12.28.05 - oshyogatsu

today's the last day here at the office for this year. we have a week vacation starting tomorrow... woot! the holiday season feels weird being out here. i guess it's the lack of familiar faces & events. this is the first time i've spent christmas/new years outside of the country. not quite sure yet what i'm doing for new years. josh is visiting relatives in southern japan, and my friend tami is coming out to visit from the states. all i know is that i'm gonna be eating good food and exploring all around tokyo. should be good times! anyways, just a quick update to wish you all a happy new year! also, check out a few vids kats took while he was visitng. the links are over on the right ->

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he knows my name

i have a maker
he formed my heart
before even time began
my life was in his hand

he knows my name
he knows my every thought
he sees each tear that falls
and hears me when i call

i have a father
he calls me his own
he'll never leave me
no matter where i go

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12.21.05 - meri kurisumasu

kats and colby came into town last week. it was such a blessing having them here. it's the little things like being able to talk to familiar faces that i really miss being in japan. above all, i was so happy to share with them just little glimpses of what my life is like out here. there's really no replacement for experiencing it first hand. friday night we had tonkatsu at our fav spot, followed by a little bit of karaoke with a bunch of friends.

saturday, josh, colby, and i went to go help out at new hope's children's christmas party/outreach event. it was at their community center in narimasu. they were expecting at most 50 kids to show up, but about 70 kids ended up coming. almost all of which were kids from the neighborhood. awesome! i was on sound/dj duties, and josh put on a breakdancing performance. even the little kids got involved! it was so much fun! colby and i went and grabbed some awesome kyushu-style tonkotsu ramen at jangara ramen, and did some shopping in harajuku. we later met up with kats (who bought a new digi camera), josh, and 2 of his friends for some coffee/juice.

sunday, took kats shopping in harajuku and shibuya, where we met up with josh and colby for some kaiten sushi! kats put away 20 plates, while colby came in second with 17. kats and i went to church at new hope, and i had gospel choir practice after service. we're preparing for the christmas outreach program this saturday, and things are coming along quite nicely. hopefully my sore throat will be all gone by this weekend. met up with colby after that for some good eats at ootoya.

monday i was back at work... man i did not want to leave my bed! the huge electronic temperature readout at the train station read a whopping +2 deg C (35.6 deg F) when i got off the train. work went by quick and i was able to meet up with kats and colby for dinner. we went to a famous tempura bar in shinjuku. good eats indeed!

anyways, pray for a safe trip back for the guys. also, josh is a bit under the weather. pray for him and the other campus crusade staff as they have their big christmas concert outreach event this week. also pray for my throat, that's it's back to normal by this weekend. sanks! i hope you all have a merry christmas!

[update] - tokyo stint 2005 - here's a promo video i put together for the cc tokyo stint 2005 team. right-click the link and save to your hard drive. also make sure you have the newest version of quicktime.

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your grace is enough

great is your faithfulness oh god
you wrestle with the sinner's restless heart
you lead me by still waters into mercy
where nothing can keep us apart

so remember your people
remember your children
remember your promise, oh god

your grace is enough
yeah, your grace is enough
yeah, your grace is enough
yeah, your grace is enough for me

great is your love and justice god
you use the weak to lead the strong
you lead us in the song of heaven's victory
and all your people sing along

for your grace is enough
heaven reaching down to us
your grace is enough for me
god, i see your grace is enough
i'm covered in your love
your grace is enough for me

for me

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12.13.05 - firsts

last week was super busy! we were showcasing our products at 2 trade shows last week. one was in chiba, near tokyo disneyland, and the other was in yokohama. i was at the yokohama show on thursday, and that was my first time in yokohama. after the show, i had a chance to walk around a bit and snap a few shots of the minatomirai area at night.

friday, i was at the show in chiba, and it marked the first time i drove in japan. my coworker insisted that i try driving, so i drove from the convention hall back to the office. it was a bout a 30 mile drive, but it took about 1.5 hours due to tokyo traffic. i was a bit nervous at first, since i was driving the comapany's brand new car, but i started to get the hang of driving on the opposite side. it was weird having the weight of the car on the left side, and it felt like i kept drifting to the left. my coworker assured me that i did fine, and that he couldn't tell that it was my first time driving in japan.

sunday, i joined a gospel choir for the first time! my friend emailed me asking if i would consider joining the christmas gospel choir at new hope church. apparently, there were in need of tenors, so i agreed to join. we'll be performing twice on dec 24th, for new hope's special christmas program, and we'll be singing 2 songs. the other choir members are really cool, and practice was a lot of fun. i'm really looking forward to it.

kats and colby come in on tuesday! jeah! should be in for an exciting week! oh, if anyone was still wonderring... i finally got the jar of salsa open, thanks to a handy-dandy-jar-opener-wrench-thingy-mabobby that i got at tokyu hands. bring on the jars, woot!

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12.05.05 - bound to happen

you know you're a salalee-man (japanese businessman) when you go karaoke with the coworkers on friday night, and have to come to the office to work on saturday. i haden't been asked to come in on a weekend, but it was bound to happen. they needed help translating a powerpoint presentation to english, so i went in on saturday and did all the translation. i was hoping to go see marques' last j-league game of the season with josh and some friends, but no such luck. oh well, gotta handle my business. it made me feel very "salalee-man-ish".

after going into the office, i went over to josh's for dinner. josh cooked spaghetti for us... it totally hit the spot with a little taste of home. justin, mike, and josh were working on a promo video for their "tokyo stint 2005" missions team, so i helped them put it all together. it was just like old times, as we ended up pulling an all-nighter to get it finished. went to sleep at 8:30am to get some rest before church.

this week's going to be crazy busy, as we have a trade show to prepare for on wed-fri. i'm working on a presentation video for our products, and it's taking quite some time. anyways, i'd appreciate your prayers! here's a little video clip that the guys were able to catch at the station... it's hilarious!

"oh Jesus i sing, oh Jesus i cry,
Your words are so sweet, they speak truth to my life
i'm desperate for You, You're moving in me
to surrender it all because You are better"

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