|
Blog -
Johnston Journal
|
|
Written by Nozomi Johnston
|
|
Wednesday, 04 August 2010 20:30 |
by Nozomi
 Well, it kind of feels strange writing about a family vacation when we are in the process of sending out a huge appeal for more support for our ministry. Let me just explain quickly that this actually was our very first "extended" (6 days) getaway we have had since moving to Japan, and yes, we were careful to get the best deals online:)
With that out of the way, we'd like to tell you that we had a wonderful time! We went to Hokkaido, which is the top part of the islands of Japan. Rather than just taking a 1-1/2 hour plane ride there, I thought that the kids would get a kick out of going there by ferry boat! It sounds easy enough, right? But traveling is never easy here in Japan:)
We left on a rainy morning in Tokyo, so we wrapped our suitcases in plastic bags, got our umbrellas, and walked to the train station for 20 minutes. (I laughed in Ellie's face when she turned to me after 10 minutes to tell me she was tired!) We took 2 trains to get to Tokyo station, which took about 45 minutes. From there, we got on a 2 hour highway bus. After that, we got on another 30 minute bus to get to the port of Oarai. From there, we got on the boat which took 16 hours. We arrived in Tomakomai the next afternoon, just in time to get on another 2 hour highway bus ride to Sapporo, our final destination. Well, sort of, cause from there, we had to get on a subway train to get to the station where we were staying, then walked with our luggage to a guest room of a Baptist church. Whew!
Let me back up to the boat ride. It was called the Sunflower, and this was truly the highlight of the trip for Zack and Ellie. They were coming out of their skins with excitement, and could not contain their giggles and bounciness as we boarded.
Our little room had 2 bunk beds and a large window onverlooking the water. We were thrilled to see a family of dolphins jumping out just when we were all looking out the window!
We enjoyed a dinner buffet that evening, and looked around the ship a bit...there was a small movie room, a couple of game rooms, a lounge, a public bath where you could bathe looking out at the ocean...but I passed on that. I would have gotten nauseous by the waves in the bathtub!
When we finally arrived in Sapporo, it was funny to see the kids' reaction. It was like, "Aww, man. We have to get off the boat. Our vacation is over!" Well, of course it wasn't! Here are a bunch of photos to show you how much fun we had for the next 3 days...
The fountain at Odori Park became our favorite spot...
Here's the park at night...
We went up the Sapporo Tower...
Had a gourmet buffet lunch with some Asian Access missionary friends (this was on the 35th floor of a hotel at the Sapporo station)...
The kids got to bake cookies at the famous chocolate factory (don't we look so cute in our hats?!)...
We took a little Hokkaido melon soft serve break...
And toured the beautiful garden area as well as the cookie factory assembly line...
(We will continue with more photos in Part 2 of our Family Vacation Blog, so go and refill your coffee.)
|
|
Last Updated on Monday, 09 August 2010 19:25 |
|
Blog -
Johnston Journal
|
|
Written by Nozomi
|
|
Monday, 10 May 2010 15:00 |
|
Ellie had been counting down the days til her 8th birthday. Especially after seeing Zack's Mad Scientist party, her expectations had been building ever since! She knew immediately what her "theme" would be: Rainbow Magic Fairy. Perhaps you're not familiar with it, but it's a very popular chapter book series for little girls. They are annoyingly predictable, but hey, Ellie learned to like reading because of them, so I'm not complaining! (Okay, okay, so I paid her 100 yen per book)
I must admit that I had a blast preparing for the party. Knowing that these years of fairy magic won't last too much longer, I decided to get into it and enjoy it:)
It was really hard to find printable Rainbow Fairies on the internet to create a decent invitation. But it made it all worth it when I showed it to Ellie...she gasped, grabbed my hands, and started jumping up and down in sheer delight! That was just over the invitation. I love that girl!
At the CAJ Thrift Shop, I found 3 lacy bed canopies, so I hung them at the entrance and in the living room to give it the Fairyland Palace effect. I also found sparkly fabric that I put in the bathroom to make the magical potty.
There was a website where I could design my own Rainbow Fairy, so I named each of Ellie's friends according to their character, and tried to match up the hair style and color:
- Ellie the Birthday Fairy;
- Jossy the Best Friend Fairy;
- Yuki the Fun Fairy;
- Yuuka the Kind Fairy;
- Rachel the Talented Fairy;
- and Eryn Mae the Sweet Fairy.
The first activity upon entering our house... er ...Fairyland Palace, was the craft. I knew I couldn't go wrong with sparkly stuff, so they made glittering mirrors. There was a very special moment that happened during this time that I have to share with you. As the girls glued away, we had worship music playing in the background. Then, all 6 spontaneously started singing together in the sweetest voices...it wasn't a performance, and they weren't even looking at each other as they sang. It warmed my heart to see these little girls naturally worshipping their Savior, even during craft time:)
Next came the time for them to transform from humans to fairies! As I sprinkled invisible fairy dust on them, they became totally quiet with total anticipation, it was adorable. They closed their eyes, and when they opened them, they saw a bunch of lacy, frilly, sparkly tutu's appear! They squealed and put them on quickly. We did the same thing for their crowns and their wings, with their screams of delight getting louder each time! Ellie had no idea that I had ordered these "fairy gear" online, had them shipped to California where a dear friend re-packaged them for us and mailed them here (Colleen, you're my hero!). Seeing the absolute surprise on Ellie's face was priceless.
The last thing to complete the fairy transformation was supposed to be the wand...but, OH NO! Those nasty gobblins (from the books) had stolen the wands! They left a note, saying that they had hidden them. It was the girls' job to go on a search to find their wands. There were clues all over the house, leading them into the kitchen, the bathroom, the mailbox, the bike basket, etc. Finally, the last clue led them to Ellie's stuffed animal cupboard in the upstairs room. You should have heard them...they all cheered with pure joy when they found their wands!
I watched and marveled at the creativity of our Creator God...He made children of this age group so rich with the ability to enter into imaginay play with such excitement. How very, very fun to be EIGHT!
Now that they had their wands, they went outside to play a bubble game. 3 fairies to blow bubbles, and 3 to pop them with the wands.
I had to get ready for lunch, so they were let loose for freeplay time. Then the neighbors started to open up their windows to take a peek at the trail of glittering, flittering blur of girls. The neighbors couldn't help but to smile.
After lunch was cake time! There were 3 groups of 2 girls each, designing and decorating their own birthday cake for Ellie. I knew it was time to stop when they started pouring out the bags of sprinkes on top, just to use them up. Ellie got a tummy ache afterwards!
 
 
 
I accompanied the girls as they walked back to school where they would meet their moms to return home. Once again, I was moved by what happened...as they walked down the streets of Higashi Kurume, they all sang songs about Jesus, VERY LOUDLY! They must have sang for 15 minutes, not caring for a second about all the heads turning. I have to admit that I got a bit embarrassed when they got TOO loud, but like my friend reminded me over the phone, I was reminded of King David's words in the Old Testament as he unashamedly danced in praise of God Almighty..."I will be more undignified than this." The girls were definitely NOT ashamed of the Gospel that afternoon.
At the end of the day, when I plopped down on the sofa, the exhaustion hit. But when Ellie told me that this was the BEST birthday party EVER, I wasn't so tired anymore. I love that girl! Happy 8th birthday, my precious sweet fairy.
Ellie's 8th Birthday Fairy Party photos:
|
|
Last Updated on Tuesday, 11 May 2010 13:27 |
|
|
Blog -
Johnston Journal
|
|
Written by Nozomi
|
|
Tuesday, 20 April 2010 11:09 |
|
 I've been browsing through photos of our Facebook friends, and have really enjoyed the beautiful Easter photos back home. The large Easter baskets, the peanut-butter cream filled chocolates, the countless choices of plastic eggs (can't get them here), the cool egg-dye kits, the fancy Easter dresses and shoes, and of course, the huge gathering at church to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, complete with the awesome band on stage, leading in worship music!
Do I miss all that? Sure, sometimes! But to me, there was something very special about the "smallness" of our celebration this year. It seemed to be more focused on what and Who we were actually celebrating. I loved listening to Jeff read the Bible passages each night to Zack and Ellie, starting around the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. We talked about how Jesus KNEW what was going to happen to him in that city, and yet He chose to ride IN. (I always tell them that if it were up to me, I'd be turning that donkey around and kicking it into high gear OUT!) Jeff also led us in a very special family communion service on Maundy Thursday, as we truly thought about what it means to remember the body of Jesus that was hurt for us, and the blood that was shed on our behalf. The footwashings were filled with bursts of giggles (I'm very ticklish!!), but at the same time, as Jeff washed our stinky feet, we were able to reflect on what Jesus was teaching us.
Ellie made "resurrection eggs" at school, so she was really into opening and closing each egg, retelling the story of His agony and death. She finds great delight in opening the very last egg, which is EMPTY, representing the empty tomb! How cool it is to see our children growing up, knowing the absolute Truth.
Above: the stone was rolled away. Below: the tomb was empty!
As we got ready for our Easter lunch with two families from our community of Japanese friends, Zack and Ellie drew pictures to decorate the wall. I really don't have anything against bunnies, but it was heartwarming to see that all of their drawings were of the cross and the empty tomb. That was the foremost thing on their minds that morning. Priceless.
Rather than having a huge party of 40 in the rental room and barely having time to talk to people individually, it made more sense to focus on our close friends here at home this year. I know I've said this many times before, but these families have become so dear to us. It is a joy to have them in our home, and to show them Who Jesus is. We watched a part of "Jesus for Children," a tremendous video that has been translated into Japanese. We weren't certain if some of the scenes would be too difficult for all to watch, but in the end, we realized that it is very important to see the ugliness of sin, and the consequences of our selfish hearts. The cross was brutal. The pain, unimaginable. THAT's why Easter is such a celebration, because Jesus went through all that for US, and He defeated sin and death!!!
Our lunch was NOT ham and potatoes:) We did it potluck style, so we got to eat some really delicious Japanese food that our friends made! Yummy!
Egg hunts here in Japan are pretty comical. I've heard that a church had to do theirs in a parking lot due to not having space for something like that. Can you imagine tying to hide eggs in an empty parking lot? Ours was just as fun. We have a small patio, and our friend's car was there, which provided more hiding space:) There were eggs under the car, in bicycle baskets, under leaves and rocks, or simply on the pavement! Even though it only takes about 30 seconds for them to find everything, the kids still had fun!! And here, I always have to say, "Okay, after you open up the eggs, please return the plastic eggs to me so that we can use them again next year!"
The rest of the afternoon was spent kickin' back, relaxing, talking, kids playing house (in Japanese) upstairs, making gummy candies, and just enjoying each other's company. Our Easter was special because we had friends to love in our home.
Click here to see our Easter photo album...
|
|
Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 April 2010 13:56 |
|
Blog -
Johnston Journal
|
|
Written by Nozomi
|
|
Monday, 05 April 2010 13:21 |
|
So a couple of weeks before Zack's birthday, he says to me, "Mom, I think I want to have a theme party this year." Wow. I don't think he's ever asked for that. So I said to him, "What kind of theme party would you like?" At first he mumbled something about a music theme... I was envisioning clarinet cakes, music note invitations, musical chairs??? I don't know, to me, it just didn't seem too exciting. So I talked him into a "Mad Scientist Party."
I really enjoyed getting ready for it. Many people on Facebook gave me credit for the creative ideas and such, but there are hundreds of ideas on the internet, people. Thanks for the compliment, but wasn't all me!
Here are the scientists. They all met at their school (CAJ) and walked to our house. Before they entered, I told the boys, "Welcome to the Johnston Science Lab. Please be very careful today not to burn down the house." If I had more time, I would have gotten 6 men's white shirts from a thrift store as their "lab coats". Plastic goggles would have been nice, too (I'm writing other ideas down for those of you who want to do this in the future for your kids).
At the entrance and inside the house, I printed out "lab signs" like radioactivity, danger, poison, flammable, etc. You can print these off of the internet. There was also a sign that pointed to the living room: "This Way to the Science Lab."
There were the Periodic Table of Elements as their place mats. When the boys sat down, the first thing they did was to come up with creative names for the day and make name tags. Zack was "Dr. Alkali" (like the battery. Personally, I think he should have been "Battery Boy," but oh well.)
Then we played Science Bingo. Again, you can create templates online. We used candy that looked like medicine pills as the game pieces.
And, what's a science party without baking soda and vinegar? We made it into a competition to see who would have the highest bubbles. Dr. Zack Alkali won the game because he figured out a trick to make it go higher!
The funnest part was watching the boys dissect an alien baby in a petri dish. I told them that these were dangerous alien life forms that needed to be destroyed. The only way to do that was to cut off all of its tentacles, and to somehow dig out the brain and eat it. (Note to self: DO NOT give out sharp Cutco knives to boys who are only used to chopsticks!! I thought we would literally have severed fingers by the end of the activity!)
Next, we tested out the scientists' skill of balance. I purchased a 100 yen block set for each child, and was surprised to see how competitive they all got! Once again, Dr. Zack Alkali beat all of the other scientists in the lab by balancing the most blocks in a red-blue-blue pattern.
Lunch time was a blast... a bit messy, but a blast nonetheless. I got cheap plastic beakers and syringes from the science section of Tokyu Hands (a large department store), and had them drink their juice out of them. Yes, they did end up squirting each other's faces "BY ACCIDENT," of course, so I suggest clear juices, and not grape juice.
Later on we served an interesting snack... it's like a science experiment and candy mixed into one. I'm very thankful for creative candy kits here in Japan!
I also got some test tubes and served pretzel sticks inside the tubes with glow sticks. If you can find some gross fake fingers at the 100 yen shop, that adds to the boys' cool factor as well:)
Here is a group picture taken before I sent them off to play outside. You can only keep the mad scientists caged up in the lab for so long. You can see little Ellie's head in the background. As soon as the boys left, she turned on the TV and inserted her Barbie Princess movie!! She had enough boy stuff for one day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Epilogue: Ellie: "Mommy, when it's MY birthday, can you do cool stuff like this for me, too? Like I want the room to be like a fairy castle, and to have it decorated pretty, and to have signs that say, "welcome to the castle", and...)
Oh boy. I'll blog about her party in a month.
Click here to see a fun slideshow from the Mad Scientist birthday party.
|
|
Last Updated on Monday, 05 April 2010 20:22 |
|
Journal | Blog 
