my past year and a half in Japan was the most amazing, challenging, growing, breaking, wonderful, unforgettable time i've ever had. i met some amazing people and saw God do some amazing things. and 2 weeks ago i had to say goodbye, not knowing when i would be able to return. but i want to share all that happened my last month in Japan, even though it makes me miss Japan so much. i've never missed a place or people so much, so it is definitely a testament to how much God grew my heart for Japan and Japanese people. it's hard to believe that 4 years ago i argued with my friend Gen, not wanting to go to Japan. i thank God that He used Gen to push me to go on my first short mission trip to Japan, which led to my 2nd mission trip, which led to 1 1/2 years of STINT in Tokyo with Cru. ok, here's a recap of the last 2 weeks of December:
on December 13th, i learned i would have to leave Japan, and that i had one more month to finish up everything i thought i had 7 more months to do. i barely had time to process it at all, but my way of processing became making lists of everything i had to do and all the people i had to see. that next week, i met with several students, learned a new dance with Odori Samurai, planned Student Impact's Christmas event, met up with my friend brandon who was visiting, and skyped into several team meetings prepping us for Hawaii. i got very little sleep that week. at the end of that week, i realized i hadn't gone to bed before 3:30 am in at least 3 weeks. the week of Christmas was busy, but fun. on the 20th, Paddy held their annual Christmas party, where we all dressed up and went to a nice restaurant and exchanged presents. we also had a "Rock-Paper-Scissors" tournament. no joke. and guess what? i won! it was kind of awesome. i learned that Japanese people always do scissors first. not sure why. but i won like 7 rounds of rock-paper-scissors just with rock. anyway, i won 5 free gift certificates to Sweets Paradise, an all-you-can-eat desserts buffet. it made my day. i love Sweets Paradise, and it was one of the places i wanted to go before i left Japan so it was perfect. on the 21st i went to Waseda and met a student for lunch, then went to my last futsal practice with my futsal team Diente FC. it was sad. when i told the guys it was my last practice one of them said "awww now we don't have any girls!" at least they appreciated that i was a girl...
afterward i went to Odori Samurai practice to prepare for our festival in Itoh (a couple hours from Tokyo by the beach). the 22nd was our festival- we all met in Itoh and went to our ryokkan (traditional Japanese-style hotel), changed and warmed up by the beach. it was really cold. they actually had huge heaters set up near the stage to keep us warm before we performed. it was really fun to perform though, and afterward there was a huge fireworks show and we danced with at least a couple hundred other yosakoi dancers from other places in Japan. afterward, we went back to the hotel and changed, then we had an all night party. it was an experience. i've never been to an all-night Japanese party before. we had trivia games, tons of snacks and drinks, and many, many performances that had been prepared by members of Odori Samurai. most of them i didn't understand, but it was still fun to watch. the problem was that the later the hours got, the more tired we all became and the less they could speak english and the less i could speak japanese. but it was still pretty entertaining. i stayed up until about 5 am and then fell asleep- got about 2 hours of sleep before breakfast. i could have skipped it, but wanted to be awake for breakfast because ryokkans do really traditional Japanese breakfasts and while they are a bit strange (no Poptarts, sadly) i didn't know when i might have another one. after breakfast we all played on the beach a bit and then headed home. 
that afternoon i had coffee with my friend Nagisa and got to share my testimony with her which was cool, then i came home and slept a lot. December 24th i went to New Hope Church's Christmas Eve service, which was good but lonely without a team. that night i did some last minute Christmas shopping and then had KFC and Christmas cake with my roommate Anita, and we watched Elf. Christmas Day i spent with my boss and his family and got to skype with my family. 
the 26th i took a day off, and the 27th i met with my friend Sara for the last time and then met with another girl named Miriam after that. the next day i had lunch with a girl from ICU High School named Nobuko, then had some catch up time with my friend Tomo from church. the next day i had coffee with my friend Aya, then coffee again with my friend Kaori and got to share the Gospel and my testimony with her. so sweet. the next day i got coffee with two friends, Tamami and Takako- it was actually my first time to meet up with Takako since meeting her in May. that evening i went over to Cam's house with my roommate and a few other people and we celebrated an early New Year's together. it was my last time to hang out with his family before i left Japan. December 31st i went to homeless church, then got lunch with my friend Mai for the last time, then had New Year's Eve dinner with my roomies. after that i went to my friend Takehiro's house and several Paddy members got together for a New Year's Eve party. we made sukiyaki and udon, watched the Japanese New Year's Eve program, and played video games until midnight. after midnight we went to a shrine and did "Hatsumoude" or the "first going to the shrine of the New Year."
ironically, i knew more about the custom than the Japanese students. growing up, they are never taught why they observe the traditions that they do, they just do them. Wikipedia provided all my Japanese New Year knowledge. even though we arrived at the shrine around 12:45 am, there was already a HUGE line of people. while we waited in line, i was able to share with some of the students why i was in Japan, why i believed God brought me there and my heart for the Japanese people. it was pretty sweet. once we arrived at the shrine, we threw in 5 yen, rang bells (to announce our presence to the god), clapped our hands twice (to wake up the god if he's asleep) and prayed. i prayed that every person at the shrine would learn about the true God, the one who is always awake, the one whom we do not need to ring bells or clap our hands to wake up, the one who always hears our prayers. after we finished at the shrine, we went back to Takehiro's house and played video games until the first train at 4:15 am. i scurried back home as fast as i could to collect my roommates so we could go watch "Hatsuhinode," the first sunrise of the new year. we biked to Gaidai University and climbed a hill to see the sunrise- it took awhile and was super cold, but we finally saw it. apparently we were lucky, because most of my friends were unable to see it in other places in Tokyo. once we got back home, i slept the rest of the day. 
last two weeks of Japan in the next blog post...
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