I got to hug Johnny Depp!

Well, not literally, but figuratively. How is everything (question mark). I will get to Johnny Depp later, but I have a lot to tell. Last time I left off Saturday morning. Now, it is Sunday night. So, let me begin Saturday afternoon.

Basically, we had no plans for the whole day, so the three of us just ate left overs and had no plans. We are already getting cabin fever, so we decided to go for a walk. We wanted to go to the beach, but was not sure how to get there. We did not care, we left anyway. Before, we stopped for some ice cream, so I got this watermelon popsicle and it was delicious, but the seeds were these little chocolate pieces. Very good! Great combination. We started out on our trek. We knew that the ocean would not be towards the mountains, so we headed in the other direction. We had our cameras out and were taking plenty of pictures, you know, being tourists. After about 10 minutes I saw a sign that said "Kawarango Port" so we knew we were getting close. A few minutes later, there was the Pacific Ocean staring at us. Beautiful. There we were- the Pacific Ocean in all her glory. We got so excited, so we headed out to the beach. There were older people looking for sea glass and seashells, people surfing, and dudes walking tiny shaved poodles. It was pretty chilly, but only when the wind blew. We walked a little way and found a great spot. A thousand pictures later, we decided to spell "LST" in rocks, and then draw our names in the sand around it. Cool. The girls were taking pictures, so I went to put my feet in the water. I tried to avoid getting my capris wet, but it is pretty difficult while waves come crashing toward you.

We spent a good 30-45 minutes out there, then decided to head back out to the church. We stopped at the market to get a CC Lemon and Mitsuya Cider. Both great drinks, by the way. We got back to the church about 2:30 and we still had not heard from the guys.

Around 3, Bryan called and wanted to know if we wanted to go to Hitachi city with them, so we said yes. We were getting ready when he called back and asked instead if we wanted to go to Joyful Honda nad see the new Pirates movie. Yes, was of course the answer. However, it was not going to be that simple.

Bryan had to show Adam and Shane how to walk from his house to the train station, so we were to meet them all there at the station and we were all going to walk back to Bryan and Dan's house. It is a good 20-25 minute walk. It actually did not seem to be that long. We got to the house and Miyako was there. She is a Christian and she teaches Dan and Bryan Japanese. She was doing some homework so we all were talking and pretty much forcing her to go to the movie with us. She decided to come along.

Bryan drove Adam, Shane and Holly and Dan took Tyler, Miyako and me to Takahagi to the Joyful Honda mall. While in the car, I had to give a quick synopsis of Pirates 2 to Tyler and Miyako because they had never seen it. After that, I talked to Miyako and she is the sweetest person I have ever met! While talking, I found out that she had visited Lubbock not too long ago. She knew what Sugar Brown's was (a small coffee shop in Lubbock that has lots of Chrisitian concerts and such). What a small world. Another Christian, Yuka, goes to Abilene Christian University, and she went to visit Yuka, and went to Lubbock because she has a few friends in the AIM program. I told her that next time she must visit us. She is planning on going to Grad School at ACU, so she will not be too far away.

We get to the Joyful Honda mall and see the movie theatre. Awesome. Outside, there were these huge Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow posters lining the entrance to the theatre. He was looking very lovely, so I decided to hug the poster which was encased in a few inches of plexiglass. It was great. Miyako thought it was funny, so she took a picture.

We go inside and buy our tickets. In Japan, when you buy tickets to the movies, it is like going to a sporting event. They give you an assigned seat, so you must buy the tickets of your entire party all together. Pretty cool. Our movie did not start until 8:30, so we decided to go into the mall. It was huge! We walked around a bit, and we found the coolest store ever: The Lego Store. Yes, a store dedicated to Lego's. I bought a Harry Potter- made-out-of-Lego's keychain. Sweet!

Had dinner and ice cream. Watched Johnny Depp on the big screen for the third time, and that movie gets better and better with each viewing. Hold on, after you hand the usher your ticket, and before you go into your theatre, there were these huge Pirates movie posters, so of course I had to have a picture under huge Captain Jack. Team photo time!

Bryan drove us back to the church and we crashed.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday...worship service was great. Church potluck was amazing. Mr. Siato was lovely, and Mrs. Kiminagi was her same ol' self. After worship Bryan took me and Adam to Yamaya to get refreshments for the party.

Bunko Party time!!! So, the party started at 4:30, and by 4:15 there were already 20 people there. I was greeting people and helping them do nametags and such, while the others got more tables and chairs. All in all, there were 40 people there. Impressive! For us only advertising for since Friday, that was fantastic. We played about 8 games of Bunko, and then I gave out prizes for the person with the most wins, losses, and Bunkos. We got the kindergarten cleaned up, but nobody was leaving. So, I gave the winner the card game Phase 10, and the person with the most losses got UNO! I love UNO. We sat down and played games. It was great. What a wonderful time for our readers to sit and mingle with Christians. A great time for fellowship.

Sugao basically had to kick us out of the kindergarten, so we picked up and moved the games inside the church building. Finally, I think that everybody left around 8:30. Wow. What a wonderful party. 40 people! That is great. I bought a huge bag of Skittles and put them in a jar, and when people entered the room they had to guess how many Skittles were in there. There were 403 and this one girl guessed 400. Very close. She won!! Yay! Sorry, I am pretty tired.

We ate dinner at Gusto's, and now I am here. I has been a great two days. Tomorrow, my day begins early. Take the 8:57 train and my first reading session is at 9:25. Fun, fun.

I have only had one day of reading sessions, so so far I have only really talked with four of my readers. My first tow were extremely difficult because their English is very, very basic. No small talk because they just did not understand. My third one was a sweet high school girl, and my last one on Friday was a young Christian whose whole family is Christian, and she is an English major, but she is soooo shy. I ask her a question and she understands, but it takes her a few minutes to answer. Patience is a virtue, I must say.

Well, that is about all. Holly has been waiting to use the computer, so I must get off. Manatay (see you later).