The Trip

So...
We left for Gunma (Daiju's home prefecture) Sunday morning. We took several local trains, and got to his hometown in about 2.5 hours. His mom picked us up at the station and drove us to their house. We said a quick 'hello' and dropped off our stuff, borrowed the car, and went and had lunch with one of Daiju's high school friends. We came back as soon as we could so we could get everything together to go skiing/snowboarding.
We left that evening for Niigata (about a four-hour drive from Gunma). Daiju's dad drove, Daiju got shotgun, and the girls got to relax in the back! The back of their camper is more of a bed than anything, so it was pretty comfortable. And they had a TV back there with a karaoke program, so Yuka (Daiju's sister) and I were singing most of the time.
Daiju's folks skied, but Daiju, Yuka and I snowboarded. Yuka stuck with her parents most of the time, though, because she was a lot more experienced than I. My boarding was pretty slow-going, but Daiju was really encouraging, so it wasn't so bad.
The first day I was FREEZING. I didn't wear enough layers, and my gloves and stuff got wet in the snow. I complained a lot (poor Daiju!).
The second day I was warmer, but I still complained. I couldn't see well through my goggles (they kept getting fogged up), so that made going down the mountain even scarier than it already was for me. And don't even mention getting off the lift! They had to stop it several times because I fell and was in the way.
By the third day I was doing much better, and I actually enjoyed my last "slide" down the hill. After using some defogging spray and it NOT working, I decided to just pull off my goggles and tolerate the snow in my eyes.
{A thought crossed my mind during my last go: Snow boarding is actually probably less scary than surfing for me, because there's no possibility of drowning, and there are no sharks!}
On the eve of the third day we went back to Gunma, singing all the way. When we got back, Daiju's dad (who is a chiropractor) showed me how to treat my knees so they'd heal better. I'm not sure exactly how many times I fell on them. They're still a little sore even now!!!
The following day (Thursday) his folks drove us back to our apartment and Yuka back to hers. Again, lots of karaoke...

Daiju and I both started work again on Friday and also worked on Saturday. Daiju had to work today (Sunday), too. It's a special "winter mini-semester" type deal, so from the week before New Year's until today he's had to leave in the morning (today by 7am, but the other days by 9am) yet still doesn't come back until his usual time (around midnight). Welcome to Japan.
We both have tomorrow off, but work starts again on Tuesday, so Daiju doesn't have much time to recover! Please pray for him, and me. I really don't like his work schedule a lot of the time, but it could be worse.

Today I went to church alone again. I was okay. I almost cried a couple of times, but I got my head in the right place and focused on Christ and not on missing my husband. Praise the Lord!

Back to the trip:
Here are some praise reports...

1. Daiju was diligent to make sure we prayed aloud as a couple before each meal, even with his family looking on. Once, after we finished, his mother and sister asked, "So, you say something different each time?" I said, "Well, He's the same person, so wouldn't it get a little boring to hear the same thing over and over again?" We almost got into a little conversation the subject, but then his dad came back to the table and immediately introduced a new topic. BUT praise the Lord we were able to plant even a mustard seed! The concept of God being a personal God is kind of foreign here, and ceremony is everything in traditional religious activities, so that conversation really was purposeful.

2. On the third day, while watching the weather forecast from our hotel room, Daiju's dad said, "Look, our family is lucky! The snow has been great all three days, and TOMORROW it will rain, just after we leave!" I smiled in my heart and remembered how long we had been praying about this trip--for safety, health, open spiritual doors, a good time together--and that y'all in the States were praying too. God is good, all the time!

3. Not long after the trip started I began to feel a great peace in my heart. I felt relief. I really felt like I was a part of the family--not some stranger or outsider, but a PART of the family. Praise the Lord for great in-laws!

Odd encounters:

1. Sleeping in the back of the family camper in the hotel parking lot.
>>>We had sleeping bags, hot water bottles, and five adults in that camper. I was afraid of freezing, but actually I had to pull out my water bottle because I got too hot to sleep!

2. Public bathing.
>>>I had gone to a hot spring once before (in October on our mini-vacation), but I practically had that one to myself. This one was FULL of people, and the water was hotter than the last one I'd experienced. It was kind of awkward at first, but I just followed my big sister and mother-in-law and soon got used to it. After falling and freezing so much each day, a nice hot bath was great motivation to get over any anxiety I had had over the whole public-bathing thing.

Oh, by the way, we didn't have much of a traditional New Year, by Japanese standards. There was a count-down and there were fireworks at the hotel, so we went to that. But we didn't go to a shrine and ring a gong and eat mikan (Japanese tangerines) nor oseichi (a chilled lunch box with a variety of foods inside) nor did we drink amazake (sweet rice wine; nonalcoholic). We did eat ozouni (mochi/rice cake in a soup), datemaki (a kind of sweet egg thing in a spiral roll) and kombu (sea weed wrapped up like a present), though. The only 'traditional' thing we really did was be together as a family--New Year's week is a time for family here in Japan.

あけましておめでとうございます！ことしも、よろしくおねがいします。
Happy New Year! I hope we can meet again this year.