4th Day on Campus

Hello Everybody! Alright so I'm about to tell you the best day I have had on campus so far I believe. This time I wasn't at Hitotsubishi but I was at Gakugei. This campus is a bit smaller so I found it easier to talk to people. I don't know... maybe that was just me. Anyway, I get to the campus and the first thing I do is get food! :) So I got a lunch box and 2 sandwitches because I didn't know which one to get so I got both! haha! Meanwhile, I was wondering whether I was suppose to cook my box or not so I decided to ask some people. I thought that would be a good conversation starter. So I asked this one guy who was in line for the microwave and he didn't really understand me so he got three other guys to come over so they could understand me. They helped me with the microwave and getting chopsticks and we were talking for a bit. I then asked if they wanted to have lunch with me but they didn't really understand and said they had to go somewhere so we said our goodbyes. Though when I told one of them I was from California they all got excited and said, "Schwarzenegger, Arnold Schwarzenegger!" and he did I really good "I'll be back!" impression of him.

Next we went to the Joyful lunch period at the University. It is a time where we got to share fellowship with fellow Christians on the campus by having lunch with them. This was really cool because I got to talk with other Christians from Japan which I haven't been able to do.
After this I went over with Nosuke to go to the cafeteria to find some people to talk with. I saw there were two people sitting by themselves on two different tables. One was asian and the other was a white guy. So Nosuke went over to the asian and said something and I asked him if I could sit with him. He said yes and then I asked him something else but he couldn't understand me so he asked four of his friends to come over from another table to help him understand. So I got to meet all five of the soccer players and one of them, Koji, was really funny. He starts off by saying, "My name is Koji, Passion Koji. I have Passion." He does this while beating his chest. Then two of his friends, who were female come over, and start talking with us as well. He tells me that they have a game tomorrow and say that they wish I could come but they aren't sure where it is. I then go on to repeat his name for some reason and he thinks my name is also Koji. I tell them my name and then they ask, "Passion Josh?" I then go on to say "Passion Josh" and pound my chest. This was a really fun time and we were being pretty loud too but they didn't seem to care. haha. When I tell them that I am from California, they get really excited and Koji does the same impression of Arnold S. as above. I then go on to tell them that Arnold is my uncle and they all get surprised but then I go on to say that I'm kidding. They think that's really funny. We then go on to talk for about 40 min more with a couple American and Japanese jokes. There were also some times when we were all just beating our chests saying that we have passion. I then tell them that I am here with other Americans and ask if they wanna have lunch with us. They all say yes and we establish that we are all going to have lunch on Monday at noon. So they get all excited and say our "See you next time" to eachother. This is a picture of the team.
So I later found out that day that Kylan had met three other people that day who were also from the soccer team. He was thinking about going to their last soccer game of the semester the next day, Saturday, and I thought I would go to. So we both ended up going along with our fellow roommate Jack from Arizona. It took us about an hour to get to the city by train and then an hour to get their by walking. We later decided to take the bus back to the train station since it took us such a long time to walk there... haha. So when we arrive at the soccer game there is about 25 min left in the game. We are walking to find a place to sit when I see Maki and Sachie, the two girls I met on Friday. They get really excited to see me and say that Koji is out on the field and this is actually his first game playing. (There are about 100 soccer players on the team and most of the people who play are seniors.) So I thought it was really cool how I got to see Koji's first soccer game while this would be the only soccer game of his that would occur while I was in Japan. So they decide to yell at Koji, they called him Passion Koji, and tell him that Passion Josh is here. I try to tell them to not do that because he was currently in the middle of the game which had a score of 0-0. When the game ends they begin yelling at Koji that Josh is here and the whole team turns and looks at me. Haha... I didn't really know what to do but wave so that's what I did. Koji then comes to the gate and tells me thanks for coming to the game. Not what I expected but this was overall a good day and I couldn't wait for lunch on Monday! Also, sorry if I'm not good at explaining things very well. I've never really been good at that.

3rd Day on Campus

So on Thursday I went to Hitotsubashi again and had a really good time. I ended up eating lunch with Yuuta, who I had met the day previous. I was with Gen and Yuuta seemed to be having a good time. He was teaching me how to use chop sticks and even gave me a piece of his tofu. Later on Soshi ended up joining us so I thought that was really cool because I had been praying earlier that I would meet them again so that I would be able to get their contact information. So this time I was able to talk to them more and was even ble to get their emails this time. Soshi even wanted to hang out later so I thought this could be a really great opportunity to share the Gospel with him.

Later on I went with Kylan again. He wanted to talk to this guy who was smoking but I didn't really want to talk to him because he was smoking and I don't really like talking to people while they are smoking. But we ended up going anyway and found out that this fourth year was a Christian. Saying that less than 1% of Japanese people claim that they are Christain I found this really encouraging. We told him about Student Impact, the Christian Ministry here in Japan, and prayed for him. I felt like he was really encouraged by how we prayed for him and that really changed the whole feeling of the conversation. He seemed to be much more interested in meeting another day and we were able to get his email. I was really encouraged this day and was really thankful for how God can provide. :)

2nd Day on Campus

Alright so this was my second day on campus and I went to the same university I went to the day before. Hitotsubashi or something like that... haha. Anyway, wednesday I ended up starting up in the cafeteria. I saw someone who was sitting by themselves who looked my age. I was looking for another 18 year old because the day previous to that I met only fourth years and I wanted to talk to someone my age since I thought we would have more to talk about. So when I went up to the guy and asked if I could sit with him I found out that he was indeed 18 years old. haha. So me and Andrew, who also goes to USC were talking to this guy and he seemed to be really interested in talking to us. We were talking for about 40 min and then he had to leave because he had a meeting to attend. He couldn't understand us totally but we were able to keep a decent conversation. When I asked if he wanted to give us an email so we could meet again he said he didn't have an email so I ended up giving him mine. Hopefully he will end up emailing me back and he's interested in talking with Andrew and I.

So later Andrew and I met up with Jeremy who ate lunch with the whole Lacrosse Team and was going to practice with them around 2pm. So Andrew and I decided to tag along. At 2pm all three of us met up with about 5 lacrosse players and we walked to an area off of campus. On the way there I was talking to two freshmen who were named Soshi and Yuuta. They were pretty fun to talk to and Soshi was able to speak English pretty well. When we arrived we saw that there were about 20 other lacrosse players on the field and they were really impressed that Jeremy had played Lacrosse, the goalie position, for 12 years I think. So he ended up playing the goalie while all of the other 20 lacrosse players were trying to make a goal. Andrew and I ended up talking to the 4 people who were on the female lacrosse team and found someone who spoke really good English. She had studied in America for three years so that was really fun talking. I met some of the other guys too but I don't remember the conversations... So I thought this was a really great day because I wanted to meet people my age and ended up meeting one guy at lunch and a whole lacrosse team that was my age.

1st Day on Campus

So Tuesday was our first day going to our designated campuses. My team of 7 went to Hitotsubashi and the other team of 8 went to International Christian University (Just because they go to this school does not make them christian.) So it took about 40 min to arrive their by train I think. Everybody in Tokyo uses the train to go from one place to another in Tokyo. Tokyo is really big and I haven't even left Tokyo since I've arrived in Tokyo 5 days ago. Anyway, I went out with my friend Kylan as we split up into groups of about two. Kylan had actually gone to this school a year ago when he did study abroad for UC Berkeley. We started out at the dining hall where Kylan saw someone that he had met before. The two were talking for about 30-45 min. This was a really cool experience as this was my first real interaction with a Japanese college student.

After this conversation we went back inside the dining hall because I was still hungry and wanted to eat more chicken. So we both went inside and I got more chicken but instead of rice I got french fries! :) I went up the cash register and put down my notebook to get out all of my japanese coins. When I finally found enough yen (Japanese money), I went over to get some water. It was at this point that a Japanese student came up to me and handed me my notebook as a I had left it at the cash register. I then responded with the correct response, Arigato Gozimasu. (That means "thank you" in Japanese... haha) So Kylan said that we should go sit with him so that's exactly what we did. At first, talking to Tomita Kouhei wasn't going so well because he couldn't understand everything I was saying but then Kylan ended up translating which was really cool. (Kylan studied Japanese at UC Berkeley). Kylan was able to tell him about the Christian Ministry that we are working with in Tokyo and why we pray before our meal. He said that he gives thanks for his food before he eats because the food, such as chicken, use to be an animal. This was a really cool opportunity to tell him why we pray and who we pray to. Also, while talking to him I realized I had many similarities with Tomita Kouhei. We were both from small towns of about the same population, we both travel about 6 hours to go to our University, we both use the train to get back home, we both like to run, we both like to run around the track, and we have both wanted to run in a marathon in the city we attend college but never got the chance. So I thought this was really cool so I asked if he would ever like to go running with me around the track. He said yes and gave me his email. I'm really excited to meet him again next week if it's possible!

In Tokyo

Hey Everybody,

So I arrived in Tokyo about three days ago and it's just been an amazing experience. This is my first time overseas and it was a really cool experience just going on a plane ride for about eleven hours I think. I was able to watch two Japanese movies with English Subtitles so I would able to learn about the Japanese culture. After we arrived in Japan it was pretty hot. Well I guess it wasn't that hot but it just felt hot because it was humid. Yeah so I slept pretty early that day as I was up for practically twenty-four hours. Yeah I know, that's really unlike me. And the next day I spent most of my time exploring and getting to know the three people I will be living with for the next five weeks. That was a really great day just to see the area I'm living around and just explore the Japanese culture.

The next day, Monday, my team and I got to meet up with the ministry in Japan called Student Impact. It was great meeting them and just being able to see how excited they were that all seventeen of us were here. I also got to meet some people that are in ministry here that are originally from Taiwan. So I got to speak some Chinese with them which was a really cool experience as I know about fifteen phrases! Ni Hao! (that's how you say Hello) I also got to do a scavenger hunt yesturday. The scavenger hunt took place in Shibuya, which is basically the New York of Tokyo in my opinion. That was really fun and I even got to eat some octopus. So that was really cool because I was chewing for it for about 45 minutes. That was really chewy! And Today was great but I'm going to write about it later because I'm really tired! haha! See ya! Kinda... haha. I will also add pictures soon. Maybe tomorrow. haha!