TALKING ORANGES

Beautiful day today. About 14º C (55º F). I cleaned my room and did some laundry. I also went out for a jog. It feels nice to wear shorts outside again. The church has a large garden about one kilometer away so I went over there, then cam back and reviewed some of the musical changes from the weekend's rehearsal. The day is progressively becoming darker and more windy. I came back to find all my clothes had blown over: LAME... Now I am sitting upstairs having Mica explain to me how to say I'm leaving, I've returned, and Welcome home in japanese. She is using a tray to represent home and two oranges to represent her and I talking to each other. Her english is about as good as my Japanese - but it sure is funny.

THRILLER

I went to a children's marching band concert on Sunday. I really don't know how to explain what I witnessed. All I can say is, "Yes, those are marching bells and toy keyboards..."

Enjoy

PING

If you have an iPhone of iPod touch you can download an app called Ping. It's free and it allows you to send text messages through 3G or wifi, for free, anywhere in the world. My username in Ping is "joshwilson" so give me a text.

EMPYREAN SOUL

My very good friend Joel Caracci and his phenomenally talented band Empyrean Soul have asked me to create the album cover and art work for their first CD entitled "Stimulus." I recently downloaded the album to my itunes and it appears appropriately between ELP and Enya. Needles to say, I have enjoyed every minute of orginal composition and look forward to replaceing this image:



... with the new artwork soon.

If you visit their website www.empyreansoul.com you can read about the band, see pictures, and download the album for free.

Enjoy.

UNPLUG

Hi all,

I'm not sure who is reading all these, or how often, but I have been a little crazed with trying to keep up with it all as well as my obligations here. Soooo, I probably won't be posting for a few days. I hope no one is too disappointed. I'm glad I kept up with it almost everyday and I know that creates an expectation of me so people can read it every day, but I need to refocus my energy right now. I truly appreciate everyone's support while I am here and I'm glad we are able to keep contact in this little way.

I miss you all,

Josh

MR. DONUT

Yesterday after we finished work and had Oyets (snack time) someone brought in "Mr. Donut." Yes, it is exactly as oishi (delicious) as it sounds. So naturally, I looked up Mr. Donut on Google maps and decided to go for a walk. I walked from where I am staying down into a busier part of town in hopes of finding an afternoon desert. It was quite a windy day and the clouds blocked the sunshine from my face; however I was undeterred in my mission. After about a 30 min walk down and around the city, I came across a 7/11. I walked in to compare it to America's 7/11's (aside from everything written in kanji it's not different at all) and I thought about asking for some help in broken Japanese but I realized that would take the fun out of exploration (and lets face it, there was absolutely no way that was going to work). Low and behold, as soon as I walked out of the store there was the "MR. DONUT" sign, high in the sky. Thanks 7/11, you pointed me in the right direction.

Self serve. NICE!!!





Before...



... and after...



... and I had to grab a box to go for all the guys back at church. They have helped me so much.



All in all it was an awesome experience. It was the first time I spent actual Yen, first time without Japanese translation, and the first time out by myself. I must say, this culture's attention to detail is superb. They packed my donuts neatly and individually wrapped - the guy that did this also took the time to include those little plastic sheets to grab the donuts with, in which he perfectly folded additional napkins and laid them on top. I was so impressed the whole time. Not once did I think, "HEY MAN! THEY'RE JUST DONUTS. FINISH UP SO I CAN GO EAT THEM." No, I thought, "Back in America, even the nicest and most important things are thrown around and handled with such haste and disregard." I witness examples such as these daily.

SKYPE!

So today was the second day I've been up early enough to eat breakfast since I've been here. I know, it sounds lazy waking up past 9:00, but when breakfast only consists of white rice, there's not a whole lot of incentive to wake up, walk out side in slippers across "campus" in 30 degree weather, down some stairs, and sit for 5 minutes to eat rice. Soooooooo I sleep instead. Anyway, when I came back to my room I signed on to SKYPE because I had a meeting with a band director in the US to discuss marching band shows for next year and I saw my cousin Amy was signed in and I became very excited to see and talk to my first family member in live time over seas! I gave her a jingle and I was talking with her, Emma, Uncle Ed, and Aunt Shari with in seconds!!!! We talked while Uncle Ed cooked dinner and I was able to hear about Amy's cheerleading, how Emma "loves" school, and Uncle Ed even beeped dad on the nextel so I could talk to him and hear his voice, over the phone and through the internet. Very short lived but very cool. Thanks Uncle ED! Some of my friends in the drumline came through my room at the same time and they were able to say hi to Aunt Shari and the girls. All in all we talked for over an hour and I was able to teach them some Japanese vocabulary. Here are still photos from my computer of us chatting - you can see my picture in the lower left corner.

Here are the girls



... and Uncle Ed!



(Aunt Shari was unavailable at time of picture)