These last few days...

Yesterday I rode on some very uncrowded trains.

It's been days and days since I wrote here. Let me quickly fill you in on what's been happening. 

Friday
I ran around shopping for Saturday (tell you about that in a minute), then had a phone meeting with my OMF boss and spent the rest of my "office" time (about two hours) trying to get on top of computer work before the weekend arrived.

Then I met my language exchange friends and we talked in Japanese and English for two hours.

I raced home and made two meals: one for us and one for Saturday (tell you about that in a minute).

Friday night I was about done in. I'd had a horrible headache the night before and, well, it was Friday night, wasn't it? We enjoyed an NCIS episode after dinner, as we often do of an evening.

Saturday
CAJ hosted nine schools for a wrestling tournament. I helped out with catering for the coaches and refs and helped a bit with the admin for the event. It is amazing how much writing is involved. I won't bore you, but some of the wrestler's names were probably written at least a dozen times!

I had a really enjoyable day. I spent a lot of time talking with people (as usual). I caught up with parents of three of our son's former opponents from other schools, one couple I met for the first time, another couple I met in Korea for the first time in February. All three boys are still at school and so were wrestling. It was great talking with all of them. To one mum I got to explain that we are Christian missionaries.

It was a little odd not to have any wrestlers at this meet, but it did mean I
could relax more and enjoy meeting people and helping out.

I also hung out with parents from our team, a couple of new parents too, who had some questions that I could help with. Cheering a good friend's son as he won the final, his first wrestling gold medal, was a highlight. But I was holding my friend's iPhone recording the match at the same time, so we've also got a souvenir with our own unique commentary ;-)


It was a long day: about 12 hours from start (7am) to finish. Thankfully we live close. But hosting an event like this includes sweeping the gym afterwards and removing the wrestling mats to their appropriate places, so that the gym can be used for basketball and PE again on Monday. It was fun to "party" with the team afterwards as we helped clean up the hospitality room. We all ate dinner before packaging up the left-overs to be taken home by those in the team and support team who wanted them.

Sunday
We went to church as usual then afterwards did our annual 100 yen Christmas shopping. This is where we all go to a big 100 yen shop and buy presents for one another. It's fun and low stress, and also now a long-standing tradition!

After lunch I rested, then made fudge to give the boys' teachers, as well as to keep in our fridge for various random occasions (not to mention just nibbling on ourselves).

Monday
I did a "field trip" out to the Christian printers that print our magazine. I've also had some dealings with them for OMF. It was good to get an overall impression of their operation. Not to mention gain a great deal of admiration for the challenges of turning the electronic files we send them into something beautiful on paper. Their biggest machine is two storeys high and many metres long. Huge. One of their main things is printing Bibles, especially for countries where its hard to get Christian material. They also print Bible-manga, and have them in many different languages now (I forget how many, but their website says 33 languages).

Christmas decorations at the party (yes, I finished the post after
I got home)

That trip was out into more rural parts of the Kanto plain and took an hour to get there on three trains (including a 500m walk between train stations). After I got back early afternoon, I made a menu for the rest of the week and did my grocery shopping. Then I had a couple of hours to catch up on email etc. before dinner was needing attention.

Tuesday 
Today I've been at my desk all day. I had an magazine Skype meeting at 9 that I was ill-prepared for and hence it went longer than necessary, then a video call with a friend over lunch. But other than that I've been pecking away at these keys all day.

However, I'm about to go down the road to the annual CAJ Staff Christmas party, which is something I always look forward to. A nice ending to the day!


I really didn't expect that my schedule would be quite so full as that over the last week. I'm an eternal optimist, which works against me often: I usually think I can fit more into my day/week/month than is actually feasible.