In the Operating Room

I study medical English over lunch with a local veterinarian that I met through our Open English program in 2007-2008. We actually eat lunch on the operating room table, with the lights and the X ray machine just above our heads. He wants to better service the growing number of expats who bring their pets to him for treatment.

I've been surprised to hear from him about how much cancer surgery he does on older cats and dogs, as well as chemotherapy, and surgery for things like herniated disks. He's taken a course recently on reading MRIs, because some of his "patients" are taken to a university hospital for MRIs. He tells me Japanese people are more inclined to try absolutely everything to save their pets, even in old age.

Incidentally, there's an English Bible study on Mark in his waiting room every Tuesday night.

Valentines Party

Fourteen people plus children attended our Valentines Party, held at one of the meeting rooms of our apartment building. We rented another room for the children, and the total cost was a staggering $5 per hour for both rooms.

In Japan Valentines Day is when women give men chocolate, so finding out it was the other way around in other countries was a surprise for many. In fact, chocolate is given by women to male coworkers, and the men are to reciprocate on March 14, which is called White Day. Who originated this? Probably a chocolate wholesaler...

We did a presentation on the history, symbols and customs of Valentines Day, and went on to give some principles for successful marriage based on I Corinthians 13 and other biblical passages.

We've sent out a follow up letter with some more encouragement, and we're considering what kinds of seminars or consultation or presentation might be appropriate for the next step.

That's A Better One!

Well! I noticed there was a comment on our "I'm a PC and I'm 4 Years Old" post, that it was nice to see a picture of us. Well, here's a better one of just the two of us. This is at the front gate of a wedding banquet hall near us. This was taken during a warm spell a few weeks ago. We're wearing heavier coats these days. We even had a little dusting of snow the other morning!

The Other Kind of Hockey

Megan is following in Laura's footsteps (and they're pretty clumsy footsteps with all that padding on!) being a goalie for the Christian Academy in Japan field hockey team. This is a sport where the girls wear tartan skirts as their uniform! Megan's exempted from that of course.

During Laura's Grade 12 year, she spent a lot of the game standing around, because CAJ dominated the other teams in the league. This year is different. Megan gets more action than she'd like, but she's making some great saves, even if the score doesn't go in CAJ's favour. The tournament this weekend will end the season, which pleases us, because with practices Megan doesn't get home until after 7:00pm. Time for life to get back to normal! So, I have a daughter playing hockey, so to speak. Very Canadian experience.

Wisdom from an Ice Cream Man

Here's a healthy perspective on life from one of the builder generation of Japan. Actually, more like "rebuilder" generation, since most of Japan was in ruins after the war!
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20100114jk.html

Stranded in Japan!

The Myers are enroute from Montana, where they pastor an Alliance church, to Papua New Guinea, where they'll serve as pastoral couple of an international church for six weeks. Elyse will attend school at the Wycliffe compound there.

Somewhere over Alaska, a fellow passenger went berserk and had to be restrained. The plane did an unscheduled stop in Alaska, and by the time they got to Tokyo they'd missed their flight to Papua, but it was rescheduled for three days later. The airline said, "Be warm and be filled" and here they are in Japan for 3 days with no accomodations...

So, they're staying with us, and we've kept their jet lagged bodies moving by walking all over our vicinity, and have fed them some of the local cuisine (but no raw fish). We hope that all of the problems of the trip (which included a car breakdown on the way to the airport in the US) are behind them. Always great to make new friends, and I guess if we're ever stranded in Montana we'll know who to call!

I'm A PC and I'm 4 Years Old!

I needed that cute little girl from the TV ad to help me adjust these pictures to make them better. This is about as good as it gets for the family picture we took on the balcony of the Sky Lounge after our Christmas service. Harumi, our home and adopted land, is in the background. Great to have the girls home for Christmas! They really helped with the hectic time and all the events when the team from Edmonton was here.

Now, I think I did much better with this shot of Harumi. I had to adjust the brightness, and the only reason I did that was because that little 4 year old girl on TV did it. Our apartment is in the middle of the picture, with the Triton Square office and shopping complex just to the left, and the construction site for three new 50 story apartment towers in the foreground. The concrete plant doesn't look like it quite fits in, but it's staying, as far as I know.