Blue bees, giant cockroaches, and typhoons

Oh dear heavens Miyakojima Japan.... It is a little bit further south than the core of the earth, and a little bit more wet than the ocean itself. It is hard. Let me tell you something, even though the Japanese are really polite with their actions and their language..... they are masters at being passive aggressive. They have a smile on their face and light tone when they tell you get out of here. But hey that's old people for you. They are either really nice or just the reason their family doesn't live with them anymore.

It is so extremely hot. and wet. I have never felt sweat drop the way it does here. It also doesn't help that everything is on a hill. When you are going down hill the wind is pushing you back. When you are going up hill, well it just so happens the wind stops.

Well the people here are rough. We haven't had a baptism in over a year. the branch is dying. On Sunday we had 14 people there. The 10 active people and the senkyoshi. But its crazy. Gandy Chourou and I for some reason are having some what of luck running into potential investigators. Probably like 8 in the past 3 days. 4 of which we found on Sunday. One man we found already had a Book of Mormon.... from 10 years ago. Another had a friend in college who talked about it a bit. Another loves his family a lot and seems interested that we are God's children. Its interesting to see this side of Miyako, (the younger side) at least the younger side seems like they want to listen. The old people are either hardened farts or too nice to say no. They have seen the senkyoshi around the block once or twice.

Anyways the language is hard. apparently there is some dialect but I cant hear it. But I can't hear much. The nihonjin that live in our apartment barely speak English but they know a fair amount of words (since most Japanese go through high school learning English) and they help me and I help them. One of them is an amazing cook. I have eaten tofu without realizing it... and spam. And raw eggs. I just don't ask and I eat it. I asked him if he could teach me. But we have a lot of fun together because I confuse words and it sounds funny and they confuse words and it's hilarious. We are always just laughing and having fun at the apartment. Actually right now we are in the middle of a typhoon. And I don't have any rain gear that covers my shirt and pants. Apparently there isn't a shop here in Miyako for that.

Did you know japan has blue bees? and giant cockroaches?

I ran into that huge spider already. It was in a tree so I didn't need to worry.

Anyways that's all I can remember for now. peace out!

Jameson Chourou