First Full Day

Saturday was a very busy day. 
6:15am - Good morning, Japan!  Our first full day in Japan was welcomed with glorious sunshine that followed an early morning rain storm. 
6:25am - Girls had individual devotion time.
7:00am - We started to hear the guys moving around downstairs.  (Found out later that some did devotions and then fell back asleep, and some enjoyed time outside in the lovely weather.)
8:00am - We stopped hearing motion downstairs, so we girls stayed upstairs to chat, craft, read, and use the computer.
9:30am - We still didn't hear anything, but we were getting a little stir-crazy upstairs, so we tiptoed downstairs and went outside.  Mr. Yeager was outside and suggested that it would be a lovely morning for a walk.  We put our walking shoes on and headed out.
9:45am - A few blocks away from UpTen, Rebecca remembered that there was a large grocery store nearby, so we headed that way.  It ended up being quite far away.
10:20am - We arrived at Yamazawa, a grocery store that also had clothing and a 100 Yen ($1) shop.  We browsed around everything, brainstorming for the upcoming meal that we want to fix for our new Japanese friends.  We picked up a few staples, a couple of snacks, and a gift.  Rebecca recommended aloe vera yogurt, so we got a 4-pack to split on the walk back.  For the record, Evie and I do *not* recommend the aloe vera yogurt...
12:00noon - By the time we arrived back at UpTen, we have had an icky snack, have walked up enormous hills, have taken many wrong turns, and have been rained on, twice.  Mr. Ogawa took us to the Girls' Apartment (which we have named TopThree) and borrowed the spare key from a neighbor.  We got our bags in and had the grand tour of the place.  This apartment is adorable and HUGE!  It has a living room, a kitchen (with dishes!), and three rooms upstairs.  Mrs. Ogawa made sure we had a tablecloth on the kitchen table and gave us some housekeeping advice.
12:45pm - The guys came over to see our place, then we all went over to the local university campus to have lunch in the cafeteria.  It took us a long time to figure out how to order.  We asked some students and found out that we needed to place our order via vending machine, which proved to be difficult, since it was all written in Japanese and had no pictures!  The four guys all ordered fried pork cutlet on rice with curry gravy, and miso soup.  Rebecca had ramen noodle soup, and Evie and I each had soba (buckwheet noodles) soup.  All was very tasty!  After we finished lunch, we explored the nearby area on campus.  We went into the chapel, which was founded by German Presbyterians.  It was a huge, beautiful building with gorgeous stained glass and a very impressive organ up front.
2:25pm - We went back to UpTen and met with Mr. and Mrs. Ogawa for orientation.  We got an updated itinerary and discussed our schedule for the next two weeks.  Sunday's plan had originally been to visit Matsushima, but we just found out that there is a once-a-year Festival going on in downtown Sendai this weekend (many students will be attending also), so we decided to trade the Matsushima trip for a trip downtown.
3:00pm - Three students met with us to give us a tour of the local campus, which is just for Freshmen and Sophomores.  Upperclassmen attend classes at the downtown campus, which we will tour on Monday.  We stumbled upon an archery class, which we watched for a while.  When they took a break, Josh asked to to hold a bow.  One of the students graciously gave Josh his bow to hold for us to take photos of.  Mr. Ogawa took us to the gym - we had to take off our shoes at the door (those going to play basketball had to carry their athletic shoes in hand).  As we walked through the hallway, an Aikido instructor invited us to watch his class.  Michael and Joe even got to participate!
4:45pm - We went back to UpTen to regroup and relax for a bit.
5:45pm - All seven of us piled up into a tiny car which you would never expect, from looking at the outside, that it would have eight seats inside!  We went to a grocery/drugstore called DrugFood to get some staples like bread and rice.
6:45pm - We walked to a nearby ramen restaurant and had ramen noodle soup (absolutely nothing like the dried packaged stuff we have in the US), fried rice, and gyoza dumplings.  So very yummy!
7:45pm - On the way back to the car, we stopped by a grocery store called York Benimaru, where Evie *finally* located Diet Coke!  She had been looking for that since we got here!

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