Chapter 1 Our MK Connection

3/30/98 Monday - On Sunday night, my parents and I drove to Tama Lodge on the American military base in Tama. We arrived a day early before the Missionary Field Conference got into full swing. This conference comes only once every two years, so you can bet I was excited to see the other missionary kids (MKs) whose parents also serve the Lord in various places in Japan.

On this day, Mama, Papa, and I hiked around the grounds of the military base. By the afternoon, the Ronan family had arrived. After lunch, I went with the Ronan kids to practice archery. Neither Nadia (age 11) nor I had shot arrows before. I hit the target about four times.

Then I played two games of miniature golf. I beat Nadia both times, but Stephen (age 9) was better than I was. Nadia and Stephen played some games with me at my cabin that evening. Nadia slept in my cabin. It's fun to have sleepovers.

3/31/98 Tuesday - On this day, Nadia and I started out by playing another few games. After breakfast, we went to the archery field again. This time, I hit the target 17 times. Big improvement, huh?

In the afternoon, I played croquet with Stephen and Nadia. I lost both times. On the third game, Mama walked over with Elisa Mita (age 12). She had a short haircut and looked different to me, even though I saw her last fall. She's taller, too. I'm used to being the tallest one of the girls and ladies, when I'm around Japanese people. I've been taller than my own mother for the past year, and I'm only 14.

When the missionary families were gathering in the conference room, we played the "get acquainted game" that Mama made up. There were 16 different activities written on a sheet of paper, and the idea was to ask people whether they had done a certain activity, and then get their signature if they had. The question the most people asked me was, "Have you ever ridden a unicycle?" I had - though not well!

I'll try to include some of the funny or interesting things that people said - there were such a lot of them. However, I'm sure I missed a lot of them that were spoken in Japanese. Paul Yoshida (age 15) and Christine Tajima (14) in particular kept up a continuous banter in Japanese. I don't know how many times I asked the other MKs, "What are you guys talking about? Could somebody please translate?" or in Japanese, I would beg, "What? Who? They did what?"

You see, out of all the current MKs at the conference, I am the only one who does not have at least one parent who grew up in Japan. I am also the only one never to have attended a Japanese school full-time. My education is strictly homeschooling in English, studying Japanese as a foreign language, participating in my drama club, and "picking up" what I can of the language. We have been in Japan for the past four years, and I've learned a LOT, but still find it hard to follow rapid-fire Japanese.

In any case, during that first supper, the subject of brothers and sisters came up. Nadia asked Paul (in Japanese) if he would rather have a younger brother or a younger sister (hypothetically).

He said, "A little sister," and I quickly spoke up: "A little brother." (We both answered in Japanese.)

Nadia and Christine looked at me like I was crazy, probably because they both HAVE a younger brother.

I guess I voted "little brother" partly because I felt sorry for Paul's imaginary kid sister, who would be teased endlessly, and partly because I've always been the girl in my family and it would be strange for some other girl to get the same kind of attention from my parents. Another factor could be that I already know what girls are like, whereas a boy would put more spice in the cake.

Thus endeth Tuesday.

4/1/98 Wednesday - On this day, the other MKs and I went to Tama Tech amusement park. I think I had the same amount of fun there as I did four years ago. It was just a little harder to fit into the seats. 

In the morning, we split into three groups: Paul, Christine, Elisa, Nadia, and me; Daniel (age 13) and Stephen; and Sarah (age 7), Stephanie (age 3), and the two Japanese kid-watcher ladies from the Bible school (I never did get their names.)

It seemed natural at the time for Paul to come with the girls. But when I think about it, I've never known a boy to choose to do something with a bunch of girls instead of boys. 

There was one ride I had never been on before. It was real scary at first and literally breathtaking. I got shot straight up into the air as high as the Ferris wheel, and when I got to the top, I felt like I was still going up! By the time I figured out I wasn't going up anymore, I started going down! Then I bounced up and down several more times before landing safely on the ground. I wanted to go on that ride again later, but no one would come with me.

I also rode on several different rides where I could drive a little car down the track by myself. All of us banged into each other on those cars, even though we weren't supposed to. It wasn't the same as bumper cars.

After lunch - curry rice for me and ramen for everybody else - we split up a little differently. Nadia went off with Sarah, and the two ladies stayed under the restaurant pavilion with Stephanie. 

It was sprinkling by that time, and when I drove the little cars, I needed windshield wipers for my glasses! Just before we had to leave, the other kids wanted to go on the flume ride again. It was rainy and cold, and I'd already been on it once, so I went with Stephen on the roller coaster instead (even though I was my fourth time). 

On the drive back to the Lodge, I was tired, so I sang quietly to myself. Nadia joined in on "The Old Rugged Cross," and from then on, for the rest of the week, all the MKs felt free about singing anything that came to mind.

4/2/98 Thursday - This morning, the weather was cold and rainy, so we MKs stayed inside and watched videos. I cross-stitched at the same time. The kid-watcher ladies think my cross-stitching is neat. I'm nearly finished a project with a picture of an angel with the words: "God is never more than a prayer away" across the top. I'm planning to send it to Grandma for Mother's Day. 

We MKs also played card games. When Elisa and I played Skip-Bo with Christine, she really creamed us. I didn't get to play even one card before she had won! Then Christine left, and Daniel (her brother) took her place. The same thing happened with him! Elisa and I couldn't figure out what made those Tajimas so lucky.

By the afternoon, it had stopped raining, so Stephen, Paul, Christine, Elisa, and I rented a tennis set and went to the court. The best match that I was in was between Stephen and myself. We were as good at being tennis opponents as we were ping-pong opponents at the camp two years ago. I won the match. 
On the other hand, Stephen does an awful job of being a partner. Instead of staying on his side, he insists on hitting the ball EVERY time. He also complains that his partner is in the way, when it's actually the other way around!

After we wore ourselves out playing tennis, we four older girls went to the outdoor jacuzzi to dip our legs in while sitting on the edge. It felt so nice and warm. We compared big toes, and I have the fattest one.
Another thing I did this day was to fix Nadia's hair and Sarah's hair in the same style as mine. It's a style I invented last year. I start with a little hair at the top and add more strands as I go, but I just twist the two pieces around each other, instead of braiding it. 
Right after supper, Elisa and Christine needed to go back to their cabins, because they'd forgotten their Bibles. Paul had the key, and he wouldn't give it to them. (It was the main key to four cabins attached to one big room.)

I marched up to Paul and pulled back his sleeve, revealing his WWJD bracelet. When I asked him, "What would Jesus do?" he thought a little and then said, "He would finish eating." Honestly, how exasperating can you get?
"No, he wouldn't. He would give them the key," I retorted. Then, turning to the girls, I said, "Well, I'm going up to the conference room. I'll see you later - if you ever get there."
They did get there, with their Bibles, in the nick of time for the devotions. And Paul, after finishing his supper (and somebody else's too) proceeded to charm everyone with his violin playing. Paul's jokes sometimes cross the line from funny to aggravating, but never go so far as mean.

4/3/98 Friday - In the morning, I played more tennis, croquet, and golf. I did better on croquet - first, then second, then third place. 
At lunchtime, our family paid for everybody, using Mimi's money. Then all the missionaries wrote Mimi a thank-you note on one of the placemats.
Then it was time to go home. I was sad. My parents and I headed to the Yoshidas' home to spend the night. I went with the Yoshidas to a noodle shop for supper. I didn't especially care for the sauce that came with the noodles, but I surprised myself by eating an eggplant tempura without gagging. I didn't know that it would taste almost totally like tempura batter, and not like eggplant.
While we were waiting for our food, Mr. Yoshida asked me about my homeschooling. I talked about how I divvy up each chapter according to how many pages I have to read per day, and how I write in the lesson plan book the work I've done AFTER I have finished it, instead of beforehand.
Mr. Yoshida told Paul to get some hints from what I was saying, but Paul wasn't even paying attention. Paul is going to start homeschooling this year, since he just graduated from his Japanese junior high at the closing of ninth grade in March.

4/4/98 Saturday - On this day, I sat in while Mama helped Paul set up a schedule for his schoolwork. I think that was Mrs. Yoshida's idea. It gave me a chance to look at some A Beka English textbooks, and think about how I wish Bob Jones had some spelling books for high schoolers.

In a way, I was glad to get to be around Paul without Christine sticking to him like glue. It's not that I envied them for enjoying each other's company, or resented the way they unintentionally left me out by speaking in Japanese. It's just that Paul is the only teenage boy I know whom I can talk to. Christine can talk to any boys she wants to.

When Elisa and Nadia commented that Christine Tajima "likes" Paul, I told them that everybody likes Paul. It's true - he's a very likeable person. But to tell the truth, I felt very glad that all the romantic notions were aimed at Christine and Paul, rather than at me and Paul.

When I returned home from Tama, I composed this poem:

The Common Bond of Missionary Kids
MKs eat together, compete together - six days in a year.
MKs walk together, talk together, full of friendly cheer.
MKs pray together, play together - kinship we can claim.
MKs laugh together, act together - silliness our aim.
MKs need each other, tease each other - make ourselves at home.
MKs love each other, hug each other, though apart we roam.
MKs tolerate each other when we cannot get along. 
MKs give each other courage, always read with a song.
MKs never are so different that we can't communicate.
MKs have a common bond that just does not disintegrate.

4/11/98 Saturday – This evening, Mama and I went with Mr. & Mrs. S. to the gymnasium at a community gym. We rented rackets and played bound tennis. It’s a lot like tennis, except the racket handles are short, the ball is softer, the net is lower, and the court is smaller. 
We played doubles with some other ladies. Instead of hitting the ball when it comes to your side, you hit it once, and then wait for your partner to hit it, alternating turns. You have to run back and forth a lot that way. I think we got more exercise playing bound tennis than we would playing tennis.

4/12/98 Sunday – This day was Easter Sunday. We got up early in the morning – before 6:00, and went down to the beach for a sunrise service. Actually, soon after we got there, I went back in the car and slept through the whole thing! About eight people came, and they sang hymns and ate fish and soup.

At Sunday school at Satogaoka Baptist Church, the kids hunted for eggs. I took some photos of them. I didn’t look for the eggs myself, because I was the one who had hidden them. I also had a hand in dying them on Friday. I came up with some pretty good hiding places on the second floor of the church, such as inside a tissue box, between the sofa pillows, and on the foot pedal of the organ. We also handed out jelly beans and marshmallow chicks.

In the afternoon, the Pikkoro Drama Club girls put on a show at the Satogaoka Community Center. There was only a small audience – mainly parents, siblings, and a few friends of the girls. We sang two songs with motions. The first was about a Swiss shepherd. We did a lot of skipping in it. Then in the next song, I had to sing a few lines by myself, and I’d hardly had time to catch my breath!
I was pretending to be a waiter in a restaurant, and the others were supposed to guess who I was. There were also a fish seller, a vegetable seller, and a teacher. That was a fun song.

Following the two songs, we did our puppet show. When Mrs. T. gave the credits, we each had to tell what was hard for us. I said hiding behind the table was hard! (The puppets stood on top of the table.)

4/15/98 Wednesday – This day had a boring morning, but an exciting afternoon and evening. In the morning, Papa and I drove to the Hudsons' in Atsugi. I’d been looking forward to it for months!
When I saw Mary, it felt like we had just seen each other a month ago, instead of six months ago. Mary now has two dogs, three hamsters, and three fish. The names of two of the hamsters are Him and Her, and since Her is pregnant, there will soon be a bunch of "Thems." I knew about Mary's dog Precious, whom she got for Christmas, but I didn’t know about Bit of Joy. Joy is a little pug puppy that Mary and her mom got from the Roberts’ when they visited them. Joy is real cute and squirmy. Precious is cute too, but she’s bigger. Precious is part shiba inu, but she’s a lighter color, less stocky, and her tail is less curly.
We ate supper with the Hudsons. The strawberry pie for dessert was scrumptious! The bottom part was cheesecake, and the top part was strawberry pudding.
Afterwards, we went to prayer meeting, and Papa gave a sermon about God’s love.
Mary & I got a lot of chatter in this night. I told about all the fun stuff that happened at Tama.

4/16/98 Thursday – This morning, Papa, Mary, and I drove back to Iwaki, my hometown. Most of the time, Mary & I cross-stitched, but we did play a pretty long checkers game too. We were pretty evenly matched, because I thought the beginning was easy, and Mary thought the end was easy.
When we got home, it was close to the time for Pikkoro Drama Club. Mrs. T. had us girls do the two songs we performed on Sunday, so Mary could watch it. We also read "The House that Jack Built." Mary & I would read a part of it in English and race a girl who we reading it in Japanese. Of course, the English was always faster. Mary & I also learned a hand-clapping game to the tune of "Yankee Doodle." The funny thing was the Japanese words were about the Alps!
4/17/98 Friday – This morning, Mary & I tried to do an extra lot of schoolwork so we could go to Hawaiians Spa Resort in the afternoon. Mama and Mary & I had a very fun time there. We did nearly every single thing. 

Before we got wet, though, Mary & I took two sticker pictures of ourselves in the photo booth. One sticker showed our faces inside a cheeseburger, and another sticker made us into clowns. They were both pretty goofy!

4/19/98 Sunday – On this day, Kanako came to church and met Mary. I was very glad about both things she did. She even stayed for children’s church and lunch. Afterwards, we three girls walked to my house. We played Skip-Bo and ate chocolate.

4/20/98 Monday – This morning, Mary & I went to the church and made pizza with Mari-san, my Sunday school teacher, and with Manami-chan, who grew up in our church. Mary & I made ours without peppers and onions. It turned out really tasty.
In the afternoon, Mary & I finished dissecting a crayfish for Biology class. The worst part was when I pulled out its intestines. It was gross, and I am not looking forward to doing the frog and worm later.
During and after supper, we watched The Prince and the Pauper. When we were done eating, Mary & I made postcards and bookmarks by using rubber stamps. Mary made a Mother’s Day card for her mom. I made a Christmas card and an animal bookmark.

4/21/98 Tuesday – This morning, Mary & I packed a picnic lunch and rode bikes to Iwaki Park. We traded bikes (mine and Mama’s) going and coming. Mama really needs a new bike. It "kicks" every five or six revolutions, and the front tire is leaky.
While we were sitting on a blanket eating, a couple came up and asked for a favor. They wanted to take a picture of their little boy with Mary and me! We agreed, but I asked them to take a picture of us on Mary’s camera in return. Sometimes it's fun to be a foreigner.

When we were done eating, we walked around the park a little and played. I leaped over a row of posts and hung upside-down from a swinging bar – two things I hadn’t done in ages. After all, I am 14.

We wanted to walk across the bridge from the park to Nagasaki store, so we could buy double-dip ice cream cones there. Unfortunately, we ran out of time, because of my piano lesson with Mrs. T. at 2:00. Maybe it will work out some other time.

One more thing we did this day was to make friendship bracelets for each other. We picked four colors each. Mary’s colors: blue, green, black, red. My colors: pink, purple, blue, white. Then we created our bracelets while we watched A Little Princess. [It was the movie that Mama and I saw twice in Japanese first. It followed the book so carefully, and I liked it so much that I just had to see it in English. I ended up getting two copies for Christmas.]

4/22/98 Wednesday – This morning, Papa took Mary and me bowling. We were the only ones there. We played two games, and Mary beat me both times. My score on the first game was higher than her score on the second game, though.

We also played some computer games this day: Cannon Fodder, Shanghai, and Makigame.

4/23/98 Thursday – Even though we knew we had to get up by 3:30 this morning, Mary & I talked for a long time the night before. Most of the nights Mary was at my house, we talked late and got up early. But on Monday and Tuesday nights, we conked out fast and slept late.
Well, as I was saying, we got up in what seemed like the middle of the night and heaved our bags into the car to go to Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ). I slept most of the way there. We arrived around 9am. The next day would be Thrift Shop, but we had to drop off the things we wanted to sell. Mama wouldn’t let Mary and me help tag the items for sale – she said we had to do schoolwork. We did give that ornery book-learning an effort, but neither of us accomplished much. We were too excited.
Finally, at 2pm, Mary & I got to do some shopping at the Spring Thrift Shop. The rule is that those who do volunteer work for four hours on Thursday can have their pick of all the junk before anyone else gets a chance. Mary & I weren't volunteers, but Mama was. Therefore, we looked through the dresses, shirts, skirts, and sweaters. When we each got a handful, we tried them on in the restroom. We asked for each other's opinions ONLY about the FIT of the clothes, because our tastes in color and pattern are very different.
At 4:30, Papa, Mama, Mary, and I drove off to the Mitas’. They live about two hours away from CAJ. Papa gave his testimony at prayer meeting this night. When he was finished, Mr. Mita gave a little talk about faith. To illustrate his point, he had Papa lean back and fall into Mr. Mita’s arms. Unfortunately, Papa’s faith was misplaced. Mr. Mita couldn’t hold him up, and they both fell over, knocking down three stacks of tracts on a shelf! It was really funny.

4/24/98 Friday – This was Spring Thrift Shop Day. Mary & I hung around with Hannah (age 16) and Megan (age 14) Roberts. This Thrift Shop Day was a major improvement on the last one. The main factor was that Mary, who is the link between the Roberts girls and me, had seen all of us within the month, rather than over a year ago.
It really turned out well that Mary & I had done our shopping for clothes the day before. Since Mrs. Roberts does that for her girls, we all could spend our time looking at books, games, puzzles, and other miscellaneous junk. 

At one point, I found a bag of magnets with dog pictures on three of them. The three dog-lovers divided the cost and I received the rest of the magnets in the bag.

Mary’s mom had brought Joy the pug puppy with her. Mary actually received Bit of Joy from the Roberts family, since they breed dogs as a sideline along with their missions work. When we carried Joy around outside, she attracted a number of admirers chorusing, “She’s so cute!” “How old is she?” “Whose dog is it?”

At 1:00, Mama, Papa, and I went to a School Support Services (SSS) Speech Meet. Actually, no one gave speeches. The majority of the kids recited poems. Some told stories, and some recited Bible verses. There were about 30 pieces: some long, some short, some touching, and most funny. I was last, and I recited the poem I wrote entitled "The Common Bond of Missionary Kids." Not many of the kids used motions, but I did, and I think it was improved. Two grown-up missionary kids told me they liked my poem and that it was true.

This was the day that Mary & I said goodbye. Our hope is that I can visit Mary in June or July. We had such a great week together, and we didn’t even put on a show, or play with my paper dolls or dollhouse, or put on oogle costumes, or spend a lot of time with hamsters. Those are things we’ve often done in the past, and they’ll probably remain in the past.
I came home from the Thrift Shop having devoured a hot dog, a lemon donut, and a chocolate chip cookie. I also carried with me approximately 8 articles of clothing, 15 books, and 1 game.