IrishOboe

Having been out all day Wednesday I was feeling a little sick again, so I canceled all plans and just stayed home. It was the first time to have two consecutive days of staying home in a very long time since now my weekends are full of Hippo, Bible study and church. I enjoy my weekends, but it was very nice to have time to relax, have a slow start to the day, get work done, and still have time to think and reflect. The other nice thing about staying home is that it takes much less time to report on than having a crazy adventure!

Thursday night Miwako came for a Japanese lesson, which was great as usual, then Friday night Leslie spent the night because she was just getting back from her Golden Week trip.

Saturday (May 6) we went for a run together in the morning to the park and we played on the playground equipment together. I had always wanted to, but I was always intimidate by the funny looks Japanese kids gave me as an adult foreigner playing by herself! We had fun and realized that our upper body strength is not what it used to be. The run back felt better because we’d done some upper body work, though!

In the afternoon Leslie took the train into Kofu and I rode my bike. I discovered a new way to go that is absolutely wonderful. For 20 minutes of the 30 minute trip I follow the bike path along the rivers. Not only does it get me off the roads and onto a save, beautiful, car-free (mostly) bike path, but I don’t have to wait at the traffic lights that are on the main road because roads don’t cross rivers as often. So I hardly ever have loose momentum or worry about getting run over and the path is covered with trees and there’s often a breeze on the river. So, it’s a nice, easy ride and it’s faster!

Anyway, I met up with Alex in Kofu and we went to Hippo together. Alex is a Korean girl from church who goes to school at Eiwa University. She speaks Korean, of course, and Japanese and English and wants to learn French, German and Spanish. She enjoyed Hippo, but I’m not sure if she’ll want to come back. Everyone was so happy to see her and to try out their Korean that we couldn’t get away at the end so we missed our train to Bible study. We both had our bikes there so just biked to Sakaori eki, though we were a bit late. It worked out fine and we had Bible study at Adden’s (Steven, Adden, Alex, Leslie and I). It took us the whole time just to get through Matthew 5.

Afterwards we all went to church and at dinner afterwards I met a girl from Taiwan named Miki (her Japanese name). She taught me how to say a few more things in Chinese (delicious and I’m fine) and I hope to learn a few each week. Hm, that’s what I said about learning Chinese from my Taiwanese roommate in college . . .

The 45 minutes bike ride back home was pleasant because of the nice weather and the new route. When discussing future plans people always ask me where I want to live (mostly in the context of what city) and I never knew what to say (besides wanting to be near family but career people don’t often understand that one). Now I know one feature that would be great to have – a good way to get around on a bike!