I took a day off from work on Friday, but still went to my daily Japanese lesson in the morning. I greeted my sensei with what I thought was my usual "ohayo gozaimasu", but she picked up right away that it was not a normal "good morning"; indeed it was a much happier greeting than normal! I cannot hide my emotions all that well afterall. 

After Japanese lessons, I checked out a book from the local library and sat at starbucks for a good 3 hours. I've started to enjoy going to starbucks. I like that it feels familiar, is smoke free, and is cheaper than other coffee shops. It seems that most foreigners like it too, because I always see at least one other foreigner. Oh, high school kids seem to like starbucks too. There aren't as many starbucks in Japan as in the US. Sometimes I really have to go out of my way to find one, and it is not unsual to run into someone you know. I ran into Melody yesterday, and we had a good time doing our devotions and chatting about future plans.

I also met up with my friend Kyoko yesterday for dessert. I'm not fluent in Japanese and she is not fluent in English, but her English is a lot better than my Japanese. We communicate with much help from her digital dictionary/translator. I shared the gospel with her even though she had already heard it before and still is not ready to believe. We also had a long chat about Japanese/Asian/Western cultural differences. Now I see why everyone says that Japan is a tough mission field.

Days like this makes me feel quite blessed to be in Japan.

Kyoko and our yummy Mango Parfait! It had fresh mangos, mango sorbeit, pudding, berries, and cream! Sorry the pic is blurry, my cellphone camera is not a very good one.