April

March finally ended bringing April, the sakura and Ohanami, (the cherry blossoms and the celebration of the cherry blossoms).

Along the bike path that I take every day to get to school. For months I imagined  what the cherry trees would look like when they were in bloom. Then suddenly one day, I was no longer imagining them!! It just like a fairy tale, just as I imagined them to look.

April brought with it the start of school again, and only 2 students in my class. In fact the first day back, I only had one student!! It was so sad!! By the end of the month though all 6 were back. :D

My class room first day back.

The Japanese school year starts in April and ends in March. So the first weekend in April brought the entrance ceremony for the school and new students, new Japanese students that is. Two 1^st graders and one 3^rd grader, SO cute!!

Jenna, Jes and Melanie all dressed up for the entrance ceremony 

The following weekend after the entrance ceremony, Sunday, I went on a very spontaneous picnic lunch with Melanie, Micah and Seth to celebrate Ohanami. We had yakisoba (Japanese noodle dish, that’s so good!!), and smoothies. The weather was perfect!!! 

After we got back from our picnic we (Melanie, Micah and I) went to a bilingual worship service in Makuari, which is right on the bay. The town that the church specifically is in is called Bay Town. Oh my word!!! Such a beautiful community! Not very Japanese, but still beautiful!!!

After worship Mary (an mk and student at the school) actually went to the beach, and I got to experience the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life!! It was dark by this time and still April, so it was a little cold!! But I can now say that I have seen the Pacific in Peru, flown over coming to Japan and actually touched it in Japan…. Maybe someday I’ll experience it from the West coast After the little beach excursion we went and played on a play ground, also in the dark. Which just meant that it was that more exciting!! Then we rode the train back to Chiba and “hiked” home from the station.

  

Mary and I

First time in the Pacific!!

At the playground!!

Monday. After a long hike along the river Mary and I got to go to another park, to continue celebrating Ohanami, with another missionary family. This park was HUGE, with tons of cherry trees, all in bloom too!!! There was also this crazy long slide, with rollers. So of course we did the slide!! Let me just say, it hurt SO bad!!!! Thought the rollers were going to burn a hole through my pants!! But it was so much fun!!

Down by the river.

Fish banners were everywhere!!!

April also brought a new intern to teach at the school, Rebecca.

There's just something about a playground that we just haven't quite grown out of yet.....

Rebecca and Jenna 

Jenna and I 

Somewhere in the middle of April Easter snuck itself in. Which we (the interns) spent in Tokyo. Prier though to my going to Tokyo Easter Sunday, I went to a sunrise service that one of the churches does every year. It was SO beautiful!!! We were on a hill under a tree. Just read the Easter story from the Bible, sang some songs.....

Now a couple moths prior to this, Debbie (one of the career missionaries) had given the 3 of us inters tickets to go to Disney Tokyo, and she was going to go with us…. But that was all before the earthquake. After the earthquake they’d had close Disney. It opened again before our tickets expired!! But instead of Debbie taking us, the now 4 of us interns went, Easter weekend.The first time I’ve ever been to a theme park!! Totally had a blast!! And it was a really fun way to get to know the new girl. Since we went on a Monday, and it was still kinda just after the earthquake, there really weren’t that many people there. So the lines were incredibly short, meaning we did like all the rides!!! I was impressed by how lame most of the rides were…. Even though I did have a lot of fun, I’m very grateful that that wasn’t something that my family did…..