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One of my friends wrote me this email on her communion experience and I found it so funny. Some people just have a way with words...

It was also communion Sunday. My mom came to sit with me at long last. That's when the troubles usually begin. We are a terrible combination in a church pew because we can't sit still or be quiet. If God didn't have a sense of humor, we'd be charred victims of lightening bolts by now. Now, the usual communion fare is pretty ho-hum. The body is a dry cube of bread - very crouton-esque - making the blood a necessity or we'd all choke. Not anymore! Hallejuiah! Someone new is baking the goods! Mom reaches into the plate and comes away with two pieces of the bread by mistake, but she can't dislodge the extra and I grab the plate, help myself, and pass it along. She is flustered. I then partake and **whoa** this stuff is divine! It's like sugar cookie Christ! Mom has her first bit of body and I begin to wonder if it's a sin to covet the Christ in her left hand. Too late - she mows it down and I'm left watching for crumbs. Really, I think I'll start baking some Jesus for regular treats. Next time any one of you comes for a visit, you might want to eye the goodie plate closely because there just may be a heavenly bit! On a similar note, I thought about the conversation about the coagulated blood of Christ (i.e. jam) and decided that it was not necessary with his new delightful body.

Skip this post if you're sick of sailing pictures.

What a weekend! I finally went to Ojika to visit Dawn (and give a little island-geography lesson) and had such a wonderful time! Honestly, I had a really, really wonderful weekend—thanks to Dawn’s amazing guacamole on tortillas and one very special Ojikan fisherman!

Dawn meets me off the Taiko on Saturday.

Dawn’s got a real man around. Hercules, her sweet little cat.

We went on a walking tour of Ojika (what a cute island!) and saw this very bad-looking smoke. Could that just be the incinerator? It seems too black to be garbage…

Oh! How Japanese! Not only do they have rice fields on Ojika, but Dawn has a great view of one from her apartment!

Trying to look cool with windblown hair, pockets bulging with technology and a slouch! Yikes!

This coast reminds me of Wales. Ojika’s landscape is so different from Kamigoto. We are mostly mountainous forests full of wild boars, and Ojika is a flat island with rice fields, cows and wild ferrets!

On this Wales-like coast we heard mewing in the grass. We hunted it out and found an little abandoned kitty! I was very tempted to give it home, but it didn’t have a tail. That’s weird. Cats should have tails. So took it back to the “cat house” and hoped Junior’s fate was kind to him.

Ojika, like Kamigoto and Wakamatsu, has a bridge that connects it with a smaller island to the west.

Then we went to Ojika’s number one tourist site (I think it should be anyway) which is a ball in a hole! Appropriately named Pot Hall…well, they mean “Pot Hole” but we think it was a mistranslation. (In Japanese “ball” and “hole” are rhyming words.)

It’s just down here… Loved these little arrows that pointed you down the path.

It’s a stone that was shaped into a perfect ball by the ocean waves in the bottom of a “pot.” Kinda cool.

The weather’s been doing funny stuff recently. These clouds are neat.

We can see Uku, the northernmost Goto island and home to one ALT, from Ojika. They have a windmill.

Tried to take a picture of ourselves but my camera was zoomed in and got just Dawn—but what a beautiful girl!

Sitting on a red bench in Madarajima, a viewpoint where the view is obstructed by trees.

Walking home we saw ducks! I don’t think I’ve seen ducks in Japan. Do they live in salt water? I thought they were fresh water animals.

I like ducks.

He, he. Can you tell what this is? There’s a video at the bottom with me being silly.

Hercules again. He waited for us to come back from our walk.

For dinner we went in search of curry rice. We went to the “coffee shop” where there were two men sitting in the restaurant already, an old guy (Kado-san) and a cute young guy (Udo-san). Both fishermen having drinks after work. Kado-san bought us a beer and tried talking to us, but he was really hard to understand. Udo-san was trying to speak some English—and did really well considering he’s only got a high school education. Closet-English speakers. You never know when they’re going to come out!

We eventually joined them at their table (although I insisted they not smoke while we were there) and after asking them to sing “Shima Uta” my favorite Japanese karaoke song, we agreed to go to Ojika’s most happening place—the karaoke box!!

We tried to loose the older guy along the way (but he found us) and the next two hours in the karaoke box Kado-san tried hitting on Dawn as Udo-san was making the moves on me.

The one with the mic is Udo-san and the other one was Kado-san's son who kept coming into our room. Think he’s had a little too much to drink?

These pictures from my keitai so they’re a bit fuzzy.

"He's so dreamy."

Udo-san singing romantic songs to me. I’m in love!!

Dawn has more pictures from the evening which I’ll share later, but first watch this video of our Japanese fishermen singing. Udo-san is actually a good singer, but this just happens to be a "screaming" part of the song. Or maybe love sees no faults!!!

Don't pop a vein!

The next morning Udo-san took us to the fisherman’s port where we watched them sorting the fish. That’s Kado-san in the pink shirt and the "young man's hair."

These are the deadly blowfish. Living life on the edge-it's one of my favorites too!

Some fish they put on ice and send out, others they weigh and put back into a boat and deliver to Nagasaki (or somewhere). It’s all very interesting!

Here’s the fish Udo-san gave me. That red one is a Tai and it is very expensive and my favorite Goto fish. Udo gutted them for us, but I still didn’t know what to do with them. My neighbor Hirano-san came and helped me prepare them and taught me how to cook them.

I froze most of them because it’s too much for me to eat right away, but we made this soup from the Tai.

Ready to freeze. I’ve never had fish in my freezer before. This is a major milestone for me.

I hope you enjoyed today’s pictures and video! I'm going back to Ojika as soon as I can!!
Love, Sierra

One of my favorite videos! Jump little froggy, jump!

church is funny again