bunny tales

Hey people!
What has this bunny been up to? Well, busy as always… I can’t believe that March is already over! NO!!!! I apologize for the long silence. I know you guys must be wondering (if you do) what I have been doing, especially since my spring break will be over on Monday. So, just add this to my schedule life of classes and part-time jobs, and you will get what I have been doing in the month of March.

1- Rested my throat after singing in the recital the night before (February 28). I did “Caro mio Ben;” totally freaked out during the rehearsal but thank God everything went well.
2- Lunch with Dr. Gustafson at Yanagisawa-sensei’s. Yanagisawa-sensei organized a lunch for the seniors to meet and have fellowship with our favorite professor, Dr. Gustafson as he was in Japan just for the week. It was great seeing him again.

3-5- Went to Okutama, in the outskirts of Tokyo for Tokyo Union Church’s Youth Retreat. Just a small crowd of 9. We had a blast of a time… ala Americano! very relaxing and we had a great time playing board games and watching movies apart from Bible study and all. We were all brought closer, the youth and I.

6- Day of farewell parties.
I attended the farewell Japanese Tea Ceremony at Yamato-sensei’s place. Yamaguchi-san, a tea master by profession came to perform the tea ceremony for us. He came all the way from Kyoto (the place where he teaches Buddhist monks the art of tea) bringing snacks from the Imperial household. We had a fun time there. I got the opportuntiy to perform the ceremony too while being tutored by him. He will officially come to teach us, the Japanese Tea Ceremony Club. He is also an invited guest of Yamato-sensei to teach us during his classes of “Eastern Thought” where I would translate for the class. (hmm.. so, I better brush up my listening skills to pick up the Kansai-accent.)

After that, we had a farewell party for the graduates at the Dining Hall. This time, it was done a little different where they made all the graduating seniors to dress up.. it was a nice party. I joined the graduating class for a time of fellowship and prayer at their last prayer meeting,

7- Graduation Day

8- Went to Tokyo Disney Sea with Seth. Personal preference: I like Disneyland, I LOVE DisneySea. It was really cool. We had tonnes of fun. haha… imagine suemae and seth, both WAY into our 20s but running around like kids. We had tonnes of fun teasing people who were dating there. However, I must say, I am pretty proud of myself being able to get on every ride and watched all the major shows and parade! Wow! I AM a Tokyo Disney Resort junkie!

9- Kaiseki lunch with the ladies from the Inzai International Friendship Club. These were the ladies who I help out, teaching them conversational English. It was also a farewell party as Saiki-san and Kitamura-san decided not to continue their lessons anymore. We had a great lunch eating a traditional Japanese course. I will miss these ladies.

13-17 Stayed with the Fujihara-family at Chiba City as I was involved in the APEC International Symposium
13 Went to Chiba University for the rehearsal and briefing of my task at the Symposium. It was great to see Ishido-sensei again. I also made new friends with Casey (the Philippines), and Anne (Nigeria).
14-15 APEC International Symposium. Enjoyed myself as I slaved to take down notes and dictations at the symposium. It is a part-time/volunteer job. I got to meet and greet, dine and wine with many INTERESTING people.

16 Technical Tour around Chiba for the APEC delegates. I joined the convoy and accompanied the delegates to Kazusa Research Institute and Tokyo Disney Resort for the technical tour. It was very enlightening. Though given the opportunity to get into either Disneyland or sea without me forking out any money, I decided to spend sometime catching up with Ishido-sensei, meeting his brother and a new friend who was a translator/interpreter by profession. We were all celebrating the end of the Symposium over cakes and tea.
17 Dinner party with my Friday Evening English Conversational Class.
18 Moved back to the Women’s Dorm
20 Officially a resident of the Women’s Dorm again. I have my own room now… and it is so cool!
22-30 Worked in the library moving books from 9.30-4.30 daily except weekends.
22 Took a break from life. Went for a movie and good italian food by myself to fight depression.
24 Attended Nishinohara Nursery’s Graduation.

30 ACTS-es Spring Food Fest. We had a spontaneous night of potluck, music and dance.
31 Took a break from moving books to rest my wrists.

That’s about it. I will try to give you some sort of a detailed account of the above when I have the time. Feel free to ask me about it for any perosnal scoop. In short… I really had many great experiences in the month of March. Though it was a month of farewell and goodbyes, but there were many events which I would cherish for life!

Graduation Day, March 7, 2006.
The day has come where life at Tokyo Chrtistian Institute ends for most. The Japanese academic year ends in March and thus the season for graduation. Though I clearly know that people do come and go in all areas of life, I dread the day when it was finally here.
Everything was pretty much the same as the graduation every year. As usual, everyone was super excited on that day. People were dressed since early morning! However, I know that this time it was different… because, those who were graduating were those closest to my heart. Yuka was the recipient of magna cum laude along with another award for best thesis. You go girl! I am so glad and proud that it was you. You have always been an inspiration and worked hard for it. Congratulations! You deserve it.
Samiko and I sang the Alto solo together for Mozart’s “Gloria.” It was an honor to be able to play apart in TCI’s tradition as the first ACTS-es student to do so.
One of the things that pleases me most joining the choir is that I am able to have good seats at major events, i.e. Entrance Ceremony, Graduation… (there are so many guests for such events that one can hardly get a seat in the chapel if he or she doesn’t come early. I had that experience during my first year at TCU. Yuka and I had to sit at the entrance.) This year, this privellege meant extra lot to me as I was able to see my buddies from a close distance. Due to the seating and where I was placed, I was able to dedicate my singing in congratulating and blessing my loved ones at a perfect position. What overwhelmed me was that I was able to see every graduates face and expression as I sang to and for them. I almost cried and wasn’t able to continue as I looked eye to eye with those who were tearing. Oh… I am going to miss you guys too!
The ceremony was the one and the same like previous years. After it was over, the grauduate went out and sang for everyone. We later had a time of picture taking and light snacks in the courtyard.
Well, that’s it… it will be my turn soon, 4 months from this day. I am being filled with mixed emotions at the moment as I am still struggling with my graduation thesis. it also hit me that not only my closest of friends have officially finished and will move on with life, but it also reminds me that I will wrap up soon and have to leave too… *sob!

ps: please check out the album entitles “Class of 2006″!

Friday, March 24th- I attended a graduation at a nursery today. It was very different from the graduations I have been to in the past. It was a touching moment of joy.
Maybe there is some need for explanations. Allow me to fill you in.
I have been involved with Inzai City Council’s “Hello Friends!” program for the past year. It was a program set up to introduce foreign culture to the various schools in the Inzai City (where yours truly is at in Chiba). A lady called Arano-san (one of my students from my English Conversational Class on Friday nights) asked whether I was interested to help out. At first, I thought it was just meeting local children, sharing with them about my country and culture; but I soon found out that I was also to teach them very basic English. The school that I was assigned to was a Nishinohara Nursery with a class of 26 5 year olds. The place is about 15-20 minutes away from campus by bicycle, and the classes were for one hour from 10-11am. In simple terms, my duty was to show these children that “foreigners are not aliens and are fun to hang out with“ through fun activities such as learning basic English and playing games.
The classes we had together is an experience which I will truly cherish. I have learned so much from this class of very adorable children. They are energetic and extremely cute. Everytime I teach them, they brighten up my day. Though it was very tiring at first, but I soon learned how to adapt and have tonnes of fun with them. Aww! They remind me so much of my brother, Ron!

OK, with that, I will get back to the graduation. At the end of the program, I have made good friends with the principal of the nursery, Otake-san, or as I call her “en-cho-sensei”. Even though I only had to teach the kids once a month, Otake-san often invite me to join the various activities the nursery has all year round. Sad to say these days often took place on days when I was not in Japan. Even the most recent one of the “Hina-Matsuri” (March 3) I was tied down with work at school and wasn’t able to make it. However, Otake-san did insist that I go see her the week after as she had a present and a letter for me in appreciation of my involvement with the program. It was an invitation to the graduation of the class of students that I taught.
I arrived at the nursery 15 minutes before the ceremony. I popped my head in the teacher’s office as usual but to my amazement everyone was super dressed up for the occasion. I was asked to take a seat with the headmistress and her guests to find out that they were also invited guests. There was the principal of Nishinohara Elementary School, the principal of Funaho Junior High School, and the Chairperson of the nursery’s PTA. I was feeling rather nervous as I sat among them and didn’t even touched the sakura tea that was served.
We then adjourned to the little hall once trhe children were ready. The kids were so excited as they lined up outside the hall and were calling out my name in excitement as I passed them. (Oh! So cute! They were all dressed up in their little suits and dresses, all neat and great looking.) I entered the hall after the guests and was led to the front. To my surprise, I was led to the front and on stage. (Man! This is another of those experience of mine, things that only happens to me here in Japan.) At that moment I knew that it would not be appropriate for me to wave at the kids or take pictures as much as I want to. I sat through the entire ceremony proper but yet smiling at the kids and beaming as any parent who were present.
The ceremony was one that was very different from those I had experience in TCU. Even thought it was a graduation at a nursery, everything was planned and choreographed to excellence. The kids practiced so hard and I was really proud and touched by them.
The entrance of the children was in sync with appropriate BGM. We all took a deep bow and the ceremony began. Each child was called to the front to recieve their certificate. As they stood up and moved forward, their parent who were sitting directly opposite them also did the same. As the child was walking to the front, the class teacher would say something nice about the student. When he or she reached the front, the principal will call out the child’s name, and he or she would professionally stretch out to collect the certificate with both hands, take a deep bow, carefully turing around where moving the piece of paper in their hands to emerge facing the audience and proudly showing off the certificate to all. Then, he or she will carefully fold the certificate into half, step off stage and move towards his or her parent to unfold the certificate and presenting it to the parent. Upto now as if seeing all these weren’t touching enough, at the moment where the child hands over the certificate, he or she will say something in appreciation to his or her parent! “Thank you for the delicious meals” “Thank you for sending me and picking me up form school” “Thank you for coming to my sports day” ” Thank you for working hard at your jobs” I was so touched and strived hard not to weep on stage.
After each student has taken their turn, the principal gave a speech, so as to one of the guest of honor, and also the chairperson of the PTA. Then, the students from the lower class gave a super short speech of thanks and sang a song entitled “Forever Friends.” The graduating class also did a short choral response to them and to the school. The also sang a song. In both events almost everyone in the hall cried. The ceremony ended with a few more short speeches of appreciation and thanks from the parents.

I stayed back for a while and managed to talk to the kids. We were all happy that I attended the ceremony. It was indeed an experience that I will cherish for life. I respect teachers for the work they do, especially when it comes to little children. The kids were amazing too. Never in my life had I ever thought that I will be given an opportunity like such… but yet, God do work in amazing ways. I was confronted with my fear of being among large number of yound children. I came (was sent) to Nishinohara Nursery, and I conquered! Now, I will cherish everything I have learned and experienced there.

p.s. Do check out the album

Boo! Hey, it’s me… yeah, I know (dodging thrown objects) it has indeed been a while. A month maybe? Well, I have been busy (what’s new… I have always been saying that!) But I assure you, nothing has been boring. This time the business was filled with fun and excitement. There was so many things going on which I would like to share with you but simply didn’t find the time to do so. Now, I am already done with the semester’s assignments, exams, the semester IS over, graduation, leaving of close friends, oh yeah… my various trips to Tokyo Disney Resort (Land and Sea)… and the most recent thing that I am busy with is the APEC International Symposium…

Well, I am leaving you with this much at the moment. Just a short note to let you know that this bunny is still hopping. Spring is already here… but bunny is busy as usual. (smiles)