A: Beegetebie sandwhich. Q: What did you have for dinner?

The last few days have been busy. We have seen traditional Japanese dancers, eaten very good food, seen temples, friends, the ocean, etc. The weather has been mostly good, but it is getting hot and humid as we lost our good sea breeze. By the time we reached church yesterday (40 min walk) I could feel the sweat dripping down my back into the neither regions below. eeeewwwww!!!! The sun was scorching hot as well. The reason for this is that by 10 am the sun is at is full power positioned at the east/west half way point. This is a wonderful surprise at 4am when the sun first starts to rise. Even if you sleep until 7 or 8am it feels as if you have slept away half of the morning. It also means that the sun goes down at 6:30pm. So, by the time 10 or 11pm roles around, it feels very late. One of the first days we were here (the first mon), we decided to get up for a walk around the city as the sun was up (5:00am), and so were we (jet lag). I would have guessed that the people here would have adapted to the sun's rising and be busy as could be by 6am, but they still seem to wait until 8am to really hit the work day. That said, our walk was quiet, but boring as ALL of the shops (including many of the breakfast shops) didn't open until 9am or even 10am.
On Saturday we went to see some traditional dancers with Jacky and some of Jori's friends. It was quite a bit more interesting than Dutch dancing. So many colors and so many people. All of the dancing was to the beat of traditional drums and also traditional flutes (I think I just about have the beat and song memorized). Some of the food highlights include: Okonomiaki (pancake on a stick), octopus balls (mmmmm, tasty), standing up yakisoba (we stand and eat noodles). Slaughtered English was also a highlight--the above title should read vegetable sandwich--good try!!! Later on Saturday I got to experience my first round of Karaoke. All in all it was a lot of fun.
Sunday was full of worship. Both services we went to were in Japanese. The first was traditional, and the second was more lively. Both were great services, and the sermon (translation courtesy of Jori) was theologically sound. In the second service they had a lot of singing (my legs were tiring). At one point the leader stopped the singing (all in Japanese), and said something of what appeared to be of great significance. I leaned over and asked Jori. She said he said "focus and meditate on the words". oh, right. Once again, it was great to see the people of faith here. They are only a few (only 20 at the second service), but they are dedicated, and truly a church family (coffee hour lasts 1-2 hours easily). It was great.
Today (Monday) we went to Matsushima, which is a fishing village with many little islands reaching out into the Pacific Ocean. We had a boat tour, visited a temple, and walked to several of the islands (the ones connected by a bridge anyway). We also had outstanding food. I had eel for lunch, and for supper was a tasty variety of food. I think only pictures could adequately describe this, but I'll briefly try. In the top-center was tempura (fried fish and vegies). In the bottom-center was shashimi sushi (raw fish sushi), in the lower left was a salad of sorts and tofu jello. In the lower right was noodles and soup. In the middle right was a dish that is beyond description: it was like a delicate tofu paste with mushrooms and what not inside--very good. in the upper right was some sort of vegetable--maybe a cabbage of some sort. And, in the upper left was cantaloupe and water melon. All of this was served in individual dishes on a very large tray. It was so incredibly good. We ate all of this while sitting Indian style on the floor in our own private room. The entire day was courtesy of Jori's piano teacher and friend. It was very nice of them.
Tomorrow we are heading off to Nagoya, Kyoto, and Tokyo. We hope to return by Friday. Ko-Ichiro's parents are putting us up in their home in between Nagoya and Kyoto. We will likely be staying with Tanmison's parents in Tokyo on Thursday night. We are looking forward to it a lot.