Whatever happened to studying?

We had a busy weekend. Friday was finishing work, then meeting up with our ~married friends~ for some wedding sharing time. All their friends and our friends are single or dating, so no one but us is really interested in seeing wedding pictures and wedding videos. Besides, since they can speak only limited English and we speak barely speakable Japanese, connecting through pictures seemed very beneficial for our relationship. On Saturday, Ron had a business pow wow with a friend while I strolled the train station doing some errunds and window shopping, something I don't often so and miss so very much. We met back up and went to the next town to have a big family dinner with Ron's boss/priest agent's family. We enjoyed good company and good food and I remembered why children are so adorable. I should mention that it was a big family gathering with little 3 year olds running all over the place. I enjoyed the company of the cutest little 8 year old.

Then Sunday, we woke up bright and early to go to Ron's baseball game. He played in the later half as left field and did a very good job. He even caught a fly ball to get the batter out. We returned home, put on some nice clothes and then make our way to a little chapel where Ron donned the outfit to make him a "priest." I had weird thoughts of it before, but if they are going to hire foreigners to do this anyway, it should at least be someone who has been married and does believe in the faith. It's better than some random guy that hasn't even gone through the motions himself. That's what I figure. I was in the sound room during this time and Ron did great. I can tell he was a bit nervous, especilly when the couple decided that walking in with their 10 month old baby and holding him during the service would be a good idea. It kinda kills the romantic notions of the TWO people. But, it was their wedding. But the baby cried...and cried...and cried... and Ron did not falter. He says he did, but it wasn't big enough to matter. He did great!



We came home and then off to the next event, matchmaking a date between Ron's baseball buddy and a foreign friend we know. We slipped out to our married friends of the meeting and they decided to come too. But we had a great time. Us, not the matchmade couple. They didn't talk to each other much. But Ron and I had a great time and although we were busy and couldn't study much, I think 3 nights of constant Japanese dialogue works just the same.

It's really difficult to capture into pictures what has been happening recently, but since it has been fairly busy, perhaps my descriptions will be just as colorful.

Ron will start his marriage duties this weekend. It's been a long awaited process and finally he can start. There was a bit of drama at one point. Ron's boss/agent Joe was able to find Ron a steady church and we were thrilled with the news. However, he called us a couple days later and told us that the company that the church uses to find priests are trying to take money from the church and the priests and putting it into their own pocket. I guess being Japanese, stealing from the church doesn't seem too life-condemning. If Ron took the job, it would be steady income until we left, however Joe would not get rightfully paid and the man whose church it is would also not get his rightful share. In addition to the crazy web one action creates to another, Ron settling for a lesser pay would also give other companies the idea to give their priests less money. After thinking about it, it was simple that the solution was to not commit to the offer unless Ron, Joe, and the church was getting the money that is deserved. The meeting is next monday and we aren't sure what the outcome will be.

Other than that, we've been enjoying the slower pace of staying in town for the weekends. With no more destinations to fulfill and Japanese study on the brain, we have been staying in, however many friends have been pulling us out to have nights out, keeping us for our desire to study but not enough of a desire to reject the invitation. We've also dedicated sleeping an hour earlier in order to get up earlier to exercise. That in turn creates and even more difficult time schedule to do study, eat, bath, relax, and such. 6 hours seems like a lot, but it really isn't.

The other night on a Wednesday, we were treated to sushi by this old man that Ron met at the bath. Ron was telling me the sad story of this lonely man with no children whose wife was in the hospital and who wanted to take us out to sushi. On the day of, this old man took us to his favorite sushi place and drank us under the table. Beer and sochu was all over the place and after a while so were we. Good thing Ron had nothing to do the next day. But for me, I slowly awoke from my drunken stupor and trudged my bicycle to work. As I was getting there, a student on his bike didn't see me and we crashed and I fell to the ground. It didn't help the headache.

Starting today!

Now that all our visitors have left, Ron and I have serious plans for the rest of our stay. After reading some very motivational books, we've decided to hit the Japanese Language Proficiency test hard. We've also decided to use the time in our day more effectively to make room for exercise and study rather than TV sitcoms on the internet. With perserverance and hard work, we will be able to leave this country with a few more goals set and finished.

Golden Week

For our Golden week vacation, we will be doing a sunrise-sunset mission. On the early morning of 4:35 am, we will be waking up on the eastern coastal city of Miyako. After seeing the beautiful sunrise, we will take a five hour drive, stopping at various tourist hot spots until we get to the western side of Akita Beach. There we will BBQ, see the sunset, and enjoy the company of the friends and the sand. There are only a few places in the world where the sun can be seen rising and setting on the same day. It is our mission to see both on May 4th.