chip flavors didn't mix or they were seriously confused when they wrote the katakana on the packaging, but the chips tasted more like sour coffee creamer and dried herb flakes than anything remotely what I am used to.  Not exactly the appetizing distraction I was hoping for...

Well, there you have it.  All that and a bag of chips.  A bag of unsatisfying, wanna-be sour cream and onion chips.  But at least they were crunchy :)

To God be the glory!  Thanks for another adventurous week, Jesus!  Looking forward to my last 2 weeks.  I'm gonna bet they'll be memorable!