E komo mai o Hawaii

my first glimpse of The Big Island 

aloha from Hawaii! i know it's been over two months since i actually arrived in Hawaii... sorry for the delay.

i arrived back in America, aka the Honolulu Airport, around 10 am HST (Hawaii Standard Time). after about an hour layover, we were off to Hilo. ironically, there was a group of Japanese high school students sitting behind me on the plane, so as if the transition from Japan to America wasn't difficult enough, hearing spoken Japanese on my way to my new home made it all the more challenging. about 40 minutes later, we arrived in Hilo, my new home. the airport was  super tiny, my first culture shock after spending time in the Tokyo International Airport, Bangkok International Airport and Seoul International Airport. we were picked up by Kent Matsui, the UH Hilo Cru campus director and driven to our new house, only about a 15 minute drive from the airport. because you see, to get anywhere in Hilo only takes about 15 minutes. drive any farther and you are no longer in Hilo. in fact, if you drive longer than 2 hours, you're in the ocean. and we're on the BIG island. like i said in a previous post, Hilo's population is only about 43,000 people. stores open around 10 am and close around 5 pm. we have a Walmart and Target...and technically two Starbucks, if you count the one in Target.

anyway, when i got to my new house, i was blown away by how big it was. we have 5 bedrooms, a gigantic kitchen with breakfast nook, a living room, dining room, sun room, 2 bathrooms, laundry room, garage...and a backyard and front yard! i could hardly believe how much space we had after being in a tiny Tokyo apartment for 1 1/2 years. my room is twice as big as big as my room in Japan. my housemates had made a sign for my door that said "E komo mai o Hawaii!" which means "Welcome to Hawaii!" and had bought me a few little Hawaiian things. after i'd gotten all my stuff in my room, we headed to Walmart and Target to buy food and things for our new home. it was a bit of a bummer buying futons and tables and chairs and things, knowing that we'd be leaving in just a few months. it was good to have something to do though, because we needed to stay away for the rest of the day so we wouldn't throw off our sleep schedules too much with jet lag. we gained almost an entire day coming from Korea.

the next week i wasn't allowed on campus. my team leaders made me take a mandatory week off to rest, recover and adjust to my new culture, environment, team and ministry. the problem was, i didn't want to process leaving Japan. it was too hard. i busied myself focusing on organizing my room, settling in and figuring out life in Hawaii, but it was too painful to think about how i was no longer in Japan and didn't know when i'd be back. i was thankful for a few days of rest and recovery though- i definitely needed it after such a long and stressful semester by myself in Japan. and Thursday of that week i was actually allowed to go to a joint worship night with the two other Christian groups on campus, BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministries) and InterVarsity. it was exciting to walk onto UH Hilo's campus for the first time and meet students, and of course, pray and worship with brothers and sisters. the next day i went to the beach for the first time- Hilo beaches are pretty much all volcanic rock, but still pretty and relaxing to chill on the rocks and watch the waves. that night we all went to dinner with some of the guys from BCM at Lucy's Taqueria- a really wonderful Mexican food place downtown.

saturday our whole team got together and for 7 hours, we planned our "SPP" or "Strategic Planning Process." our SPP was basically exactly what it sounds like- deciding our vision for ministry and then planning out action steps to make our vision a reality. it was a long day, but we got a lot accomplished!
and there ends my first week in Hawaii! more to come...

one last Asian peace sign picture, plus a shaka

my new room! 

my first time onto the UH Hilo Campus

  

Joint Worship Night with BCM and Intervarsity

At Lucy's with the BCM men