Spring is Here!
Despite the cold weather out there, spring has officially begun! Chinese New Year marks the beginning of the new year of the lunar calendar with spring in mind, and the Japanese had their "setsu-bun" yesterday with the chasing out of evils by throwing beans and welcoming good fortune with eating a sushi-roll in silence facing the auspicious direction with good thoughts in mind. Winter is gone, spring is here! Yay! Longer daylight hours from now henceforth! The great sunny weather today is indeed refreshing from the long cold winters, but the winds of spring still sends the cold through my coats and straight into the bones…
The month of February brings around many things, spring, the graduation concert, wrapping up of the semester… etc. Since the last time I wrote, I welcomed the Chinese New Year hanging out with the junior high-schoolers of TUC. We had tonnes of fun that night. No sleep was on the schedule. We had tonnes of food, games, and activities that kept us going through the whole night. My favorite was the food. We had unlimited amount of pizza’s from Dominos, seven layered dip and chips, junk food, freshly baked cinnamon rolls, muffins, fruits being served every 2 hours. I personally liked the scavenger hunt on Omotesando and Harajuku. The kids were to collect items bearing the name of the shop in the alphabet without buying anything (i.e. asking for bags, name cards, brochures, etc. Mind you, these are a bunch of American kids that have very little or close to no Japanese knowledge. It was fun seeing them work as well as the eagerness of the Japanese to help foreigners.
It has been a long time since I enjoyed myself so much with games and activities, running about and seeing people scream in excitement. Yeah, it brings back memories of YA at my home church. The most adventurous thing that I did with the kids was to climb up to the roof of the church. I had my boots on and was totally not prepared for outdoor activities. But it was really fun once I got to the top. However, coming down by the upright ladder was pretty scary for me. We also bounced super balls off the roof as we watch the sun rise and took our pictures. I really had a blast with the kids.
Oh yeah, the highlight thus far was the graduation concert we had last night. Though I didn’t perform anything on my own, but it was sort of like my graduation concert too. I will be graduating and I sang in the choir for the last time in such a concert. The performers last night were great. I was very touched by Nam-san’s singing. Asakura Yuki, my punk friend, did amazing pieces on the pipe organ and piano. I received a rose from Yuka after that and we snapped some pictures. Sigh… this marks the point where everyone will be preparing for the actual graduation in March, and for mine, in July. How sad! I am definitely going to miss them.
February, end of winter and also, the end to many things too… Nonetheless, I always look forward to what spring will bring: the blooming of the plum blossoms, cherry blossoms… Though it will be beautiful, but I do have to catch up on my work! Okay, Bunny, time to snap out of the hibernation mode and get lots of work done. 
