Day 15

It's Sunday morning, the start of our third week of project. When we (Gen Nakamura: my Project Director/co-intern at USC next year/one of my best friends and I) planned the project schedule, we set aside Sunday as restful regrouping time, with blogging time, leadership meetings, church, and a team meeting to end the night. I decided to head out of the apartment this morning for blogging and quiet time, so I'm sitting at my favorite little coffee shop maybe in the world.

It's called Precious Coffee Moments, and it really is this precious little corner entrance across from the south exit of Koenji Station. When I was here on project two years ago, my sweet friend Christina was the one to introduce me, and it might have been here that my tastebuds started being okay with coffee! :)

Right now they're having summer specials on coconut flavored drinks, so my staple (hands down) is the iced coconut milk coffee, which is served in a little bronze mug that condenses all over everything. There's swing music lilting over the whole place (even though I have Bethany Dillon playing in my headphones) and it has an unusual (for Tokyo) interior with wooden tables and modern furniture. It's angular but warm with windows, one open-faced pink brick wall, cream-colored and wood paneled walls everywhere else, and black and white photography on the back walls of the smoking section. And the staff might be just about the cutest coffee house staff ever--though only one woman seems familiar enough to me to maybe have worked here two years ago.

(I told two of the girls I meet with regularly for discipleship at 'SC that I would describe it for them so we could pretend to have dtime here as we're writing back and forth :), but I figured it would be fun enough to introduce it to everyone else back home too!)

Yesterday was beautiful, though maybe that's not the best word to describe how it started out. Most of the team decided to forgo sleeping in for a 4 AM wake up call to visit Tsukiji, the largest fish market in the world. It was about an hour commute on the train, and raining anytime we were in open air. But once you set foot in the market, you become very aware of just how much a tourist you are. Workers drive motorized carts (that smell and sound a little bit like the cars at Disneyland's Autopia) faster than you expect (and honestly, a little more directly at you than you expect) and the small stalls of live, frozen, and/or bloodied fish are offset by even smaller walkways for buyers and sellers to negotiate space and prices.

One of the workers taking a break from prepping fish at Tsukiji.

So we wandered for a little bit before coming back to Koenji for breakfast and a nap, only to be followed by a day at the park! :) Inokashira Park is a huge park right off the Kichijoji stop on our train route, and it's basically THE place to take babies and dogs. Yes, please. It's like an attack of cute everywhere you walk. So we wandered for a bit and played for a bit--volleyball, frisbee, and soccer... so good for my heart :)

Fountains on the pond at Inokashira Park (courtesy of Miss Christina Carey :)).

Anyway. I know none of that gives you any idea about our ministry here, but maybe there'll be an update on that tomorrow? :) We've had so many success stories of different students being bold and taking steps of faith, and even a guy on one of our campuses who, through a conversation with one of our students and a YMCA staff, decided last week to start a relationship with Jesus! It can be hard sometimes to see the victories (especially in moments of disappointment or confusion, of which there have been a fair share), but there have been so many, and it's only the start of our third week on campuses! Praise God for how good He is and how He is doing--so much more than we'll necessarily be able to see this side of heaven. He is good.

Love you, friends :) Thank you for your support and encouragement so far. I wish you could all be here with us, if even for a day.