Swimming, Karaoke, and Japanese Church

Lotus root stuffed with pork-ginger mixture that I made.

GOING SWIMMING BY MYSELF
I walked to a hotel with a swimming pool ( about a 15 min. walk) and went up to the desk and said "puru" (pool).  The lady gave me some some complicated Japanese directions.  I understand that I was supposed to go left.  But when I went left, it looked like I was supposed to go outside, so I went back to the desk, "Puru".  She then took me left, and outside through the parking garage and into another entrance.  I went to the desk there, "Puru".  They pointed to the left but did not take my money  . . . so I walked to the left and almost got to the locker room (maybe they wanted me to pay later??).  Soon, one of the ladies from the desk was running after me and brought me back to the vending machine and pointed to the 580Y button.  I put in my money and got a ticket.  Once at the locker room, I removed my boots before I stepped up onto the floor and put them in a cubby.  The lockers required a 50Y, so I just put my stuff up on top of the lockers as others had done. Once in the pool, I observed where I might swim laps.  There were quite a few people there but I saw two women swimming about my speed in one of the lanes so I jumped in when there was a break and swam in line with them.  Underwater as I was swimming, I observed that women wore swimsuits that were like Olympic swimmers (close fitting tank on top down to bike-short length on the bottom).  I saw that a man was leading a swim lesson for middle age women.  I finished 8 laps, 4 crawl and 4 breast stroke.  I went back to the locker room and debated how I should shower.  The shower were sort of open to the pool.  I opted for the "junior high locker room" technique and washed with my swimsuit on.  The use of the blow dryer required a 10Y coin so I had to figure out how to get change.  This required asking a young woman who spoke a little English, using the change machine in the locker room, but then needing to go back out to the desk for smaller coins.

I'm puzzled about one thing. . .in the onsen, women are naked in the locker room and shower area scrubbing up to get in the bath--no big deal, right?  Well, in the pool locker room, old women down to girls have a cape-like towel that they very discreetly change under.  No nakedness in the pool locker room but lots of nakedness at the onsen--go figure!

The ramen guy who saved me!

ALMOST GETTING LOST IN SAPPORO
After my trip to the pool, I headed out the door in the direction I remembered for the subway station.  My intent was to buy fruit at the fruit store close to the station.  It was a bright sunny day and a great day for a walk.  I did not remember the street being so residential. . .and the snow seemed different on the path.  Oh well, it HAD snowed a lot the night before.  But then after many blocks of houses, I finally decided to ask for help.  I asked an older lady, "Subway eki desu ka?" (Where is the subway station?).  She set out to take me there (Japanese people usually will do this).  She took me 2 blocks to the left--I counted because I felt like that was the wrong direction.  We finally got to a different station!   I hid behind the door until the lady was out of sight, then I did some backtracking to the street I knew and started heading back to the hotel/pool building. As I was looking for the hotel/pool suddenly I came out on the street with the sign of a little man in a ramen bowl--a landmark I knew--But I came to the street a different way. Was this another ramen man??  I looked a block to the right and there was the KFC (another landmark Anna showed us)--Yup, I was back on track in a round about way--but somehow I had completely missed the hotel/pool.  I never made it to the fruit stand so I stopped at the Arcs grocery store on my way back and got a bag of oranges and our favorite ice cream bar in Japan (cone on the outside, vanilla ice cream  and a layer of chocolate bar on the inside).  The ice cream bar was a reward for almost getting lost and finding my way back. (Epilogue--I figured out later that the pool entrance is on a different side of the building.  I had headed in a different direction over a mile to the next subway station over)

KARAOKE

Karaoke Place

"My Heart Will Go On"
Aileen, Anna, and Tess

Anna's friend Eileen celebrated a birthday Saturday and invited us to go do karaoke with her and her friend, Tess (a JET teacher from New Zealand).  We went to a big karaoke place in Anna's neighborhood.  The cost in the afternoon was 80Y per person per hour (about $1.00) As a group, you get a room with a screen, big speakers, two microphones, and seating and a table.  You order songs (we ordered Japanese, Korean, English) on a little screen.  Anna and I enjoyed singing together.  The other girls tried out their Japanese with some popular songs they knew.  J-Pop (Japanese) and K-Pop (Korean) are the names for the popular music here.  Anna is great fun at karaoke.  She is very dramatic and that makes it a blast!

CHURCH IN JAPAN

Kobe Union Church

Mark and Stephanie's church, Kobe Union Church is a non-denominational church with people from many countries (Japan, China, Malaysia, New Zealand, US, and others).  The church was up a very steep hill so we took a taxi after we got off the train.  The sanctuary was very beautiful with a large organ, dark wood walls, and stained glass windows.  The service was in English and during the sermon, we heard a woman's voice interpreting into Japanese for people with headphones.  They sang praise choruses and hymns with a band up front.  After the service, there was a fellowship time in the basement with snacks you could buy.  Mark teaches a new Christian SS class and Stephanie helps with a Japanese Bible study class.  There were about 150 people there.  The building is also used by a small German church of some sort.  There was a woman in that group who dressed like the mix between a nun and a conservative Mennonite woman and the "priest" wore a long black robe and white bow at his neck.

Sapporo Fukuinkan Church

Sunday, we went to Anna's neighborhood church, where she has just started attending.  Anna was not feeling well so we went with Jael, Shawn, and their baby, Wren, (who is Naisa's age).  Shawn teaches with Anna and they live downstairs in the same apartment building. Sapporo Fukuinkan Church is only three short blocks from their apartment building.   When you come in, you remove your shoes and wear slippers provoided for you.  These slippers are tricky and slippery to walk in but we managed okay.   The service was in Japanese with no English interpretation.  Shawn and Jael helped us figure out the scripture--it was the story of the prodigal son. The pastor is a good preacher--using good expression, stories that were funny, and he moved away from the pulpit a bit :)  I could understand about three words in the sermon:  okaasan (father), comi sama (God) and watashi (I).  They served communion, which was very meaningful to Jess and I because we didn't have to know Japanese for that.  I noticed one woman who had a black lace prayer shawl that she wore just for communion.  This congregation has two services, with about 100 at the 11:00 a.m. service (a large congregation for Japan).  There were about 20 children and a good mix of all other ages.  An old woman beside us sat in a wheel chair that had little skis on the front wheels. There was a handful of people who spoke English there.  After the service, they had a simple meal of salad, rice and a curry topping.  We were given free tickets as first time visitors otherwise the meal was 200Y (a bit over $2.00)

Sapporo Fukuinkan Church

our church slippers

SHAWN, JAEL, AND WREN

Jael and Shawn join us for supper.

Last night, we had Shawn, Jael, and Wren over for supper.  Anna made soup with gyouza dumplings, and I made sliced lotus root sandwiched around a pork, chopped ginger and naganegi onion mixture, then deep fried. I used Anna's Japanese/English cookbook.  We sat around Anna's low coffee table and enjoyed the meal and got to know Shawn and Jael and chubby little Wren.  Shawn in from Wisconsin and Jael is from Minnesota.  They met at YWAM and got married.  They plan to be in Japan long term as missionaries.  Jess and I both enjoyed holding Wren, who is two-weeks older than Naisa.  What a blessing for Anna to have such good friends as neighbors and little Wren to hold since she has not met Naisa yet.

Jess coaxing Wren to sleep at the church lunch

IT SNOWS EVERY DAY HERE
Fun things we have seen in the now--baseball practice at the school outside, women hauling their little child on a sled to the grocery store, young women walking in high heel fashion boots in 4 inches of snow. . .

This is kind of like living in the snow belt on steroids.  It snows and snows and snows.  Sometimes it even rains or sleets a bit.  So glad we brought good high boots!