JAPAN (Part 2)

After our bus ride from Tokyo Narita Airport to Mito, we were met by some of the other AET's who have been in Mito for a year or more, including my good friends Mason and Carmon Drumm, and several other people I had known at OC. My 'AET Buddies' Josh Huggins, Yukiko Sonoyama, and Daleth Mountjoy took me to dinner at an Italian place at Mito station called "Saizeriya" (Quickly becoming one of my favorite meals), and then dropped me off at my apartment to settle in and get some sleep.

Saturday (The next day), Daleth had us all over to his apartment (The crazy distance of about 20 paces from my front door) for breakfast. He cooked us eggs and toast, and then we talked about plans for the day. Daleth's girlfriend Tiffani was visiting from out of town and has a car, so she drove us to Nitori (Japanese Ikea) to get some things for my apartment. I bought (what I thought was) a fitted sheet, a couple of towels, an end table, and a lamp, and we ran into several of the other new AET's with their buddies picking up apartment furnishings. We took our purchases back to the apartments and then walked down the street to a noodle restaurant for lunch, I had sukiyaki udon, it was delicious. After lunch, I set set up some of my purchases, and found out that my fitted sheet was actually a duvet cover. **Side note: buying stuff in Japan can be pretty confusing, I imagine returning it would be a nightmare, so I kept it and put it over my comforter.**

That evening, Yukiko and Daleth, two of my AET Buddies who also are my next door neighbors had a surprise birthday party to attend. We walked to an Izakaya restaurant about ten minutes away, the food was great, and it turned out the party was for their friend Mac, who is from Loveland, Colorado. Afterwards, we walked back to the apartments and went to sleep.

Sunday, Daleth and I took a bus to Mito Station and then walked to church. I had visited Mito Church of Christ when I was in Ibaraki on study abroad, and it was really cool to be back and join that community in worship; they have a bilingual service which is pretty cool, you can choose to sing in Japanese or English. I usually try to sing in Japanese, I can usually read the words, but have no clue what they mean (I'll probably blog about that later).

After church, Daleth and I went to lunch with some of my OC friends and fellow new AET's Cameron Sutherland, and Taryn Parker. We walked down the Main Street in downtown Mito to a Chinese restaurant about 15 minutes away. Japanese Chinese food is much different than American Chinese food–and probably more like Chinese Chinese food.

After Lunch we all walked back to the station, and then about 15 minutes past it to a park where a bunch of AET's were gathering to play soccer and frisbee for Jordan Powell's birthday (AET, I once took a bible class at OC taught by his dad). It was a lot of fun playing soccer with them and just getting to know some of the AET's and other church members.

After the park, we took a bus back to the Migawa area (This is the name of our neighborhood, and also my main school) and I grabbed a meal from the konbini (Japanese convenience store; these things are everywhere, AND they are awesome) and headed back to my apartment to get to bed early for my first day of training on Monday.

To be continued...