May 2026

lmkaeb14
Jun 4
2 min read

Wow, the beginning of May feels like so long ago. This month held pretty typical weekdays and time in the classroom, with a lot of fun plans on the weekends! It started off with Japan's Golden Week, made up of a few different holidays. My friend Ashlyn and her brother were visiting Japan from California at that time, so I enjoyed meeting up with them a couple days and doing some fun touristy things.

With another of my days off work, I met up with my dear friend Kinrei to go spend a day at the coast. It was certainly an eventful day, including getting stuck in a closing train door and separated, facing strong, gale-like winds, having our socks stolen, and seeing someone with a pet pig! We are so thankful that God provided us with some beautiful views though! The weather forecast had called for rain, so we were glad that the sun came out most of the afternoon and we were blessed with a beautiful sunset!

After that, my parents and my fiance came to visit for a little over a week. It was such a special opportunity for my community here to be able to meet Quinn, and for Quinn to see what my life has been like these past almost-three years. It was a full week of meeting up with people, eating good food, shopping, and sight-seeing. I'm so thankful for how God worked out the details!

The weekend directly following, I met another friend, Ni-san, at the coast and we enjoyed an afternoon of good photo opportunities and delicious food and beautiful views, followed by a stunning sunset at the beach. We then stayed at a small inn overnight, and got up at 4 am for the sunrise! It was certainly worth the short night!

I was surprised to find my river had dried up, with a long stretch where the entire riverbed was completely visible! This was the first time I had seen that in my entire time living here! When it finally rained again, I met up with Amy and we went to a museum of 3D optical illusions. The rain cleared up in the afternoon, so we were able to spend some time hiking too.

At the end of the month, there were some guests visiting from America. I enjoyed meeting them, singing together Friday night, hiking together, and going to Shioda church together on Sunday. It's amazing to experience the connections we can make even on this side of the world!