Camp

It's a good thing that I was a KidsFest leader and a youth leader for 3 years, because it readied me for all the action and physical exhaustion that comes with summer camp overnight and summer school (which is basically day camp).  And I'll be honest - even though I was exhausted after camp and couldn't move once I laid down, I would take that over a desk job ANY day!

During the last half of July, Friends Club ends and the season of camps, summer school, and summer club begins.  For me, this season isn't too draining, as I only have 2 camps (that are 1 night, 2 days long each), 5 days of summer school, and a few work days sprinkled in.  Kris has a more active summer camp season, as he must go to 5 camps, has summer club, and helps out with Immersion summer school.  During this time, we have different days off and different evenings where we don't sleep at home because of camp.  It's a bit of a bummer, but not nearly as bad as when Kris was working swing shifts at BASF and we sometimes went weeks without sharing a day off.

For 3rd and 4th grade camp, we took our students 2 hours north to Iwate for an overnight adventure.  The kids arrived at MeySen at 8 am and we played with them in the gym before boarding the bus.  On the bus we played card games, othello (which the kids LOVE), and the kids taught me some fun hand games.  When I took bus trips as a youth leader, I would often roam up and down the bus aisle to talk with different kids: I was quite surprised to find out that this is very much not allowed on school buses in Japan when driving on the highway.  If the teachers took off their seat belts (yes, buses here have seat belts) and got up, we were quickly reprimanded in Japanese by the bus drivers.  So unfortunately I didn't get to play games or talk with too many different students on the bus ride.

On the way, we stopped at a really neat park that had a small pirate ship for the kids to play on in a shallow (about 1-2 feet deep) man-made lake.  There was also a raft for kids to pull themselves across the lake on and a big field for playing soccer.  The kids favorite activity?  Catching tiny frogs that were living in the lake.  They ran round with plastic bags left over from lunch, catching as many little frogs as they could.  Some were no bigger than my thumbnail.  Whenever kids caught one, they ran to the nearest teacher to proudly show their catch!  It was really fun to watch!  Before we left, we of course had to make sure all the kids let their frogs go.  I made sure to personally examine the bags to ensure they were empty; but just telling the kids that if they took the frogs it would kill them was threat enough haha.

At Kenji World, the indoor water park, students eagerly jumped into the wave pool -- so eagerly, in fact, that they failed to consider the water depth verses their ability to swim (or lack thereof).  As a result, within the first ten minutes, several teachers (and a lifeguard) were pulling floundering eight-year-olds out of the deep end of the pool.  As I watched Greg drag two coughing boys out of the deep end, I heard this conversation:

Greg:   "What happened?"
Boy 1: "I went under the water.  It was too deep."
Greg:   "Do you know how to swim?"
Both Boys:  "No!"
Greg:  "Then maybe you shouldn't go out that far if you don't know how to swim."

Luckily, despite the children's lack of forward thinking, no one got hurt and everyone had fun.  I had a great time playing in the wave pool, swimming through the lazy river, and going down slides with my kids.  It was a great time to build relationships with them and laugh with them -- and it reminded me of being a youth leader :-)

After we finished at Kenji world, we drove to the youth center (which is kind of like a big youth hostel or ymca with less-fancy equipment but with a cafeteria where large groups can stay for short periods of time).  After getting kids and their luggage into the correct rooms (and distilling conflicts about who would room with whom), we played outside with the kids.  They could choose to play soccer, softball, or kickball.  I played kickball: I found it hilarious how the 4th grade girls on the team were so much like me in gym class (that is to say more interested in talking than being physically active; and avoiding the extra effort of running, catching, or throwing the ball).  But the other teachers and I used extra enthusiasm and humor to get the kids into the game.  I think maybe we had more fun playing kickball than the kids!

After games, we had dinner in the cafeteria.  It was set up buffet-style (which is called "viking" here in Japan).  One of my kids drank so much milk and showed all the other kids where to get milk, so I started calling him the milk man.  He LOVED this and though it was so funny.  (I love how 3rd graders laugh so easily at the corny jokes I make -- I feel like a female Brian Regan!)

After dinner, we sat around a HUGE campfire, sang songs, and roasted marshmallows.  I was pretty sure that some of the 3rd graders were going to get third degree burns with how close the tried to get to the fire, no matter what I said or how many times I ushered them away from the flames.  One boy (the "Milk Man") made me a marshmallow, and when I told him it was the best marshmallow I had eaten all night, he got so excited and jumped up and down with pride.  I LOVED that moment because this is the boy who often gets sidetracked in class and needs to be reminded to stay on task or to work hard.  I enjoyed being able to have fun with him, to see him delighted, and to not have to worry about keeping him quiet or on task and could just let him be.

After the campfire, the kids showered and changed into pajamas.  Then each teacher had a "Bible talk" with their classes.  I got to share the gospel with students (assisted by stick-figure drawings that they found to be amusing) and give them a chance to pray to accept Christ into their lives.  It was the BEST part of the trip and totally amazing!  I don't know if my words had any impact or if the kids did pray to put their faith in Jesus, but I do believe that God was at work.  And I'm so glad I had that opportunity!

Finally bed time came.  The girls were sleeping in rooms with 4 beds each, so I went around to each room to say good night to the 3rd grade girls.  When I was a youth leader, my good friend and co-worker, Jenna, taught me a great way of ending the day.  Every night when we went to camp or were on a retreat, she tucked in each girl, told them good night, and said a short prayer for them.  It was a great way to care for kids, give them comfort, and a gentle way of letting them know it really was time to sleep.  So I decided I would do this with my 3rd grade girls. 


One of the girls' rooms at the youth center.



"Get into bed.  It is time to go to sleep.  I will tuck you in before I turn off the lights," I said.

"Tuck in?  Mrs. Lauren, what's 'tuck in'?" one girl asked.
"It is when you go to bed and your mother or father pulls up the covers and says 'good night'," I answered.

"Huuuuuuh?" she exclaimed with confused look on her face.

"Do your parents tuck you in?" I asked.

"No!" she said.

At first I thought that perhaps just her parents didn't tuck her in, but I soon realized that being "tucked in" must be an American thing, because, each girl that I tucked thought it was hilarious.  First, you must know that Japanese parents are not very "touchy " with their children (and parents and children don't often say "I love you.").  So when I pulled covers up over the girls and tucked them into the covers, they were laughing.  This laugh turned into a roar when I said, "Night, night, sleep tight".  So by the time I was praying for them, I don't think they heard a single word.  But it is a moment with my girls that I will never forget! :-)

The next day, after getting up at 6 am to wake the kids up at 6:30 am, we cleaned up (as you must do at youth centers) and ate breakfast.  Then we headed to a field piled high with dried black lava, remnants of Mt. Iwate's eruption in 1719.  There is a path through the huge field that we walked on.  Even though huge chunks of rock were removed, it was still very difficult to walk through the field because of all the smaller stones.



Black lava and Mt. Iwate

Me with some of the 3rd grade students

Next we took the kids on a short hike on Mt. Iwate.  These urban kiddos didn't seem to enjoy hiking too much.  But I tried to encourage them along the way.  After the hike, we rode 2 ski lifts to the top of one part of the mountain.  Riding a ski lift in summer when there is no snow is kind of weird.  I was nervous about how safe the kids would be on the ski lift, but the only mishap was that one boy's shoe fell off (because he was fooling around of course!).  Luckily, it was close to the top of the first ski lift, so one of the support staff was able to get it for him.

Riding the ski lift down the mountain

After that, we loaded back onto the bus and came home.  By the time we got home I was EXHAUSTED.  I showered, laid in bed, and didn't move for the rest of the night!  It was a tiring couple days, but it was also a lot of fun.  I really enjoy this job because I get to teach (which I really, really enjoy) and I get to build relationships with kids beyond the classroom (which was my favorite part of being a youth leader).



Tohoku Rokkon Festival

In the next three weeks, Kris and I only have 2 days off together due to having different schedules for summer camp and summer school.  This past Saturday was one of those days and we decided to spend it going to the pool and seeing the Tohoku Rokkon Festival in downtown Sendai.

To get to the swimming pool, we had to ride our bikes to the subway station (only about 5 minutes by bike), take the subway to downtown, then take a bus to the park.  The whole trip takes about 45 minutes.  And the whole time we are travelling, we are sweating buckets because the heat and humidity here are insane and anytime you step outside here in the summer you just start sweating!  Anyway, we finally got to the park and we couldn't seem to find the entrance.  So I asked a man where the park is (in Japanese!!!).  He looked confused but spouted out something in Japanese about turning right.  Nodding, I said, "Hai" (yes), which is what I typically do when I don't understand what someone is saying in Japanese.  We walked along the edge of the treeline and turned right down a bicycle path which we hoped would take us to the park entrance.  Instead we found a 12 foot wall running along the edge of where the park was supposed to be.  Kris climbed a statue to investigate while I called the International Center.  Turns out the park and pool had been demolished 3 years ago!  So much for the plan of relaxing by a refreshing pool on a hot day.

Since we were close to the botanical gardens and still had 1 1/2 hours to kill before meeting up with our friends, we decided to go check it out.  What we were expecting: a cute, typical Japanese garden with benches and a place to sit in the shade and relax for a bit.  What we found: a hot forest with lots of spiderwebs and blood-thirsty mosquito.  We realized why the "gardens" were empty mid-summer when we left drenched from sweat and itching at our mosquito bites.

Then we headed to Kotodai Park to meet up with our friends for the Tohoku Rokkon Festival and Parade.  We had noticed the extra busyness of the subway, but it wasn't until we got to Kotodai Park that we saw how truly crazy it was.  Our friends met us at the exit, and it's a good thing they did, because we'd have never found them -- or a place to sit -- otherwise.  Our friends had been staking a spot for an hour and we sat another 1 1/2 hours to wait for the start of the parade.  Before the parade, I was a little doubtful about how much I would actually get to see of it, but it turned out we had pretty good seats.


View from my seat before the parade started - you can see why I was skeptical



It was PACKED!!!!!  I had no idea the festival was going to be so huge.  But I found out that this festival was actually the combination of 6 separate festivals from all over the Miyagi prefecture.  It was the first time this kind of thing had ever happened!  It's no wonder over 360,000 people from all over the prefecture -- and Japan -- turned out for it!



Many people wore summer kimono, like this woman, to celebrate the festivities.



Part of the 200,000 people crowd!

 The Tohoku Rokkon festival celebrated 6 festivals, the Nebuta Festival of Aomori, the Akita Kanto festival, the Sansa Odori of Morioka, the Hanagasa festival of Yamagata, the  Tanabata Festival of Sendai, and the Waraji Festival of Fukushima.  Each section of the parade represented one festival and had singing, dancing, performing, and floats or masks or signs for that festival.    Though there were different dancing groups in different costumes, all the dancers from one section danced to the same music with different choreography.  It was pretty cool and I felt like I was watching years of culture pass before me.  I only wish I knew what all the symbolism meant, but even the Japanese girl with us didn't know what it all meant or the history of everything. 

I tried to get pictures of each "festival" but it was hard from where I was sitting.  I'll post the pictures from each festival and explain a little about each.

The Nebuta Festival happens in Aomori and during it, several large floats are made out of wood and covered with a thin paper and lit from the inside by hundreds of light bulbs.  The festival originated from the Tanabata festival, when people made small boxes with a wooden frame covered with paper, lit them from the inside, and floated them down the river to ward off evil spirits.

Because the crowds were so dense, they actually couldn't fit this float (from that Nebuta Festival) or these large lanterns (from the Kanto Festival) down the parade route!

The Kanto Festival has a long history as Neburi Nagashi (an event to sweep drowsiness away) to repel summer illnesses and evil spirits. Strong men skillfully manipulate and balancing huge kanto, long bamboo poles decorated with many paper lanterns, with a weight of 50 kilograms and a height of 12 meters.

During the Sansa Odori festival, there is a huge drum parade and dancing circle. This festival derives from a local folk tale that tells how people danced with joy, singing "sansa sansa" after a devil, which had been troubling them for a long time, went away.




Accompanied by strong voices shouting "yassho makasho!" and the dynamic sounds of hanagasa taiko drums, dancers in colorful costumes dance in a dynamic manner, waving bowls decoraded with safflowers during the Hanagasa festival.

Hanagasa drummers

Dancers with safflower bowls


In Sendai in  the first week of August, the Tanabata festival is celebrated. This is one of the major star festivals in Japan and has a long history dating back to the 16th century. Many colorful decorations adorn the town, and a parade and music events are also held. The star festival celebrates the one day a year the star prince and star princess are allowed to meet in the sky.

The Waraji festival in Fukushima is named after the huge waraji traditional straw sandals, which are dedicated to Ashio Shrine, to wish for physically strong legs. The waraji are the largest in Japan! There are also hip hop dancers in the parade for this festival.

These men are carrying a giant waraji (sandal)!



We were certianly glad to participate in something so big and so full of culture, but after being packed in with hundreds of thousands of people, we were glad to be home to rest and relax at the end of the day.

My Grandpa

Yesterday morning in Sendai (Tuesday night in Pittsburgh), I got a very sad and unexpected call from my mom to tell me that my Grandpa (her dad) had a heart attack earlier in the day and had passed away that evening (while I was sleeping here in Japan).  He had just gotten off the phone with my Uncle Mark and was in the bathroom shaving.  My Grandma called the ambulance and my Grandpa was taken to one hospital and later life-flighted to another; but the doctors said he had been out of oxygen for too long and couldn't recover.  He had never regain consiousness from the heart attack. They gave him pain medication to ease his pain.  My mom, Grandma, and Aunt Becky were with him in the hospital when he passed away.  This is his obituary.

My Grandpa Parkinson with me, Kris and Grandma Parkinson at our wedding a year and a half ago

My Grandpa's physical and mental condition had been in decline for the past year, but even still the heart attack and his death were sudden and unexpected.  At first I was just in shock.  My mind understood logically what was going on, but my heart could not grasp it.  As I began my morning routine of getting ready, slowly things started to sink in.  One moment I was okay and the next I was in tears, cuddling up to Kris.

I'm sad that I will never see my Grandpa again.  I'm sad for my Grandma, whose life was so intertwined with my Grandpa as she cared for him, cleaned for him, and cooked for him day after day.  My heart really breaks for her.  Please pray for my Grandma and for the rest of my family.

I looked into flying home for the funeral, but even with "bereavement" fares, found that traveling home would cost almost $2000 after the cost of the flight and bullet train to the airport.  My mom reasurred me that the family and my Grandma would understand that I couldn't make it back and not to worry about it.  I really wanted to be there to be with my family and to say "goodbye" to my Grandpa, and not being there is really hard for me.  I'm not quite sure how to grieve or what comes next.  If I were home, I would be getting ready for having family in town and there would be the viewings and the funeral and probably late night drinks while swapping Grandpa stories with the cousins.

Since I can't share stories with my family, I thought I'd list some things about my Grandpa that I don't want to forget.  You don't have to read them.  They are mostly for my own benefit and for my family, if they read this.

• Grandpa always had his own personal jug for cold water/iced tea that no one else could drink out of (and no one else wanted to for that matter!).
• He LOVED sports -- playing them, watching them, reffing for them, talking about them, betting on them.  It was common for Grandpa to shout "Family First!  Family First!" as he shoveled down a family meal in between innings or halves of a game.
• He was the inventor of "Picture in Picture", watching 4 different TV's on 4 different stations at the same time at home.
• During my childhood, he and my Grandma rented a house on the beach in St. Augustine for the family.  Those vacations were some of the best, and provided me with so many great family memories.  Grandpa liked to go running on the beach and sit out on the porch with his pipe and his radio, listening to games.
• He was wearing his pants saggin way before anyone else caught on to the trend.
• He loved his scottie dogs.
• When I was a teenager, he would often tease me about my boyfriends.
• Sometimes he danced around the living room when the Pirates won and sometimes he sang old songs just for the enjoyment of it.
• He officiated for games for 60 years and was still officiating high school girls' softball games last fall.
• He like to gamble and he and my Grandma often took trips to Atlantic City together.
• He and my Grandma honeymooned in the same place Kris and I got engaged - Niagara Falls.
• My cousins called him "Mokey Moke" when they were little (their way of saying "smokey smoke") because of how much he smoked his pipe.

I love you Grandpa.